Axis

[suffragette]

6. People want to be heard, not ignored or taken for granted.

They want input and for that to be valued.

Yet it is harder to do that in our increasingly hardened bubbles. We share information that confirms our biases and ignore or blast that which doesn't. It's a very human way of operating. Yet, I think our leaders need to be able to push past that and find ways of inclusion that still include and strengthen our basic values. And part of that is taking a clear look at once strong and now fragile coalitions.

An example of that is in my state of Washington. We're viewed as a stalwart blue state, much as Michigan and Wisconsin once were. And the higher population in our bluest areas have kept that reality in our national elections so far. Yet the cracks in that have been there for a few years now and became evident when two of our 'Democratic' State Senators went from voting with Republicans to joining them in an actual coup of our State Senate in 2012. The Democratic Party here had supported them rather than cultivating other candidates who shared values of our state platform. The Party only finally censured them and withdrew its support after those two aided in the takeover of our Senate by the Republicans.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Majority_Coalition_Caucus


http://blog.seattlepi.com/seattlepolitics/2013/02/04/gross-disloyalty-democrats-censure-tom-sheldon/

The state Democratic Party has censured State Sens. Rodney Tom, D-Medina, and Tim Sheldon, D-Potlach, for “gross disloyalty” and “perfidious behavior,” and told the dissident D’s that they will never again get a dollar of support or access to a party mailing list.

Tom and Sheldon have teamed up with 23 Republicans to form a “Senate Majority Caucus,” and have begun to use a 25-24 majority in the Legislature’s upper chamber to overhaul worker’s compensation laws and pursue such goals as axing the state’s Family and Medical Leave Act.

In a resolution adopted by state Democrats at a weekend central committee meeting in Olympia, the party charged that Tom and Sheldon are denying the ability to pass progressive legislation to many Democratic State House members, and denying to the Governor and the voters of the State the ability to pass a budget that reflects Democratic values.”

The resolution also calls on the Senate Democratic Caucus to “officially and permanently expel” Tom and Sheldon from the caucus. The resolution passed unanimously.

One of them is finally out now, but one still remains and the State Senate is still Republican controlled.

The State House is split almost evenly, barely in Democratic control.

Meanwhile the county of Grays Harbor, which has been voting reliably blue for decades, voted for Trump, the first time since 1928 they had voted for the Republican for President.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grays_Harbor_County,_Washington

Grays Harbor County was one of the most consistently Democratic in the nation. Until 2016, the last Republican Presidential candidate to carry the county was Herbert Hoover in 1928[19] and the last Republican gubernatorial candidate to carry the county was Daniel J. Evans in 1964.[20] However, Donald Trump carried the county in the 2016 Presidential Election.

That county is not sharing in the tech boom that's helping to fuel a decent economy in the bluer areas here. Their economy is depressed and they feel their voices aren't being heard.

This is a short article, but it's hard for me to pick out just four paragraphs to highlight. It's worth the brief full read.

http://www.king5.com/news/politics/once-democratic-grays-harbor-county-gives-trump-a-boost/346538984

We need a targeted way to address this that still moves us forward. The reality is that when we move on from older industries, people in the areas that thrived from them will lose their livelihood and communities will shift loyalties if nothing is done to replace that. We can't just leave it up to the marketplace to respond. Corporations are an entity without feelings of care or compassion. We have to be more innovative and provide solutions that take the next step forward and include the input of these communities, while assisting them in being a working part of that solution. Maybe something like a jobs program that looks to upgrading old systems to new ones, like creating needed infrastructure for newer energy and communication systems. Maybe something that I can't envision, but hope our leaders could.

I don't have the answers and I'm not sure I even expressed what I am seeing and feeling clearly enough. But I look at what is happening here and think of what happened in Wisconsin and I worry that not enough is being done at the state level to keep us from that path. And if we go in that direction, it won't help our national situation.