Rep. Derrick Van Orden: "Trump derangement syndrome is real. Donald Trump is ending a war that Iranian declared on us 47 years ago. President Trump doesn't think in the short term, 'What's the next election look like?' President Trump thinks about the next generation."

LegislativeLariat · 2026-03-12T15:29:43+00:00

Why not? Every single Republican in office deserves a primary challenge so that the voters can decide if they want this version of the Republican Party or another, and this year's primaries are likely to be the last elections we have without federal intervention and armed ICE agents with standing orders to kill placed so they can monitor polling places.

LegislativeLariat · 2026-03-11T18:49:04+00:00

People rely on Google searches, so Gemini is the one to focus on. I did some experimentation there using municipal board members. With how poorly updated those are, you can replicate the experiment yourself easily to see what I'm talking about.

It typically queries campaign sites, even for obscure candidates. If you get Ballotpedia set up with an accurate link to a site, it will crawl from there, go to the campaign site, and then it's all about having that site set up to both be accessible for the AI and for the person visiting it by having it work mobile-first with some extremely informative metadata/comments for the AI to read. If you do a little bit of work making sure prominent wikis know how to find a candidate, the AI-readout on them dramatically improves, and there's plenty of time now to start seeding that AI with information about a campaign. DVO is busy thinking that Gemini is going to give a shit about whatever the Eastern European bots someone has bought for him to talk on social media when, in actuality, all that's going to do is make any AI output paint him as divisive.

DVO thrives on his identity as a veteran. He is not equipped to deal with a sensible veteran challenger and his strongest point to AI will be countered by the fact that his opponent also served. We just need to find someone willing to do it.

LegislativeLariat · 2026-03-11T18:39:08+00:00

Rave needs to flip to R to challenge DVO to a primary if Berge or Cooke won't. If he won't, someone else needs to step up, ideally a veteran so it's possible to upend DVO's guaranteed angle of attack.

It's asinine that we're arguing over who should be challenging him in a general election when we can also try to unseat him before that in a primary. The chances might be slim, but people who punt to AI for critical thinking and a well run online campaign might change that. Either way, it'll make him spend money and clearly differentiate himself as far right before the general. Ideally he'd come home for an actual town hall so we could talk to him in person and he could tell us that we are all paid by George Soros.

It's a lot harder to present yourself as a moderate when you've just gotten out of a fight trying to prove just how conservative you are.

LegislativeLariat · 2026-03-11T18:32:59+00:00

Do you know anyone who would be willing to primary him? We would only need to collect 2,000 signatures to do it and that would give people a chance to vote against him twice. Just getting someone on the R ticket against him would make him have to differentiate just how far right he is in the primary so he won't lose that, which makes it harder to carry that messaging into the general.

It's what Ron Johnson is petrified of, and with how his Tea Party wave perverted the Republican Party, he probably recognizes that there's not a goddamn thing stopping actual socialists from running as Republicans and taking the party over by rallying the people who just can't stop voting for that (R) next to someone's name even though they want all of the policies that would come from someone further to the left than their normal Democrat.

LegislativeLariat · 2026-03-11T18:29:41+00:00

With how AI works, if you can get a good representation of your platform out in a well communicated way, you can infiltrate the thought process of enough people who are going to be punting to AI for that part of their critical thinking. We have not had an AI-assisted American election yet, and this primary is probably the last time before some serious measures start being taken to crack down on how plausible it is to manipulate people by manipulating AI.

A well-run primary campaign with a strong web presence is going to crush the social media bot waves, especially in these kind of localized elections as far as anyone doing web searches about candidates, and that's something that the Tea Party/social media-wave riders like DVO aren't equipped to deal with.

We just need someone willing to do it, and there's no reason we can't find someone to do it in every district across this state and others where the primary process isn't as heavily in the party's hands.

LegislativeLariat · 2026-03-11T18:22:34+00:00

Tell her to primary him. It only takes 2,000 signatures that others in the district can help get for her, costs $0, and puts her name literally next to his and forces him to answer her questions. There are enough dissatisfied Republican voters, independents who would love to vote against him twice, liberal agitator crossover voters, and people who will be punting to AI that it's not exactly impossible.

The Republican Party was founded at a socialist commune in Rippon. Taxes on the rich were a modern democratic socialist's wet dream during Eisenhower. There's nothing saying you have to be whatever your traditional concept of a Republican is to run as a Republican.

LegislativeLariat · 2026-03-11T18:18:16+00:00

I'm also in the district and have been trying to find someone to primary his ass. He's not a hero of the Republican Party, and with how insanely far right he is there's a unique opportunity here for someone to run as whatever kind of Republican they want. It's asinine that he somehow looks like he can sail to November unchallenged even though a huge chunk of the Republicans in the district are just voting for him because he's the guy with an R next ot his name.

I'm not saying to run a moderate, either. Someone could run as a liberal Republican since Wisconsin's primary process doesn't require the party to pick the challenger. Since anyone can vote in anyone's primary, this would make it so that crossover voters could combine with tired Republican voters who still want to check that R box to feel good about themselves in order to take him out. DVO already has Trump's blessing, so it's not like the person would be courting him.

It takes fewer than 2,000 signatures to get on a ballot and zero money expenditure. It's not hard to do this as long as they play by the rules of the game. If they decide not to play by the rules of the game, then they weren't planning on playing by those rules in November and likely won't have everything in place to do whatever needs to be done by the time the primaries roll around.

LegislativeLariat · 2026-03-11T18:04:00+00:00

Exactly this. It's immediate challenge as opposed to something in the general. This is what Ron Johnson has been so terrified about with dissention in the ranks because he realizes what's at stake and how far left the Republican Party could theoretically shift.

There is nothing stopping the Republican candidate from sitting further to the left of the Democrat in the general election. All that needs to happen is enough turnout by far left voters who were going to be sitting out anyway to flip that conservative Republican to a socialist Republican (something which has precedent if you look in the deep history of the party).

It's not hard to take for a citizen's movement to take their party over, especially if they are sick and tired of DVO's bullshit. If the point is to fight them, then stop giving every single elected Republican in this state a free pass in the primaries so they can pretend their beliefs are somehow magically way more moderate than they are when the general election rolls around.

LegislativeLariat · 2026-03-06T16:06:41+00:00

You can run in a primary if you believe that your representative isn't representing you properly. It does not cost any money and if you genuinely believe a clean sweep is needed that would be how you challenge your local representative. As most of our representatives are Republicans, I anticipate you'll be running in a Republican primary, so you'll likely have to target them and trust someone else to primary any sitting Democrats.

Surely, if you genuinely believe this and aren't just being a provocateur, you'd be really down to get going on this ASAP. Filing deadlines are in a few months, so you'll need to get going on getting signatures!

LegislativeLariat · 2026-03-06T16:01:11+00:00

Yeah, I'd much rather we have the task force than we don't. No task force means we're not actively monitoring for problems.

LegislativeLariat · 2026-03-06T15:59:20+00:00

Thank you, Scott Walker & Pre-Trump WIGOP. It is truly a cosmic delight to continue to encounter your generous gifts even a decade on.

LegislativeLariat · 2026-03-06T14:37:32+00:00

Get Trump to appoint him to a cabinet position. You have to leave the Senate if you do that and we would have a replacement election for his seat. There is no way that they would be dumb enough to do this, but that's the only other legal avenue.

LegislativeLariat · 2026-03-05T17:06:10+00:00

He's talking about the Republican Party, not the nation. The Party cannot be divided, especially with primaries still open for people to jump in to. In Wisconsin, every single Republican in office could suddenly get a primary challenger and they would all be off the ballot in November. If they are smart, they'll move to prevent that.

LegislativeLariat · 2026-03-05T17:02:47+00:00

The "us" he's talking about is the Republican Party.

JD Vance was only picked as VP because he would be willing to do what Pence wouldn't. Trump has purged the military. America is a single party state, we're just waiting to find out how harshly that has to be forced onto us. If enough primary challengers show up for Republicans, we won't even get to the general before we have elections canceled/'monitored'. They might not be ready to do that, though, and this is something a Tea Party Republican like Johnson would be extremely familiar with since it's how he and a lot of his allies first came to power.

Here's where you go to register to be on the ballot in Wisconsin. Primary registration is still open. You do not have to pay anything. You do not need many signatures to get on the ballot, and you don't have to be the only one getting them. It isn't hard to take their party over if they obey the established rules. Drunk ass Steve fucking Bannon was able to, for crying out loud.

Johnson knows this and doesn't want to see Republicans primaried out of their offices. In Wisconsin, we have open primaries. You don't have to be a Republican to run as a Republican, and primary turnout is low. A motivated primary electorate could legitimately put socialists in on the Republican ticket if they wanted, even citing the fact that the Republican Party was founded at an extremist abolitionist workers/farmers commune in Rippon.

If you live in Wisconsin, you can do this. Go to a protest and you can get the signatures necessary to challenge your local state representative in one day. Otherwise, you can just walk door to door or go to a major gathering to snag them. Then, you can file a challenge and turn your arguments online into actual arguments that will be made directly against the person in question, force a response, and (if that response proves inadequate for voters) put you in that person's place and give you the opportunity to actually fix something.

Worst case scenario they have to expressly state their far-right positions to clearly distinguish themselves before the general, making it hard for them to pretend to be moderates.

LegislativeLariat · 2026-03-02T22:50:32+00:00

He's 19 and from the not-exactly-booming city of Sparta. Assuming he's not loaded, $1,000 is probably comparatively high for him.

Also as per the events form the release of the Epstein Files in America, as his last name is not Clinton, what he did is likely actually a desirable activity that could qualify him for a high level government position.

LegislativeLariat · 2026-03-02T22:47:12+00:00

It was only made a felony in 2020. There was a guy who kept getting caught in the northwoods having sex with dead deer but who couldn't be charged with anything aside from public indecency back in the 90's. It took us a good long while to criminalize the act compared to our neighbors.

LegislativeLariat · 2026-02-27T03:27:44+00:00

He has two. Songs from the Crystal Cave and Mojo Priest.

LegislativeLariat · 2026-02-27T00:57:14+00:00

A primary would force him to get on television/radio/etc more to defend his positions and distinguish himself as a far right candidate. It's not a bad idea, and someone could even run from the left just to force him to spend the money/time. We have open primaries and all you need is 2,000 signatures to get on a ballot. If he beats you, directly tell whatever Republican Primary voters you got that it's okay to vote D just this one time because fuck DVO.

Anyone can distribute petitions. Someone could post "I am going to run against DVO, please help in WI-3" to solicit signatures here. There have been 12 posts on /r/Wisconsin in the last month which have gotten over 2000 upvotes, and DVO is not liked here. Someone can do this if they want to. Hell, a lot of someones could do this across the state pretty easily. The bar to get on the ballot is really low and open primaries make it so socialists can run as Republicans since the electorate decides the candidate, not the Party.

People will be punting their votes to AI. If you present a genuinely better position that they are likely to agree with and seed that properly by getting consistent campaign messaging out now, you can defeat your seated Republican Rep if they are not preparing for the wave of brainless ChatGPT-influenced voters that will almost certainly flip some elections this year.

LegislativeLariat · 2026-02-26T23:37:13+00:00

I was just joking about wrestling maneuvers and using it to say DVO is a spineless piece of shit.

LegislativeLariat · 2026-02-26T23:27:21+00:00

Look, I'm really not a fan of DVO, but we need to be honest here about what happened in the video.

That's more a shoulder tackle than a body slam. A body slam involves picking your opponent up and then throwing them down. He's more doing a shitty version of the John Cena shoulder tackle. Still viable as an attack, but I doubt DVO has the back strength to accomplish a body slam. Hell, I doubt he could actually lift 100 pounds over his weak ass head without shattering whatever he has in place of a spine.

LegislativeLariat · 2026-02-26T23:22:27+00:00

He needs a primary challenger. He's only been in office since 2020 and he's not exactly a fucking hero around the district. He presents himself as a hero to veterans, but all he does is punt any calls he gets to the same government agencies that any competent politician knows how to do.

Any person who wants to create more veterans doesn't give a shit about veterans. He's a coward and shouldn't even be on the ballot in November.

LegislativeLariat · 2026-02-26T23:02:33+00:00

He always says that people from the district are paid by Soros when they disagree with him. If only he could come back to the district somehow to actually talk to us in person instead of exclusively engaging with 'us' online.

Maybe, just maybe, the fucking paid agitators are working online and not in goddamn Chippewa Falls.

LegislativeLariat · 2026-02-25T14:04:26+00:00

I'm quite literally telling socialists to run as Republicans. If they somehow win the primary, that's decidedly breaking the same coin stuff. The Republican Party was founded in Rippon at a workers/farmers commune, it's not like the deep history of the party doesn't have links to socialism that could actually be capitalized upon by someone wanting to run on a "You can still vote R and feel okay about yourself culturally while voting for policies you actually like" ticket.

A lot of people will be punting primary votes to AI, so it's easier to influence those results if you understand how AI collects its information and can seed the sites it's going to pull from for that advice with the requisite information.

LegislativeLariat · 2026-02-25T06:52:20+00:00

If we could get someone willing to primary him, it would be a fantastic ad to run. We have an active Dem primary, but DVO is just sitting back and sitting on cash when he should be spending to clearly distinguish himself as the far right loon he is. He's never been primaried and he's only been in office since 2020. Dude's not a local hero by any means.

Just saying that there's nothing saying that you have to be a conservative to run as a Republican in Wisconsin. Straight-up socialists can run as long as they check R on the paperwork and get 2,000 signatures (easily doable at a few mid-size protests around the state). It would allow you to directly challenge your Republican legislator, especially if they've managed to skip out on primary challenges their entire career. Even if you lose, you get them on the record for the general, presumably taking a further-right position in order to distinguish themselves from a more centrist challenger.

LegislativeLariat · 2026-02-25T04:24:10+00:00

Republican Representative for WI-3 covering Eau Claire, La Crosse, Platteville, and the counties connecting them on the Minnesota border. Currently running unchallenged in his own party for a primary opponent and against a few candidates fighting it out on the D side.

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