Update [2005-6-6 1:30:43 by N in Seattle]:On further reflection, I slightly changed the title. Moot by now, though, as I was away from the computer far longer than it took for this thing to scroll off everyone's diary list.
Cross-posted from my blog, Peace Tree Farm
#########
C. Montgomery "Gummie" Johnson died in Olympia, Washington on May 21, just short of his 82nd birthday. Here are some slightly edited excerpts from his obituary, as it appeared in the June 2 edition of the Seattle Times (edited portions in [italics]):
Call C. Montgomery "Gummie" Johnson what you will -- brash, opinionated, brilliant, tough.
But not boring. Not a chance, say his relatives and friends.
The former state [major political party]chairman, who swore like a sailor and smoked "a billion cigars," campaigned tirelessly for public education, women's rights and the environment, said his daughter, Melissa J. Johnson.
More below the fold...
Mr. Johnson was born June 6, 1923, in Seattle to a mother and father who loved the outdoors. The family climbed, skied and camped throughout the Northwest.
Those outings fostered in Mr. Johnson a deep love of nature and the environment, said his sister, Annette Kuss. He graduated with a master's degree in forestry at the University of Washington in 1950 and worked for a time as a forest ranger before landing a job as Weyerhaeuser's director of public relations.
He would study the political leanings of each district in the state and select a
[his party] candidate who would have the best shot of winning a particular area, Reed said. He harbored a deep distrust for radical
[members of his party], whom he felt contributed to a breakdown in political problem-solving.
"He knew strategy," Reed said. "He wasn't exactly your Seattle, polite, consensus-type person. He had a way of making things happen."
Mr. Johnson rivaled no other when it came to lobbying for issues he cared about -- the environment, education, libraries, hospitals and tribal rights, his daughter said.
After a brief second marriage, he married Ann Quantock, a Democratic lobbyist. They formed a political-consulting firm that fought, among other things, to retain treaties for Native American tribes.
In a story in The Seattle Times in 1985, Mr. Johnson lashed out against those seeking to strip Native Americans of their hunting rights and gambling privileges.
"And when you have a systematic extermination of people's rights -- that's genocide," he said.
Remarkably -- or perhaps not, else why would I be mentioning Mr. Johnson's passing? -- those three edits were each used to replace the word Republican. Yes, this passionate supporter of women's rights, public education, the environment, and the rights of Native Americans was not only a Republican, but the chairman of the Washington State Republican Party.
My goodness, how things have changed since Gummie Johnson's heyday. How different is the subject matter of the dialogue between and within the major parties. When running for re-election as Republican state chair early this year, slimy Rovian corporatist scumbag Chris Vance faced a not-insignificant challenge from his right! As detailed in a late-December profile in the Seattle Times,
Vance acknowledged that he has some critics in the party, including activists calling themselves Reagan Wing Republicans. The group says Vance and a "liberal elite" have run the party and have strayed from core party principles.
Vance eventually won a three-way race for state chair, beating a pair of wacko reactionaries on the first ballot.
Reading about the death of what was clearly a different sort of Washington state Republican chair, who led what was clearly a different brand of Republican party, gets me to wondering where and how it all went wrong. Do we "blame" Bill Clinton (for my money, the best Republican president since Teddy Roosevelt)? No, I think he was just a major milestone along a wrong-turn road we'd been on for quite some time. Was it Mike Dukakis or Jimmy Carter or George McGovern? Ronald Reagan, Richard Viguere, Jerry Falwell, or Barry Goldwater?
No answers from this quarter. However, that today happens to be the 37th(!?!) anniversary of the assassination of Robert Kennedy opens my mind to all sorts of woulda, coulda, shoulda considerations.