Welcome to my blog! It was important to me that my first blog article in particular be as non-partisan as possible, and if you are here reading this it’s likely that although you may lean left or right or some alternative mix-you realize that there is something going terribly wrong in this country. You are a thinking person so instead of solely blaming “the other side” and without betraying your core beliefs, you are feeling an undertow;, a pervasive feeling that none of the people in the nation’s capital really represent you…not even the ones you like..
If you are like me, you know some people that are on the other side of your political comfort zone, that you disagree with on so many things-but you wish they would run for office at least at the local level, because you know that person would be the best to serve on the city council, make a great county commissioner, or any of a number of public offices that are closest to you, If you have worked with them, you were impressed at how two people with such opposing views could gain respect-maybe even admiration.for each other. More importantly you realized how well people from opposing ends of the political spectrum can get things accomplished with efficacy when dealing with the mundane less divisive yet difficult problems. When the ideological lines are not so easily identified, right vs. left suddenly takes a back seat. So, we know that there are a lot of high quality people in American society from wildly divergent points of view who might not be a cookie cutter image of the laundry list of demands we hold politicians to-not to be slighted even once or risk political death. We leap-frog them and wait for the people who won the game of political tricks and fund raising then become interested, not having a clue as to how many good people were tossed out of the process with a bad taste in their mouth for politics. The American electorate is quite simply guilty of being lazy, and we kind of deserve what we got, left or right.
I have worked in two large homeless shelters, in an entry level position and two management positions. The first, was Community House, a shelter in Boise that was unique in that it had a family floor, small studios on the top, and men’s and women’s shelters on the ground floor. Sometimes over 200 people in crisis-certainly a place where inflexibility in “putting out fires” will not serve you well, to say the very least. I had a boss named Peggy, who was our executive director, a very accomplished lady. She quickly started turning things around in a facility mired in a web of problems that had become an imploding “good intention” on it’s last leg. I was able to work with her in harmony- she sought solutions with efficiency and common sense. She was by far the finest supervisor I have ever had. We were all able to work together, change things for the better, and rely on each other. The reason I bring her up is that Peggy was about as liberal as anyone I had ever known. She would playfully banter with you every day about politics, but was open minded towards your point of view. Imagine that. I would vote for that woman if she ever ran for public office. The reason I say that is because we all know quality people that align themselves faithfully with a “D” or an “R” but when you work with them directly you see their competence, and their character, and you might flirt with the idea that maybe that’s the kind of leadership we want. The kind of people that if they are wrong, they are happy to have learned something, These are people that do try to seek the truth, even if their experiences have lead them down a different political path than yours. That being said, I still would not vote for someone on a national level that does not represent my values on that stage- that is not my point, but wouldn’t it be heartening if someday, those that you disagree with on a national level,were at least people you could actually trust?
There is not a single thing standing in the way if this country really wanted to try the “integrity approach.” Close your eyes and dream of good, ordinary people occupying the seats of power in the nation’s capital. Imagine a scene where a bill is being debated on the House floor, and a congressman says “You know what Bob? That’s a pretty good point. Hadn’t thought about it that way. I might have to reconsider my position”…Impossible? Not at all. We don’t have to vote based on the media choices or who has the big money-we choose to. You and I have all worked with people who vehemently disagree with us on issues, but we hold them in the highest regard. Has anybody ever entertained the though that if those people were sent back to Washington, they might actually say “well, we can’t afford it, and we can’t borrow it, so we will have to exercise some carefully thought out cuts.” I come from a small town, and rural people approach government like they do their own budgets. They simply can not buy things with money they don’t have. What a novel approach-it would be considered a rebellion of extremists; the silly proposition that you should not spend more than you have coming in. I know liberal people (not to offend my conservative friends) that agree 100% with a solvent federal government. We might disagree with where the cuts come from, but we agree on holding our lawmakers to a high standard of fiscal responsibility. Our only hope is that politics on the municipal, County, and state levels start to provide the right kind of candidates who are not paid for.
In summation, if we start considering electing people with diverging points of view to positions closer to home, we might be pleasantly surprised to find that they might explore an approach to problems none of us in the two party hypnotic state have thought of. It is our responsibility to cultivate the right candidates, to vet them, and to familiarize ourselves with local issues. We don’t do that-I’m guilty of not doing that, so we wait for the easy things to take a stand on and are disappointed with the kind of people who represent us. We blindly accept what is dictated to us by the political machines and the media. I know liberals that oppose abortion, and conservatives who lean towards tighter firearm controls. I know a lot of people that are a mixed bag of sorts that simply can not identify with a political party. Look beyond the “D” and “R” and maybe look towards the leaders in your personal experience, even if it is you-and turn your back to the out of control vending machine spewing candidates at us-you and I built that machine.. I named this blog TRU (The Rest of Us), for a reason.
Thank you for visiting my blog.