Post Election Meeting: Charting a New Course Together

— by Kelly Rose —

Attendees numbered 112 people at a post-election meeting at Odd Fellows Hall last Friday, November 18. The meeting, titled “Where do we go from here?” offered community members the opportunity to share their thoughts around the elections, and brainstorm ideas together, with a main focus to identify positive actions as a community moving forward. “We wanted to create a safe space for people to express themselves and connect. The point is to empower members of our community to mobilize around issues that are important to them,” explained Learner Limbach, who organized the event.

Reflection and intent set the tone for the meeting, with a brief meditation led by Michael Elder, and words from Gretchen Krampf and Caitlin Herlihy. Krampf voiced, “I invite us to look around this room, at our community. There is a leader in every seat. In tumultuous times this shifting landscape creates spaces for leadership to show up in many different ways.”

Senator Kevin Ranker then spoke of the need to come together with respect to diversity and inclusion. He shared, “Our party – I am so proud – we’ve been the most outspoken powerful champions for equality and women’s rights, but somewhere along the way we’ve lost touch with what it means to support jobs in rural communities.” He believes this to be a major reason the democratic party lost the election. He emphasized the need to come together and encouraged the community to speak out for equality and social justice. Ranker also stressed the need to focus on the upcoming special senate seat election in the Bellingham senate district. Getting a Democrat in the open seat will help rebalance the Washington senate.

Learner Limbach (2016 DNC Platform Committee Member) added that although the election results weren’t what democrats wanted, there were important accomplishments during the election season. He reported, “More people were brought into the political process, particularly young voters who will define the future of politics in this country.” He also said that a reform commission was created by the Democratic party to reduce the role of super-delegates, awareness was raised about the Trans-Pacific Partnership, and a new action-oriented task force, called Our Revolution, was created to support new progressive leadership and political and social change.

David Turnoy (Vice Chair of SJC Democrats) spoke about the need to address voter suppression, end the antiquated Electoral College system and gerrymandering, and get rid of voter machines. He promoted ranked-choice voting as a way to increase the viability of third party candidates and prevent wasted votes, and communicated the need to change the political system from both inside and outside the major parties. He will be working toward these changes and invited participation.

During the period for general comments and questions, meeting attendees noted the country’s need for change as a motivating factor for both parties in the election, expressed appreciation for the multi-generational presence in the meeting, introduced the idea of becoming a sanctuary county, emphasized the need to be a strong, inclusive, resilient community, and to be allies to those with the most to lose at this time.

Moderators then facilitated conversation on issues and actions on local, state, and federal levels. Attendees commented on the need to be diligent in preserving social justice, equal rights, and the environment. There were specific recommendations from a political perspective, and concern about women’s rights and family planning, healthcare, support for immigrants, creating affordable housing for working class islanders, supporting educators and progressive education/being mindful of conservative religious infiltration in the education system. Other issues and ideas were put forth; you are encouraged to get involved and learn more.

Ultimately, meeting organizers envision potential for the community to form task groups focused on issues that inspire them. Throughout the evening, everyone was encouraged to find ways to be informed and take action. There will be more meetings to follow, focused on facilitating these actions.

For more details notes on the meeting, or to learn of future meetings, email Learner Limbach at learner.limbach@gmail.com. Or look for further action events on Facebook or here on Orcas Issues.