Refocused on Refocus Wisconsin

For the first half of the practicum project I observed a nation-wide group of conservative political activists on RedState.com, a conservative community based on citizen journalism. I also immersed myself in Governor-elect Scott Walker's campaign initiatives on MyScottSpot.com and actively followed his activities during the last two months of his "Brown Bag Movement."

I thought I wanted to explore how political activists on the left from treehugger.com compared to those on the right, but realized it might be more interesting to see how conservative activists were reacting to Wisconsin's new leadership. Not only that, but the 2010 election cycle yielded major changes on a state and national level I felt were important to understand from both sides of the political spectrum.

I've refocused my attention on an interesting group of political activists from Refocus Wisconsin, a project taken on by the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute Inc. WPRI brands itself as Wisconsin's Free Market Think Tank. I.e., WPRI is a right-wing political activist community. Observing WPRI's new initiative, Refocus Wisconsin, has been fascinating. In fact, I'm blown away by what I've read, watched, researched and observed.

Before doing my serious research on Refocus Wisconsin, the inherent biases I developed while observing RedState.com and WPRI framed my thinking. I assumed the political activism carried out through Refocus Wisconsin was going to be citizen journalism-like with some libertarian scholars contributing policy recommendations here and there. I was wrong.

(Side note: The word conservative Republican has become synonymous with the Tea Party (a grassroots radical right-wing movement of Libertarians), which has become synonymous - especially in Madison, Wis. - with societal destruction. I'm not using this post to express my personal beliefs whatsoever; rather, I want to high light how inspiring the Refocus Wisconsin project has been. The objectivity, quality activism and high caliber activists from across the political spectrum forced me to rethink my assumptions about right-wing politics.

Here is Refocus Wisconsin's mission statement:

"Refocus Wisconsin is a bold project that seeks to provide a blueprint for a new Wisconsin. With the help of nationally respected writers and academics, the project examines Wisconsin's recent past and provides prescriptions for restoring the state's reputation for excellence."

Here is a recent video project that gives you a small, very small, taste of the work they're doing:

I'll end with a couple more observations about the political activism carried out through the project overall. They have a presence on Facebook, Twitter, Vimeo and Youtube channel. They are effectively reaching out across multiple platforms online and engaging Wisconsin citizens in real-world events such as luncheons and speaker series. Refocus Wisconsin does independent polling, issues policy papers, is active in local and state media outlets and has a surprising list of authors that engage community members through their activism.

The Refocus Wisconsin contributors come from different states, different interests and different political ideologies. Refocus Wisconsin is a project that prides itself on intellectual diversity and by bringing together intelligent and inspiring activists to better Wisconsin will, in my opinion, lead to prosperous solutions for the future, even if it is sponsored by a conservative-libertarian group. Good job, conservatives?