Today was total chaos from the time I awoke, (OMG) sixteen hours ago, until I drove into the driveway of my cottage a little bit ago (at an hour usually way past my bedtime).
My senatorial candidate was under attack today in the blogosphere over a perceived lack in some quarters of an explicit commitment to the needs of the poor (the guy was a state Director for Habitat for Humanity for Christ's sake), and from sources I hold in high esteem;
I had missed deadlines for website development for the newly organized Oregon presence of Progressive Democrats of America (PDA), my inbox on my "day job" was overflowing and my superiors (bosses, in non-church-speak) had noticed and begun an exercise which went way beyond nagging (although stopped short of threats -- which are not far on the horizon if I don't "shape up" and "get my priorities straight" -- okay, maybe there were threats);
My town is too small to have a Kinko's, so I spent way more time than should be necessary to get the subversive literature I needed tonight from PDF files onto paper;
DANG! Maybe I should go back to just baptizing babies, solemnizing marriages and burying the dead.
Nope! My rural county in my Western state (Oregon) was having a Super Tuesday party, and if I have any hope of furthering Christ's teachings regarding the poor and disenfranchised, I had best be there, and with PDA literature in hand. And, since it's billed as a "finger food and beverages potluck" I'd better make some time to fire up the stove and prepare something edible to take along with my brochures and sign-up sheets. (Once again, Baptizing babies begins to sound more attractive than preparing hors d'euvres, but I'll resist the temptation to follow that digression any further.)
For those of you who believe in a Divine Creator, you get "stars in your crown" (or perhaps days off of purgatory) for getting this far. For the rest of you, perhaps crossing your fingers in order.
So, perhaps some background is called for. I live in Wasco County, Oregon. Although my county, and adjacent Hood River County, have long had a slight Democratic majority in terms of voter registration, for some reason the conventional wisdom declares us a "red" region. Since practically no state or national party resources are ever brought to bear here, it's not surprising that their defeatist prognostications come to pass, and our county usually votes Republican. Bitter? Me? P'shaw.
Our county Democratic Central Committee trends radically (carefully chosen adverb) more progressive than its rank-and-file. As in most facts of history, this is no accident. In 1972, the County Party chose not to lift a finger in support of the Presidential Nominee. You may have heard of him. George McGovern. He was a country boy from South Dakota who had gotten involved in politics to raise his neighbors out of poverty by doing some really radical things... like building roads, and sewers, and electrification projects. In 1972, the Republicans managed to paint him as God's gift to Karl Marx, and convinced large numbers of Democrats that it was in their best interests to elect a criminal war-monger as President instead of their own party's candidate. My local Party went along happily. It was so much better to let the Republicans win than elect a "hippie." McGovern. South Dakota country boy. Hippie. Sheeeeeesh. So, Wasco County Democratic party regulars wouldn't lift a finger for McGovern. We "hippies" had to raise funds to open our own county headquarters, since not a single piece of McGovern literature was on the table at the Democrats' headquarters. We knocked on doors. We distributed literature. We made phone calls. We were one of two counties, despite the neglect and antipathy of our party, in our state which our Presidential candidate carried. He was not, however, elected President. He even lost his own state for the first time in his political career. (Okay, I'm fighting a lump in my throat now.) He is, and remains a patriot, and a national hero, even though most Americans, even Democrats, refuse to utter his name in public above hushed tones -- God forfend we should honor a "loser." But I digress.
So, the campaign over, Nixon inaugurated, and ultimately driven from office for malfeasance and criminality, the McGovernites in Wasco County decided, "Never Again!" Under the leadership and urging (to the point of arm-twisting) of our McGovern Campaign County Coordinator, who, ironically, has become disillusioned with the Democratic Party and is now still registered as a Democrat (according to a phone conversation I had with him last week, more than thirty years since we fought the good fight together) only because it's not worth the trouble to go down to the courthouse to re-register as an Independent, we McGovern volunteers en masse filed our candidacy as precinct committeepersons in the County Party. (I was 21 years old, and tied the "party regular" in my precinct. I ultimately won my seat under Oregon law against a local attorney with serious name recognition but who had never "walked the precinct" as I had, by, literally, a roll of the dice.)
So it was that the Wasco County Democratic Central Committee was "taken over" by the supporters of the Democratic Presidential nominee who had lost by the biggest Republican landslide in decades. Much to the surprise of the rank and file, we started winning more local elections, and our commitment to workers, and other members of the historic Democratic Party base, was not diminished one whit.
Nonetheless, the Republicans still own the local media, most local employers, and have way fatter wallets, so despite our majority, not a single election is ever a slam dunk. Our State Representative and Congressman are both Republicans of the ugliest pro-oppressor ilk. They couldn't get there without significant numbers of votes from Democrats and otherwise-progressive idependent citizens. And so it goes.
However, Oregon is no longer a state where homosexual behavior is a felony, as it was when McGovern was running for President. This rural, supposedly "solid red" county recently voted overwhelmingly against allowing our local electric utilities to invest in "clean" coal plants (as if there were any such thing). The County's 66% Republican County Commission unanimously passed a nondiscrimination ordinance protecting sexual minorities including on the basis of "gender identity," and a related recall initiative failed! In fact, a statewide civil unions law just went into effect this month, after litigation failed to prevent it. "Here comes the sun."
So, I arrived at the Super Tuesday party tonight with a couple of platters of Tofurkey Sausage Bites topped with organic parmesan cheese, 5 liters of wine, and (with the permission of the hostess) stacks of PDA literature and a clipboard with signup sheets. I was expecting the evening to be consumed with the "horserace" of Obama vs. Clinton. The house was huge. My own little cottage would have fit in its entirety in the "family room." ABC News was displayed on the HD widescreen in the living room, PBS in the basement "rumpus room." Throughout the house, the returns were largely ignored in favor of a mix of admittedly superficial "cocktail chatter" but more predominantly, discussion of honest-to-God I S S U E S !
Questions under discussion in which I was involved or overheard included --
* How do we take back the Klamath Fish Kill issue from the Republicans who have framed it as a Farmers vs. Fisherman issue when it's really an issue of protecting an environment which supports both fishermen and farmers, as well as tourism.
* How can we get the local media (newspaper & radio) to recognize the Columbia River Gorge not as either just a "scenic area" or economic region, but a habitat where real people
and stunning scenery and rich array of species must live and thrive.
I could go on and on, but the issues are local, thoughtful, and intense. And that's the point. The current generation of "party regulars" is ready and willing, nay hungry to examine complex issues and come up with equally complex solutions. It's not my father's Oldsmobile!
Even more striking was the extensive discussion around our state senatorial race between Jeff Merkley, current Democratic Speaker of the State House of Representatives, and his challenger, longtime activist and professional liberal lobbyist, Steve Novick. The common sense rural Democrats of my east-of-the-Cascades county were clearly not buying Novick's claim to being the "true progressive" in the race, and by implication that his opponent is what? A "pseudo-progressive?" No kind of progressive at all?Granted, he is an outsider to the extent he has never held public office (but not in terms of his long experience within the halls of power, albeit outside of public scrutiny and accountability) and his disability provides a powerful symbol of overcoming adversity. But, it was clearly the consensus that (1) the difference between the two candidates is one of style, not substance, and (2) Novick is running on a promise of change, while Merkley is running on a record of positive change, having led the state's Democratic caucus in the most productive and progressive session in decades.
Now, I must admit some bias in reporting this experience. I have a Merkley bumper sticker on my car (for what I think are good reasons), and my references to PDA are coming from one of that organization's Oregon state coordinators. I speak as a member and organizer for PDA, but I have no authority, nor would I presume to speak, for the organization, which has not, yet, endorsed either candidate.
The point of this lengthy narrative written after imbibing perhaps one or two too many glasses of Oregon varietal wine (and from the perspective of one long-time -- aging --activist whose first and second choice for President have both dropped out of the race before this "Super Tuesday," and who has decided but feels no inspiration to announce for whom he is likely to vote for President in the primary) is an audacity of hope which I could not find even on the pages of one of our candidates much touted books.
Although I have some qualms about the term "Progressive" given some of the absurd notions of the original activists who rallied under that label, I remain fully committed to the fundamental positions identified in Progressive Challenge 2008's "Progressive Agenda." I have been given evidence tonight of the wisdom of the majority as expressed in even those areas of this country, like my rural county, which are dismissed as "safe red." I have been reminded of how far we have come, even though we still have far to go in the struggle for peace, full equality, justice, environmental protection, and sustainable economic security for all of our citizens. I am heartened and confirmed in my belief that any contribution I make, however modest, toward these ends, is not in vain.
I am no longer a felon for being me. Someday, and sooner than we may expect, the truth will prevail.
Thank you all for indulging me this personal vent.
John-Mark +
Diarist's Note: Since first posting this diary, I have edited it several times to correct minor grammatical and punctuation errors, and add a link here and there, and revise the tags. It is otherwise unaltered.
Second Postscript: A day later, in response to a criticism in the comment thread, I linked the "true progressive" phrase to a Google search on "Steve Novick" and "true progressive" which yields a phenomenal number of hits, most of them to claims by his supporters, and several to pages on Novick's official campaign website. Nonetheless, I rephrased the paragraph in question to make its language more precise.
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