HERE WE ARE. Just days away from another Presidential election. There is a certain level of weirdness that comes with presidential elections.
Clallam County has gotten its 15 minutes of fame as the last remaining bellwether county in the nation. In politics, it is used somewhat metaphorically where our political choices match those of the total U.S. Even so, the word is more often reflective of a predictor.
For instance, in economics, a bellwether company can be a leading indicator of market trends.
Are we a bellwether? When it comes to presidential elections, we see a lot of belligerent people bellowing and using bellicose words. What if people were more belles-lettrist?
It is not surprising that many “bell” words come from the Latin word “bellum”, which means “war.” Food for thought.
Is Clallam County a bellwether county? You can make up your own mind about that. But let us consider the word itself. It derives from the practice of placing a bell around the neck of a “wether,” which is a castrated male sheep. The bellwether is the sheep that leads the flock.
Sociologically, a bellwether is a person who leads foolish sheep-like people. There is the answer! Clallam County is the bellwether county because we are NOT foolish sheep-like people.
My preference is to equate Clallam County to a skeet shooter. Like our own Matt Dryke, who won Olympic Gold in skeet shooting in the 1984 Summer Olympic games. Since 1980, we have hit every clay pigeon thrown out there. We are superior marksmen.
Will we continue to be the bellwether county? Or will we simply bellyache about our belly flop? Or will we hit it again? Let us find out on Tuesday.
That aside, Clallam County is no stranger to political oddities. One involved state Rep. “Landslide” Evan Jones, who was from Sequim. He served as a county commissioner and became our representative in 1987.
In 1990, Rep. Evan Jones, a Democrat, was running against Republican Ann Goos. To say it was a close race is an understatement. The first count had him winning by five votes. The recount had him losing by one vote. A hand recount had him winning by three votes. The election was finally certified by the Secretary of State.
Further drama ensued when five missing ballots were found. Jones’ unofficial victory was only by two votes.
It was a clear reminder that every vote counts. At the time, I wondered how many people regretted not voting. This should serve as a message to us to not ignore the privilege of voting. (Oh, by the way, you still have a couple of days left to vote.)
Moving on, do issues really change that much? In 1948, Gov. Thomas E. Dewey, a Republican, was confident he would win the presidential election over Democrat Harry Truman. His platform gave “enthusiastic support to expanding Social Security, raising the minimum wage level and protecting veterans’ rights and benefits.” We hear the same things even today.
The counting of ballots and the flow of information was much slower then. Truman had a narrow lead on election night, but political commentators still believed Dewey would win. So sure were the commentators that the Chicago Daily Tribune decided to print its newspaper with the headline “Dewey Defeats Truman.” This was a world-class blunder. Truman won.
We should remember that this can happen even today. People on social media can be so convinced their candidate will win that they do not wait for the election results to come in.
One hundred years ago, political issues were very similar. Republican candidate Calvin Coolidge’s platform focused on boosting the economy and maintaining honesty in government. His catch phrase was “full dinner pail.” Meaning plenty of food for working people.
Democratic candidate John Davis’ platform condemned child labor, demanded prosecution of monopolies and sought federal aid for education. (Yet, the Democratic convention failed to condemn the KKK by name.)
Progressive Party candidate Robert La Follette’s platform called for “house cleaning” of executive departments, public control of natural resources and tax reduction.
So there is nothing new under the sun (Eccl. 1:9). Even after 100 years, the same issues persist in some form.
Political strife and scandal also are nothing new. In the 1920s, there was President Harding’s Teapot Dome Scandal, in which federal oil reserves were secretly leased by the secretary of the interior. In the late 1960s, we saw riots in opposition to the Vietnam War and marches against racial inequalities.
In April 1968, Martin Luther King was assassinated. Then in June 1968, presidential candidate Robert Kennedy was assassinated. 1972 was the start of President Richard Nixon’s Watergate scandal that eventually brought down his presidency.
Those were certainly tumultuous political times.
On a lighter note, I wondered if any presidential candidates came from Washington state. For those of us at a certain age, the answer is yes. That person was Pat Paulsen. He was almost an Olympic Peninsula resident.
Paulsen was born in South Bend, Wash., on July 6, 1927. He lived there until he was 10.
Paulsen’s political campaign began on the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour after CBS refused to air a political comedy bit by Paulsen. That was all the Smothers Brothers writers need to launch a Pat Paulsen presidential campaign.
Paulsen campaigned in 1968 and beyond, wholly grounded in comedy. Yet his social commentaries were somewhat serious.
Paulsen said he “was just a common, ordinary, simple savior of America’s destiny.”
“To get to the meat of the matter, I will come right to the point and take note of the fact that at the heart of the issue in the final analysis escapes me.” Was Paulsen prepared to solve problems? “Sure, why not?”
In 1996, Paulsen came in second (at 1 percent) behind Bill Clinton in the New Hampshire Democratic primary.
What can we learn? The same issues persist. Scandals persist. Riots and demonstrations persist. Yet America has survived all this. After this election, I think America will again survive. We simply must have faith in a country that produces the cleanest wash, the softest hands, the closest shave and the fastest relief from diarrhea.
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John McNutt is a descendant of Clallam County pioneers and treasurer of the North Olympic History Center Board of Directors. He can be reached at woodrowsilly@gmail.com.
McNutt’s Clallam history column appears the first Saturday of every month.
A bellwether is traditionally the leading sheep of a flock, which has a bell to lead the others.
Evan Jones 1990.
