The following is presented as part of The Columbian’s Opinion content, which offers a point of view in order to provoke thought and debate of civic issues. Opinions represent the viewpoint of the author. Unsigned editorials represent the consensus opinion of The Columbian’s editorial board, which operates independently of the news department.
As they recalibrate, reassess and reconfigure in the wake of a disastrous election, Democrats at the national level would be wise to look at Southwest Washington.
There, they will find exactly what their party needs. There, they will find an elected official who manages to connect with the working class, has a rural background and co-owns a small business with her husband. There, they will find a politician who rebuffs party-line rhetoric when such rhetoric does not match the needs of her district.
So, as she sits in a coffee shop at Vancouver’s gleaming waterfront, days after being elected to Congress for the second time, Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez offers frequent reminders that she is a different kind of Democrat.
“I hear Democrats say, ‘We stick up for the little guy,’ ” she says. “I’ve never met anybody who wants to be called ‘the little guy.’ That’s condescending.” The sentiment echoes something she said last year in criticizing her party for catering to elites — “How (bleeped) is it that we don’t respect or listen to people until they have a college degree?”
Perez, by the way, has a degree in economics from Portland’s Reed College. But her focus remains on local issues rather than Keynesian theory or the tragedy of the commons. She talks about the “primacy of loyalty to place,” says “everything real starts at the local level,” and stresses the importance of case work — responding to constituents who seek help with Veterans Affairs or the IRS or Social Security.
Of course, all politicians become proficient at spouting self-serving platitudes, but Perez carries hers with authentic humility. She even has an anecdote to flesh out the story.
“The questions I get from national reporters are so much different from what I get at town halls,” she says. Real people “want to ask about Spirit Lake; they ask about wildfires. One national media that shadowed me for a day asked my staff, ‘How does Marie pretend to be interested in these things?’ ”
Authenticity, apparently, is a rare commodity on the national stage. Which, it seems, is part of the problem.
It is inexplicable that Donald Trump has managed to coerce believers into thinking he is authentic. He is a stereotypical conman who lies and cajoles to convince voters that their enemies are his enemies. In the process, he makes them believe that moral bankruptcy is not a disqualifier for public office.
But while Trump’s ability to get people to vote against their best interests will be explored by Ph.D. candidates for decades to come, at the moment it is not the concern of Democrats. Instead, the party needs to focus on how to connect with the working class that once formed the bedrock of its support.
Take the economy, which Democrats have insisted is improving. The accuracy of the assertion and the statistics from think tanks are undermined by the reality felt by people as they shop at the grocery store or try to pay medical bills.
As Perez says: “You do not explain to people; you need to listen to them. Being in D.C., there’s a lot of groupthink; everybody has two degrees. Trying to develop a national agenda with national ideas is like trying to push with a rope.”
All of which makes Perez a different type of politician. All of which makes her a model that should be embraced by both parties.
“We need a radical change in who we consider a viable candidate,” she says. “It is a loss to limit the concept of diversity to just race. Our democracy is predicated on a representative body; we need normal people to run for Congress and try to hold office.”
That can be difficult in the digital age, when whatever can fit in 280 characters passes for profound thought. But it is notable that Perez expanded her margin of victory in a rematch against MAGA Republican Joe Kent — even as the rest of the nation moved to the right.
“The business community, farmers see that I am who I said I was,” she says.
And that should serve as a lesson for Democrats.
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