You’d learn a number of lessons from retracing our steps in the making of Swing-State (a series about Wisconsin). First, recall that the documentaries began the day after Donald Trump’s inauguration.
Election 2016 had all the drama a good story could hope for. It featured a Billionaire Reality-Star. A former First Lady/ Secretary-of-State. A self-avowed Socialist. And it offered conflict galore.
This lifelong Wisconsinite (or “Cheesehead,” if you will) had closely followed Chicago and Madison politics since the 1970s. But yours truly could never have anticipated what was coming in 2016, 2020 or even 2024!
A Desire To Keep Things Fair
Back at Beloit College (where I graduated in 1986), I considered myself an “Independent”– somebody who would vote for the best candidate, regardless of Party. I decided to stay neutral as director of “Swing-State,” desiring to give fair treatment to both Democrats and Republicans alike.
Initially, I was merely interested in traveling to Blue and Red Counties, in order to ask folks who they supported. Then, I became curious in asking them (in the words of Hillary Clinton) “what happened,” to get Donald Trump elected. The arc of the film kept pushing toward one, very important question. “Is harmony and compromise still possible in our hyper-polarized society?”
Poetically enough, we ended-up in a sleepy, little central village called “Friendship, Wisconsin” (Population: 725).
Reactions From Wisconsin Residents
You might imagine there were some interesting responses at “The Women’s March” in Madison, immediately after Donald Trump’s inauguration. I’m here to tell you, that you’d be absolutely correct!
Amidst the sea of pink, protest hats, one short-haired 20-Something approached our cameras with fury in her eyes. Ironically, she sounded like Barry Goldwater, as she barked at me about “neutrality being no virtue.” I told her I was taking a friendly, journalistic approach to the documentary, but she’d have no part of it.
My cinematographer eventually had to ask her to leave.
A somewhat contentious fellow came up to me at the same event, asking if I was with “The Breitbart Group.” It sounded vaguely familiar– and probably to the Right– but I had to assure him I was just a neutral filmmaker. Not the part of any group.
As we stood among hundreds of protesters, I drew solace from the fact Dan Klopp (my cinematographer) was from Madison and knew a ton of people. At one point, we were like the proverbial salmon, swimming against the the river’s current with our cameras, watching protesters flow by us on each side.
Suspicion on Both Sides
Later on in our filming (in Fond du Lac), GOP security at a Governor Scott Walker event kept asking us who we were. This, despite the fact that they had invited us in as part of the Press. We felt incredibly uncomfortable, as men with earpieces kept watching our cameras, and monitoring the footage therein.
All of this apprehension was (in retrospect) understandable, because the Media has become very disrespected by both sides of the political divide. Both Blue and Red voiced the need for a resurgence of “real journalists” in our society. They felt that the Press was pitting one side against the other, with the idea that conflict sells. “If It Bleeds, It Leads,” is still a common expression of the News Corporations these days.
The “Culture Wars” in Wisconsin
Through this film project, I’ve learned a lot about “The Culture Wars,” and Wisconsin’s part in it. According to Moral Psychologist, Jonathan Haidt, we’ve gotten to the point of demonizing people from different political persuasions. He wrote a seminal book on the topic of Blue/Red psychology in 2012 called, THE RIGHTEOUS MIND: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion.
Once we consider the other side as “evil,” we can justify any means to arrive at our “righteous” end. That could include voter fraud, extreme rudeness or outright violence, according to Haidt.
One wonders if Americans nowadays can maintain their core beliefs, while still remaining civil to one another. God knows the level of polarity has certainly tripled or quadrupled in our country, since the publication of Haidt’s book.
In my next post, we’ll look at a few more things that definitely work against efforts to bring modern-day Americans together. One of those things is the fact we’ve self-gerrymandered ourselves, both geographically and socially. Not only do we live in separate areas (according to our political proclivities), but we often find ourselves within self-made media echo-chambers, both online and off.
Bryan Oldenburg is a Filmmaker and Digital Marketer in Beloit, Wisconsin
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