Monday, December 17, 2018

Lies, Bullying and Intimidation


My Experience with

Wisconsin Citizen Action

            When I heard the group Wisconsin Citizen Action is interfering with the Mayorial election in the City of Green Bay, WI, I thought it time to write down the experience I had with WCA.

          I was looking for something useful to do and saw an advertisement in the local newspaper. It was for WCA. They were looking for people to fundraise in their fight to protect Social Security. That sounded like a fine idea.

          It wasn’t long before I was in a large white Chevy van with 8 to 10 other people. The great majority of these people had been in this van before. I had not. We traveled to a city roughly 100 miles from where we started out.

          Upon arriving at our destination, we split up to go door-to-door in groups of two. Being new, I was buddied with who appeared to be the leader of the group. He was the driver and leader of the chanting of politically charged slogans.

          The first house we came to was owned by an elderly lady. She wanted nothing to do with us. The man I was with forced his foot between the door and the jam as the lady tried to close the door. As bad as that was, it got worse.

          The man used bullying, intimidation and bold-faced lies to browbeat the old lady. It was the usual argument. Someone is going to steal your Social Security. Be afraid…be very afraid! Of course, the man was very specific about who was going to steal her Social Security. These lies were known to be lies by the man speaking them. He had annunciated the lies and the way to overcome objections to them during the ride. It was all very scripted.

          After the man had managed to intimidate the old lady out of a few dollars (Money which was most likely received from the Social Security Administration and would have done her more good than it did WCA. It turns out someone was after her Social Security benefit. It was WCA.), it was off to the next door. But it was not the next door. It was another door about a block away from the first. Behind this door another old lady.

          Why would WCA bully old ladies who are probably getting Social Security benefits to protect old ladies from someone taking their Social Security benefits while taking their Social Security benefits?

It was at this point that I had seen enough. I was appalled. I decided I wanted no part of the WCA scam. I told the man I was with that I would meet him back at the van. I did not want to be associated with dishonesty and ugliness.

          The ride back to their base was an uncomfortable one. They now knew I did not agree with their tactics and would not be complicit in their lies to and intimidations of the elderly (or anyone else for that matter).

          This is my experience of WCA. I have no reason to believe the WCA has changed its tactics or its Ideology in the time since then (Its current election interference indicates it has not). I write this as a warning to anyone who would be swayed by the lies and intimidations of WCA. Their agenda is political. They are an organization built upon lies, intimidations and bullying where the ends justify the means.

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