The quaint Oshkosh Farmers Market in Wisconsin turned toxic on October 11 when a volunteer at the Winnebago County Democratic Party booth handed out wristbands reading “Is he dead yet?” in what parents and conservatives rightly viewed as a macabre reference to President Donald Trump. Shoppers were stunned that a public community event would be used to normalize wishing death on a political opponent, and the market quickly became the site of justified outrage.
One of the wristbands was given to an eight-year-old child, who ran it over to their mother and revealed the message, leaving the family and other patrons appalled. The mother, Katy Neubauer, told local reporters she confronted the volunteers and called the bracelet hate speech, because children should never be handed propaganda that encourages violence against any person.
Market officials say they received multiple complaints — roughly ten by their count — and determined the materials violated the market’s code of conduct, leading to the Winnebago County Democratic Party being removed from the remaining Saturdays of the season by mutual agreement. Responsible community organizers must keep politics civil and keep children out of the crossfire; the market board has promised to revisit policies so this kind of spectacle doesn’t happen again.
The state Democratic Party rushed to disavow the bracelets as unauthorized, but that is cold comfort when the culture of permissiveness on the left keeps producing this kind of bile. Republicans and local leaders have rightly demanded accountability, and conservative groups pointed out that rhetoric like this feeds a climate where political violence becomes more likely.
This incident cannot be divorced from the grim context of political violence we have seen this year; Americans watched in horror as conservative activist Charlie Kirk was murdered in September, and celebrating or joking about the death of opponents is not harmless rhetoric. When activists hand death-wish trinkets to children, they are normalizing dehumanization and placing all of us at greater risk — especially those in public life who rely on civility to keep the peace.
Patriotic Americans should be united in condemning this hatred while protecting free speech; calling for the removal of violent messages from family spaces is not censorship of debate but a demand for basic decency. Local markets, political parties, and community leaders must act — investigate who produced those bracelets, discipline the volunteers, and adopt stronger policies so our kids and our public squares are not turned into training grounds for political violence.
