If there were a barometer to gauge how politically aroused rural Oregonians have become after years of urban-influenced [rogressive activism in Salem, it may be this 2020 election.
A big indicator will be whether and how rural communities vote.
There are many issues on the table as we cast our votes, extending far beyond our preoccupation with COVID, which has indeed become the elephant in the room.
Given what we hear in the chatter from the news media – not just those in the mainstream, one could gather that a big dividing line in this presidential election is zeroing in on who’s sick of hearing about COVID and who’s not. Or maybe the key issue is election fraud.
Seriously, have we really reached this point of ludicrous, petty polarization?
Unfortunately, it appears, yes.
In a year when our just about every aspect of our lives has been upended by the COVID pandemic, we’re in the midst of what has to be the craziest presidential election since the 1860s.
For those of us a little shaky on pre-Civil War political history, that was back when the United States experienced a succession of new, small political parties that emerged from the Democrats and the Whigs (who favored a strong federal government), the two main parties up to the 1840s.
The elephant in the room then was slavery, but there were a lot of other issues – immigration, naturalization, tariffs, federalism versus states rights, etc.
Funny how some of those seem so … current.
Thankfully, local races seem a little more civil, at least as long as we don’t turn on the TV.
In our state, fundamental ideology and values in our leadership have manifested themselves in a flood of taxes from Salem – health insurance, employer health insurance, increased filing fees, a $108 million raid on the kicker and the cap and trade move that prompted the creation of TimberUnity. Economic strategems such as minimum wage boosts and sick leave laws that have not been friendly to either businesses or customers. Ongoing issues with infrastructure, environmental laws and policies that have created reduced timber harvests, hamstrung rural businesses and helped produce increased wildfire danger, of which we’re now painfully aware.
Knee-jerk urban-driven development restrictions have created increasingly evident housing shortages.
It won’t be long before the young people of Sweet Home may simply not be able to afford to buy a house, as in Portland or Los Angeles. There simply aren’t enough residences to meet the demand, and is allowing an additional cottage in the back yard really the answer?
Whether rural voters can step up and do their part to start evening things out in Salem remains to be seen.
COVID may be influencing our thinking in this election, but the coronavirus pandemic response that has irritated many is only a symptom of some of the real problems rural Oregonians face – a helicopter government that has wormed its way into our hierarchy of needs to the point that we are far more dependent on Salem and Portland than we should be – or at least they apparently want us to feel that way.
What isn’t new in this election is that every vote counts. This isn’t just Trump versus Biden, a race that may be decided before all the Oregonians who hate what Trump stands for get a chance to cast their vote against him.
Rather, this race is also about who runs our town, who runs our county, who runs our state.
Which candidates have the experience and values that make them our best bet to take Sweet Home or Linn County or the state of Oregon in the direction each of us thinks it needs to go? Which have the intelligence and backbone to ask the questions that need to be asked, who have ears to hear residents’ concerns, and who have the backbone to stand up and persist until they get answers?
Perhaps as important at this juncture, which candidates are best equipped to retain sound principles while building bridges and engaging in the collaboration necessary to accomplish goals that actual benefit us, the residents of Sweet Home, of Linn County, of Oregon?
That’s what this is about and that’s why we have an obligation, as citizens who are privileged to live in a society where we actually have a real vote, to use it.
All that hostility, that polarization referenced earlier really amounts to nothing more than vapid noise when those emitting loud cries of outrage have not participated in the political process.
Clearly, all of us want our views to prevail, but even if they don’t, we need to elect people who listen and take action on our behalf.
As we said, every vote counts. It wasn’t that long ago – 2014 – when two candidates in Sweet Home’s City Council election finished tied in the number of votes they received, and the winner was selected via a coin toss.
Planning to vote but haven’t gotten around to it?
Here are some pointers to keep in mind:
– Tuesday, Oct. 27 is (was) the deadline to mail in your ballot. If your ballot isn’t in the mail by then, drop it in an official dropbox.
In Sweet Home, ballot drop sites are Sweet Home City Hall, 3225 Main St., and Sweet Home Police Department, 1950 Main St. Both will be open until 8 p.m. on Election Day, Nov. 3.
– All ballots must be received in an official dropbox or at the county election office by 8 p.m. on Nov. 3; postmarks do not count.
– Voters with disabilities can find detailed information about accessible voting options at sos.oregon.gov/voting/Pages/disabilities.aspx or by calling the Linn County Recorder’s Office at (541) 967-3831 or TTY 800-735-2900.