So It's Not Me!

That's What It Means To Be An Oregonian.

Sponsor: CrisDental Family Dentistry & Denture Center/ Eugene Oregon

I’m A Republicrat

Shortly after the pandemic hit my wife and I looked at the science, we looked at the facts and decided we would not be silent.

The cost is greater than we talk about on here but let me tell you we've lost clients, friends and all of sudden a couple who were just a little right of center politically has been demonized into some far right corner where we don't belong.

At the gym the other day I was on a machine and this woman next to me starts teasing me.

I struck back and we started talking.

We exchanged names, she asked how I ended up in Montana, I told her and she began to share.

She's a nurse, she thinks the vaccine is wrong and she reads the literature and knows masks don't work.

Oh, and then she says to me "and I'm a Democrat!"

It was the way things used to be long ago in this country and in my home state of Oregon.

The old Kennedy Democrats like my parents, my grandparents and my great grandparents.

The woman talked about all the craziness and told me how her party was out of touch.

We laughed and I said "Both parties are out of touch."

What I LOVE about Montana is people still care about politics but aren't afraid to criticize their own.

No one asks you what party you belong to, that's like asking how much money you make or how many cattle you have on your ranch.

Oh, folks in Montana are concerned that more folks like Kathy and me are coming here. They see what's gone on in Oregon and don't want that here.

But from what I gather it's not as much about party politics as it is common sense.

Yes, in Montana sense is still common and those without it aren't going to survive.

There are warning signs in Montana that the outside world is slipping in.

But you aren't discounted or worse, canceled for believing what you believe.

People accuse me of changing.

I hope I'm changing.

If you don't change you die.

Some accuse me of being intolerant but the only thing I'm intolerant of is intolerance.

I always thought of myself as an Oregonian.

But the definition changed.

Back in the day that meant we were independent thinkers and we questioned everything and understood the art of relationship and compromise.

When this woman and I started talking, I felt like me again.

We weren't judging each other.

I wasn't being careful as to what I said or thought.

We were two openminded people talking politics, life and teasing each other.

So It's not me or maybe that rugged individualist we used to call an Oregonian got lost in the woke mentality that seems to have taken over Oregon.