Carl Vertrees

A bewildered man walked into the liquor store and asked for a bottle of Old Moderate. The responsive clerk said he didn’t have anything like that because there was no demand. He did offer Redneck Relief and Progressive Pragmatist.

As Congress convenes for a new session since the November elections, the Republicans seem hell bent to undo anything advanced by the previous Democratic majorities in both houses. Why can’t they look for areas where both sides can agree on something that is good for America? Why can’t they look for the middle ground?

Voters in Deschutes County took a modest step in that direction in November when they made the county commissioners’ positions nonpartisan, joining 26 of the state’s 36 counties previously taking that step. That enables the nearly one third of the electorate — previously disenfranchised independent and unaffiliated voters — to vote in the primary elections for commissioners.

The Oregon legislature may also adopt ranked-choice voting for all statewide elections, in an effort to moderate the field of elected officials. Winners may not have been the majority’s first choice, but persons who got some support from a majority of voters.

And there still seems to be widespread support for an independent redistricting commission that would eliminate gerrymandering by the partisan commissions appointed by the Oregon Legislature. Covid dampened the petition drive to get that measure on the 2020 ballot.

I was born a Republican 81 years ago, in a working-class family in Seattle. Politics was part of dinner table conversation, and the radio provided background and discussion cues for us.

I didn’t get to vote in a presidential election until 1964 in Alaska. One had to be at least 21 years old to vote back then. My choices in that election were Barry Goldwater, the Republican, who was running against Lyndon Johnson, the Democrat, who had become president in 1963 when John F. Kennedy was assassinated. I didn’t like my choices. I probably voted for Goldwater.

And like in 1964, most subsequent years I wasn’t impressed with my choices, so I would choose the lesser of two evils. As a moderate Republican I never voted a straight party ticket.

In 1980 I couldn’t bring myself to vote for either Ronald Reagan or Jimmy Carter, so I cast my ballot for the Independent, John Anderson. In 2016 I couldn’t vote for Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton, so I chose the Libertarian, Gary Johnson.

In 2020 it was anybody but Trump. I didn’t care who received the Democratic nomination, that person would have my vote. I was sick and tired of Donald Trump’s dishonesty and miserable performance as the designated leader of our nation.

I was appalled by the rampage and insurrection on the U.S. Capitol on January 6 by Trump’s followers, because he falsely insisted that the election had been stolen from him. And the subsequent denial by the Oregon Republican Party that Trump followers had been the instigators further infuriated me.

Likewise I was outraged when Gov. Kate Brown granted clemency to all the prisoners on Oregon’s death row. Capital punishment is still legal in Oregon. Who is she to singlehandedly dismantle it?

Why has partisanship become so rampant? What has happened to decorum? Why can’t politicians get along? Compromise is not a four-letter word. What has happened to Republicans like we had 50 years ago?

When we moved to Oregon in 1969, Republicans ruled. Tom McCall was governor, and Mark Hatfield and Bob Packwood represented us in the U.S. Senate. They were statesmen who most Oregonians were proud to have working on their behalf in Salem and Washington. Victor Atiyeh, Norma Paulus and Dave Frohnmayer carried on those Republican traits a few years later.

Where has that decency gone?

I’m fed up. I’ve had enough. My wife, Ginger, and I have changed our voter registrations. I invite you to do likewise. It’s easy to change one’s voter registration on the county’s link to the Secretary of State’s website.