Viewpoint: Which side are you on?
Richard Manning
I have a song to sing to Seth Bodnar. It’s a time-tested tune steeped in a deep history of troubles much like the troubles of our own time. If Bodnar can’t hear it, this song still might prove useful to the voters of Montana. It frames a vitally important question specific to Bodnar’s candidacy..
The song itself arose in the heat of Harlan County, Kentucky’s long, bloody battles to unionize the coal mines, but from there it spread and endured, rang out as anthem for subsequent progressive battles for civil rights, against the Vietnam War, for universal education, decent wages, all those long Democratic fights for human dignity.
In its origins it arose at the apex of a generations-long struggle of common people against the greed of Gilded Age oligarchs, of billionaires, of plutocrats. They called them “plutes” then, but it was the same deal then as now.
In Kentucky then, the plute-in-chief was a mine owner named J.H. Blair, and the song makes it everlastingly clear that he was the enemy:
They say in Harlan County
There are no neutrals there
You’ll either be a union man
Or a thug for J.H. Blair
And then the refrain, loud and clear, minor key menace, like a chant:
Which side are you on?
Which side are you on?
This refrain echoed through the decades. Today I might sing it a bit differently but still true to the original intent: You’re either a Democrat or a thug for Donald Trump.
Of course, Bodnar quite deliberately doesn’t want to say which side he is on. That’s why he has decided to run as an “independent” in the current race for the U.S. Senate. That’s the shell game being run.
Okay, take it at face value. Pretend this dodge is not being ginned up by a handful of disgruntled Democratic Party insiders who have somehow lost their moral compass. Bodnar proposes to, lone-man-on-a-horse style, stake out a middle ground. The word dilettante is made for the man, because only a true dilettante would believe there is such a thing as a middle ground in today’s politics. I suspect he might have equally fascinating positions on the Easter Bunny and Tooth Fairy.
The ploy is either cynical or naive, an attempt to capitalize on the lone-man-on-a-horse trope in American politics, a supremely damaging bit of mythology that always was more horseshit than horse. The miners in Harlan County knew better. They knew that it takes a movement. It takes solidarity. Recall now that it was Trump who famously said, “I alone can fix it.” How is that working out?
But tipping us toward the conclusion that Bodnar’s candidacy is just plain deceptive and cynical is the conversation among that handful, a minority of hollowed-out Democratic operatives pushing this cynical gambit. Invariably in such conversations there is the wink and nod. “You know he’ll vote with the Democrats if he wins.” Wink. Wink. Nod. Nod. If he’s going to to vote as a Democrat, he damn well ought to run as Democrat. That’s not a partisan position; that’s a demand for honesty. For all voters. Above all else, this is a time for honesty. Say what you mean and mean what you say. This is how we win back democracy.
But go there for a second, to where these few party insiders are with their spread sheets, donor rolls and precinct counts, the tools of gaming the system. I have a simple back-of-the envelope calculation for them. In order for this scam to succeed, they must have every single Democratic vote and chip off on the order of 5 percent of Republicans. Never mind the folly of the assumption that 5 percent of Republican voters are amendable to reason. I know for sure there is one Democratic vote Bodnar will not get, not ever. Naive. Dilettante. Cynical. Deceptive. One of these fits him and none of these serves to recommend his candidacy.
Remember our song. If you get the chance during the campaign for a conversation with the man, use it. Sing it loud and clear. Bodnar, which side are you on? It’s an honest question. Don’t expect an honest answer.
Richard Manning is a lifelong journalist and a student of Montana’s politics.