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Dear Group, We live in what is nominally a representative democracy. Ideally, we elect people who will best represent our values and convictions. Having met and talked with most of the Democratic candidates in eastern Washington I am convinced every one of them better represents my values than the current crop of Republicans they are challenging. I’ve studied issues to come to this conclusion…but is that the basis upon which I always make my decision for whom to vote, to decide it is time for a change? Elections are not won on issues alone. For most of us there is not time in a life to study every issue. Elections are won on hope and buzz. Elections are won on engagement. Most of all, elections are won by personal contact. Allow me a personal anecdote: Last Sunday Emily and I were remarking on the forest of political yard signs on Spokane’s South Hill. We saw a sign for Dennis Cronin for Judge. I smiled. Then I blinked, shook my head, and asked myself, “Why did I smile?” I don’t know Mr. Cronin. He’s not even on the upcoming August 7 Washington State Primary ballot. (I learned later he is contending for Spokane Superior Court Judge Postion 10 in the November election.) A quick search on the internet reveals nothing splashy. So why did I smile when I saw his sign??? Then I remembered. On Bloomsday I stood with a host of other volunteers near the Courthouse waving a Lisa Brown for Congress sign (something I could not have imagined doing for ANY political candidate two years ago). A block up the race course there was a gaggle of folks waving another candidate’s signs. A smiley woman from the gaggle drifted down toward us and gave us a thumbs up. She was carrying a Cronin sign. I don’t think we exchanged more than a couple of words. I could not identify her in a lineup if my life depended on it, but the smile and the association with Mr. Cronin’s sign stuck somewhere in the depths of my aging memory. I realized that is why I smiled at sign last Sunday—and it is part of the reason I will pay attention and may cast a vote for him in November. Moral(s)? Even those of us who pride ourselves in researching the issues can be profoundly influenced at times by a face-to-face encounter with a real human being. A friend who equipped her car with a rooftop-mounted Lisa Brown for Congress sign remarked, “I’m a pretty courteous driver anyway, but with this sign I drive with the utmost courtesy and a smile for everyone.” Sometimes when I go off on a harangue about how McMorris Rodgers doesn’t understand the difference between a hospital’s charge for a service and what it costs the hospital to provide that service, I notice a glaze forming over my listener’s eyes. I mentally back off a step and realize the very fact we’re having a conversation at all is probably more important than the details. Canvassing, talking with everyone you know and a lot of people you don’t yet know about the candidates, the elections, and what is important to both of you is the most effective means of winning elections and actually getting to the issues. Even the little things like wearing a Lisa Brown T-shirt to the grocery or to a concert in the park (call Eileen–see the boxed text above) and smiling at everyone whose eye you catch has a ripple effect. Tack on some extra buttons and offer one to anyone who engages you. Humanists, liberals, scientists, educators, mainstream Christians, Muslims, Jews, and ivory town intellectuals have been quiet long enough. We’ve sat in our armchairs with our books, read the polls, and shaken our heads in despair. It is time to buzz. It’s time for us to throw off that old dictum that one should not talk politics in “polite company.” Damn it. We ARE polite company and it is well past time to talk! Keep to the high ground, Jerry |