The Tide Changes

I missed an Oregonian piece from earlier this month about changing political tides in Oregon. The Westlund gubernatorial campaign has a copy of it on their website and that's where I found it.

(T)wo men flee their parties. One a life-long Republican,

"Opposing abortion and gay marriage will not fix anything. And don't tell me it's God's law you're following. It's like they say -- if Christ came down and saw what was going on in his name, he'd change his name to Bob.

"Instead of telling people how to live their lives, tell me this -- how are we going to fund schools?"

Still, becoming a Democrat was not an option. "No issues, no leaders, no vision." Tearnen doesn't like that he will no longer be able to vote in primaries. But the Republican push to the extreme right, he said, left him with no choice. "I had to be able to look at myself in the mirror in the morning."

...the other a life-long Democrat.

"People say, 'You realize you can't vote in the primary.' " Hayes said. "But the primary is not what I'm interested in. I'm interested in good government and good leadership. And I'm not seeing that anywhere in Oregon.

"Maybe I'm not your typical blue-collar worker. But we're not a bunch of beer-swilling morons; we're a lot smarter than people give us credit for. Both parties have abandoned us in favor of extreme political views. It's our job to reject that."

Today both are Independents. Each for their own reasons, but the common ground is greater than the differences.