The Middle River Group, LLC

fly fishing, conservation and politics.

Politics

Have a beer with me

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Or coffee. Or a soda. You get the point—it doesn’t matter, just sit here and let’s talk for a few minutes.

At the end of Reed Galen’s piece Hope the High Road there is this call to action:

“Call your friends, your neighbors, your family and your co-workers. Tell them you want to talk politics. Not Trump or Hillary, but the politics of solutions and progress. Have a meal or a beer and ask, what can we do, here and now in our town, on our block or in our district. Then go do it.”

Sounds pretty good, and rather easy in theory, but then comes the asking.

If you are reading this, it is likely you have come to the point that political discourse has made you uncomfortable. And it often feels like that discomfort makes it hard to start a conversation about politics, doesn’t it?

If you spend any time on social media sites like Facebook or Twitter you know the scenario; one person posts a political point of view, the argument starts, and then rages in the thread. Others jump in or out as their levels of outrage, indignation, exasperation, or disgust dictate. These fights are increasingly just political squabbles without reason or content, a smorgasbord of smugness, sneers, and trolling. In the end, no minds get changed, and too often, some feelings get hurt.

In our day-to-day real lives, we rarely stop what we are doing and engage in this sort of behavior—perhaps social media, with the protection of the computer screen and keyboard, give us a sense of security to expose our more argumentative tendencies. Sure, we argue and debate, but rarely when sitting face to face with someone would we devolve to the behavior we see online.

The fallout from this type of behavior found online is that people don’t want to engage in essential discussions around tough topics like politics. They fall back to tribal beliefs, nurtured by the two parties, and relegate politics to an unpleasant task or conversation to be avoided.

When that happens, you become part of the base—subject to the dog whistle behavioral signals and counted upon to vote the straight party ticket. That reinforces the notion that the status quo cannot be changed: So why bother? Why engage in the dirty pettiness we see in politics today? And who would blame you?

But by avoiding that political conversation, you surrender to the party and let them put their interests ahead of yours.

Let me encourage you to step out of your comfort zone and help make political discourse a civil conversation again. Here is why changing civil discourse and having those political conversations are important:

If you think the country is headed in the wrong direction and that our elected leaders are not doing enough to change it, then you have to be willing to engage in politics. It is time to start electing leaders who are not wed to the tribal politics of the two-party system. By engaging in civil discourse, you can help make that happen.

The way you can do that with other people is by acting like you care about the person, and not their politics. Sit face to face with someone over a beer, coffee, or a meal and speak with respect of the other person’s point of view. Show them the SAM Principles and listen to what they say, think, and feel about them.

SAM has provided the leadership for a movement to build a new political party for those left behind by a political system that puts its interests ahead of those of the American people. And, to be frank, that is the easy part. By changing the narrative and engaging in civil, political discussion, I am asking you to take on a more important role.

First, let me tell you about the “first follower” theory and Leadership Lessons from a Dancing Guy from Derek Sivers’ “How to Start a Movement” Ted talk.

In the video Sivers shows a movement take place in three minutes. There is the first guy dancing to the music who is then joined by a second guy. The second guy waves others to join him, and slowly they are joined by others, and at the end, there is a crowd. Sivers narrates the action and offers some intriguing insights on what is happening.

“A leader needs the guts to stand alone and look ridiculous. But what he’s doing is so simple, it’s almost instructional. This is key. You must be easy to follow! 

Now comes the first follower with a crucial role: he publicly shows everyone how to follow. Notice the leader embraces him as an equal, so it’s not about the leader anymore – it’s about them, plural. Notice he’s calling to his friends to join in. It takes guts to be a first follower! You stand out and brave ridicule, yourself 

Being a first follower is an under-appreciated form of leadership. The first follower transforms a lone nut into a leader. If the leader is the flint, the first follower is the spark that makes the fire.”

SAM, through their leadership, has made it easy to follow. Your role then, is to ignite a spark. To help make civil discussions about politics the music that gets people to dance together. With your help, we can build a new political party for a new American majority. One where fairness, integrity and common-sense solutions work together to achieve real progress for Americans.

So please. Have a beer with me?

Author’s note: This article originally appeared on the SAM – Serve America Movement website.

If you want a copy of the principles, let me know in the comments and I’ll email you a copy.

Every Vote Counts

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Don’t tell me you vote doesn’t count! The only time your vote doesn’t count is when you don’t vote.

Shelly Simonds the won by one vote in the recount. She was the Democratic candidate for a seat in the Virginia House of Delegates. Her win creates a 50-50 split in the Virginia House.

There is no mechanism for breaking ties in the House. It will all come down to deal making.

Source: In Virginia, a 11,608-to-11,607 Lesson in the Power of a Single Vote

Darkness Falls Upon Our Land

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This is an evolving story. Links to relevant stories are in the Postscript section at the bottom.

Source: https://twitter.com/NatResources/status/939236821971734530

Think long and hard about the implications of that tweet from the U.S. House Natural Resources Committee.

You may not agree with Patagonia or the language they used (see Outside Online article in the postscript), but this is a branch of our government attacking a U.S. company, disparaging their motive for speaking out and condescendingly ridiculing your fellow citizens.

Hijacking the debate my ass.

The hypocrisy of suit wearing, highly compensated and mostly wealthy, elected officials continues to astound me. I am not an elitist, wealthy, urban dweller and neither are many of my friends who wear Patagonia clothes and use their gear. I wear Patagonia products for my work as a guide in rural Virginia and for much of my regular attire. I choose their products because of the quality, suitability for my work and my admiration for who they are as a company.

Patagonia is not hijacking the debate for sales. Patagonia has fully engaged in the public lands and environmental debates for quite some time, a quick look at their website or the Axios story in the postscript below will show that. Conversations with friends and colleagues make me think their website page call to action could be a mixed bag for sales. The Axios story points out that they prepared for the adverse consequences back in 2012.

Source: http://www.patagonia.com/protect-public-lands.html

The shadow of repression grows longer.

There is a place for responsible rebuttals. The House Natural Resources Committee tweet, however, crosses a line by sending an intimidating message to those who dare to voice their opinion.

If you care about public lands and the freedom to speak out on their behalf, this should infuriate you. We have entered dark times for our public lands. It is time to raise our voices and call bullshit once again.

“Wildlife and its habitat cannot speak, so we must and we will.”
-Theodore Roosevelt

I stand with Patagonia.

Postscript (most recent at the bottom):
Axios: 8. Patagonia v. Trump
Outside Online: Patagonia and the Federal Government Go Head to Head
Huffington Post: Your Tax Dollars Are Being Used To Attack Patagonia
GQ: Now the Government Is Going After Patagonia for Criticizing Trump
Outside Online: Is the GOP Congress Calling for a Patagonia Boycott?
Walter Shaub Twitter thread:“When a federal government official publicly calls you a liar on an official social media account…”
Washington Post: Zinke, House GOP escalate feud with Patagonia over monuments
Washington Post, The Energy 202: Ryan Zinke rebuffed for retweet
U.S. House Natural Resources Committee: Chairman Bishop Invites Patagonia CEO to Testify Before the Committee
Chairman Bishop’s invitation letter. Credit were credit is due, the letter is well written, respectful and a much more appropriate response than the one on Twitter.
Outside Online: The GOP Wants Chouinard to Testify? He Should Accept.
Columbia Journalism Review: Outside reporter: ‘I wasn’t banned—at least, not as far as I can prove’
Patagonia’s Yvon Chouinard in The Cleanest Line: Response to the House Committee on Natural Resources. If you are going to say “no thanks” he could not have done it better and for the right reasons.

Solutions and Progress

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It is time to serve America first and put people before party.

On Thursday, Nov. 9, Rep. Bob Goodlatte announced he was not going to run for re-election in 2018. I heard the news the day before the official announcement, and as I drove home to the Valley from my most recent trip to the D.C., I pondered what that opportunity could mean.

As I drove home, I called my wife and a couple of friends. “Goodlatte is going to retire, I’m thinking of running for Congress…” The response then and as I talked with others about it was encouraging, supportive and realistic.

It would be a long shot, but I wanted to change the narrative. The toxicity of party politics and the party over policy approach to governing appalled me. The issues I cared deeply about, conservation, small business, veterans, were becoming political casualties.

Mulling it over I questioned if it just ego or could a pull it off.

Thanksgiving morning I made the decision. Nope, not going to do it.

The reasons were pretty straightforward. To be competitive in a primary should I choose that route and then again in the general election I would have to stop everything else I was doing and focus all my time, energy and attention on the campaign. My work at the Marine Fish Conservation Network is enjoyable and rewarding. The thought of giving up guiding and teaching on the weekends, an essential mental and physical part of my life was almost unthinkable. The financial commitment was daunting. In the end, those factors made it a mountain too high to climb.

So where do I go from here? The system is broken, the change has to come from people who are willing to call bullshit and work for a better solution. If I’m not going to get in the campaign arena personally how can I work for change?

One of my favorite political scribes is Rich Galen of Mullings fame. Rich’s son Reed is no slouch behind the keyboard, and often, because of tips in his dad’s column, I will find my way to Reed’s articles. Such was the case right after my Thanksgiving decision.

Reed’s article, Hope the High Road captured my thinking and concerns.

“The last decade or so has brought into stark relief what many Americans have known instinctively for years: Our elected leaders far too often serve their own ambition or tribal beliefs rather than those they’re sworn to represent. This isn’t new news, it’s not even terribly surprising. It is however, time to do something about it.”

More importantly, Reed shown a spotlight on a path forward.

“Trump’s behavior, complete lack of ability (or desire) to govern and his obsession with trivial, anger-inducing issues is waking up voters to the idea that if we want to be better, we need to do better. That starts with us. It starts with good people saying enough is enough and putting themselves forward for public office. It means shedding 150 years of partisan snakeskin in favor of new, better options.

Of course, I agreed with what he wrote and thought “Oh crap, just got called out on the decision I made three days ago…”

Fortunately, he went on to add more steps that could be taken.

“The transformation won’t start on Facebook or Twitter or Fox News or MSNBC. It will start when citizens — like you and me — get together in their dining rooms, living rooms, union halls and VFW halls and start to say, “We’re here, and we’re ready. Let’s get to work.” So let’s do it. Call your friends, your neighbors, your family and your co-workers. Tell them you want to talk politics. Not Trump or Hillary, but the politics of solutions and progress. Have a meal or a beer and ask, what can we do, here and now in our town, on our block or in our district. Then go do it.”

OK, now I feel better about my decision. I’m a career lobbyist and enjoy my forays into journalism; I can talk “the politics of solutions and progress.” Where shall I start?

Let this article serve as the introduction. I am getting back behind the keyboard and starting writing about the politics of solutions and progress. I’ll focus on those topics near and dear to me as noted above.

And here is an opportunity to join me and become part of a movement to change the narrative from party over policy and the two-party system that perpetuates it.

Join SAM, the Serve America Movement. Check out the website, watch the video, read the principles, and if you agree that this is right path forward, sign up. After that sit down with your friends and family and tell them you want to talk politics; the politics of solutions and progress.

Not the Enemy

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On February 17, 2017, the President tweeted:  “The FAKE NEWS media (failing @nytimes, @NBCNews, @ABC, @CBS, @CNN) is not my enemy, it is the enemy of the American People!”

If that tweet was an isolated event, a pique of anger or frustration, not uncommon for elected officials caught on the receiving end of “bad press” then perhaps it could be ignored. That is not the case however. Since taking office the President and his staff have made the news media the whipping boy for things they don’t like. And while their anger may be understandable, their response has not been. They appear to not only wish to silence their critics, they are ignoring a foundational tenet of freedom in this country.

On February 24, 2017,  Trump doubled down on the characterization.

“A few days ago I called the fake news the enemy of the people, and they are — they are the enemy of the people,” said Trump to the attendees at Conservative Political Action Conference.

For those who need a refresher, here is the First Amendment to the Constitution: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

Of special note, the First Amendment specifically names the PRESS under its protection.  As a journalist and having run a trade association for journalists that is of significant professional interest and comfort.

Attacks on the First Amendment therefore are both personal and professional attacks to me. I don’t take kindly to my colleagues being labeled “the enemy of the American People!” And, I am not a lone voice of concern about the cause for that characterization.

For me, the most important voice of concern was that of William H. McRaven, who on February 23, wrote an essay titled Journalism: Essential to Democracy. McRaven’s bona fides are legendary; University of Texas journalism graduate of 1977, U.S.Navy Admiral SEAL who commanded the Joint Special Operations Command.

If we are to challenge the sentiment that the news media is the enemy of the people – and challenge it we must – then journalists must do their part.

We need journalists with the courage to speak truth to power.

But it has to be the truth, not just their truth.

Truth means getting the facts right, every time.

It means having multiple solid sources to confirm those facts.

It means eliminating bias and hubris from reporting.”

There have been notable voices from our past who have voiced concern when free speech and the press were threatened:

The President is merely the most important among a large number of public servants. He should be supported or opposed exactly to the degree which is warranted by his good conduct or bad conduct, his efficiency or inefficiency in rendering loyal, able, and disinterested service to the Nation as a whole. Therefore it is absolutely necessary that there should be full liberty to tell the truth about his acts, and this means that it is exactly necessary to blame him when he does wrong as to praise him when he does right. Any other attitude in an American citizen is both base and servile. To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.” -Theodore Roosevelt

“We will not be driven by fear into an age of unreason if we dig deep into our history and our doctrine, and remember that we are not descended from fearful men. Not from men who feared to write, to associate, to speak, and to defend the causes that were for the moment unpopular.” -Edward R. Morrow

“Without debate, without criticism, no Administration and no country can succeed—and no republic can survive. That is why the Athenian lawmaker Solon decreed it a crime for any citizen to shrink from controversy. And that is why our press was protected by the First Amendment—the only business in America specifically protected by the Constitution—not primarily to amuse and entertain, not to emphasize the trivial and the sentimental, not to simply ‘give the public what it wants’—but to inform, to arouse, to reflect, to state our dangers and our opportunities, to indicate our crises and our choices, to lead, mold, educate and sometimes even anger public opinion.” -John F. Kennedy

As McRaven said “the United States has the finest press corps in the world, bar none.”  I could not agree more and feel privileged to count myself among the ranks of U.S. Navy officers and journalists.

My grandfather Sadler told me long ago, don’t pick a fight with people who buy ink by the 55 gallon drum. Looks like a few drums will get tapped in the coming months.

Serving the best we could

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“I just served as best I could.”

This video is a powerful reminder that there are many among us who still deserve the recognition.