Jay Weber Podcast 4-10-26
Transcript of segment one. The full podcast found here > The Jay Weber Podcast #0002 4-10-26
I want to start with the real reason that the Wisconsin Republican Party is broken and has racked up such a string of losses over the recent years. No one within the party nor the pundit class really wants to be honest and address this.
Apparently, based on what I’ve seen over the last few days, the Wisconsin GOP's biggest problem is that the leaders and organizers of the Thompson and Walker eras have both aged out and been pushed out of their influential positions within the party, and we need to see a generation of new blood and youthful energy rise up and lead us into the future.
The other major issue right now is yes, Trump and the Mega members are an issue, but not the way that you think. There's a political divide within the GOP tent, with people on both sides blaming the other when things go wrong, and I’ll get into that, but first I want to lay out some genuine truth here that seems to be being ignored.
First, first, I want to address the biggest problem the Wisconsin Republican Party has because no one's addressing it, and sadly, until we address it, the overall condition of the state's Republican Party isn't going to improve. The fallout from the convincing Wisconsin Supreme Court win by Chris Taylor and the Democrats is exactly what to be expected, right, all sorts of people on the right grumbling and angry, insisting a lack of money is the problem.
Trump is the problem. Brian Shimming, the head of the party, is the problem. There's been a lot of Brian Shimming bashing over the last few days and not here to defend him in any way other than this, Brian Shimming took on an impossible situation because no one else wanted to, and two years later, it's still an impossible job that no one else wants.
The hard truth here includes this. The biggest problem the Wisconsin GOP has, which has quietly gone on for years, basically since Scott Walker lost reelection in twenty eighteen, is that no one atop the Wisconsin Republican Party has really wanted to run it. No one's been excited to step up and drive this thing since Right's previous left and the run of successes during the Walker era came to an end.
No one has excitedly volunteered to be the state party chairman because by God, I love politics. I've got a passion for this. I have a vision here I can't wait to turn into reality. Most people don't know this, but Brian Shimming basically took the job because no one else seemed to really want it.
What the Wisconsin Republican leaders need to do is go out, search, recruit, and hire an experienced political animal who's super motivated to shake things up, pull the party together, and lead the next Republican wave here in Wisconsin. That's what Wisconsin's Republican Party needs.
Another hard truth that no one addresses Brian Shimming took over a situation in which rabid Trump supporters had split the party and insisted they needed to take over control because the establishment leaders were F’d and idiots, right, And so we saw across the more world parts of the state, in particular, Trump Republicans wrestling control away from the longtime Republican leaders at the county level, and then and then what and then doing nothing with it. Look, it's hard truth time. These so-called mega Republicans who insisted they could do better haven't done better.
They haven't done Diddley. Oh, they worked hard for Trump. They can get excited about Trump. They just don't particularly care about anyone else on the Republican ticket and can't seem to find the energy to do the thankless and difficult tasks that are fundraising, organizing, and getting out the vote for other Republicans, and that has helped cripple the Wisconsin Republican Party.
It has. My mention of this on x drew in some snarky comments obviously, you know, probably from the same lazy Trump fans who only want to vote for him and trash any Republican who might disagree with them. Well, then you're not the member of a party, But I mean, this is a real thing. You want to know what's wrong with the Wisconsin Republican Party. I'm telling you what's wrong and why it won't get better unless it's addressed.
There were positives and negatives that came along with Donald Trump He attracted a big new group of voters to the Republican Party. That was great, it was badly needed. But Trump and the media figures who supported him largely took over but the party by spending a lot of time and energy bashing and taking out the existing party leaders and turning off a good sliver of traditional Republican voters.
I don't think anyone who's been following along would deny that well, that trashing of the longtime establishment and vice versa created a very real split based on policy differences and overall ideology. It's a real issue, and it's one that shouldn't be ignored because we will just keep losing elections as our own side of the aisles voters remain unsettled and interested if that's the case, So yeah, we need Brian Shimming to go, not because he's a bad guy or because he's failed here in an impossible job.
We need Brian Shimming to lead a nationwide search for a young, aggressive, smart political wizard who really wants the job, who really wants to make a name for him or herself in a battleground state. I stole that last line from Owen Robinson, who posted it on x in reaction to my truth telling here. We need an aggressive, smart political wizard to come here.
We need to find that sort of person to take the reins here, and we need to find a whole group of energetic and excited young people to step up and help that person usher in the next wave of Republican and Conservative winning in Wisconsin. Because truth be told, the rest of us are tired and aging out. That group of Republicans who ushered Tommy Thompson into office and engineered a fourteen-year run of Republicanism are now in their seventies and eighties,
Folks, the youngest of Tommy Thompson's excited young aides at the time when he was the governor in the eighties, they're now sixty. That group of Conservatives who ushered in the great and dominant Scott Walker era are hitting sixty. In aging Out two, they've built lives and careers. And these were the people largely pushed out from atop the party by aggressive Trump fans who said they could do better.
Well do better, because right now you're poop in the bed, But having been victims of the hostile takeover and now being older and feeling like they've done their part for the Republican and the conservative causes. Yeah, most of those Walker era people who drove the party from the local and county level on up are out. We did our part. Who's next? These are the challenges that face the Wisconsin
Republican Party, and they won't heal themselves over time unless they're acknowledged. And if I was Brian Shimming and was done with the job, I'd volunteer to lead a national search for that young, aggressive superstar that genuinely would love this job, put all sorts of energy and excitement into it and love the challenge.