For purposes in this post, Alliance is defined as “a merging of efforts or interests by persons” to further a common goal. That goal being to lessen, if not end the bitter political divide we in the United States and Clark County, Washington see ourselves in.
Many of us, Independents, Liberal Democrats and Conservative Republicans have recognized that we do have elements from both sides of the aisle pitting us against each other to further their own quest for more power and rule over us, some even laughingly claiming all they wish to do once in control is “leave everybody alone.”
We saw this push for power just a few years ago from the left as they threw all caution to the wind, ignored the voice of the people and pushed ahead with a severely flawed plan to force citizens into accepting the light rail from Portland we had voted down before in the now comatose Columbia River Crossing light rail / bridge project, costing taxpayers some $200 Million.
Currently, we see it in the antics of County Councilor Madore and his close supporters that took over control of the Clark County GOP as they attempt to run roughshod over the county, pushing measures rejected by the majority such as his Alt 4 and claims of Roberts Rules of Order.
By all appearances, the party seems to have thrown Reagan’s notion of a “Big Tent Party” in the garbage can as they continue their purge of any not deemed “rightwing” enough to suit their view of how things should be.
Even though now in the minority and antics from them resulted in a complete overhaul of how the county is governed, moving from a 3 member County Commission to a 5 member County Council, the fringe right continues to act in such a manner as they and they alone are in control.
It also appears the left is suffering much the same split as we see similar antics from them as elected Democrats are being challenged by other Democrats in the current election seemingly believing that they are not “Progressive” enough to suit them. This, even though some of those same elected Democrats prefer to further tax struggling Middle Class homeowners to deal with the homeless problem over getting out of the way of blocking family wage, Middle Class income jobs at the Port of Vancouver.
Such purity purges as expressed above are not limited to the Republican Party in Clark County as in the past few years, we saw calls from the Democrat Party in Washington State to oust members Jim Kastama, Tim Sheldon and Rodney Tom due to their efforts in working across the aisle with Republicans in Olympia in order to complete the people’s business.
We see similar calls also from local Republicans against Ann Rivers, Paul Harris and the two females now sitting on the County Council.
We have no shortage of divisive efforts and purity purges going on today, leaving citizens stuck somewhere in the middle, largely being ignored and many throwing their hands up in disgust and walking away from voting.
Fortunately, we aren’t all such partisan hacks as many from both sides of the aisle are waking up to the divisive nature of these power-grabbers.
Liberals, moderates and conservative citizens see we have a big problem and are placing our differences aside on some issues and forging alliances to deal with the divisive nature of some elected officials as efforts to see them ousted are popping up throughout the community.
One such effort is Connecting Clark County, “an independent group of citizens, Republicans, Independents and Democrats who care about improving the quality of life, quality of community, and quality of government… in beautiful Clark County.”
Another that will soon be online is “Reunite Clark County,” both focusing on seeing the single most noxious elected official in recent history, Councilor Madore sent packing.
We have grown tired of those that proclaim they stand for wise and ethical government or are looking out for us, but push a singular, narrow-minded point of view with no regard for the wants and needs of others in the county.
It doesn’t matter which side of the aisle they sit on, both sides reject any desires or ideas from the other side, heels are dug in and seeking common ground for the people is considered treasonous to them.
I guess they all forgot that our founding fathers also had deep divisions when establishing the country and engaged in some very heated arguments, but ultimately were able to meet in the middle and agree on our constitution, regarded by many as one of the greatest documents in history that guaranteed our citizens a previously unheard of level of freedom and liberty.
In the decade of the 1980’s, President Ronald Reagan led us out of the morass seen in the 1970’s, not by pushing a singular viewpoint, but by compromising where he could and forging alliances with some across the aisle.
In World War Two we were able to set aside differences with other countries and forge alliances across the globe to defeat the tyrannical rule of the German Nazi’s and Empire of Japan, setting both countries on a path to greater freedom and prosperity.
And here locally we see alliances popping up to defeat those that seek only to further divide us to satisfy their quest for more power.
We needn’t agree on everything and we shouldn’t.
But it is long overdue to stop allowing ourselves to be divided by self aggrandizing politicians to the point of our failure.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
Help keep this blog active with a voluntary contribution at the PayPal button at the top of the sidebar on the right. Thank you.
