Oil and gas crowd

 


Oil and gas crowd

     This one comes from cousin  Kevin's bold political action volunteering for the Fred Harris presidential campaign in 1976. Kevin got a terrific piece on the campaign published as an editorial in the Los Angeles Times and also developed an imitation of the candidates speaking voice. Fred Harris was everything you would want in a public servant  and had come close to being asked to be Vice President but his brand was not widely known. Despite representing Oklahoma as a senator Harris managed to be an admirable liberal who favored the Great Society and economic democracy. Way ahead of his time Fred wanted to wrest control away from corporations and millionaires. He travelled in a recreation vehicle wth young Smith aboard to cut down on costs and was as grass roots as it gets. Fred was married to native-american LaDonna and to this day we have buttons stating "LaDonna for First Lady." Kevin would repeat the phrase from Fred's speeches about "take the rich off welfare! Break up the monopolies, the timber interests, the oil and gas crowd!" Greg, always a fan of Smitty liked to preach the Harris gospel decades after the old sage retired. Somewhere on the shelves of Frances there is a signed copy of Fred Harris' book "The New Populism" Fred later moved into academia and as recently  as 2024 gave an interview stating "Americans know democracy is a central issue in the upcoming presidential election. All polls show it is a winning issue for the Democrats (just as the abortion issue is). In 2024, democracy will be a winning issue for America."



Comments

  1. LissyAugust 28, 2024 at 11:59 AM

    Now we have a new Harris to preach for…Kamala doesn’t know how much she’ll miss having Greg around, but we do

    ReplyDelete

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