OPINION: How to save America by running for Middletown Township auditor | Will Bunch
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If she's lucky, the diminutive Payne will hand her election brochures to a voter who had no clue there's an election on
Welcome to life in the dreary trenches of a counterrevolution. For Payne, the first few steps of the 1,000-mile journey toward reclaiming her vision of America in the aftershocks of last November run past the basketball hoops and the beige siding of the middle-class subdivisions of central
Payne is just one of thousands of first-time candidates -- many of them women, some of them millennials like her -- who've emerged mostly on the Democratic side in the post-Trump fallout. They carry a sense that last fall's failures won't be washed clean without people taking action on every level, even if that means showing up for monthly town party meetings or running for the most unglamorous posts, the jobs no one wanted before the cataclysmic events of
This summer, the group Emily's List -- long devoted to electing more women to political office -- reported that it had been contacted by a whopping 16,000 mostly first-time female office-seekers, or more than 16 times the number who reached out in the election cycle that included Trump's election. A few are seeking the shiniest objects, like a seat in the
Many are finding out politics is a lot harder than it looks. It's not just the fund-raising -- those yard signs and handouts don't grow on trees, it turns out -- or the entrenched old-boy networks in a lot of jurisdictions, but also the bizarre intrigues of dealing with flesh-and-blood human beings in an election that looked so winnable on cold paper. On the other side of
That's why political junkies are more eager than usual to watch next month's off-off-year elections, to see whether voter rage over Trump -- some 64 percent of Americans currently think the nation is on the wrong track -- actually brings more voters to the polls, and to see whether political novices can break through the ennui of a nonpresidential year.
There are already some encouraging signs, especially on the farther left side of the political dial, for some outsiders who've been backed by the Sen.
Payne's first-time bid for political office is in part the momentum of her 2016 efforts on behalf of Sanders, which earned her a delegate slot at last year's
But Payne also sees political activism in the time of Trump as a matter of life and death. Diagnosed at birth with cystic fibrosis -- the genetic disorder that can cause lung infections, difficulty breathing, and other symptoms -- Payne has depended on good health care as she endured frequent hospitalizations to push through
Some of her medical care is paid for through a Pennsylvania Medicaid program called Medical Assistance for Workers with Disabilities that Trump and congressional
"They weren't interested in covering me before, so why would they be interested in covering me now" if Obamacare is repealed, asks Payne, who, like most Sanders acolytes, would love to see a movement toward single-payer health care.
This raises the question: Can a citizen save America from a health-care catastrophe or other ravages of Trumpism by serving as a township auditor, where the most ambitious goal -- as stated by Payne -- is simply to bring "transparency" to how the books are balanced in a large suburban township?
"The people who are upset or part of the Resistance, looking to do anything they can, they can put new people in their township," Payne said, noting correctly that over the last couple of decades, the
Female candidates like Payne are stepping forward right when the gender imbalance in this country is having a moment. Just log on to any news website and read the headlines -- from the piggishness of powerful men of every stripe from
But that fierce urgency of now is doubly felt by Payne, who never forgets that her CF diagnosis -- despite major medical advances -- still comes with a shortened life expectancy.
"I'm really lucky that I'm healthy enough to do things -- that's why I'm jumping at the chance to do this now," Payne told me of her candidacy, adding, "I don't know how long that will last" -- defusing the moment with a hearty laugh. "I know one day I won't be able to knock on all of the doors."
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