Remembering Paul Wellstone
Ten years ago, a Senator, his wife, his daughter, three campaign staffers and two pilots died in a small plane crash in Northern Minnesota. I was ten years old, and my mom came to school to lead our Girl Scout Troop meeting, and she was crying. I didn’t understand at the time why it was so important, or why everyone was so sad, but growing up in the Obama age of Hope and Change, it makes much more sense to me now. As a native Minnesotan, and born into a family of true-blue liberals four generations deep, Paul Wellstone represented everything my family believed in. He spoke his mind even when he was in the minority; he reneged the title of “senator” in favor of Paul; he advocated for those people living on the margins; and, he wasn’t afraid to vote his conscious, even though it could cost him reelection.
I know that if you’re not from Minnesota, the name might not mean much to you, but it should. Wellstone was a different kind of politician, one who might not make it in today’s political climate. He ran for senate in 1990, on a shoestring budget, being outspent by his opponent 7:1. He drove across the state in a green bus, countering the spending of his opponent in the only way he could: by directly engaging with citizens. He ran campaigns of integrity and purpose, never flooding the state with Citizen’s United-esque propaganda, but instead really talking to people.
Today, politicians crack under the pressure of prevailing winds, and it’s rare to see someone vote on anything that could lessen their chances of reelection, but, again, Wellstone was different. He voted against the repeal of Glass-Steagall; he was the only senator to vote against Clinton’s welfare reform, one of a handful to vote against the Iraq War Resolution (causing a huge dip in his approval rating in Minnesota), and his final vote in the senate was against the US invasion of Iraq.
As we approach the end of one of the longest, ugliest campaign seasons ever to face our country, I ask myself: Where are the Wellstones? Where are the politicians giving us real talk, not political fodder? Where is the candidate willing to voice the unpopular opinion because it’s the right one? In ten years, will we stop to remember the candidate who bent to special interest groups, the one who caved under the pressures of Washington, the one who flipped-flopped in the name of getting elected? Senator Paul Wellstone left a legacy unlike that of any senator before him. He lived and legislated his convictions, co-sponsoring the original Violence Against Women Act and championing Mental Health Legislation (that would be passed six years after his death, in his name).
Election Day is nearly upon us, and come November 6th many of us will face a ballot filled with the lesser of two evils. We’ll vote for the candidate less likely to flip-flop; the one who sort-of, kind-of represents our interests; the one who caves the least to special interests. But I ask, is this what any of us really wants? I was too young to have voted for Senator Wellstone, or really understood how important he was at the time, but I know today that he’s the sort of candidate I would want to vote for. Perhaps hoping for another Wellstone to come around is idealistic, and my time would be better spent backing the guy or girl who’s good enough for my vote. And you’re right. I’ll keep voting for the candidate who seems least bad, knowing that there is another Wellstone out there. And once the Wellstones of the world are back on the ticket, you’d damn well better believe I’m giving my vote to them.
“Politics is not just about power and money games, politics can be about the improvement of peoples lives, about lessening human suffering in our world and bringing about more peace and more justice.”