I’m proud today of my “home” states, Washington and
Minnesota. I’ve lived over 2/3rds of my
life in these two. “Hats off to thee”
both, for taking the lead in tackling Trumpian overreach on immigration. This past month has been devastating to one’s
belief in democracy, one’s faith that reason will out. Many others share my stressful, morbid
fascination with watching our Republic‘s train wreck. “Avert your eyes, avert your eyes” shouts C J
Craig in West Wing; would that she
were not fiction, that a real Jedidiah Bartlett had been at hand.
What has helped me avert my eyes
over the past month – a little bit – is taking refuge in physical exercise and
music. Ann and I skate-skied in The
Methow in early January – no newspapers, radio, or cell phone. Then it was back to Mt. Baker Rowing Club. I had not crewed since Christmas. It felt so good to be back in the boat, where
the mind is singly focused on the rhythm of the teammate ahead of you; the
sound of the oarlock; the strain in thighs, abs, and shoulders; the sibilance of
rushing water. Three days a week (including,
last week, a double with Ann; if husband and wife can civilly crew a double
then their marriage is surely secure.) On our off-days, I do the New York Times’ Seven Minute Workouts. Check them out – all the major muscle
groups, heart rate heats up, and only seven minutes. Ann works those off-days in a rigorous
exercise group. In another two weeks
we’ll be off skiing again in Ketchum, ID.
We’ve also sought refuge and solace in music. The past 30
days? Seattle Opera’s innovative and
delightful La Traviata; a morning lost to Lohengrin: Woody Sez at the Rep, the life and times of Woody Guthrie told through his music; five Seattle
Chamber Music Society concerts – Dohnanyi, Shostakovich, Shoenfield, and many
more; a Seattle Symphony program of Ives and Beethoven; a children’s concert
with Max and Molly – Mozart, Schubert, Dvorak and the rest; a Saturday spent Spotifying
my jazz favorites – Davis, Evans, Peterson, Coltrane, Monk, Desmond, Mulligan,
Tatum and all the others (CD’s are over for me.) Escapist? Yes, but times to gather my wits,
to reflect and to resolve.
I am inspired
by Robert Burns in his cave, by the Women’s March energy, by Jerry Brown’s
environmental defiance[1]
and Jay Inslee’s ringing defense of immigration rights and
non-discrimination. But in Congress it
will be tough sledding for the next four years.
In the 2018 election cycle, 24 US Senate seats now held by Democrats
will be on the ballots while only 8 Republican seats will be at risk; we’re not
likely to take back the US Senate.
Action will have to be at the State level until 2020. So let’s take the “States Rights” shibboleth
so often prattled about by Republicans, turn it against them, and set the
national agenda through multi-state initiatives and solutions.
I have written to Senators Murray and Cantwell and to
Representative Smith urging they hold the line in DC but not indulge in
fruitless, knee-jerk rejection a’ la McConnell but to seek points of leverage
on desirable changes in taxation and infrastructure investment -- to make deals
with the deal-maker if possible. Yes, and
to confirm Gorsuch. He’s a highly qualified,
well-trained jurist and a very decent man, unlike Trump’s other scandalous
appointees. We’re not likely to get a
better replacement nominee, and only further poison partisan resentments by
filibustering him. I don’t share
Gorsuch’s ideology, but Bannon or Sessions and their claque are not going to offer
a moderate. Show, by defeating DeVos, fili-busting Price but confirming Gorsuch,
that we are pragmatists seeking solutions.
Now Olympia. I’ve written Gov. Inslee, my
Senator Wellborn and my Representatives Senn and Clibburn and urged them to:
- Fully fund primary education, to increase support for technical, community, and four-year college tuitions, to build multi-state consortia to offer accredited on-line secondary education.
- Reform taxation to adopt capital gains taxes, increase estate tax rates, reform B&O to reduce load on small and entrepreneurial business, and cease giving away state tax exemptions to entice employers.
- Create an across-state-borders consortium of health insurers, pools of buyers and a multi-state insurance exchange.
- Prioritize transportation infrastructure and fund deferred maintenance.
- Pursue a multi-state, carbon emission market consortium.
Next steps:
personal contacts and support of the Washington State Democratic Party and promising
candidates outside my 41st Legislative District. A big order?
Yes. But that’s what I resolve:
to promote and lobby for big changes over the next four years.
Taking
refuge from the daily crazies, reflecting, resolving to make a difference. I may or may not be here in 2020, but I
resolve to go out fighting to confirm my faith in democracy and in the ultimate
wisdom and decency of Americans. I trust
that Brown and Inslee, and many others, and I, on my small scale, can and will fit
Horace’s call at the death of the Republic in Caesar’s coup d’état for
“the
man who is tenacious in a rightful cause,
not
shaken from his firm resolve by the frenzy
of
his fellow citizens clamoring for what is wrong,
or
by the tyrant’s threatening countenance.”
Don’t “just
get over it” as a friend of mine counsels.
Find a refuge. Reflect. And resolve to act.
