{"id":2187,"date":"2023-09-19T01:07:00","date_gmt":"2023-09-19T01:07:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/?p=2187"},"modified":"2023-08-19T13:30:51","modified_gmt":"2023-08-19T13:30:51","slug":"chap-9-how-rumpkins-got-their-name","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/?p=2187","title":{"rendered":"Chap. 9 – How Rumpkins Got their Name"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Chapter 9<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

How The Rumpkins Got their Name<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    On a picture-perfect afternoon, leaving Sally and Patty lounging poolside at the Sheraton-Portland, we dropped Huck and Steve off by the Rose Garden tennis courts.  Skip, Rocky, and Susie proceeded to the Forward Party\u2019s suite in the old Coachman building near Powell\u2019s Bookstore.  Pushing the buzzer, nobody answered, but there was a sign in the foyer that gave a number to call.  \u201cWell yeah, we\u2019re actually meeting tonight and you\u2019re welcome to stop by,\u201d we were told by the guy who answered the phone.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

     It was an eventful night.  The Yang fans in Portland were just getting organized and the meeting tonight was with some Greens and \u201cIndies\u201d (their word for Independents) to see if a coalition could be formed under the banner of the Forward Party.  Although just getting started, they had done some research and even had Eloise Johnson\u2019s campaign for Boulder, Montana, School Board on their radar screen. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

     After the meeting, a few of the Portlanders reconvened at the Goose Hollow Inn, owned by a former Mayor of Portland, Bud Clark, and invited us to tag along.  The night had turned stormy.  Rain falling.  Traffic lights reflecting in the puddles.  It was a two-block walk and we arrived wet.  At first it seemed like there was nothing special about Bud\u2019s place \u2013 just a neighborhood tavern, a dozen stools and half-dozen tables on each side of a U-shaped bar, with popcorn and microwave pizza if hungry.  But upon closer inspection, the framed photographs and news stories, up on the walls, told a different story.  Bud was a colorful character, more than a politician, he was proud to be a tavern owner running for office riding his bike all over town, promoting the arts as his number one issue.  The biggest photograph on the wall \u2013 showing him wearing only a raincoat and appearing to expose himself to a nude female statue \u2013 was titled \u201cExpose Yourself to Art.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     After a round of beers, we ordered shots of tequila.  Susie gave the Portland crowd an update on how Eloise\u2019s campaign was going: \u201cSo, we\u2019ve gotten to be best friends, and I\u2019m super-excited she\u2019s running for school board \u2013 but as a Yang Future Party candidate, we didn\u2019t figure she had much of a chance . . . .  that is, until Skip and his pranksters hit town.  It was front<\/em> page<\/em> news that a bunch of old hippies had arrived from Minnesota to be her volunteers.  And, of course, Boulder has a lot of red-necks, so it was like back to the \u201860s:  red-necks versus hippies with the hippies getting run out of town at gunpoint . . .\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     \u201cYeah, well, not quite,\u201d Rocky interrupted, \u201cno red-necks, they were all long hairs . . . .\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      \u201cand wearing MAGA caps,\u201d Skip interjected, \u201c. . . . but now they\u2019re supporting Eloise!\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

      \u201cIt was great!\u201d Susie said. \u201cAll voters, all potential<\/em> voters, Libertarians, Indies, Bernies, and \u201cTrumpet-ers<\/em>\u201d is what I would call them — need to join under one banner, trumpeting Freedom!  Freedom to read<\/em> what you want . . . freedom to be yourself! . . .  and, oh yeah, we need electoral reform.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     Rocky interrupted again: \u201cWon\u2019t happen.  Maybe we should just run a pig for President, you know, like the \u201868 Yippies did, totally anti-establishment . . .\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     \u201cOr better yet,\u201d Susie said, pointing to that photo on the wall, \u201ctake a page out of Bud\u2019s playbook:  Run for President, all of us in raincoats!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     By midnight, a couple guys from a different table joined us.  They had been at the meeting, but sought their own counsel at the Inn.  A guy named Jesse said, \u201cYah, Yang\u2019s okay, but check out the Pirate Party – think about ways to \u2018hack\u2019 the current system.\u201d  Jesse described himself as one of these really, really tech savvy computer geeks who can do just about anything on the internet, \u201c. . . even things the Russians haven\u2019t figured out how to do – or Congress hasn\u2019t yet figured out should be illegal.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     Jesse\u2019s buddy said he had something to say: \u201cThink back to the founding of the country.  Back before the Revolutionary War, folks in Colonial Virginia were also mighty upset with their government.  What they started doing was meeting as a rump<\/em> group at the local tavern . . .\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     \u201cMeeting as a . . . what?!  A bunch of asses?!\u201d  Rocky said, interrupting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     \u201cLet me finish,\u201d this new guy said.  \u201cThis tavern was across the street from the Virginia House of Burgesses.  The guys hanging at the tavern started acting like they were the legitimate ones enacting laws, and those across the street, the insiders, were nobodies.  But the backbenchers, the tail<\/u><\/em> end of the insiders, started joining those drinking at the tavern . . .\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     \u201cOhhh, I get it,\u201d Rocky said.  \u201cThey weren\u2019t<\/em> the assholes \u2013 they were the left-behinds<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      \u201cPretty soon,\u201d according to this guy, \u201cthe drinking crowd had more followers and better ideas, and started debating and voting on the laws they\u2019d like to see in place, and before too long these new ideas got so popular they actually became the laws of Virginia.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     Later on we learned this account of things in colonial Virginia was not entirely historically accurate, but by our first day in California, somebody had crayoned \u201cJoin The Rumpkins!\u201d on our back window, and the name stuck. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

     One<\/em> last<\/em> thing<\/em> about<\/em> that<\/em> night<\/em> in<\/em> Portland<\/em>, Jesse had invited us to stay in touch because he had an idea on how the internet and social media, just like a tavern, could be used to do a 21st<\/sup> Century version of rump legislating (or organizing).  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Chapter 9 How The Rumpkins Got their Name     On a picture-perfect afternoon, leaving Sally and Patty lounging poolside at the Sheraton-Portland, we dropped Huck and Steve off by the Rose Garden tennis courts.  Skip, Rocky, and Susie proceeded to … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[22],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2187"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2187"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2187\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2593,"href":"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2187\/revisions\/2593"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2187"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2187"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2187"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}