Starting Somewhere
By: Steve Crane
Tags: Progress, Common Ground, Socal, Politics For Tomorrow

In 2015, I travelled throughout the midwestern and southern parts of the United States for business. My work buddy Matt and I did a lot of driving and the hours piled up until the conversations started getting abstract. I somehow bet him dinner that I could get any person sitting in the next bar to agree with my political opinions.

If you know me, you know that I am an older version of a stereotypical Southern California, punk rock beach type. While I can’t hear it, I am told that I speak with a type of “dude” accent — not completely Spiccoli-like, but in that vein. I guess this makes sense, as my surfer tribe was the genesis of that character. I generally live in a t-shirt, shorts and flip flops; which I wasn’t wearing on this trip because it was snowing most of the time. But you get it.

During this period, we were driving around some of the most conservative areas of the country — Arizona, Texas, Iowa, Ohio, North Carolina. To say that we were immediately perceived as outsiders in these areas is a colossal understatement. We’d pull into a bar after 10 hours on the road and be met with a sea of very large, bearded, overall and baseball cap wearing locals, many of whom had already imbibed quite a few Bud Lights. We’d open our mouths to ask what type of beer other than Bud Light they served and the room would go quiet.

At the first place, which was in Iowa I believe, Matt being the wiseguy he is, started looking for the biggest steak on the menu. He never thought I’d even try to speak a word of politics to these fine “Murricans.” For my part, I didn’t mind buying the steak but figured I’d have to try to save face before giving up. I didn’t have a plan, but thought I could riff my way through it based on sheer arrogance. The worst thing that could happen is we’d get chased out of the bar. I may be old, but I can still outrun a 300lb redneck.

So I sauntered to the bar, ordered another beer and gave a friendly “Cheers” and a clink of the bottle to a well-rounded gentlemen sitting to my left. When he responded with a smile I went right into my shtick –

“Damn it’s cold out there, way too cold for my California blood… yeah I am, haha. I’m here for work. What do you do? You’re a farmer? Cool! Yeah, I live pretty close to Disneyland. Oh I’m sorry you had a bad experience on your vacation. We’re not all assholes like that, I swear! Did you get to the beach? No? Oh man, next time you gotta go.”

“What’s your name? I’m Steve, nice to meet you, Travis! Hey, I bet a steak with my buddy over there, would you mind playing along? Cool, thanks. Any way it’s about politics. I know, I’m sorry, I’m gonna really try not to piss you off. But I think that despite all of our differences there are some things that we ALL agree on.”

At this point, I hadn’t even really come up with anything, despite racking my brain while I was chewing the fat with Travis.

“Haha, you think I’m gonna lose the bet, do you? Ok take a slug off your beer. Ready? Here goes…”

And then it just came to me. They hate big money and crooked politicians as much as we do.

#1, we California liberals actually hate the fact that big businesses and rich people can buy politicians and laws. You do too? Hell yeah, I win!” (I reach up to slap him five, while smiling across the room at Matt).

That’s when Travis unleashes a stream of invectives against big business taking over farms, those no good, crooked yuppie politicians and what he’d like to do to them all. We start riffing back and forth, and Matt can’t believe it, he comes over to see for himself. But Travis and I are on a roll.

“I think the best way to get money out of politics is to create a disincentive for the “ruling class” to even get started in politics. If all political contributions have to be pooled in a fund controlled by the government then allocated evenly according to the level of the race being run, corporations and rich people just won’t make contributions. What’s the point? Why put money into anything if it can’t buy the result you want? This will also stop your garden variety young lawyer from being sent into politics by his Dad’s rich cronies or by his law firm. Why waste your time in politics? You make more money as a lawyer! The end result is that only people who really want to spend a few years making a difference and serving the public good will run for office.”

“#2, we liberals hate all the back-room deals made by politicians. I think lobbying should be outlawed unless it is done in public, on live TV. If a lobbyist tries to offer any form of financial incentive to a politician, boom, he goes to jail. Every pitch has to be done in the cold light of day and is open for interpretation by the public and under the scrutiny of regulators. If it takes 50 more C-SPAN channels, I’m sure the eyeballs will be there to support them. The reality is, if lobbyists can’t buy votes, they won’t be so cozy with the politicians, and there won’t be so many lobbyists.”

“And my #3 is No ‘Pork’. We liberals hate to learn that there are a hundred allocations of funds to pet projects in the back of every bill politicians vote on. If I agree to a new law or to fund a new project, I don’t want my representative in Congress agreeing to fund a bunch of other things that I don’t know about and hiding it in the back of the bill. I want transparency. I want to know what our representatives vote on. I don’t want anything hidden from me. One Issue — One Bill — One Law.”

By this time, Matt and Travis were clinking bottles, other people were listening in and happily commenting and it was obvious that we had us one big love fest going on. The lion had laid down with the lamb, dogs and cats were eating out of the same bowl — a California Liberal had found political common ground with a bunch of Iowa Farmers.

I repeated this across the country and never once did I have one person disagree with any of the three pillars. I did often hear that I obviously don’t know construction — a fourth pillar is always needed for strength and balance. I also heard many ideas that could be added as that fourth pillar. Term limits? Removing lifetime pensions and healthcare for politicians? End the Electoral College? (Haha just kidding, you wouldn’t hear that in Iowa!)

The three pillars of democratic reform go straight to the heart of the problem with today’s politics. They stop big money from writing our laws and buying our elected officials; they create financial disincentives to self-serving individuals to enter politics; and they demand transparency across the entire political landscape.

California progressives agreed with Midwestern conservatives — these simple concepts could be strong first steps in reforming our system of government. They don’t skew red or blue, they help us all.

After the reign of Trump, it will be necessary to take a long hard look at the weaknesses his administration exposed in the infrastructure of our democracy. We’re going to need to patch up areas that were exploited, and fill holes in our laws so that they can never be used to harm the American people again, by either party.

I feel hopeful that someone will be able to articulate these repairs in a way that can cut through partisanship and get to the heart of what is good for all Americans, kinda like I was somehow able to do in snowy Iowa back in 2015.

Our country needs to find a way to come together, and finding things we all agree on is the best way to start.