Wayward Landlubber

     I had an uncle who I still honor a generation after his passing. Though our views began to diverge from my 16th year on, Uncle Clyde continued to argue respectfully with me at family reunions. Back in the time when womens place was in the kitche, he invited me, at about 9 years-old, to join the men in their talks. He encouraged me to share my opinion. As our politics diverged, he may have regretted giving me that encouragement, but he never shut me out.       Clyde was a conservative Republican. Later, I would understand him to be a Libertarian-Republican. This was the post-McCarthy years, Sen. Joseph McCarthy; not Sen. Eugene McCarthy, and certainly not congressman Kevin McCarthy. It was that moment of Republican clarity that we know as the Eisenhower era. Until the Nixon era, there was a cautious avoidance of the hardline conservatives. Clyde had his foot in both groups.       The party has changed in the decades since. We have seen Republican's grow fat on eating their own.

     I grew up at a time when a family home could be afforded by a single-earner paycheck. We still had poverty but about 30% of the workforce was covered by a union contract and that became the floor used by non-union employers. Back in that time we were employees-not partners, and none of us had heard of an HR Dept. This was a time when we were  feeling pretty good about ourselves. We had, after all, defeated fascism. When that was over working women went back to being housewives. It would take us a generation to restore to women the independence they had while the men were at war. A time when about half of us weren't listening. We had, thanks to Keynesian economics, FDR, and the Democrats, in the previous two decades, built the strongest middle class in the world and we rebuilt the cities in Europe bombed out during WWII. Even the cities of what had been our enemies.       We had eight decades of relative peace among those old allies and enemies, with the exception of a cold war

     I do not know either mayoral candidate. I have not followed closely their separate public careers, though I heard a short speech by Mayor Chris Hoy at a town hall for another candidate.       When SCOTUS made its ruling on Citzens United back in 2010 nearly all spending limits for campaigning were  removed. Those campaign limits remaining could be avoided by various political action groups.That ruling, along with the 1978 corporate personhood ruling allows virtually unlimited campaign spending. What could possibly go wrong? We can refer to one particular party in slavish deference to MAGA for the answer to that question. Money buys power. Power gets concentrated. And now our future as a popular democracy is in jeopardy.       That axiom applies down ballot as well. Should Phil Knight, or some other local billionaire wish to fat-finger local politics, they merely write a check. Sometimes, as in our last gubernatorial election, Sir Knight started by sponsoring a 3rd party candidate

     There are a number of people still unsure which presidential candidate they wish to vote for. Some of you may not be happy with either candidate. I understand. I have a good friend who is just like you. She has read some disturbing things about Donald Trump, but she is pro-life and President Biden supports the pro-choice position. If you are like my friend, this weighs heavily on you. Others may have had a comfortable home in the Republican party until maybe Jan. 6, 2021. Still others may hang on to that small-government trope, but once again there's this small voice telling you, "not this time".       In previous times you could live in this middle world. You could pick the better of two choices for you. If you chose a third-party candidate you would usually give the election to the Republican party, through either the popular vote, or the Electoral College, but there would always be the next election. Even then, we got into foreign wars where we shouldn't be, b

     I am approaching my 75th year. I obtained my voting privileges when I was 19 years old, thanks to a young college student of the time named Earl Blumenauer and a lot of young people eager to end the Vietnam War. During that time I have been a proud Democrat. There were some pretty good Republicans in those days that I willingly voted for: Tom McCall, Mark Hatfield, Bob Packwood, Wayne Morse. But the Republican party was not my party because of people like Sen. Joseph McCarthy, Sen. Barry Goldwater, and Richard Nixon of Watergate fame. Those were, sadly, the high point of Republican politicians. In more recent years we have watched Republicans become increasingly autocratic, influenced by Newt Gingerich, the Tea-party, and finally, MAGA.       For all of that time I rarely went public with my distaste for that other party, the party that has sought to erase the progress that our party had achieved by strenuous negotiations. But these are not normal times. Never before have I feared

     I have this friend... we've known each other since the two of us could sit on Ron's Honda 50 and ride across the playground at Washington elementary school. There were times when we weren't in contact with each other, but we always re-united. He's been married for over 50 years. His wife, Frankie, encouraged my kids to read. She always had suggestions for them. Friends are like that. Frankie had a frequent joke; she used to subscribe to a humor publication called, "Liberal Opinion". When I would visit she would give me her old copies and say, "I know you need some liberal opinions, Larry."      During one of those times when we were out of contact, Ron was a well-driller in Eastern Oregon. He discovered that he had a rare talent, one rooted in ancient chronicles. He is a diviner, a water-witcher. We have joked about that good naturedly, over the course of our adult lives. In the same way that Ron and his father used to good-naturedly remind me a