The Corner of 1st and America
Rekindling my American Spirit
I have a confession to make. I’ve fallen in love. Her name is America, and I’m besotted. Not with her politics, of course, but with her people. I’ve been all over in the last eight weeks and seeing my country up close has rekindled my spirit, my adoration, and my belief that the seeds of our renewal, our community, and our future have already been sewn, they’re just waiting for someone to come along and water them.
Our trip started in Madison, Wisconsin. If you haven’t visited, you should. It’s a great town. We did a meet and great with the Wisconsin Democratic Party on the University of Wisconsin campus. About a dozen volunteers showed up and deployed, handing out information. The college Republicans had a table across from our friends. There were only two: A young woman and a guy. And the guy was dressed up in an elephant costume. They were lonely. The vegans had more people talking to them.
Headed north, we first stopped in Viroqua, Wisconsin on Tuesday one of the first stops on our Join The Union Bus Tour around the Badger State. Wisconsin is, at its heart, a small town. We haven’t been anywhere yet where my Cheesehead-native busmates haven’t run into friends, old colleagues, or family. No one seems to be more than two degrees of separation from anyone else.
Those are the kind of connections and relationships that make a state of five million people feel like a small town.
Viroqua is an hour north of Madison, down byways, through rolling fields, and farmland, warmed by a breezy late October heatwave. The sign at the AmericInn where we stayed wished Roy good luck. I’m not sure if he’d moved spiritually or temporally, but wherever you are Roy, Godspeed.
Tuesday morning, as we were loading up our bus, Nancy appeared asking what we were up to. She and he colleagues had been watching us out the window of their office and her curiosity was piqued.
Nancy told us she worked for a local agency responsible for helping with in-home visits to sick patients. Before that, she’d been a nurse in town for 40 years. She’s retiring on Friday. Your friends, your neighbors, and community are blessed to have you; though I bet you’re not going far.
We’re partnering on our tour with Civic Media on our tour and recording The Todd Allbaugh Show live from 12-2 pm Central everyday. We set up shop outside Wonderstate Coffee (2025 Roaster of the Year!) on Main Street in Viroqua. Across the street to our left was the Technical College. Directly ahead is 91.9 WDRT the community radio station.
During our two hours on air each day, we’ve spoke with local business owners and community leaders; each of them dedicated to make their town, their state, their country in their own ways. Try the pecan fudge pie at the Norske Nook, I promise you won’t be disappointed.
National political news and social media convinces us that our problems are intractable, insolvable, and leave open a path for carnival barkers like Donald Trump to claim ‘he alone can solve it.’
He can’t, he won’t, and he doesn’t want to. Trump called the United States of America ‘a garbage can.’ He wouldn’t dane to spend time in the small towns I’ve visited this week. They can do nothing for him, therefore, to him, the towns and the good people are not worthy of time, attention or consideration.
Four days from now, the US will face its most existential election since 1860. There are no commonalities between the candidates and their visions. The Venn diagram between the pro-democracy movement and Donald Trump’s Republican Party doesn’t exist.
Existence, in fact, is a matter of perception, perspective, and propaganda. Half the country believes we live in an occupied state; steadily poisoned against the place that has provided so many of us the opportunities to live lives too many of our own people still can’t achieve, let alone those around the globe who still see the US as the ‘shining city on the hill.’
When Kamala Harris and Tim Walz are elected next Tuesday, it will not simply be the changing of presidents, or a change in generations, it will be the first tangible opportunity we’ve had in a decade to push MAGA and its broken, noxious beliefs back into the woods where they belong.
I’ve been in this fight a long time, and even after all these years, I don’t think I hate any of my political opponents. Expending that kind of mental and emotional energy leads only toward darkness. I do, however, understand who and what they are: People who believe their fellow citizens, and most of their supporters, are suckers and losers.
My week in Wisconsin, like my days in Michigan, North Carolina, and Florida, have reminded me that we all need to get outside our bubbles more often. Making contact with those not of your place is a good thing; maybe one of the best things.
Between now and next Tuesday, take a few small steps in that direction, texting or calling voters, or getting out and knocking on doors. You’ll feel better, and you’ll be better for it.
News and Notes:
Remember to check out The Home Front Podcast. This week, I talk to
about our need for a national mission statement, and I report in from the road. Leave a 5 Star Review!Check out another post of mine over in Project Syndicate; I decscribe how our mismatched information sphere has helped lead us to this moment.
Thank you for your touching tribute to Wisconsin (I’m a resident) and the reminder that there are so many good people in this nation we call home. The trump nastiness can obscure the fact that so many people do not think or talk like this. Even those that do may have been swept up by the intensity of the movement, without realizing how much they still have in common with their fellow citizens. There is more that unites us than divides us.
Thank you for this uplifting message from the heart of America, Reed! It gives me a lot of hope!