Chapter 4

We Make Headlines

     Eloise arrived back in town to teach her Monday morning classes, and invited Max and Skip to give a presentation on the history of third parties in the United States.  Skip talked about his time as a legislator back in Minnesota and his failed attempt to get “fusion” to be a constitutional right – a political party should be able to pick anyone they want to be their candidate, even if already some other party’s candidate, based on the First Amendment Right of Association.

      Skip explained, “Here’s the idea – it sends a message – put up somebody to our liking, that we can vote for too, or we’ll run somebody against you.  Find out which party line gets the most votes.”  Skip recommended the class read Andrew Yang’s book, Forward – Notes on the Future of Our Democracy.

    One of Eloise’s students asked if Eloise was running for school board as a Yang Ganger because the two major parties kept running candidates who were too extreme on the issues.  Eloise said she hoped voters would take the time to study each candidate before voting.  “The more candidates the better,” she said.  

     Later that day a reporter called Eloise and informed her that one of her opponents had issued a media release saying she was using class time to campaign, and the school board should fire her.  Eloise said that was not true, but the story in the paper the next day had a picture of our Land Yacht and its bumper stickers, including that 60s one “Question Authority,” and the reporter, without checking the facts, referred to us “as a bunch of old hippies, outside agitators, in town to stir up trouble.” 

     Up until then, not much attention was being paid to the upcoming school board election, but now there was an uproar about it.  We tried to cheer Eloise up recalling the old political saw about getting your name out there anyway you can. 

     The day the news story hit – a mild, blue skies, September day – we started being followed around town by guys in pick-up trucks, the kind with rifle racks and real rifles on the back window.  Later that day, back at our waitress-friend Susie’s place, one of those pick-ups pulled over and parked, and then a second one pulled up.  Susie came out with a couple of us.  The passenger-side guy in the second pick-up rolled down his window and shouted, “Get out of town!  NOW!.”  He was wearing a Trump “MAGA” cap. 

     Fortunately, the driver in the first pick-up recognized Susie from the Chat & Chew as a “sorta-friend,” and Susie suggested, “Hey guys, let’s head over to the Chat & Chew for coffee and talk things through.  I’m buying.” 

    A few minutes later, we were all in the back dining room at the Chat & Chew, us Minnesota left-wingers, these Montana cowboy types, Susie and Eloise, who arrived after school let out.  Eloise looked younger than her age (64, we later learned).  Coming from teaching, her hair was still up in a bun, her blouse buttoned to the top, but in a skirt that showed off her nice legs – which the men in the room surely noticed.  She had a great smile, and gleaming eyes.  She knew how to look right at you, and win you over – a natural politician.

     Susie steered us to some common ground being anti-authoritarian from the left and the right.  We found we shared a common desire to bring down the corporate duopoly controlling the country.  Skip agreed with them that average working-class Americans had good reason to be pissed about their government, but pinned the blame on Reagan’s failed trickle-down economics . . . and race baiting.

     “Yeah, maybe,” the guy with the MAGA cap said, “but what really pisses me off is the way that so many non-Americans, Africans, Latinos, whatever, come over here and got more rights than we’ve got.” 

     Eloise got the Montanans to agree freedom should include reading anything you want (which is what got her to run for office) and Susie got one of them to nod when she said “Do no harm to others should include stopping corporate polluters from poisoning the water or raping the wilderness.”  

     Skip referred back to the politics of the 1960s and ‘70s, when, with good reason, patriotic Americans started losing faith with a government that couldn’t be trusted, saying, “Our institutional systems, our common purpose – our sense of patriotism – to fight evil and corruption were stronger in the Watergate era.  It’s much more frayed today.  We need to be careful about authoritarianism.”

     Yes, we thought, an open–minded, intelligent conversation, all–around, although there was total disagreement on what reasonable gun safety laws should look like.  We did agree that not having armed mobs storming the Capitol was something all patriotic Americans should get behind.

     The Montanans, knowing we were just passing through and leaving soon, said farewell on friendly terms.  Later, we heard from Gregory, and his teenage buddies we met the first day, that the word on the street, amongst skateboarders, Zoomers and Trumpers, was to vote for Eloise. 

     “Wow!” Skip said as we were leaving town, “Not just stirring up imaginations across the generational divide, even the political divide!”

     One more thing about our time in Boulder:  While some went fishing in the Boulder River, Skip, Rocky and Steve took in a murder trial going on at the local courthouse.  It seemed insignificant at the time, but soon proved otherwise.