Fervent anti-communist activism and small-government conservatism took root in Milwaukee’s suburbs in the decades after World War II, and this deeply embedded history continues to shape this crucial political territory in 2023.
In the decades after World War II, the Milwaukee suburbs boomed — much as their counterparts across the United States did. They pushed into the surrounding counties as White ethnics — benefiting from wage increases, pensions and health care won by labor unions, as well as New Deal initiatives such as the GI Bill and federal mortgage benefits — joined the middle-class and sought out homeownership. In 1950, for example, Menomonee Falls was a small rural town in Waukesha County with a population of 2,460. By 1960, however, it was dotted with ranch-style houses and cul-de-sac streets as the population exploded to 18,267.
As the population grew, a new brand of far-right suburban politics sprouted. This politics blended anti-communism with broader appeals for law-and-order and lower taxes. While anti-communism in Wisconsin is often synonymous with Sen. Joseph McCarthy (R-Wis.), in Milwaukee’s suburbs, this political spirit went far beyond “Tail Gunner Joe.”
The local industrialist William Grede might have best embodied the new politics. He was a founding member of the far-right John Birch Society, which was launched in 1958 and quickly lost respectability because of its false claims about communist conspiracies.
Grede gained national prominence serving as president of the National Association of Manufacturers and the YMCA. In both roles, he toured the country delivering speeches touting the merits of free enterprise and warning of a descent into socialism if the New Deal expansion of the federal government continued. In 1946, Grede testified before Congress in favor of the Taft-Hartley Act, which was intended to curtail the power of unions. Grede further solidified connections between the far right and the GOP in his role as finance chairman of the Wisconsin Republican Party.
Cultural issues contributed to this new politics as well. In 1959, for example, Richard and Jean Hoy, residents of the Milwaukee suburb of Shorewood, who had little history of prior activism, wrote to their state representative advocating prison sentences for drug possession.
Reflecting the growing political importance of these suburbs and the way they shaped state politics, liberal Democratic Gov. Gaylord Nelson and the state legislature later that year responded to such calls by replacing fines with prison sentences for marijuana possession. They included a three-strike provision that mandated life imprisonment after a third conviction. The passage of stricter penalties for drug possession demonstrated that Milwaukee’s suburbs were at the forefront of a hard-edge conservative politics that swept the nation in the years to come.