Each October for the last 5 years, I’ve walked our suburban neighborhood with my daughter as she goes house to house hawking that most American of childhood fundraising commodities, Girl Scout Cookies. Each year, we see mostly the same faces, greet the same smiles and make the same chit chat as she take orders for overpriced boxes of Thin Mints, Tag-a-longs, Samoas, etc.
I imagine our neighborhood isn’t that different from many others like it across the country. The majority of residents are families with children, with a few singles and the occasional empty nest couple close to retirement age mixed in. It’s an updated version of a Norman Rockwell community, with lawnmowers humming, leaves on the oaks and maples starting to turn, and children riding their bikes in the street or playing fetch with the family dog. Most of the people belong to a church (in our neighborhood more likely than not one that is Catholic) even if they don’t go every week. When people get together the conversations revolve around our children, school activities, and — of course — the weather.
Politics rarely comes up and when it does, most of what I hear has a decidedly Republican/conservative bent to it. No one likes what Bush has done in Iraq, but they think Democrats would do worse. Gays are a handy scapegoat, with many heads always shaking in mild alarm at the dreaded prospect of gay marriage. Last election, our lawn was the only one which displayed campaign signs for Kerry/Edwards and most of the SUV’s had “W” stickers plastered on their rear bumpers. That’s right: I’m the token liberal here, and everyone knows it.
So as we walked around today in the bright sunshine and mild early Autumn temperatures I had to wonder to myself if any of the multitude of Republican scandals that occurred over the last 2 years has made any difference in the way my neighbors intend to vote this year. Are my neighbors aware of the conviction of Duke Cunningham for bribery and corruption? Have they even heard of Jack Abramoff, Tom DeLay or Bob Ney? Do they have any inkling of the massive waste and corruption that constituted the reconstruction of Iraq? Did the Bush administration’s incomprehensible failure to respond to the devastation of Hurricane Katrina register with any of them? Does the fact that we are now on record as the only western democracy which officially approves of the use of torture cause them the least bit of concern? Does the erosion of our privacy rights and the elimination of habeas corpus by President Bush, and the lack of Congressional oversight of his unprecedented power grab mean anything to them? Does the possibility of an attack on Iran which might include the first use of nuclear weapons since Hiroshima and Nagasaki sound any alarm bells in their heads? Does even the scandal involving Mark Foley’s harassment of Congressional pages, and its cover-up for months, if not years, by Republican leaders like Speaker of the House, Dennis Hastert, register with them?
Well, this year I’m about to find out. Our community is represented by Republican Congressman James Walsh who took thousands of dollars from Tom DeLay political action committee, and thousands more from corporate lobbyists, and who has voted a straight party line every time any of these issues came up in the House of Representatives. This is a solidly Republican district, so solid in fact that he ran unopposed in 2004. This year, however, the latest polls show that the race between him and his Democratic challenger has narrowed in the last few weeks to a margin of only 4%, a statistical dead heat (and that poll was conducted before the revelations regarding Foley and the GOP Leadership came out).
I’m going to sign up to canvas my neighborhood on behalf of Walsh’s Democratic challenger, Dan Maffei. Today, helping may daughter sell her cookies, wasn’t the right time to engage my neighbors in political discussions about the upcoming election. But soon, it will be. And I sincerely hope they take the time to consider what I have to say. Because this election isn’t just about which party should control Congress. It’s about whether our nation will remain a Constitutional Republic, or whether we will surrender to the tyranny of one man and one party rule.
I think that’s worth some of my time over the next few weeks to speak to my conservative neighbors about. Don’t you?
