A Dairyland Sentinel Perspectives column of personal opinion by Brian Fraley
Wisconsin Democrats are leveraging Saul Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals to push liberal Dane County Judge Susan Crawford into a state Supreme Court seat in the April 1, 2025, election.
They’re all in.
Alinsky’s tactics—Rule 5, “Ridicule is man’s most potent weapon,” and Rule 13, “Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it”—are front and center as they paint Elon Musk as the face of oligarchy tied to Donald Trump. This week’s events, like Socialist U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders’ rally in Kenosha on Friday, displayed the strategy in action.
Musk, with his wealth, support for Trump, and role within the Department of Government Efficiency is an easy target and serves as a less-likable proxy for Trump. He’s engaged in the race via his America PAC in support of Crawford’s opponent, Waukesha County conservative Judge Brad Schimel. At the Kenosha rally, Sanders called the election a fight against “billionaires and large corporations.” Crawford has also doubled down on the tactic, tweeting on February 19, 2025, “Elon Musk is buying off Brad Schimel,” framing Musk as the villain buying influence.
Democratic Party Chair Ben Wikler told The Guardian on March 2, that Musk is “spending money hand over fist” while questioning if courts can check the “Musk/Trump/GOP attack on the rule of law.” The AP reports: Democrats can overcome the funding disadvantage by tapping into the “rage” that voters feel as Musk “tears the country apart,” Wisconsin Democratic Party Chairman Ben Wikler said Tuesday.
The party’s “People v. Musk” ad, launched this week, calls him a “power-hungry billionaire” unloading millions to “buy the Wisconsin Supreme Court.” This ridicule energizes Democrats while tainting Schimel by association, a classic Alinsky move to polarize voters.
But the outrage reeks of hypocrisy. While Musk is vilified, Democrats ignore their own billionaire backers.
J.B. Pritzker donated at least $500,000 and Reid Hoffman gave at least $250,000 to the Wisconsin Democratic Party, which has (legally) funneled $3 million to Crawford, including a $1 million boost this week. The Left’s “anti-oligarchy” stance seems more about whose billionaires win than any real principle.
On X, Facebook and elsewhere, social media posts around Sanders’ rally mock Musk as a meddling elitist, aligning with Alinsky’s ridicule rule.
The strategy might work—Democrats are leaning hard into it, which leads me to believe they have polling that shows the messaging moves undecided voters.
After all, it is easier to sell “He’s with that dangerous, weird billionaire” than to debate judicial concepts like Originalism, Textualism, Pragmatism or Stare Decisis, which don’t fit into snappy 15- and 30-second video ads.
Clearly, running against Musk is also far better for Team Crawford than an examination of her and Schimel’s actual record as judges and public servants.
So expect more Musk, less Crawford.
The tactics work in a vacuum, and what’s left of the legacy news media routinely gives liberal candidates and their supporters a pass on their hypocrisy.
No matter how blatant that hypocrisy is.
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Links to the accomplice media. See how they fall in line with the Alinsky-inspired narrative:
The New York Times: Musk and His Millions Enter Wisconsin Supreme Court Race
POLITICO: Elon Musk flexes his muscle in a crucial Supreme Court race in Wisconsin
The Guardian: Elon Musk’s quest for power has a new target: Wisconsin’s supreme court
WPR: Democrats launch ‘People v Musk’ ad campaign in Wisconsin Supreme Court race
MSNBC: ‘People vs. Musk’: Wisconsin holds first major statewide race in new Trump era
