Wisconsin served as the bastion for the Republican Party, Progressive Party, and the Socialist Party of America. Through the ingenuity of Milwaukee’s Victor Berger, political socialism rose in the state in the early part of the Twentieth Century with a focus on practical government through democratic means. Wisconsin’s sewer socialists, as the group and individuals were called, believed a better life for citizens could be achieved through political socialism and revolution the democratic process. Socialists were able to gain a hold on Wisconsin’s politics and made every effort to move the state forward for its citizens.