The Booth

 

  “Always vote for the Democrats. The Democrats are the party of the working man.” That advice came from my grandfather when I was a kid. My grandfather was a  Boston police officer, a working man. My grandfather was also a good Catholic and would not agree with the Democratic Party’s support for abortion rights, but I can’t imagine him voting for our current president. 

  When we moved to Roseau County in northwest Minnesota in 1976, the county was part of a purple district, though no one was using colors to differentiate parties back then. Sometimes the Democrats were up, then the Republicans would get a turn. 

  The country was trying to keep on an even keel after Watergate, the Arab oil embargo and the nightmare of Vietnam. After eight years of Republicans, we elected the positive Jimmy Carter, who was not up to handling the hostage crisis in Iran. So we put the Republicans back in, then the Dems again. Meanwhile our great opposite number, the Soviet Union, went belly up. After that we became like a married couple whose kids move away and who without any distractions start getting royally annoyed with each other’s flaws. 

  The country doesn’t want to take turns anymore. The other side plays dirty and cheats we believe. The other side is in league with the devil, we know for a fact. It was at this point that I bestirred myself. Roseau County had become so dark red I despaired of ever seeing a Democrat elected to represent me below the level of US senator. 

   Now the dead are showing signs of life. A power couple from neighboring Kittson County is working to bring the old Democratic-Farmer-Laborer Party back to life and they have encouraged Democrats in Roseau County to join Kittson County under one banner. Teresa and I were asked to take a shift in the DFL booth at the County Fair. Teresa said yes. Should I? My grandfather came to me in a dream and said, Do it. 

  So last Wednesday morning Catherine Stenzel, Jean Bailey, and I manned the booth in the Franklin Building across from the Tupperware lady's booth. We had been advised that 85% of the time we’d be twiddling our thumbs. Fourteen per cent of the time we’d be giving away candy and having friendly interactions with passersby, and 1% of the time we’d be dealing with difficult people. In practice it turned out to be 39.99% friendly interactions and .01% difficult people, who tended not to linger. 

   When I think about the people in Gaza or the migrants making their way through the jungle I appreciate how good we have it here and wonder why we can’t all just get along. One person who stopped by said he was an independent voter and that he used to vote for Democrats till he got turned off by the radicals on the far Left. We said we didn’t like radicals Left or Right. There’s a saying that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. When one party gets too strong the radicals and the other crazies have their day. That’s why it’s good to take turns.

Greater than the sum of our parts