What "political" things have you done?
- Thread starter teachercd
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Guy Chamberlin
Active member
Well I've voted in every election available to me since 1980. When I was out of the country one year during a primary, I voted at the U.S. embassy.
As a 9 year old I was fascinated by the 1968 presidential election and can still name the primary candidates on both sides. I think I saw it like a sports competition. I wanted RFK as my starting quarterback.
I was on Jr. High Student Council, and my best friend and I were President and Vice-President of the 11th Grade. I don't recall any of our campaign promises, but my position allowed me to be a judge for the cheerleading tryouts. Our posters were pretty great.
In college I went to a protest against Jerry Falwell who was giving a speech at the Nebraska State Capitol. I stuck around to argue with some of his acolytes and got to meet Jerry himself.
I moved to San Francisco where going to protests was as simple as falling out of bed. But I probably attended only one or two. I generally agreed with the cause, but never cared much for the speakers. I'm not much of a chanter, either.
2020 was the first year I involved myself in campaigning, joining a letter writing group to registered Democrats who hadn't voted in recent elections. I did that again this year, for the better part of an afternoon. In 2020 I also spent two hours phone-canvasing some mid-Atlantic states. It was fascinating and harrowing at the same time, and I decided I didn't want to do it again.
I donate a bit of money here and there.
I've written and punched up a few speeches for a U.S. Congressman, a network news executive, and a group that had to testify before Congress.
I was recently the co-president of the San Rafael High Drama Boosters, which earned me a seat on the PTO board, where I was often the only male and forced to endure the flirtations and harassment of the PTO mothers. But we got that new curtain for main theater, goddamnit.
When the internet came along, I jumped into all kinds of political discussions. Like here, they weren't political sites per se, but places were politics invariably broke out. It starts to suck the life out of you. On Facebook I now ignore 90% of the political posts, and engage with about 10%. HuskerBoard is the only actual forum I visit. As I've mentioned before, HuskerBoard P&R is pretty remarkable for the quality of content and sanity of its posters.
I also read books and magazine articles on a pretty wide swath of political and politically adjacent subjects. It gives me a depth and breadth of knowledge that appears to carry zero weight against the guy who found something another guy posted on Twitter.
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teachercd
Active member
BigRedBuster
Active member
BigRedBuster
Active member
About the only real political thing I’ve done is, our industry has a lobby group we pay in DC. They used to do fly ins where leaders in the industry would fly in together and go visit our representatives about issues in the industry. I did it once and found it really interesting.
TGHusker
New member
I was 12 and RFK was my guy. I had a poster in my room and was shattered by his death. HHH was my sentimental favorite after that as he was a SD native
Guy Chamberlin
Active member
I forgot one you might appreciate.
About five years ago parents and teachers were grumbling about our school district, and in comparing notes we realized the Superintendent everyone used to love had started phoning it in. Literally not showing up at meetings and events he was supposed to attend. Meanwhile those same PTO moms I just accused of sexually harassing me? Well that part's true, but these "moms" also happened to be lawyers, business execs, and accountants, and they started digging into the school budget and realized the local bond issue that was supposed to allocate money to our public school STEM programs had largely been spent on hiring an IT guy and two additional counselors at the high school favored by a school board member. Virtually nothing directly STEM related.
Then the school board sneaks out an announcement about a Friday meeting where they planned to approve a contract extension and pay bump for the Superintendent. We rallied a bunch of people to fill the School Board Meeting, typically sparsely attended snores, and accused them of railroading the Superintendent's extension, given that the unusual late Friday meeting was designed to discourage awareness. The School Board members and Superintendent were visibly shellshocked, and agreed to postpone the public hearing for a couple weeks and at its regular time.
That's when the Superintendent decides to address the issue on his Facebook page, including a snide remark about overreaction and a really stupid swipe at our Hispanic community for their lack of involvement. So by the time the rescheduled public hearing takes place the room is packed and over-flowing, including some really pissed off Hispanic moms and the local newspaper reporter that I tipped off, promising a lively story. And just like that a unanimous vote to extend the Superintendent flips to a 4-2 vote to fire him outright, along with an investigation into the misuse of school bond funds. The new Superintendent has been great.
That's the first time I fully understood the phrase "all politics is local."
People get away with s#!t because they know people aren't paying attention.
Guy Chamberlin
Active member
That's right. I recall you're a bit of a Humphrey scholar. My understanding is that HHH came up as a young firebrand to the left of even FDR, a true social justice warrior. By '68 he was saddled with Lyndon Johnson as the pro-war establishment candidate. I always thought of him as a Minnesotan. I believe his widow moved to Lincoln, Nebraska.
Did the South Dakota connection get you to root for George McGovern?
TGHusker
New member
Yes and Yes. You are correct on all of the above. And Yes, I was a McGovern fan also. The one thing about these 'liberals' (my later delusional label which I 'repent' of) they were great men of character - speaking of HHH and McGovern. While one might find fault with their policies, one could not find fault with their character. They were men who truly believed in helping their common citizen by serving in politics.
IMHO: America suffered greatly by not electing HHH not only in 1968 but also later on. But he had the LBJ/Vietnam stink on him. He was so much more than that.
Give me character over policy. Character will guide policy to benefit the most long term. Thus Harris over Trump - hands down.
teachercd
Active member
This sounds like an episode of 90210 where Brandon Walsh uncovers what the superintendent was doing!!!
Were any of those moms hot???
Guy Chamberlin
Active member
Yes, some of the moms were hot. Yes, Beverley Hills 90210 was once a television show.
I had hoped this little tale would get you to recognize the value of political activism in the face of pointless distraction and gleeful apathy.
I clearly failed.
teachercd
Active member
Guy Chamberlin
Active member