Professor Participates in Refocus Wisconsin

Ken Goldstein, professor, political science, University of Wisconsin-Madison, is one of the featured contributors and “activists” leading WPRI’s Refocus Wisconsin initiative.

During my first semester of college, I took Intro to American Politics with Professor Goldstein. Within the first few minutes of the first day of class, he captivated the lecture by challenging the 300+ students sitting in the audience to try and figure out his political affiliation.

That same semester I went to Professor Goldstein’s house with my section as a reward for having the highest average and since then I've heard him speak several times on campus and elsewhere. Also, I regularly watch the student-broadcasted show he hosts and supervises, “Office Hours.”

When I saw that Professor Goldstein was participating in this project, I thought it would be a great opportunity to analyze his contributions and activism from an online identity perspective.

Political activists and online identity is a major theme I want to explore in my practicum summary, so I’ll just briefly hit on some of my main observations and connections.

Goldstein’s online representations of self are strategic and abundant. He has clearly made it a point to strategically produce an objective persona.

Complete some simple background research and it’s obvious he is an accomplished academic with extensive research experience, innovative polling strategies and fresh ideas on the effects of political advertising in mobilizing publics. He has been featured on “liberally-biased” and “conservatively-biased” media outlets and has conducted polls for Democrat organizations, as well as Republican organizations.

He doesn’t have a personal homepage displaying his impressive credentials and areas of expertise; rather, Goldstein relies on his diverse associations and online activities to help drive his personal brand or identity.

I think it’s really interesting that Professor Goldstein has managed to maintain an identity – online and offline – as an objective expert who transcends biases at all costs. He is criticized from the left and the right for being too conservative or too liberal. Through and through, however, Goldstein upholds a levelheaded, objective approach to the media.

Here is an article where Goldstein is criticized for poll results that were allegedly altered by the conservative thinktank, WPRI.

Refocus Wisconsin fosters democracy

While the definition of democracy is complicated, most agree that an ideal democracy - driven by active and informed participants - is simply unrealistic. Today, everyone is bombarded with overwhelming amounts of information. So much information that it’s sometimes easier to flat out ignore what is going on. Overall, American’s are uninformed about current events but this makes sense because it is just too easy to only access information you care about and ignore the rest.

It’s reassuring to know, however, that citizens are forming different public communities online. Citizens, both informed and uninformed, are coming together, lobbying for their values and beliefs. From tea party rallies that supported Scott Walker, community newsletters endorsing Tom Barrett and online communities of experts sharing innovative solutions, American’s are coming together in some way or another to advocate change.

After researching the Refocus Wisconsin project, it seems as if popular consent is forming from the ground up in a sense. The activists on this site are not driven by political affiliations; rather, the individuals in this community are motivated by their personal beliefs and a desire to make Wisconsin the best it can be. The activists in this community have taken it upon themselves to deliberate and collaborate through the problems facing Wisconsin.

Democrats, republicans, liberals, conservatives, libertarians, moderates, independents and more have all come together as part of this community. Simply researching a few of these individuals with Google shows that they all have diverse ideologies and come from a variety of backgrounds. Not only are they recommending policy and going out into the community to find out what Wisconsin citizens think, but they are also holding public lectures and luncheons that open up their ideas to public criticism.

As far as I can tell, Refocus Wisconsin - despite being sponsored by the WPRI - is an objective group of political activists who simply want what is best for our state. This projects seeks to drive the state forward in order to guarantee long-term prosperity through intellectual diversity, community participation and ides driven by the needs of citizens, not political motivations.

It's difficult to maintain an ideal democracy driven by a public sphere offering equal opportunities for participation. Information comes and goes too fast for anyone to be considered an "ideal democratic participant." Refocus Wisconsin seems to take activists from all over the political spectrum to construct ideas and policies that can be debated openly, attempting to create a more effective democratic system in Wisconsin - a democratic system where more people can contribute ideas and be well informed by simply reading their recommendations.