Michael Byrne: A Poet, and his pathway to victory.

"To earn the trust of the voters in Oregon's District 2 one must have a basic set of experiences that define us, and this place."

                                         Michael Byrne, the stone mason guy

Byrne

A reader wrote me:  "After reading about all the candidates and who they are, I really believe that the best one has the least chance.  That would be the stone mason guy.  He would make a great representative for the country."

He is informal, unpretentious, lighthearted. He has a profound case to make: that representation in Congress is about representation. 

Michael Byrne says Greg Walden is not our representative, not anymore. Walden is an actor who has broken character and has been revealed as a lobbyist. Byrne says Walden is fake, and credible populism cannot be faked. It has to be lived. "My District 2 backstory will get me elected. I am who Greg Walden pretends to be while he enriches himself at the public's expense.. . . District 2 is looking for a representative that can be trusted; with shared values and experience. Greg Walden has posed as that representative."

Michael Byrne writes campaign material the way Walt Whitman wrote poetry. Readers may remember reading Whitman's blank verse in high school. 

Byrne writes a modern "Song of Myself, done new for this era of Trump.

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Byrne writes:

"Congress is a Millionaire's Club that neither cares nor knows anything about us.

To earn the trust of the voters in Oregon's District 2 one must have a basic set of experiences that define us, and this place.

In no particular order:

*Own a pick up truck

*Can field dress a deer, catch a steelhead, set up camp

*coached Little League

*gone years without health insurance

*have less than $1000 in savings

*have a nephew or son in the military

*your spouse worked a dead end job so your kids had health insurance

*looked up at the mountains and knew you wouldn't live anywhere else

*driven 200 miles in the middle of the night because there was a bed available in a   drug treatment center

*volunteered in your kids public school

*lived on a dirt road

*taken your family to the coast, because you could.

*attend the high school football games

*barbecue

*grow vegetables

Vietnam anti-war Byrne

*have some college

*went to school with Native Americans

*attend church irregularly

*know that a cord is 128 cu ft

*change your own oil

*has an elderly family member in a nursing home

It is too late to acquire this particular set of experiences, just as it too late for me to graduate from college at the top of my class.

My District 2 backstory will get me elected.  I am who Greg Walden pretends to be while he enriches himself at the public's expense."

This is a political blog, not a poetry blog. 

Can Michael Byrne actually win the election?

Byrne understands the circle of frustration he is in. "Part of the problem of not being taken seriously is you don't get taken seriously."

He seems marginal as a candidate because he doesn't have a crowd in front of him. Paul Simon or Bob Dylan would draw a crowd and be taken seriously. Whitman is a classic and professors call him a genius, or egotist, or revolutionary, but in any case they study him and assign him in class.

Without the cheering crowd there is nothing to draw a cheering crowd.  

Byrne spent the past week hosting a voter registration event in Hood River for the Latino community and teaching apprentice bricklayers about stone. There were no crowds.

Soccer Coach

Byrne is what voters think they want: a genuine representative who understands them and the problems of the district and who wants to fix them. Someone who who has a good heart, and who is a trustworthy neighbor, someone on their side. 

Here he is, if people want it.. If people don't vote for him, it is on them. .