Alas, the left isn’t immune from loud, obnoxious grifters
Kirk Bangstad is "inherently nothing but a concern troll and misogynist" and his run for governor is yet another of his self-aggrandizing quests for attention, failing again to do anything meaningful.
The Recombobulation Area is a 19-time 21-TIME! Milwaukee Press Club award-winning opinion column and online publication founded by longtime Milwaukee journalist Dan Shafer. The Recombobulation Area is now part of Civic Media.
Contributor Emily Mills is the winner of a GOLD honor from the Milwaukee Press Club’s 2025 Excellence in Wisconsin Journalism awards, winning for “Best Single Editorial, Statement of Editorial Position or Opinion” for the column, “How AI is harming Wisconsin’s path to renewable energy.” Congratulations, Emily!
I’m so tired of loud white “liberal” men who think they’re the only ones who can save us.
Current example/reason for my deep, Marge Simpson-like groans: Minocqua Brewing Company owner and habitual drama king Kirk Bangstad. He’s just announced that he’s running for the soon-to-be-open governor’s seat in Wisconsin, in an increasingly crowded Democratic primary.
Why? He swears, using the very official medium of Facebook posts, that he reached out to other candidates to see if they met his rigorous standards, only to be met with disappointment. There was no recourse, then, but for him to throw his hat into the ring. He is the man who can save us all, you see, from Tom Tiffany and the Trump regime’s influence here.
After exhausting his list of people he wanted to see run — all white men, for the record — Bangstad said he began reaching out to the people already running for the post to ask, specifically, if they had an “election protection plan” as part of their platform. Bangstad’s number one concern, apparently eclipsing all other issues facing Wisconsinites to the point of being the only thing worth his time, is his fear that the Trump regime intends to rig/steal the midterms.
This is where he shows his hand, yet again, as inherently nothing but a concern troll and misogynist. State Rep. Francesca Hong, Bangstad says, may be a “true progressive,” but she’s simply too “politically naive and unelectable” to win. Then, State Sen. Kelda Roys has “been in office so long that she thinks more about which coalition of voters she’ll piss off before checking in with her heart to saying what she believes.”
Alas and alack, these poor, overwhelmed, directionless women clearly need Bangstad to take care of business for them.
Meanwhile, he’s on his Facebook page openly encouraging his followers to harass a reporter with the local Fox News station who had the audacity to…ask him questions about his campaign for governor.
He’s got a history of resorting to childish name-calling and outright slander when it comes to people with whom he disagrees, including having to pay out hundreds of thousands of dollars in a case where he falsely accused the co-owner of the Lakeland Times of intentionally allowing his own brother to die in order to take over the paper. Of course, he leans heavily on cries of “free speech!” whenever faced with consequences for his behvior.
And then there’s his SuperPAC, which has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars mostly to put up obnoxious billboards and otherwise fail to disclose where any of that money is actually going.
But Bangstad is just one of far too many self-aggrandizing white men who call themselves liberal and use big public stunts and shitty language to make a name for themselves while failing to do anything to meaningfully build coalitions or create policies that actually improve people’s lives. They’re simply using people’s very real fears and anxieties about our present moment in order to raise their own profiles (and often money).
But it seems their only real issue is that they’ve ever been held even a little accountable for their actions, and now have to make it everyone’s problem as they seek to use the battle cry of “free speech” to win power and freedom from responsibility. It’s easy to spot, because the “free speech” of these blueanon types very often veers directly into paranoia, racism, sexism, fatphobia, homophobia, transphobia, and classism to make its alleged point. Yes, you should have the right to say what you want without the government coming for you, but everyone else gets to tell you you’re being an asshole.
In the end, I’m neither surprised by or particularly mad at Bangstad for deciding to run. He wants to talk about being “politically naive and unelectable?” Pot, meet kettle (or Brett Hulsey).
In addition, it’s always up to the other candidates to do the work to rise above the noise and make the case for why people should support their campaign. We also have to make sure the Democratic Party doesn’t throw its weight around in order to tip the scales toward a candidate the internal (reactionary centrist) machine likes more, and that we then coalesce behind the eventual primary winner in order to beat the actually fascist Republican Party come November.
The way to do that isn’t with fear and shouting and simply saying “Trump/Tiffany/Republicans are bad.” Or by saying “every other Democratic candidate sucks but me.” You don’t do that by doxxing reporters, patronizing the women in the race, or name-calling in lieu of actually making your case.
You do that by showing us a compelling vision for a possible, better future for all of us — yes, even those folks still voting Republican — one based in reality, with a dash of dreaming. It’s by demonstrating a whole lot of grit and willingness to set your ego aside and do the hard work of building real coalitions, passing meaningful policy, and shifting the culture to one of kindness and cooperation.
This column was originally published at “Grist from the Mills,” Emily Mills’ newsletter, which you can find and subscribe to here.
Emily Mills is a longtime freelance writer/reporter based in Madison. They previously served as Editor of Our Lives, Wisconsin’s only LGBTQ+ media outlet, and as an opinion columnist in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. You can currently find Emily’s work at tonemadison.com and at their own newsletter, Grist From the Mills.
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I watched his public comment at a town meeting long ago. He was bombastic and rude. That's ended any consideration I had for this person or his efforts. Civility is not a dirty word, it is something most of us want back in our political discourse.