I avoid politics in my blogs. My left-of-center views sometimes find their way into my writing, but I’ve never made a politician or a political issue the main topic in any of my postings. That is until this week. Today I will deviate from my no-politics policy, although I believe that the underlying theme of this blog is not so much politics as it is the democratic process. Last Monday I was involved in a small, but uplifting conversation that reminds me of the way that politics ought to be conducted, and I think I should write about it.
Monday afternoon my front doorbell rang. All of my friends use the backdoor, so when someone comes to the front, it is almost always a stranger. Still I answered, and when I opened the door, there was an elderly man standing on my porch. On my walkway ten feet behind him was a woman of the same age. I assumed she was the guy’s wife, but she might not have been.
‘Hi,” the man said. “We are canvassing your neighborhood to make sure people vote in the primary next week. Also we are encouraging people to vote for Katrina Shankland for Congress.”
“I will definitely vote next week,” I said, “but, to be honest, I am torn between Shankland and….”
“Rebecca Cooke,” said the woman, finishing my sentence for me.
“Yeah, that’s right,” I replied.
“We like Rebecca, too,” the woman continued. “Do you have a few minutes to hear why we are supporting Katrina?’
“Yeah, I do,” I said. “Come inside. I have the air conditioning on, and it’s cooler inside.”
The couple stepped into the house, but I did not invite them to sit down. I wanted to hear what they had to say, but I wanted the short version. “Are you supporting Cooke because she’s more progressive than Katrina?” the man asked.
“Yeah, mostly,” I answered.
“Well, Katrina’s moderate reputation is one of the reasons we support her,” the man said. “Our first priority is to beat Van Orden, and in our District that requires a moderate.”
Derek Van Orden is our first-term Congressman in the US House of Representatives. He ran as a moderate himself, but turned into a conservative Trump supporter immediately after relocating to Washington. His main claim-to-fame to date has been heckling Biden during the most recent State of the Union Address. Most liberals in my district agree that, other than the race for President, our House seat is the most important item on the November ballot.
“And,” the woman said as she piggybacked on her companion’s comment, “Katrina is almost as liberal as Rebecca. Katrina has a reputation as a moderate because she occasionally sides with Republicans in the State Assembly. She did vote against the latest state healthcare bill, but she did so not because she is against universal healthcare. She voted against it because it would have dismantled some of the agreements that labor unions already have with insurance companies. That bill would have benefited some people, but hurt others. She just wants a better bill.
“Katrina takes heat for some of her Assembly votes, but at least she holds a position where she gets to vote. Rebecca Cooke has never held elected office. The only time she ever ran for office was two years ago when she ran for Congress.”
“I voted for her then,” I said.
“I can see why you would have,” the woman continued, “but why didn’t she run for local office after losing in the primary last time? The big knock on her is that she lacks experience in government, but she didn’t do anything to address that weakness. She just kept running her small business and overseeing her nonprofit until it was time to campaign for Congress again. There is nothing wrong with what she did, but she still doesn’t have experience in government.”
I said, “That was the most intelligent explanation of someone’s support for a candidate that I’ve heard in a long time. Thank you for stopping by.”
The senior couple took my comment as their cue to leave. Just as they were stepping out the door, the man turned to me and said, “And vote “no” on the referendums.”*
“That part I have figured out,” I said.
* All of the August 13 primary ballots in the state of Wisconsin contain two referendums. Both are designed to make it more difficult to vote.
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