The Weekly Way (6/4/21)
Oregon Way Roadshow: What's Your One Idea To Fix Oregon Politics?
Kevin Frazier started The Oregon Way. He grew up in Washington County and traveled the state while working for the state government and running Passport Oregon, a nonprofit connecting kids from “under-natured” communities to the state’s outdoors.
When’s the last time you thought of yourself as a democratic mechanic? It’s probably been a minute since you had the time and space to dream up a “fix” to a system in drastic need of repair. We’ve been spending so much time patching leaks in and replacing the smashed windows of our democracy that it’s been hard to address the fact that the engine is in need of replacement.
There’s also the fact that we — the people, the voters — have forgotten that our democracy is registered to us. It’s as if “big” interests — ranging from those with the most money to those with the most sway in our two major parties — asked to borrow our car for the weekend and have since been on a decades-long road trip to wherever they’d like to go. Repairing our democracy, requires wresting back ownership.
Admittedly, it’s also a lot more fun to debate where to “drive” our democracy—i.e. debate policy, than to do the labor-intensive work of repairing the extensive damage done by an overreliance on big donors and partisan interests—i.e. making sure we have the right incentives in place for politicians to make decisions in the interest of the public. What we need now is democratic mechanics, not backseat drivers.
Over decades of dysfunction, our democracy has become accustomed to running on money and partisanship, rather than people power. The candidates who do the best tend to be the ones with the most support from donors and the strongest base of partisan voters. The exhaust from these toxic fuel sources has diminished the caliber of our democracy. We’re all stuck breathing in the fumes donor-driven priorities and a focus on a narrow band of the electorate.
To make matters worse, too few of us know the ins and outs of our democracy to diagnosis its issues and implement repairs. Instead of reading primary documents and instruction manuals—like the Bill of Rights, the text of legislative proposals, and the research behind policy ideas, we’ve become accustomed to receiving secondhand input from teachers with some questionable priorities. Whether its social media posts or campaign ads, our main sources of information are failing to ready us as democratic mechanics.
The transition to fueling democratic progress with the will of the people won’t come easily, but it also can’t come soon enough. That’s why The Oregon Way will be setting up in-person opportunities for you to tap into your democratic imagination and identify solutions to making our democracy run on the clean, sustainable source of people power.
In late July through early August, we’ll be embarking on a roadshow to hear your best idea for how we can fix Oregon politics. You can find us at:
TBD in Tualatin on 7/25
TBD in Portland on 7/31
TBD in Pendleton on 8/2
TBD in Enterprise on 8/3
First Friday in Baker City on 8/6
Crux in Bend on 8/7
This isn’t a comprehensive tour of Oregon by any means, but this is just the start of tapping into the people power that exists in every corner of the state. Though the simple acts of writing an idea on a piece of paper and/or sitting down for an interview with me might not seem transformative, these small steps can kickstart our collective democratic imagination. They can restore your sense of ownership over our democracy and remind you that our first priority ought to be making sure our democracy can function before driving it to a specific destination.
If you’d like to help with this process, please let me know! We’re asking as many small businesses, civic institutions, and community organizations to join this idea collection process as possible. Send me an email at kevintfrazier@gmail.com and we’ll chat about setting up a “Repair Oregon’s Democracy” box in your store/office/etc. Each month, I’ll ask you to physically or electronically send me the ideas you receive.
There’s only one thing scarier than a self-driving democracy, and that’s a democracy driven by individuals motivated by anything other than the will of the people. Through training the next generation of democratic mechanics and increasing our stock of people power, we can repair our democracy and get back on the road to solving problems.
To ponder: What pushes economic growth?
To read:
• Mark Hester wants to make sure the tracks are cleared for the next generation of companies that will propel Oregon’s economic growth. He has suggestions:
I’m not concerned about the future of either company. They each face shifting market forces, as do many businesses, and have been through internal leadership changes. But they also have a long history of overcoming challenges and continuing to thrive. What Oregon should be concerned about is when we will see another Intel or Nike.
There are Oregonians in both the public and private sectors working hard to attract jobs to Oregon. The state has been especially aggressive in the pursuit of “green” jobs. But here’s the problem with chasing the next big thing. It’s a crowded track. Everyone is chasing those jobs. Convincing more traditional companies to move or expand here is only slightly easier for the same reason — if the jobs are desirable, there’s a line of communities seeking them.
• Christina deVillier asks whether salmon and their ecosystems, diverse human communities, and the built environment can not only coexist but adapt and thrive into the future. Perhaps a framework suggested by an Idaho congressman holds some promise.
Salmon are struggling all over the world and acutely in the inland Northwest. Scientists warn that Snake River Runs, in particular, are rapidly approaching extinction. The demographics and economics of the Pacific Northwest are shifting, too. The energy landscape is changing rapidly and dramatically. And climate change, including this spring’s drought, is putting yet more pressure on Oregon’s salmon and our agricultural producers.
In the face of these interlocking challenges and changes, the Pacific Northwest congressional delegation is more powerful than it has ever been. And a federal infrastructure bill is coming down the pipeline that could potentially pull in serious money for addressing all of the pieces of this puzzle.
• This week we continued our University of Oregon student series. Xitlali Torres wants manufacturers to be held more accountable for the pollutants they expel in Eugene:
The mechanisms in place to punish facilities for emitting more than they are permitted are weak—too infrequently enforced and with insufficient penalties. One facility, J.H. Baxter, has been fined almost $36,000 in fines since the ‘90s, but these fines are a mere slap on the wrist for a company that makes far more in revenue. The facility was labeled a "significant non-complier" by the DEQ in 2011, yet continues to run. The DEQ and the Lane Regional Air Protection Agency (LRAPA) ask for public input, for people to file pollution complaints. They say that they are important and make a difference, but the public’s trust that their agencies are working for them has dwindled. The lack of communication between the agencies and their constituents creates a vicious cycle.
Gavin Barrett makes the case that college can arm students of all stripes to to depolarize political discourse:
There’s a common belief in America that the education system is heavily left leaning. This is far from an unfounded theory: over 90% of university professors identify as liberal, only 5.7% of students are registered Republicans, and people with a bachelor’s degree vote blue 58% of the time.
The statistics alone seem to suggest a liberal bias. In an era of hyperpolarization, one of the primary struggles of our contemporary political moment is bridging the gap between the parties, and to many, it seems that universities are widening the gap.
However, new research has come out that flips this perception on its head. This research by Mayhew, et. al. suggests that individuals who entered into college with a certain set of beliefs actually developed a higher level of empathy and respect for the other side of the political aisle.
A plurality of both conservative students and liberal students left college more accepting of the opposite party’s views. While this does not necessarily mean that people felt compelled to switch parties, it does show that people were more tolerant of the opposite side’s views.
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