a place he sees as his own, cares about because he relates knows it and sees its people as "like" him. Cynical, but note he isn't speaking against running it to anywhere else.

It's this



that he doesn't want to turn into this.



BUT, there's obviously a lesson in this. Merkley's arguments have found common ground in his mind. He's related this one pipeline to local, personal wellbeing through appealing to gut reactions that bypass party slogans, and other pols are hopefully trying to do the same.

Merkley relates to people really well too. "Better jobs" is a solid message.

Last edited Sun Dec 31, 2017, 01:25 PM - Edit history (1)

in Georgia.

But that goes to what I was saying. To a limited degree. Merkley's magic didn't work on this guy on even this one issue in other locations. Changing the "they" in the pipeline equation to "we" was the key.

It's not that liberal pols haven't been trying all along to couch issues in terms that conservatives care about, but that perhaps now, as betrayal and corruption from their own become clearer, at least a few more will listen, instead of rejecting without listening.

But to get them to join in for bigger issues, they will need to expand their idea of who "we" are to larger groups. And that's a magic Doug Jones employed in Alabama when he spoke in broad terms of decency and responsibility.

I live in Coos County. Good to see.

Since I was 18 years old in1972, I have belonged to the Teamsters (UPS), Steelworkers (small mill in Ambridge PA) and the IBEW (Linesman for 37.5 years). I have always voted Democrat because they have always backed labor, which I feel is the backbone of this Country. How a Union man (or woman) could vote Republican is so far beyond me, I just do not understand.

The Republicans since the Reagan Era have been anti-worker and even more so anti-union. They do not hide it, or deny it. Their platform has been for big business and banking for almost 40 years now. They constantly run on making the government smaller, which mostly means cutting Social Safety net programs, and letting Corporations pillage and plunder our Country for their profit.

He should be embarrassed to collect his Union wages and benefits.

state university and he didn't vote in 2016. I was shocked when he told me that. He had been a lifelong Democrat. I was ready to really yell at him but he told me he was too sick to move that day. For a while he thought he was suffering from MS but has had a bunch of tests recently and will be going to a neurologist at the end of this month. I was thinking he had Lou Gehrig's disease but he said that was ruled out. We'll be seeing him tomorrow as it is our 32nd anniversary for hubby and me (I can't believe it).

All his hard physical labor has diminished him health wise. All those years on his knees fixing plumbing has left him barely able to walk. But he's in good shape financially because his union took care of its members.

P.S. I told him to get an absentee ballot from his town's city hall and vote that way. I did that once when I was going to be in Europe on Election Day (I think it was for Clinton). It's a good idea instead of waking up on Election Day feeling to sick to move.

At the same time, my dad was a Teamster truck driver for 30 plus years -- and he voted for Reagan after having always voted Dem. Heck, he raised me as a Dem and Union supporter. I'll never get it.