Democrats

The most partisan Democrat I know is Dick's mom Esther. All her almost-90-year-old-energy surely is filling the halls of her rest home in Orofino, Idaho, with cheers and jabs at all "the goddamn Republicans" who have moved to her hometown in recent decades, most retirees or summer-home dwellers from out of state. When I talked with her on the phone a month or so ago, after missing my annual in-person summer visit this year, she spent a lot of time bad-mouthing Republicans.

Cecil Andrus

Well, Orofino, being a blue-collar logging town, was solidly Democratic for most of its existence. It's the new blood, like Esther says, that has changed the political profile of Clearwater County. Esther's own Democratic credentials are solid. Her hero and buddy was Cecil Andrus, an Orofino boy, former Secretary of the Interior and Governor of Idaho. Esther herself once was mayor of Orofino. For years before that, she ran the Orofino State Liquor Store, a political appointment. She's as Democrat as they come and has no use for what she sees as greedy rich Republicans.

So maybe the pendulum once again is swinging in our "they call it" two-party system. I'm more cynical about politics than Esther is. I've been an Independent since Hubert Humphrey betrayed his principles at the convention in 1968. I've voted for my share of third-party candidates. I was raised by parents who worshipped FDR, however, and much of that has influenced me, especially as a young man. I don't trust any politician any more: I've heard far too many broken promises and empty rhetoric. So I take all of them with a grain of salt. And, of course, as I've mentioned here before, I can never forget the comment of a 90+ year-old woman on why she finally quit voting at all: "I don't want to encourage them." That old cliche of power corrupts.

But I still vote myself, so I guess I'm not a total cynic. I keep hoping for the best. But from my observations over the years, I'm not sure it matters who is in power. You vote for Johnson over Goldwater to stay out of Vietnam and you end up in Vietnam. Etc., etc., etc.

So I've reached the point in my life where I lose absolutely no sleep over politics. Norman O. Brown wrote that "politics is pissing in public." A very interesting notion. Pissing is natural, to rid the body of waste, but it's also something best done in private. Whenever a pollster asks my opinion on a political matter, I tell them I believe in the secret ballot and to take a hike. I can be an ornery old cuss ha ha.