After many conversations, it appears that Milwaukee Public Schools is the last resort for many parents. The overriding sentiment from parents is that they are just stuck.

We need a new agenda that puts people first and relegates party politics to a back seat in Wisconsin.

Democrats, like myself, need to understand that running campaigns around large existential issues is a losing formula and that it doesn’t take the place of having real-life policy solutions to the problems everyday Americans face. Nor does running a campaign around the theme, “I’m not Donald Trump.”

It’s okay, even necessary, for a political party to do some soul-searching when it loses as badly as my party did last Tuesday. But let’s make a distinction between sober reflection and finger-pointing.

Here are 17 actual reasons that Democrats lost, in no particular order.

Painters union President Jimmy Williams Jr. says “working people deserve a party that… places their issues front and center.”

Trump and his legions of yes men will stage an all-out assault on America’s institutions and its most vulnerable people during the next four years.

Donald Trump prevails in a red-wave election, Tammy Baldwin survives, the WOW shift slows, State Senate Dems shine, Republicans keep the Legislature, and much more.

Harris’s journey in pursuit of the U.S. Presidency has moved American women one step closer to the highest office in the land. Harris’ inclusion in a small and coveted club, that I have dubbed the C.F.C.H. Crew, has built on the legacy of trailblazers Shirley Chisholm, Geraldine Ferraro, and Hillary Clinton. All these women have chipped away at the notion that women are incapable of leading this nation.

It is not uncommon in parts of Europe and the Middle East for scores of other nationals to undertake a wide array of jobs that otherwise would not be completed in the host nation. What makes white rural voters so fearful about the way the rest of the world operates, especially since there are not enough of them for the jobs which are needing to be completed?

Since his book cited Badger Institute research on federal role in bloated bureaucracy, we update the grim figures.

Evers secured $15 million in crisis-response funds to protect access to health care in western Wisconsin. Regrettably, GOP lawmakers on the budget committee have refused to release the money, holding the distribution hostage to other legislation.

Nearly 12,000 youth and young adults face homelessness each year right here in Milwaukee County.

President-elect Donald Trump won with the help of nontraditional Republican voters in 2024.

Down-ballot candidates did well, and if they can get the state back on the path to a broader and more prosperous labor movement, the returns would be even greater.

Winners, losers and lots of unknown.

Voters of all ages and races from all walks of life and all socioeconomic backgrounds in all areas of the country came together to deliver Trump 312 electoral votes and a resounding win in the national popular vote.

The great irony of the greatest political comeback in American history is that Donald Trump’s resurrection from the political dead would never have happened without the people who tried to destroy him in the first place.