Wednesday, July 7, 1999 | 9:42 a.m.
Brian Greenspun is editor of the Las Vegas Sun.
I HAVE an independence story.
Since Americans just finished celebrating the Fourth of July Independence Day weekend, it seems timely enough that I relate a story about a friend of mine who enjoyed a personal kind of independence this past week. I trust that you will agree that what my friend Fred found within himself is the kind of understanding that will continue to make each of us freer and more responsible members of this great experiment in democracy.
Last names are not important to this story. In fact, first names aren't even necessary except to point out that what happened last week to Fred can and should happen to many more Americans, if only they will open their hearts and minds to such possibilities. There is one name, though, that is real and that is of our former two-plus term governor, Bob Miller, who played an important part in the events just passed.
Back to Fred. He was born not too far from here and brought up in a family that believed that through hard work and compassion for others would come rewards enough. Fred always believed that, but somewhere along the line he succumbed to the marketing side of retail politics, which encouraged people to put their political thoughts in little boxes and label them with R's or D's. How they thought and what they wanted from life somehow became tied to those boxes, so much so that some people defined their own lives and their friends by the labels they attached to those confining little enclosures.
In the 1970s and early '80s, it was a particular kind of ultra-liberalism that defined an entire political party and the people who voted with it. As the Democrats moved farther left, they left most of their supporters behind and created the opportunity for the Republicans, who had been shut out of national politics ever since they marginalized themselves in the Johnson-Goldwater race for the White House.
But like most things American, it didn't take long for the pendulum to swing back the other way. Way back. With President Bill Clinton's election in 1992, there came a defining moment in the party of Lincoln, Reagan and Bush. Rather than stake out the principles that made the GOP a worthy contender for the imaginations of the American people, the Republican leadership turned rightward to such a degree that many followers felt lost and left out. Loyalty, however, being a decidedly American trait, the party faithful stuck in there, mouthing the words many didn't believe just waiting for another day in the sun.
Fred was among the millions who remembered when the GOP stood for something else, but who stayed the course. In the meantime, America witnessed an ideological split amongst the two parties that created an "us or them" mentality not only in the political corridors of power but on the main streets of the country. What at one time was viewed as political sparring became personal, and with it came a nation divided by the labels it wore.
And so it was for years with my friend Fred. Mention a Democrat to him and there was ice. Mention a political idea that was supported by a Democrat and it didn't stay long enough in the discussion to even get short shrift. Heaven help the person who even suggested financial or voter support; that was way out of the question. And all because those who marketed politics to the people had done their job so effectively that differences of opinion grew into differences so wide they could not be spanned by even the best-intentioned of people.
Enter Bob Miller, who just happened to play a round of golf with Fred. They were thrown together for a full day in which the only guard either of them put up was to prevent an errant slice or shank from ruining the other's day. They talked about golf but they also talked about ideas. And it was during the course of those discussions that Fred learned that Democrats could have good ideas, too. He not only liked the man he saw, he liked many of the ideas he advanced.
When Fred called to tell me of the revelation, I was surprised only in that it took so long for my friend to realize that there is no corner on good ideas, nor was there a particular political party more able to express them. Fred's excitement about the energy that came from his discussions with Nevada's former governor grew not just from the dialogue but from the understanding that what he and millions of others had been fed through the public relations and spin machines was not the way it really is.
His exhilaration came in the knowledge that what he had always felt as an American -- the value of hard work, the benefit of good ideas coupled with indefatigable effort, the need to bring the least among us along for this great ride into the 21st century, a ride that would make all of us better as a result -- was not a Democratic or a Republican idea. It is an American idea.
What he may not have realized is that our Founding Fathers, when they wrote the Declaration of Independence and announced it to the world on July 4, 1776, had very similar hopes for the America they were about to create. It is the knowledge that comes with such an understanding that now, 223 years later and at a time when our nation needs it more than ever, my friend Fred acknowledges.
There is a certain independence that comes with that kind of realization. It is refreshing and invigorating and the kind of independence I wish all Americans could experience. For now, though, Fred is a very good start.
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