We need this woman in Congress
This is Darcy Burner. You probably know who she is by now. I've been involved with her campaign for Washington's 8th Congressional District seat for almost a year now (as has nearly everyone else at NPI), and I’ve come to know her as a warm, compassionate person.
She’s an intelligent, thoughtful human being who takes the time to learn about the issues in order to have a meaningful, well grounded opinions about them. She understands local issues not just for their local impact, but with the understanding of how they relate to the big picture of America. Darcy is exactly the sort of person I want representing me and my family in Congress.
I was talking a few days ago about this campaign, and the involvement I've had with it, with a co-worker, and he asked me an interesting question.
He's fairly cynical about politics (but really, can you blame him?), and he asked “well, aren’t you helping this person get elected because that will grant you a higher level of access once she’s in office?”
Basically, he was accusing me of influence peddling. My gut reaction was to say “well, no!”, but at that moment I couldn’t really explain to him why it wasn’t. Because the truth is, he’s right—if I help get Darcy elected, then yes, she probably would take my call if I ever felt like calling her up.
And I can see how he’d think that’s what I was after, because right now, I spend a lot of time trying to get Dave Reichert to "take my call," as it were. Doing my duty as a citizen to let him know what I think about the issues.
I have to do this because he tends to vote quite consistently against the best interests of me as an individual, against my family’s, my district’s, my state’s, and my nation’s best interests.
He votes quite consistently for the best interests of large corporations, and of course, his political party. It ticks me off that I have to work so hard to remind him what he ought to be doing with his time in D.C., and it ticks me off that I have so very little to show for my efforts.
If anything, the two years since Dave Reichert was elected have given me a real perspective on what life must be like in non-democratic countries, because the truth is, I’m not represented in Congress. And if you live in the 8th district, neither are you.
Sure, Dave Reichert is nominally our Congressman, but he isn’t representing us. It doesn’t matter if you agree or disagree with his votes; his voting record shows quite clearly that he votes to please his corporate sponsors and party leadership, which means he's representing them, not you.
On the other hand, I know that Darcy really cares about making America better. She’s a person who has the integrity to actually vote her conscience.
Darcy has been kind enough to talk with me several times about all sorts of issues I care about, everything from health care to education to national security and what the heck we do about Iraq.
Her opinions on these issues tell me that she and I are basically in agreement on the direction we'd like America to be going. A direction that is quite divergent from the path we're actually on. What a refreshing change!
For instance: imagine that a bill came before the Congress that would actually do something useful about helping parents with the spiraling costs of sending kids to college.
It doesn’t matter if Darcy would take my call, because the truth is, I wouldn’t have to call her. I already know she’d vote for that in a second, because she wants her son Henry to be able to go to college just as much as I want my kids to.
Or if a bill came up that would drastically reduce the Environmental Protection Agency’s ability to restrain and penalize corporate polluters, I already know she’d vote against any such bill.
She understands our obligation to leave a clean and safe planet for Henry and the rest of his generation. After all, they’re going to be here a lot longer than we are.
Or if a resolution were put before the House of Representatives to authorize the President to invade, let's just say, Iran, I already know I would never have to call her about that.
Of course she wouldn’t vote to authorize such a thing. She doesn’t want Henry to grow up in a world dominated by fear, and she doesn’t need me to explain to her that the way to peace is through honesty, compassion and respect for everyone’s culture. She already knows that peace cannot be won through guns, bombs, and indiscriminate killing.
There’s no influence peddling, because in the end, Darcy and I already have the same priorities. Sure, she'd probably take my call, but what would be the point of calling? I couldn't really influence her because she's already at the place I would want her to be anyway.
America is in some serious trouble. If you can’t see that, you need to open your eyes and look around. I see trouble all over the place. Things we need to fix right away. We can only fix this by electing honest people who will actually represent us.
People who genuinely want to make progress towards a better nation and a better world. People who want to take America to a place where everyone can live better, not just the richest 1% of us.
And that, as I went back and explained to my co-worker, is why I support Darcy Burner for Congress. It's why I contribute money to her campaign.
It's why I'll be volunteering full time on the days leading up to election day, and it's why I'll be casting my vote, with pride and a sense of deep gratitude for the privelege of doing so, for Darcy Burner. And if you live in the 8th district, I hope you'll join me.
She’s an intelligent, thoughtful human being who takes the time to learn about the issues in order to have a meaningful, well grounded opinions about them. She understands local issues not just for their local impact, but with the understanding of how they relate to the big picture of America. Darcy is exactly the sort of person I want representing me and my family in Congress.I was talking a few days ago about this campaign, and the involvement I've had with it, with a co-worker, and he asked me an interesting question.
He's fairly cynical about politics (but really, can you blame him?), and he asked “well, aren’t you helping this person get elected because that will grant you a higher level of access once she’s in office?”
Basically, he was accusing me of influence peddling. My gut reaction was to say “well, no!”, but at that moment I couldn’t really explain to him why it wasn’t. Because the truth is, he’s right—if I help get Darcy elected, then yes, she probably would take my call if I ever felt like calling her up.
And I can see how he’d think that’s what I was after, because right now, I spend a lot of time trying to get Dave Reichert to "take my call," as it were. Doing my duty as a citizen to let him know what I think about the issues.
I have to do this because he tends to vote quite consistently against the best interests of me as an individual, against my family’s, my district’s, my state’s, and my nation’s best interests.
He votes quite consistently for the best interests of large corporations, and of course, his political party. It ticks me off that I have to work so hard to remind him what he ought to be doing with his time in D.C., and it ticks me off that I have so very little to show for my efforts.
If anything, the two years since Dave Reichert was elected have given me a real perspective on what life must be like in non-democratic countries, because the truth is, I’m not represented in Congress. And if you live in the 8th district, neither are you. Sure, Dave Reichert is nominally our Congressman, but he isn’t representing us. It doesn’t matter if you agree or disagree with his votes; his voting record shows quite clearly that he votes to please his corporate sponsors and party leadership, which means he's representing them, not you.
On the other hand, I know that Darcy really cares about making America better. She’s a person who has the integrity to actually vote her conscience.
Darcy has been kind enough to talk with me several times about all sorts of issues I care about, everything from health care to education to national security and what the heck we do about Iraq.
Her opinions on these issues tell me that she and I are basically in agreement on the direction we'd like America to be going. A direction that is quite divergent from the path we're actually on. What a refreshing change!
For instance: imagine that a bill came before the Congress that would actually do something useful about helping parents with the spiraling costs of sending kids to college.
It doesn’t matter if Darcy would take my call, because the truth is, I wouldn’t have to call her. I already know she’d vote for that in a second, because she wants her son Henry to be able to go to college just as much as I want my kids to.
Or if a bill came up that would drastically reduce the Environmental Protection Agency’s ability to restrain and penalize corporate polluters, I already know she’d vote against any such bill.
She understands our obligation to leave a clean and safe planet for Henry and the rest of his generation. After all, they’re going to be here a lot longer than we are.
Or if a resolution were put before the House of Representatives to authorize the President to invade, let's just say, Iran, I already know I would never have to call her about that.
Of course she wouldn’t vote to authorize such a thing. She doesn’t want Henry to grow up in a world dominated by fear, and she doesn’t need me to explain to her that the way to peace is through honesty, compassion and respect for everyone’s culture. She already knows that peace cannot be won through guns, bombs, and indiscriminate killing.
There’s no influence peddling, because in the end, Darcy and I already have the same priorities. Sure, she'd probably take my call, but what would be the point of calling? I couldn't really influence her because she's already at the place I would want her to be anyway.
America is in some serious trouble. If you can’t see that, you need to open your eyes and look around. I see trouble all over the place. Things we need to fix right away. We can only fix this by electing honest people who will actually represent us. People who genuinely want to make progress towards a better nation and a better world. People who want to take America to a place where everyone can live better, not just the richest 1% of us.
And that, as I went back and explained to my co-worker, is why I support Darcy Burner for Congress. It's why I contribute money to her campaign.
It's why I'll be volunteering full time on the days leading up to election day, and it's why I'll be casting my vote, with pride and a sense of deep gratitude for the privelege of doing so, for Darcy Burner. And if you live in the 8th district, I hope you'll join me.
