Discombobulated in Milwaukee
Nevertheless, The Recombobulation Area will be on the ground covering the RNC in the city we call home.
The Recombobulation Area is a thirteen-time Milwaukee Press Club award-winning weekly opinion column and online publication founded by longtime Milwaukee journalist Dan Shafer. Learn more about it here.
It was a bright, warm day in Milwaukee in mid-July, the type of day those of who live here dream about during frigid winter months. It was early afternoon and I was going to head downtown. A friend who’d be out of town for the week was lending me his car, so I hopped in and drove east on the city streets. I drove past a newly-installed bus shelter that was blocked off, the glass freshly shattered, and shook my head in frustration. I thought about Milwaukee. I thought about its impending moment on the national stage. I thought about what this would all mean for this place we call home.
Security barriers were up earlier than I expected on my usual route downtown, so I wound through the area trying to find a route that would get me across the Milwaukee River to find a place to park. I was going to get my credentials to cover the Republican National Convention, and take some time to get a sense of the scene and take some photos.
Those of you who read The Recombobulation Area know that, clearly, I am not a supporter of the Republican Party. My thoughts on the city hosting this convention are complicated (and maybe even a bit contradictory at times). At the pre-RNC live podcast we held just days prior, I talked about how what I wanted to cover was more of a local focus despite the event obviously being a national one. I wanted to explore the city’s relationship to the convention and the convention’s relationship to the city. This is a Milwaukee-based publication and I am a Milwaukee-based writer, after all. With the expected 15,000 journalists from around the world coming to town, I’d figured everything else that’d be happening would not be starved for coverage.
I’d broken a story on how several downtown businesses were seeing lackluster levels of activity for events and bookings, and I wanted to see how that played out once the convention kicked off. I wanted to see how protests, and grassroots events like The Great Milwaukee Block Party would unfold, and what people would have to say. I wanted to see what exactly it would be that the city would be a backdrop for — the newly-released RNC platform, “Project 2025,” the “horrible city” comment that sparked fears and frustration among Milwaukeeans, the fractured and frustrating dynamic between the city of Milwaukee and elected Republicans, the attempt to overturn our votes in 2020, all rattling around in my head.
Milwaukee has never hosted an event like this before. This would be a new experience for all of us. I wanted to see the city shine in the ways where it could, and I wanted the people of this city to let the world know who we really are. Disagree with the GOP as I might, I have been really wanting for the people visiting to have a good time and come away with a positive impression of Milwaukee.
Closing the car door and walking downtown, the scene was immediately surreal. Helicopters buzzed overhead. Security fencing and concrete blockades were being assembled just east of the river, with only pedestrian access through. This was to be a scene unlike anything we’d ever experienced in Milwaukee, and that was instantly proving to be the case.
I picked up my credentials, in a mostly smooth process, and made chit chat with the folks at Secret Service. I gave someone a recommendation for where to find a good bratwurst. I walked back outside feeling accomplished in that my little publication that I started on my own while I was a stay-at-home-dad was now something that brought me access to covering a major political convention that was happening in my city.
It was important to me to get the lay of the land, gain a better understanding of where events would be happening, and where these credentials would get me access to — What’s in the Baird Center? What’s happening in the Deer District? Oh, there’s going to be a bunch of pop-up food vendors here. There’s something called the “Trump Trolley” that will be shuttling people around. Where will we be able to get in and out? I didn’t want to be completely discombobulated once I got there on Monday. And I wanted to share this experience with those of you who read and follow The Recombobulation Area, and let you know that I’d be on the ground covering the RNC in Milwaukee.
I took photos trying to capture both the grandiose spectacle and the humorously mundane, marveling in the juxtaposition of this of all events during this of all elections happening in a place where I’ve spent so much of my life. Seeing it in person felt different — not bad, but just…strange. I stood in the very spot where, three years go, to the week, I watched the Milwaukee Bucks win their first game of the 2021 NBA Finals. It was bizarre. That felt like what might be among the prevailing sentiments in the days to come.
That all soon changed, in an abhorrent and frightening way, with implications we haven’t even come close to beginning to grasp.
Shortly after arriving home, I sat down at my desk to edit some photos and send a few emails to make arrangements for the next few days. Then the news broke. A shooting had occurred at a Trump rally in Pennsylvania. Soon, we’d learn that it was an attempt to assassinate the former president, and Donald Trump had been shot in the ear, narrowly avoiding being killed. Another man attending the rally was killed, as was the shooter.
This is a profound moment for America. The former president and current frontrunner for the 2024 election survived an assassination attempt two days before his party’s convention in Milwaukee. This goes far beyond any partisan politics. Political violence is detestable in any context, and must be condemned in the strongest possible terms. Cliched as it might be, it is important that we come together as Americans in this moment.
That doesn’t mean that we change our views on anything about the Republican Party we might disagree with, and that doesn’t mean we overlook the political violence that the former president has fomented and encouraged. But to me, it means that we each have to, on an individual level, reflect on our own roles in this larger political landscape, and do what’s best to take the temperature down to ensure that we can disagree without being disagreeable, and can settle disputes peacefully without resorting to violence. We need to be committed to showing basic respect to fellow Americans, even if they disagree with us.
The timing of this historic moment, then, is rather remarkable. An assassination attempt on an American political figure with the stature of Trump’s has not happened in my lifetime. Now it has happened days before the political convention of the candidate who survived this attempt.
We don’t know how this is going to play out. Frankly, I’m discombobulated. I will be there covering the Republican National Convention on the ground here in Milwaukee; that much I know. Where my coverage will take me as this week unfolds is entirely unclear. I had a lot of plans for what I’d be writing about this week and I’m currently in the process of re-evaluating all of them. I am not taking this moment lightly.
And many plans appear to be changing — The Daily Show announced it would not be broadcasting from the Marcus Center in Milwaukee at all this week, just to name one example. Others will continue as planned.
This morning, I attended an event at Marquette University Law School called “Battleground Wisconsin: Politics, Polls, and Perspectives,” presented by Marquette University Law School and its Lubar Center for Public Policy Research and Civic Education, that delved into a longer view of the politics of the state of Wisconsin. It was a fascinating discussion on the shifting trends of the state and the metro Milwaukee area, from the leftward shift breaking up the overwhelming GOP strength in the WOW counties to certain communities that serve as bellwethers to slight-but-impactful erosion of Democratic Party support among Black and Brown voters. Having attended dozens of events like that one at Marquette University, it felt normal.
But in returning to the rest of the world, that normalcy ended quickly. I do not know where we go next — as a nation, as a state, as a city.
But I am going to be providing updates on what happens here over the next week as best I can, with the perspective you’ve come to expect and perhaps even enjoy here at The Recombobulation Area. Much of it will be available for free, some might be behind a paywall. Because of the pace of activity this week, there will certainly be some errors on my part, and I always appreciate our unofficial copy-editors who help us fix anything. Also this week, I’ll be on the radio, on Civic Media, 620 WTMJ, WCPT 820 / Heartland Signal, and likely elsewhere, too. I’ll be on TV, on Spectrum News 1, several times this week. These next few days are going to take me to many places around my city, and I’m not quite sure where we’ll all end up by this time next week.
It’s a discombobulating moment, to be sure. But I’m going to do my best to recombobulate, and cover the RNC, here in Milwaukee, the city we call home.
Dan Shafer is a journalist from Milwaukee who writes and publishes The Recombobulation Area. He’s also written for The New York Times, The Daily Beast, Heartland Signal, Belt Magazine, WisPolitics, and Milwaukee Record. He previously worked at Seattle Magazine, Seattle Business Magazine, the Milwaukee Business Journal, Milwaukee Magazine, and BizTimes Milwaukee. He’s won 18 Milwaukee Press Club Excellence in Journalism Awards. He’s on Twitter at @DanRShafer.
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Stay Safe out there Dan. I look forward to reading your take on it all as a former East sider. I'd love to experience what it's like, but not really, so I'll be there through you. Thanks!
Thanks Dan for what you are doing! I’m leaving town tomorrow evening, not related but fortuitous timing! I am looking forward to reading your coverage when I get back. I’m praying that everyone stays safe!