By Dave Lister
During the administration of the first President Bush, my brother-in-law held a high paying position at Willamette Iron Works. They stayed busy doing repairs and upgrades on all manner of vessels, many of them for the U.S. Navy. When President Bush made a campaign swing through Portland he visited the shipyard. The majority of the workers at the yard, being good blue-collar democrats, did what-blue collar democrats do. They greeted the President with catcalls and boos. My brother-in-law left work with a sinking feeling in his gut, sensing that no good would come of it.
Within a year the Navy contracts dried up, the shipyard closed and hundreds of workers hit the unemployment line.
Ever since, Portland's reputation for thumbing its nose at the Federal authority has continued. Anarchists kick out downtown windows to protest everything from NAFTA to the war in Iraq, one of the convicted terrorists known as "the Portland five" was an intern in the mayor's office, the council adopts resolutions condemning national policy decisions, and Reed College embraces the Colorado professor who believes the victims of 9-1-1 were a bunch of Nazis. The debate over withdrawing from the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force is just another example of the notoriety Portland has earned; the notoriety which has the rest of the nation asking "what are they smoking out there?"
Just 100 days into the new administration, Portland's city council has adopted a Farragut-like "damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead" approach to pushing the envelope of progressivism in an effort to extend the life, just a little longer, of this failed utopia. Mayor Potter cites free speech concerns over the patriot act when considering the JTTF, while city bureau heads, if not strictly under a gag order, know they are subject to recrimination from his office if they speak with the media. Commissioner Erik Sten, who oversaw one of the worst fiscal boondoggles in the city's history while running the water utility, is the point man on the city's effort to purchase the electric utility. The entire council, while vigorously attempting to cut eight or nine million from police, fire and parks budgets, are about to enact an ordinance which would allocate over a million per election cycle to fund political campaigns.
For those approaching the environs of Portland with the idea of starting a business, creating jobs or, God forbid, creating wealth, there should be an addendum to the city limits signs which reads "abandon all hope, ye who enter here".
One definition of insanity is doing the same thing, over and over again, in hopes of different results. The policy decisions of the last twelve years have resulted in diminishing school enrollment as families flee to the suburbs, declining business tax revenue as all manners of businesses jump the county line and one of the highest unemployment rates in the nation. Why would the city's leaders take a harder turn to the left, when a turn to the right is so clearly indicated?
The answer to this question can be found by attending city council sessions and observing the crowd.
Former mayor Frank Ivancie coined a phrase to describe a certain segment of Portland's population. That phrase was " poor by choice". Portland is replete with people who are poor by choice. The poor by choice work part time in the second hand boutiques, take classes now and then at PSU and talk about the revolution while they sip coffee in the peoples' cooperative cafes. The poor by choice post lofty thoughts on anarchist weblogs, turn out in droves to protest any social injustice and blow red lights on their bicycles.
And the poor by choice attend city council sessions... big time.
Last month I went to hear Commissioner Leonard's proposal to pull out of the JTTF. The poor by choice had packed the chamber. It was so packed that I had to take a seat in the balcony. As I sat silently in the middle of a crowd of poor by choice who vigorously waved their hands whenever anyone spoke ill of the FBI, the Bush Administration or the Patriot act, I imagined myself looking out from the commissioner's dais. And then I understood. From the commissioners' perspective the people before them were the constituency. The hard working, tax paying folks weren't there. The parents of school children weren't there. The business owners weren't there. Anyone not there was unseen, and not part of the constituency.
In the past, Portland's job creators have participated in the political process by funding the campaigns of the candidates who share their views on what's needed for the city's economic health. When the council adopts "clean money" campaign financing that participation will end. The only way they will be heard then is to go downtown and mix it up with the poor by choice.
The question is, will they? Somehow I don't think so. I think they will vote with their feet and walk away.
But what the heck do I know? I'm just an Eastside Guy.