Immediately after the "General Betray Us" incident I quit MoveOn. I spelled out the reasons why I quit in an e-mail that I copied as high in the organization's chain of command as I could. My e-mail said, in part,
.... I'll spare you a long list of concerns, but I have lost confidence in MoveOn/OpDem's ability to lead on this issue. The childish "General Betray-us" ad was just one of several things that have caused this, and it came even after I had lost confidence.
Not long after, I had the following e-mail exchange with Professor Manweller, in which I offered to tell the local Republican Party about my concerns with MoveOn. Prof. Manweller's reply comes first, then my initial e-mail to him:
Subject: Re: Thanks and FYI
To: Steve Verhey
From: Mathew Manweller (manweller@)
Sent: Sat 9/22/07 7:11 PM
To: Steve Verhey (verheys@hotmail.com)
Steve,
Thanks for the email. Much appreciated. I think that one of the most significant barriers to a sucessful environmental movement is that people are often divided by process rather than goal. We all agree that a health environment is important, but we fight about how we shoudl achieve it. For me, the CLC is one of those groups that trancends this divide. It is voluntary and incentive based (so conservatives like me will sign on) but it pursues a traditionally liberal issue of environmental protection. If we could only find a "third way" for all the policy issues.
Would be very interested to hear your thoughts on MoveOn.org. and why you left. Let's chat more.
Thanks again for the nice email.
Matt
Subject: Thanks and FYI
To Mathew Manweller
From: verheys@hotmail.com
Sent: Sat 9/22/07 12:02 PM
To: Mathew Manweller (manweller@)
Hi Matt,
First, thanks for your performance at the CLC luncheon the other day. Very nice work for a good cause.
Second, it might interest you to know that I've left MoveOn/Operation Democracy. If you're looking for a speaker for a KC Republican Committee meeting one of these days, I'd be happy to explain why.
Best wishes,
Steve
Steve,
ReplyDeleteI do remember our email conversation. I never did know why you left until just now. Thanks for that information.
However, I think the larger issue here is the disingenuousness (some might even say dishonesty)of so many liberals and Democrats trying to run as "independents". I think most savvy politicos like ourselves and the readers of your blog know the real reason--the Democratic party label is very unpopular right now so candidates are trying to pretend to be "independent."
I understand this. The GOP label was just as unpopular two years ago. The difference was that Republicans ran as Republicans and just got beat =)
I think you should be honest with the voters. You are a proud Democrat. All the people running your campaign are proud Democrats. If you try to pretend that you are some type of "moderate independent" you lose a lot of credibility with voters.
Matt Manweller
Hi Matt,
ReplyDelete"Independent" means "states no party preference." My third post on this blog, the day before I filed for election, included this:
"I am running as an independent, even though I am a life-long Democrat. Why? Because I think county commissioners need to make decisions that are best for the county, not because a party or party backer wants things done a certain way."
I'm enjoying the response from Manweller to your decision to run as an independent, Steve. He can't extricate himself politely and apologize for the error he published against yourself and Richard Young. It's become axiomatic and commonplace within his genre to accuse someone of being "disingenuousness (some might even say dishonest". I view his habit as being a fall-back because he's short on substance and doesn't know what he's talking about. "Savvy" people don't make those kind of comments. The very same tendency which got this county into its troubles and what you're running against. Democrats running your campaign? That doesn't even pass the laugh test. I had my first experience with politics with my parents in Texas when they assisted with the Nixon campaign in 1960. I still have my Goldwater (gold elephant with the black glasses...) lapel pin from 1964. There's a Nixon/Agnew button on a hat in the basement. I grew up around Republican politics all my life and have done things such as getting together to run election-night laps-on-the-track at Lincoln Elementary (Olympia) with Dan Evans, Slade Gorton, Lud Kramer and Ralph Munro. I ran a fundraiser with Slade Gorton (Seattle to Olympia) and ran with him in the mornings when he was in Richland interviewing Federal Judicial Candidates. I used to play tennis with Sam Reed when I lived in Olympia. And then there were the State Supreme Court memebers and their families who were also Republicans. Luke Esser was the little-squirt brother of my friend in High School. But I also counted John Cherberg (a Democrat and Speaker of the Legislature...) and many others as friends. If there were any political disgreements, you discussed on content and not resorting calling someone "disingenuousness (some might even say dishonesty)" in a public forum. Personally, I'm hoping that you and Don Williamson are the two which move ahead to the General election. The largest obstacle to so many of the challenges we face in this county are not "The Democrats", "The Westside Liberals" or "The 206'rs". Our problem is a political culture which presumes to know and have all the answers based upon rigid party ideology. I advised you to run as an independent because you have the intrinsic talent to objectively assess a policy situation, gather the information and develop a plan which progresses the county. Neither major party has produced a candidate who has demonstrated the breadth-and-depth requirements for County Commisioner for decades. You do.
ReplyDeleteArt Kuebel