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John Nichols: Francesca Hong thinks Wisconsin’s ready for bolder politics
Wisconsin state Rep. Francesca Hong, a Madison Democrat who, like New York’s Zohran Mamdani, has made a name for herself as an outspoken legislator who is aligned with the Assembly’s multi-member socialist caucus, thinks there is room for an insurgent politics in this state.

Mark Belling: Wisconsin judge who danced on Kirk’s grave needs to resign
Charlie Kirk was hated because he was so decent and so effective.

Bruce Murphy: The rage of Derrick Van Orden
Congressman’s attacks on liberals spread exactly the kind of wrath he claims to oppose.

Gregory Humphrey: Once again, America is at the crossroads
If we are to survive as a democracy we simply must push back and stem the erosion of shared truth. When facts become negotiable and institutions become stage props, democracy becomes a performative national joke. The stuff that writes itself for a late-night comedian to use.

Dave Zweifel: Power drunk, in charge of the military. What could go wrong?
Aside from wasting taxpayers’ money, this whole business of sending active military soldiers trained to fight wars and kill the enemy to confront their own citizenry is dangerous — and illegal.

Richard Moore: Livestock producers in the bureaucratic crosshairs
DATCP is proposing fee increases on livestock producers, dealers, truckers, and others. Some of the proposed fees would rise by as much as almost 1,700 percent.

Mike McCabe: Reverse engineering
There’s a reason it’s called doomscrolling and not hopescrolling. Social media algorithms favor doom over hope, lies over truth, hate over love.

Christina Lieffring: Finding a refuge for the unhoused
With regressing attitudes towards unhoused people and winter looming, Madison and Dane County need to embrace imperfect solutions.

David Blaska: Disagreement is not evil in a working democracy
My fellow Republicans lose the argument when they call our political adversaries schoolyard names like “Demon-rats.” Progressives might be more credible if they would dial back the hyperbole.

Charlie Sykes: The rough beast slouches closer
A murder that brings out our best … and our absolute worst.

John Torinus: Mr. President: fewer words, more actions on Ukraine
Trump not only failed to end the Russia-Ukraine war, he has made things much worse with his soft, equivocal stance. He spouts off but shows little backbone.

Bill Kaplan: Big Beautiful Act bad for Wisconsin
The GOP-led congressional passage of the Big Beautiful Act is already an unpopular fiasco. The bill is polling badly because most Americans, including Wisconsinites, know it’s bad for them.

Rinn O’Rourke: Investing in families means protecting Head Start
As someone who walks into families’ homes every week, I can tell you: The need is great, and the stakes are high. Our children deserve more than political uncertainty. They deserve a Head Start.

Michael Lucas: Do not give in to evil
Mr. Kirk’s virtue laid in his willingness to pursue honest, peaceful, open debate with people of all sorts. He embodied one of the most crucial aspects of real Liberalism; an aspect which has allowed Western civilization to flourish. But with his death, now his admirers, and especially his opponents, are all the worse for having to live without him.

Dave Cieslewicz: Heroes and victims
It’s possible to be repulsed by an act without canonizing its victim.

Michelle Bryant: 9/11: Twenty-four years later
The evolving threat to American security

Dave Zweifel: Chicago on edge over Trump threats
I was in Chicago last week while Donald Trump was making noises about sending federal troops to “declare war” on the nation’s third largest city — apparently his idea of how to tackle crime.

Paul Fanlund: A single word to sum up Cap Times Idea Fest 2025? ‘Timely’
Nine months into a second Trump term that seems grimmer than most of us anticipated, Idea Fest presented some of the nation’s best minds exploring aspects of the national crisis.

John Nichols: Don’t let AI become tool to deny benefits
The notion that AI technology could be programmed — for reasons of profiteering or politics — to deny or delay care for Medicare and Medicaid recipients has U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan concerned.

WisOpinion: ‘The Insiders’ weigh in on whether Wisconsin will join the mid-decade redistricting push
The WisOpinion Insiders, Chvala and Jensen, take up congressional redistricting and whether Wisconsin will follow Texas, California and Missouri to create new partisan districts. Sponsored by the Wisconsin Counties Association and the Tommy G. Thompson Center on Public Leadership.

WisOpinion: ‘The Insiders’ discuss the legacy of former Justice David Prosser
The WisOpinion Insiders share the legacy of former Justice David Prosser, who served as GOP speaker of the state Assembly before his 18-year career on the Wisconsin Supreme Court. Prosser died Dec. 1 at 81. Sponsored by the Wisconsin Counties Association and the Tommy G. Thompson Center on Public Leadership.

Rewind: Your Week in Review for Nov. 8
On this week’s episode of “Rewind,” WisPolitics.com’s JR Ross and CBS 58’s Emilee Fannon analyze results in top Wisconsin races, leadership changes in the state Legislature and more.