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.
