Answer them on light rail
So to follow up a tad on yesterday's post about a poll done for the Columbia River Crossing project, the task force designated to work on possible new Interstate Bridge between Portland and Vancouver, here's a quick little thought.
Yesterday's Columbian article about the poll has already drawn 57 comments, which is probably some kind of record for that newspaper. And it's been dominated by winguttery. The most wingnutty comments are off the charts, at times drawing laments from innocent citizens who just want to throw in their two cents, and the less wingnutty but still conservative ones come from a Republican political operative who is busily attacking the poll itself.
Look, Clark County may have plenty of arch-conservatives, but they are not a majority by any means. They've had years of organization in their churches and plenty of practice attacking anything and anyone they disagree with, but if they were an actual majority Brian Baird would not be in Congress and we wouldn't have so many Democrats from Clark County in the state Legislature and Steve Stuart as county commissioner.
Just because some folks are too dense to realize that things won't always be the way they are today, and just because they personally won't ride light rail doesn't mean it's an invalid option to study. If I choose to ride light rail rather than drive, my car isn't in their way. You think they would like that, but their minds closed in 1995 and anyone who dares to bring up light rail is immediately attacked.
Anyhow, Clark County progressives have a long way to go in making their voices heard, but light rail might be a good place to ramp up the effort. One nice feature of doing that would be that it's still relatively early in the process, with a couple of years (in all likelihood) to go.
And to be clear, I know there are good folks out there working hard on things like this, it just seems to me that the naysaysers get to dominate the debate. Somehow, that has to change. Our side could be just as quick to comment, and if we left out the nastiness the wingnuts are so fond of, we might even win more people over on the merits. (And yeah, I kind of like throwing elbows sometimes, but that doesn't mean you have to do it.) Unless, you know, they deserve it.
Just a thought.
Yesterday's Columbian article about the poll has already drawn 57 comments, which is probably some kind of record for that newspaper. And it's been dominated by winguttery. The most wingnutty comments are off the charts, at times drawing laments from innocent citizens who just want to throw in their two cents, and the less wingnutty but still conservative ones come from a Republican political operative who is busily attacking the poll itself.
Look, Clark County may have plenty of arch-conservatives, but they are not a majority by any means. They've had years of organization in their churches and plenty of practice attacking anything and anyone they disagree with, but if they were an actual majority Brian Baird would not be in Congress and we wouldn't have so many Democrats from Clark County in the state Legislature and Steve Stuart as county commissioner.
Just because some folks are too dense to realize that things won't always be the way they are today, and just because they personally won't ride light rail doesn't mean it's an invalid option to study. If I choose to ride light rail rather than drive, my car isn't in their way. You think they would like that, but their minds closed in 1995 and anyone who dares to bring up light rail is immediately attacked.
Anyhow, Clark County progressives have a long way to go in making their voices heard, but light rail might be a good place to ramp up the effort. One nice feature of doing that would be that it's still relatively early in the process, with a couple of years (in all likelihood) to go.
And to be clear, I know there are good folks out there working hard on things like this, it just seems to me that the naysaysers get to dominate the debate. Somehow, that has to change. Our side could be just as quick to comment, and if we left out the nastiness the wingnuts are so fond of, we might even win more people over on the merits. (And yeah, I kind of like throwing elbows sometimes, but that doesn't mean you have to do it.) Unless, you know, they deserve it.
Just a thought.
