Voting Results

 

I've written about voting before, so I won't repeat my motivations and delight in voting on Election Day.  This year, as I have for the past few years, I voted during the early voting period and sought to do so at a time when I expected to avoid waiting and standing for any length of time.  I nailed that part this year, and, as challenging as it was to prepare to vote and then get to the polls, I managed to summon some of my previous delight in the experience.  

Hays County, Texas, has a separate building just for elections, and it is quite efficient.  As I entered the building, there was someone to direct me to the next station to have my ID checked.  From there I went to the station to choose my ballot from several blank sheets of paper (with printed guides for inserting them in the voting machine), get a code to access the machine, and receive kind inquiries regarding my mobility needs.  I felt welcomed enough to relax the tension that accompanies our democratic system these days and accepted the moment of being part of the community, even though I didn't know a soul in the room (or the building, for that matter).  

And, as I voted, I felt some bubbles of the excitement I have felt in past years when I was a better informed voter, knowing some of the candidates personally and being more involved in campaigns.  In this year's election, I have only been a donor for a couple of candidates (they won!) and was able to get to the door in time to speak with a campaign worker for a fellow that I only recognized from the picture on the flyer she gave me.  I am ashamed to admit that I did so, saying:  "Oh, yes, the beard guy!"  <cringe>  One thing that was clear to me as I voted was that there are a lot of elected offices in my little county, and most of the attention has been focused on those offices higher on the ballot.  I was more informed and engaged on the top offices, less so on the local races, despite my very real experience and clear belief that those local races are vitally important in supporting the lives we want to lead.  Clearly I have some more work to do in actually becoming a part of this community, not just a resident.

Nonetheless, there were some bubbles.  I had a difficult choice to make for the Texas Senate race---whether to vote for James Talarico or Jasmine Crockett.  I voted my conscience, but wished that I hadn't had to choose between two good people.  I contributed to a candidate for my state representative---having been gerrymandered out of the district where I had long-time representation by Lloyd Doggett (something that had happened before in the dozens of years I've lived in Central Texas)---and, knowing her name and something of her background, I bubbled as I voted.  (It is not insignificant that she or her campaign workers were quick with thanks yous and reminders.)  

I was engaged enough in this election to wait impatiently for the polls to close on Tuesday.  Engaged enough to check the results throughout the evening.  Engaged enough to feel the excitement when my choice to the Senate moved to the front and then stayed there.  The little bubbles on the map (not the source of my bubbles) showed the distribution of votes across the state.  As the Central Texas bubbles grew, they outpaced the Houston area and Fort Worth in votes for Talarico.  Dallas was missing for much of the evening, so there was some question whether Talarico would hold his lead when the Dallas results came in.  He did, but there may still be some shifts in the count because of some confusion in the Democratic primary in Dallas County.  

My engagement at this point is striking (to me) because I have, like far too many Americans, given our democracy less attention than it needs in these recent years.  Perhaps that is a perpetual problem.  Among the patterns that I am seeing in Felix Adler's years on the platform at the New York Society for Ethical Culture is a return from the summer hiatus with politics, especially electoral politics, on his mind.  In one of these lectures (November 1894), he said:

“The apathy of the people, their absorption in the pursuit of private gain, their lack of public spirit, have been to blame,” (New York Times, October 29, 1894)

I won't admit to being apathetic, but I have been absorbed in Ethical Culture and the (far too) many committees I seem to be working on there.  Now we have masked thugs on our streets---even here in Hays County (a blue county in a red state)---and we are facing the risk of further depletion of the Edwards Aquifer at a time of heavy drought from the intense pressure to allow the development of data centers.  

I started this post because, as I looked at the bubbles on the map I referenced above, and then looked at the official Hays County election results from this week's primary election, I saw some patterns.  Of course, there are the visible patterns of urban versus rural.  There was also the surprise of what looked like heavier Democratic turnout in Travis County than in Houston or Dallas and a similar surprise at seemingly lower Democratic turnout in San Antonio.  Similarly, there were patterns in the Crockett-Talarico race that reflected Texas history, with Crockett leading in the eastern counties where cotton (and slavery) once thrived and Talarico in the western counties where the population is more heavily white and Hispanic.  

My biggest bubble, however, came from the Hays County election results.  If the Democrats win in the fall, it looks rather like women will lead this county.  Women ran for almost every office.  Women took the lead enough times for me feel that bubble of interest.  In one local race, a woman outpolled the male incumbent.  In another, while the woman did not outpoll the male incumbent, she got close enough to give that fellow some pause for thought (I hope).

Bubbles aside, this primary has given me a nudge in the direction that I need to work a bit harder to be engaged in local issues and to try to develop stronger connections to those who are working on those issues.  Whether Democrats can take back Texas is less the point than protecting democracy in Texas.  And the bigger point?  Building relationships so that I can recognize a candidate, not by his beard, but by his platform.  Or hers.

George's Will's Great Detachment

 

Just add people

I've been broadening my "algorithm" to include more conservative voices.  I want to be able to see both sides of issues, to avoid living in a silo where I am right all the time and never learn anything but what my own brain tells me.  So, I read George Will a bit more often than I used to.  So far so good.  Sometimes I am shocked to find myself agreeing with him.  Sometimes, it's more like "hmm, I didn't think of it that way."  

Today's opinion piece in the New York Times  was in the realm of:  "Now hold on there, George!"  Here's the trigger:

When you look at these trends through a political lens, the power of the autonomy ethos becomes clearer. In general, conservatives believe in economic freedom (low taxes, fewer regulations) but social obligations (faith, family, flag). Progressives tend to favor economic obligations to reduce inequality but more social autonomy to live whatever lifestyle you choose.

Could be a case over-simplification, could be my own over-reaction, but I was reading his discussion of the trends toward this "great detachment" that we seem to be experiencing in the US and nodding my head right up until he put the progressive label on me and then completely got it wrong.

Well, he got me wrong.  And he got Ethical Culture wrong.  That's probably because Ethical Culture is so tiny-small and more than a little bit of a hairball these days.  So let me back up to the moment before my brain heard the sound of screeching brakes.

Will is arguing---along with Curt Collier and others who pay attention to the trends of the past half century or so---that social engagement is falling in the US and that that, to a large extent, is due to the emphasis on individualism and the elevation of efficiency and wealth as the two primary goals of life.  (Neither of them have particularly emphasized the efficiency part, but it's hiding in plain sight when they talk/write about this.)  These issues were factors in American society much before either of these guys---or most social scientists---quite figured it out.  

Felix Adler spoke repeatedly about the mistake of centering one's life goals on the accumulation of wealth.  He spoke of the duties that such accumulation created and the obligation to veer away from the hoarding mindset to one of sharing and investment in a better future.  He also reminded us that, while our supreme aim is to become better, more ethical human beings, we could never do that without engaging with other human beings in relationships founded on mutual respect and concern.  Efficiency and emphasis on individualism and the accumulation of wealth for its own sake were all factors that worked against us in becoming the ethical beings that we might want to be, and his whole platform was aimed toward overcoming those factors.

Or so it seems to me.  Now I have to go back and document each point that I raise in that last paragraph, since these are impressions, the sense of Adler's writing---and my overall understanding of Ethical Culture---that have been formed in recent years by reading (and editing) some of the many lectures by Adler (and others) that have never made it very far outside of the building at 2 W. 64th Street in Manhattan.  

When I do get that documentation accomplished, I should probably explain to George Will that it is not a political thing, but a worldview thing---a religious thing, if you will.  Will is careful to note---  

I want to reiterate something. These are averages. Be careful how you apply social science data to your individual life, because your life is filled with things social science can’t see: your unique circumstances, tastes, spirit.

---to which I reply "Well done, George!"  But more love and more marriage are not necessarily the answer to our "great detachment."  And neither of those things are political and should definitely not be turned into political positions.  Indeed, I would be more pleased to have the "progressive" label a little less liberally applied to anyone to the left of Attila the Hun.  

The Progressive Movement of the late 19th and early 20th century was assisted very strongly by the Ethical Culture Movement.  No matter whether EC was in the driver's seat or part of the team pulling the wagon, Adler and his philosophy was part of the impetus to improve the community, and the focus was on creating and maintaining relationships across all of the boundaries that human biology and thought sought to create.  That, I think, is why our great detachment has occurred: When we fail to see that social good based on ethics is, after all, social, we lose both the social and the good.  

Our great detachment is accompanied by great division, as we divide ourselves into groups (conservative vs progressive!) (male vs female) (white vs non-white) (Christian vs non-Christian) (American vs non-American) (etc.) (and so on) (endlessly).  When ethics is made central in our lives (and our thoughts), then every single thing that we do---drink water, eat food, wear clothes, breathe air, vote, buy a house, read a book (and so endlessly on)---connects us to other humans.  Our awareness of that fact is the beginning of acknowleging and engaging in a relationship that links us to where the water came from, how we use it, where it goes when we are through with it, even the systems that turn hydrogen and oxygen into water.  We are never alone when we take that sip of water.  

Similarly, we are not alone when we walk through the grocery store, pushing our cart.  Nor in our car driving to work.  And so endlessly on.  Will is emphasizing romance and love for a single other human as the significant factor in the great detachment, but the detachment is more fundamental.  When we fail to see the human faces around us as persons with whom we (already!) have a connection, we fail to allow ourselves to experience the connection that we need to remain human, and we deny ourselves the opportunity to become our better selves.