THE SAD TALE OF DAN DOYLE

     I admit to being a little rough on Republicans. It is one of the great pleasures available to those of us for whom trickle-down did not trickle down. Given the level of incompetence displayed in this last decade or two, it is a somewhat kinder sort of display than the tinkle-down we might be inclined to try.

     Back in the early 2000s there was an Oregon politician named Dan Doyle. He was a member of the state House of Representatives in Oregon. The Republican party back in those days had had a few years as the majority party, maybe a decade. During that time they got a little over-confident. I know this will surprise you. 

     We have been starving our public schools for funding since the spotted owl and the closure of sawmills built to handle the larger old-growth logs. School funding had been partially offset by timber taxes. Public school funding since has been tied to the Oregon Lottery, a bitter irony because it is yet another tax on low-income people. If rich people want to gamble, there are casinos, with good food, fancy clothes and music and comedians on stage. Republicans, you may recall, do not like to ask their wealthy contributers to pay their share of taxes. They would prefer that wealthy corporations use part of their profits (a tithe perhaps?) to be available to republican legislators and conservative Supreme Court Justices. If not an outright bribe, an obligation between billionaire and recipient. Schools have many more responsibilities now than in those days. School resource officers needed to be added to the rolls. Both to reduce truancy and to provide safety during a crisis. Charter schools were designed by Republicans to appeal to Republicans. They get funded from the district school funds, use school property and classified staff, yet they are allowed to use non-union teachers. Since about 2010, demands for hardened classrooms and school police officers have been added due to the growing number of school shootings nationwide. School budgets have not kept pace with the growth in these non-education responsibilities. Republicans are not moved.

     Rep.Dan Doyle sat smuggly in the center of this in 2005. One of his favorite shibboleths was, "schools should live within their budgets, just like families". Working families during that time were beginning to be affected by the growing housing mortgage crisis, exacerbated by Reagonomics. It was becoming more difficult to live within their means brought on by the party who advised schools to live within theirs.

     There is one great truth in politics. Authoritarian governments and political parties of a similar bent, become over confident and (well) stuff goes haywire. Republicans are the authoritarian party nation-wide. I think it's possible to say of Oregan Republicans, "they're not so bad". Which is to say we're not Texas or Alabama, or Arizona, or Florida, or Tennessee, Georgia, Mississippi, or Idaho. Or Wisconsin. You get the picture. Dan Doyle was one of those Oregon legislators who felt qualified to be a national Republican, the kind that are worse than not-so-bad. 

     So imagine our surprise when charges arose that Rep. Doyle, an attorney with a nice home on a golf course, was being charged with filing false campaign-finance reports, a rather tepid allegation in today's Republican party. We may speculate that he too, was unable to live within his means. He recieved a sentence of 7 years in prison. It does not mention if he served his time in an Oregon prison- or in a Club Fed where one of the recreational activities is golf. He is a Republican, after all. 

     At this time, I must remind you, many hapless Marijuana smokers recieved much stiffer sentences than 7 years, with the customary 25% off for good time. Club Fed was not available to them. Funny thing, for several years now there has been a dispensery on the western corner of the OSP property fronting State Street. A few blocks down is a dispensery with the name of, The Joint on State Street. I don't know if there is a quadruple entendre', but this is certainly a double double entendre. 

     Dan Doyle is out of prison and off bail by now. I don't know if he still lives, or where. Had he achieved national status no doubt, he would probably be doing something on Foxnews, or Newsmax, or one of the other rightwing cable propaganda stations. That is not available to him, on this side of the Cascade range at least. Maybe he was able to learn from his cell mate how to cook meth or some other useful skill available to the newly released person in custody. 

    He served his time. We have not heard from him in a long time, and we have not been forced to look at his smug mug pontificating on Republican talking-points. We should be willing to forgive his transgressions. Those are all good things. But they also illustrate the two tiers of justice so blatently obvious in recent years.