Similarities and differences

Wife and I recently returned from two weeks in the states of Washington and Oregon. You can read about the first part of the trip on my Substack --  (1) 30 in 32 - Bob McKinney: What I Know  -- where I recount my time in Seattle visiting my last Major League Baseball ballpark. 

I will post a more thorough narrative from the entire trip here soon, with pictures, but for this brief post I want to share about a major similarity and a major difference I observed in this part of the U.S. when compared to where I live in Middle Tennessee. 

The similarity was in the people. The people we met in Washington and Oregon seemed to go out of their way to be welcoming and friendly. It seemed everywhere we went we encountered people who smiled, spoke to us before we spoke to them and wanted to know how we were and where we were from. 

In a town in Oregon (I forget which one), on a day when we needed to restock on some provisions, we went to a Target store. Conservatively, I would say a half-dozen employees greeted us with smiles and asked if they could help us with anything. For one item I needed, a female employee dropped what she was doing and walked with me to the aisle where the item was located. Whether restocking shelves or working the checkout line, they could not have been friendlier. 

This is largely what we experienced in stores, restaurants and hotels along coastal Washington and Oregon. Refreshing to say the least. They might have spoken with a different accent and inflection in their voices, but they were every bit as friendly and pleasant as the people I generally encounter in the South. 

The big difference? That would be the political environment. I live in a very RED state. Like many parts of the country, we are having primary elections. In Tennessee, that means Republicans are running against each other to see who will face a Democratic opponent in November. And around here, the person who wins the GOP primary, unless something just this side of a miracle happens, is already the presumptive candidate who will prevail in November's general election. 

For example, one of our current Tennessee senators, Marsha Blackburn, is running against two opponents in the Republican race for governor. She is heavily favored.  I guess there is also a Democratic primary, but I could not tell you who any of their candidates are. 

But I can tell you this: when Marsha wins the GOP primary, she will be pretty safe to start measuring for curtains in the Governor's Mansion. That's how red we are here. 

Her commercials and ads, like those of her Republican colleagues running for other offices, feature narratives of how she "stands with President Trump" and of course, Marsha has been fortunate enough (if you want to call it that) to literally stand beside the prez in the Oval Office and you can bet we see those images often. 

In Oregon, it is a completely different vibe. Whenever we happened to be in hearing or seeing range of a television, we saw commercials for Democratic office seekers promising how they would "stand up to Donald Trump" and the perceived ills he has brought upon their state and the country at large. 

Signage was similar, with promises to fight Trump and ICE. Quite the contrast with where I reside. 

It turns out we can learn a lot from a temporary change in geography.  

See you back here soon.