Taking the lead on pandemic response requires leadership

We’ve seen this movie before, and we know how it ends. When Republicans who control the Wisconsin Legislature sued to overturn Governor Tony Evers’ executive order declaring a public health emergency to battle the coronavirus, the results were predictable. Republicans who were so adamant that the Governor’s approach to tackling the virus was wrong refused to come up with their own plan to deal with the virus. It became the wild west, with no rules in place. Bars and restaurants reopened, and we quickly saw a spike in coronavirus cases. Since then, Wisconsin has become one of the nation’s hot spots for the virus, and some hospitals are becoming overwhelmed. Now, they’re at it again, trying to roll back Evers’ orders to try to mitigate the virus. But again, they have yet to put forward their own plan to guide public health departments across the state. They have not authored a single piece of legislation to respond to the virus. As Senator Bob Wirch points out, the number of lawsuits filed by the majority party to stop the governor’s safety measures literally is greater than the number of bills they have passed to address the issue. They have sued for the right to lead on this issue, but so far have done nothing in the way of providing leadership.