The political winds are blowing, not from west to east or even east to west. Actually, I’d say they are blowing from the middle of America outward.
My roots are in Arkansas – I was born and mostly raised there through the 70s and 80s.
My grandfather ran for governor of Arkansas back in the 1950s. If he wouldn’t have lost to Orval Faubus, you’d know who my grandfather was. Governor Faubus famously/infamously called in the National Guard to resist the integration orders from the federal government to let non-white kids attend Little Rock schools.
Even though that chapter in Arkansas and national history was before my time, I always heard about it growing up. And it was embarrassing to me for a while to be from a place associated with that kind of ugliness. As a percussionist, I actually performed in that old Little Rock Central High School before it closed down.
Eventually, I learned to own the fact that while I was from Arkansas, it didn’t mean that I was a racist or was closed-minded. It was just a geographical coincidence of my birth. Arkansas was the butt of education jokes; typically, we ranked at or near the bottom for quality of education. Some years we were thankful that Mississippi ranked even lower than us.
The county over from my hometown ranked highest in the country in teenage pregnancies.
The Clintons were our first family for years. In fact, when Bill Clinton eventually became President Clinton, I wrote a weekly humor column about his administration, but from an Arkansan’s perspective.
My point is, I’ve spent a majority of my personal and professional life paying attention to or being surrounded by politics and politicians, with my roots firmly planted in hillbilly America.
My other point is, for the most part, we’ve all come together into the credit union industry from different geography points, but mostly from the same angles.
Knowing people from Illinois, Utah, Texas or pick a state, a lot of us grew up outside of the large metro areas. I’ve learned over the years that our large cities are all connected in between by “Middle America.” Even that tiny space between New York City and Philadelphia holds almost the same type of person you’d find living in Arkansas or western Nebraska.
I’m writing this as I prepare our CU Times team for GAC. Each year I’ve gone, it’s been a love fest of seeing old friends, hearing the rally cries of “Don’t Tax My Credit Union” and so on.
I’m expecting the tone to shift at GAC this year from a cheerleading stance to more of an empowerment platform.
Our lives are shaped by where we come from and those we connect ourselves with. And that’s the interesting thing about getting together at GAC – our differences are only in our geography.
Middle America isn’t secluded to the literal middle of our country. These are the people and credit union members who aren’t in Washington or Los Angeles, or enjoy a nice train ride into the city to see a show.
If you live in a metropolitan area, drive 30 miles outside of it and there we are – Middle America.
If this last presidential election taught us something (and oh my God were there a lot of lessons to be learned), it taught us that we are pretty self-centered people. And that the losing side ignored the voices, beliefs and economic struggles of what makes up Middle America.
I get the point of GAC. And efforts by credit union leaders to lobby lawmakers and hopefully get a meeting with them on the Hill to express a unified message of the needs of our industry. I get it and it’s an important thing to do.
But here’s what I’d love to see happen with this conference, or something like it of its size one day: Pick a state like Arkansas, like Kansas, like Vermont, and bring in 2,000 credit union activists and leaders to make a stand for financial cooperatives.
I believe you’d find a radical and positive public and political response to credit unions in that particular region of the country. And I guarantee you, the full force of that particular state’s media would cover such a large event happening in their state. And with today’s activist environment, the national media would most likely take notice as well.
Sure, we wouldn’t have cool monuments to see and we wouldn’t be lucky enough to have the president’s motorcade shut down traffic and the Metro. Sure, it might actually be held in a dry county! And yes, we even might have to stay in a Red Roof Inn.
Hey, listen, I love being in D.C. Don’t get me wrong. I love the city. I love the sessions and the happy hours.
But we’d be in Middle America, no matter where that is, to get a message out about the credit union industry that these people are included too. Mayors, county leaders, school boards and public officials would all get a true grassroots message about what we’re trying to do.
I’m simply watching these town hall meetings happening in Middle America with representatives on recess. I’m watching the organized efforts happening by those on the left and the right attending these town hall meetings because they want to hold their elected officials accountable – and it’s extraordinary.
Middle America spoke during this last election and I believe we should listen.
Michael Ogden is executive editor for CU Times. He can be reached at mogden@cutimes.com.
