Letter to the Editor: Help Stop the Madness in Washington, DC

— from David Turnoy, San Juan County Democrats Chair —

If you are as concerned as I am about where the current president and his administration are taking this country, you are certainly not alone.

With regressive legislation being enacted, dismantling of the regulatory structure that began 100 years ago during the Progressive Era to curb the excesses of capitalism and install protections for us common people, separating families and deporting people who have come here for safety while our country used to be a haven for refugees, and the support of white supremacy, misogyny, and other inhumane ideals, this president is taking us back to the 1890s to the era of Jim Crow,, a second gilded age where the many have so little and the few have so much.

How can we stop this?

One of the ways is to win enough seats in the House of Representatives this November that the Democrats have a majority in the House, which can then provide a brake on the excesses of this government. Now if you are like me, you may not be thrilled about some of the things done by the national Democrats. Too often their leadership is too willing to compromise, and also too tied to monied interests to always do the right thing.

However, here in our state, we have a progressive state party and local party, and this year we have a chance to take three of the four Republican House seats in our state. Three progressive women are running for Congress: Carolyn Long in the 3rd, Lisa Brown in the 5th, and Dr. Kim Schrier in the 8th. All three candidates have a genuine chance of winning and thereby helping to establish a Democratic majority in the House.

If you are interested in supporting any or all of these candidates, certainly their campaigns would appreciate financial contributions. But we would like to go farther than that with personal involvement. You might remember that many of us from the county rode a bus with Senator Ranker down to Redmond last fall to canvass in a special election campaign for Manka Dhingra, who was running for state senator in a district where the recently deceased senator there had been a Republican. The R’s had held a one-seat majority in the senate, bottling up progressive legislation for the previous five years. But with our help, Manka won, and the senate then had an incredibly productive and progressive session earlier this year.

This year we have an opportunity to help in a similar effort with the House of Representatives. The 8th district is just east of Seattle, easily accessible for a day trip to Issaquah to canvass for a few hours. We won’t be chartering a bus this year, instead we will drive in carpools. We are targeting Saturday, Sept. 15, and Saturday, Sept. 29. Our candidate, Dr. Kim Schrier, is a pediatrician who wants to go to Washington, DC, to fix healthcare by establishing Medicare for All.

If you would like to participate in one of these trips, please send me an email: davidgeri@centurylink.net. Especially if you are interested in the earlier trip on the 15th, please let me know ASAP.

You can bring a friend to canvass with, or we will pair you with another canvasser so no one has to knock on doors alone. We will have lists of low propensity voters who are likely to vote Democratic, so conversations should be reasonably friendly. These voters simply need to be reminded to vote, and we will give them a good reason to vote. You have probably noticed that when Democrats turn out the vote, they win, so that will be our focus. You can really help to make a difference in the current political landscape.

One further note: While this announcement is unquestionably partisan, I must say that we have never faced an administration like the current one, dismantling our democracy as quickly as possible. While on the surface I am asking you to campaign for a Democratic candidate, I am really asking you to campaign against the current madness and start us back on the road to sanity.