Election Dejection Reflections

Tweedle Dum or Tweedle Dee?

Submitted to Shelton Blog by Katherine Price

In keeping with my promise to my family, I did not listen to the news for several days after November 2nd. My husband told me Friday that Murray won, and Rossi conceded. Okay, that should be good news, if not for the fact that Murray and Rossi might as well be interchangeable pieces in the puzzle of politics.

I cannot forget that Senator Murray signed on to a letter to the EPA, with 40 other senators (mostly Republicans), asking the EPA not to be so harsh in their standards for biomass incinerators. So many of us had written to Senator Murray and called her office, a long-time before she signed that letter, asking her to help save our beautiful state from the ravages of biomass incineration. Yes, a long-time before she signed that letter, we wrote her office, we called her office, and then....she signed that letter.

I should thank Senator Murray for helping me to come to the conclusion that my twenty-something children reached months ago: “The whole system is corrupt and voting for the lesser of two evils sucks.”

I am 55 years old and I am tired, dead-tired, of holding my nose and voting for the least offensive of the candidates. The least “corporate” candidate. The one that is just a tiny bit more in favor of people than the other, but not much; the one whose campaign coffers are also filled with gold from the corporations, but maybe just a little less gold, or from businesses that are just a little less anti-human..

So, Senator Murray won re-election, by the hair on her chinny, chin, chin.

Norm gets to go back to Congress too; although I am afraid he is one prime rib meal away from a heart attack! And which of his corporate constituents will buy him that prime rib meal?

Neither Patty Murray nor Norm Dicks responded to inquiries about their positions in connection with biomass.

Biomass: A dangerous topic during an election-year. Yeah, dangerous to the citizens of Mason County and Shelton; but even more dangerous to the candidate should he or she answer the question: "Where do you stand?"

Where do you stand on my granddaughter’s right to live?

Where do you stand on her right to run and breathe deeply in my yard?

Where do you stand on the life of my granddaughter, or the daughters and sons, or the granddaughters and grandsons of the people who live in Hiawatha?

Where do you stand Norm, Patty?

Now that the election is over, can we get a little help? Will you help us, Norm, Patty, Kathy, Fred? Can you help us? Will you help us?

Finn, Haigh and Sheldon...three Democrats won re-election.

This former Democrat should be so pleased, except that Tim is a Republican, and Finn… nice man that he is...is only a little away from that himself. When the only business being proposed for our area comes with a life sentence for our woods, our water and our families...being pro-business in that case means being anti-human.

Kathy Haigh’s passion for education is impressive, but that system is so broken one wonders when we will get some dreamers looking at education who can envision a system that actually works, and does not have to spend the greatest portion of its budget on the wages and benefits of the teachers who, nevertheless, remain underpaid. The current system is so broken that continuing to bandage and stitch it together, instead of taking some amazing innovative new look at it, is disturbing.

With the exception of Melody Peterson, the candidates I supported were defeated. In any other year, this would not matter.

Once upon a time we could afford to elect the wrong person for the job; but these are no longer fairy tale times. Our county is crippled with shrinking revenue, and only someone with amazing experience with budgets would have a snowballs chance in hell of turning things around. Instead of electing experience, instead of hiring someone who has a clue, we elected a “good old boy”.

I know he is a good old boy because Brenda Hirschi had experience on her side; her campaign had energy, enthusiasm and significant support from the air breathers, as well as from the “elitists” who think that an education and experience in the job you are applying for matter; and she had significant financial support as well. So why is Jerry Lingle going to be the new Ross Gallagher?

Theresa Jacobson loses to Linda Gott. The people who read this blog know the reasons. Theresa was our candidate; she does not want to spend millions of rate payer dollars on a palatial office building on Johns Prairie, when people are having trouble paying their utility bills! Theresa is so smart, I mean really, really smart, and she would help to keep our public utility on track, while we try to have hydro re-admitted as a renewable resource, and biomass removed from renewable. She has imagination, and she would have worked to see that our utility finds and utilizes true renewable resources. But she too, lost.

In Monty Cobb, Mason County was offered an incredibly qualified candidate for prosecuting attorney. Instead, the voters picked, again, a "good old boy".

At the federal level, the United States Senate has lost some important figures. Locally, we are being saddled with inferior replacements for the existing public servants.

Would it be too extreme to suggest that we are doomed?

The Supreme Court has given person-hood to the corporations who will now decide all elections with their unlimited and undisclosed spending.

The uninformed, the uneducated, the unenlightened, the uninterested, the citizens who want their leaders to be someone they would be comfortable having a beer with, they outnumber us – for the moment.

Following the November 2, 2010, election, there is no other conclusion to be reached.

The enlightened, informed, educated, progressive, voters: Are we the dinosaurs?

How strange is it for us to finally reach the future, 2010, amazing technological time that it is, just to be pulled back into the cave (for women, back into the kitchen), because we, the progressives, the conscious citizens, the aware ones, are outnumbered by those citizens who believe an education makes you elitist...that being informed is over-rated...that researching a topic or a candidate is not necessary...that voting to de-fund state government is the right thing to do...that voting to remove civil rights and keep people accused of crimes in jail without bail is the right thing to do, as the presumption of “innocent until proven guilty” is outdated.

I cannot pretend to know all of the things that brought the uninformed out in droves to vote their gut, but our county and our country are the poorer for it.