As someone who supported Marie Gluesenkamp Perez and knocked doors for her campaign in rural Southwest Washington, I write today with deep concern and a hopeful invitation.
Our region has an opportunity to help shape a new political coalition rooted in peace, economic stability and working-class values. But it will require courage from our elected leaders to break with the foreign policy consensus that has failed so many of us for so long.
Recently, Gluesenkamp Perez said in a House committee hearing, “Woe to the people who call for peace when there is no path for peace.”
Coming from a member of Congress who has received contributions from AIPAC, the lobbying organization that has long shaped U.S. military policy in the Middle East, this statement felt like a disheartening echo of the old foreign policy logic that has led us into endless wars.
In towns like Bucoda, I saw firsthand the potential for a new coalition. While I was out talking to neighbors about Gluesenkamp Perez’s campaign, Joe Kent and Tulsi Gabbard held a rally in the town park. Over 300 people showed up. Pickup trucks lined the railroad tracks, many with military insignia and flags. These were not radical ideologues. They were veterans, working-class families and neighbors who deeply understood the costs of foreign wars.
What drew them in was not anger or partisanship. It was a simple and powerful message: bring our troops home, stop wasting lives and resources overseas and rebuild here at home.
Kent’s message resonated because it spoke to a truth that both Democrats and Republicans have too often ignored. The wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria and now our escalating role in Israel and Iran have left deep scars in rural America. Families have lost loved ones. Communities have lost trust in a government that seems more interested in distant conflicts than in fixing roads, hospitals and schools right here.
That is why Glusenkamp Perez’s alignment with pro-military lobbying interests is troubling. We cannot afford more Blue Dog centrism that tries to split the difference between corporate donors and community needs. That strategy often leads to policies that mimic the very Republican priorities voters rejected.
Instead, we need leadership that reflects the spirit of the New Deal. Full employment. Public investment. Peace abroad. A politics that recognizes the humanity of our neighbors and the futility of permanent war.
Dirt Road Democrats are ready. So are disillusioned conservatives, independents and many who have stopped voting altogether. They are looking for leadership with a moral compass and a plan for peace.
Marie Gluesenkamp Perez has a unique opportunity to be part of that coalition. But that means rejecting the logic of endless war and standing up to the forces that profit from it. The people of Southwest Washington deserve nothing less.
Warren Neth
Thurston County
