It’s 2024. Do you feel like your favorite team just left town and you’re left with a wall full of mementos that have no connection to anything?
I get it.
After writing a column for the Waukesha Freeman for ten years and being a contributor to conservative websites like the MacIver Institute, the Badger Institute, Media Trackers (now closed) and The Center Square (when it was called Watchdog), I was at the center of Wisconsin’s move to the right under Governor Scott Walker. When I took over RightWisconsin in 2017, I thought that despite Donald Trump’s takeover of the national Republican Party, the conservative movement would continue to advance sound policies and real reforms.
Then the violent insurrection on January 6, 2021 occurred. In the aftermath, I watched in horror as Republican after Republican at all levels covered up for Trump and his co-conspirators. Sanity was gone on the Right, and the Democrats weren’t presenting a palatable alternative. I found myself politically homeless,
Since January 6, I’ve been on CNN, on Wisconsin Public Radio, The Bulwark, and even the BBC, to explain what happened to the Republican Party in the Trump Era. I have also been a regular guest pundit on WTMJ-AM and have been interviewed for several print and online news outlets.
But thanks to my twice-weekly newsletter, “Life, Under Construction,” you don’t have to guess when I’m going to appear next in the media to talk about politics in 2024.
“Life, Under Construction” is my attempt to make sense of where we are now in 2024. In this twice-weekly newsletter, I address the changes in our politics and explain the direction we are headed. I also speak directly about the danger to democracy presented by Trumpism.
But “Life, Under Construction” is about more than politics. It’s also a look at our culture, travel and even food. As a world traveler and cultural critic, I offer my observations on everything from booking excursions in foreign countries to what it’s like to watch my grown children finally leave home leaving my wife and I empty nesters.
After over twenty years of writing on politics and culture, “Life, Under Construction” gives me the freedom to write on any subject without fear. In 2024, when almost every pundit is choosing partisanship over principle in an effort to help their team win, wouldn’t you rather hear from someone who is not afraid to be completely honest with you about what he sees?
I hope that you will join me on this journey, either as a monthly or yearly subscriber, and receive my newsletter every Monday and Thursday. I won’t promise that you will always agree with me. But I will promise that you will be informed and entertained.
Honestly.
James Wigderson
Waukesha, WI