From the cockpit of the Subaru

CORAC founder Charlie Johnston traverses the country in his trusty Outback to speak personally to crowds from one coast to the other.

Our Hope: Locally Prepared, Heavenly Sourced

An old political bromide advises candidates that, “all politics is local.” This is something it is far too easy for candidates, particularly those running for legislative seats, to forget. People love to yammer on about big, abstract issues while neglecting the more mundane, basic ones. People want to know how you are going to improve their lives.

The first Congressman I ever worked for was the late Robert McClory of Illinois. I drove him around, wrote some speeches for him and did some legislative work. We would kick around policy and strategy as we drove the district every weekend. McClory was something of a moderate, non-ideological Republican, book-ended by conservative firebrand Phil Crane to the southeast and progressive firebrand John Anderson to the west. It was a fairly conservative district. He taught me something important about how to maintain a solid re-elect margin in a district where you are a slightly uncomfortable fit. It was constituent service.

McClory was not a particularly harsh taskmaster, but there was one thing he was deadly on. Every one of us who worked with him were expected to have notepads and pens with us wherever we went. If a constituent had a problem we were expected to get all the details on it – and he focused like a laser on solving it. Most of them were related to social security, but it didn’t matter to him what it was, including things that were not at all within a Congressman’s purview. He figured folks needed someone to listen, to care, and to navigate the bureaucracy for them. If it was a state issue, he would contact the appropriate authority and stay on top of it until they had it resolved. If you bobbled a couple of constituent requests, you could go do something else. It worked. People loved him, even if they didn’t love all his positions.

The late Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley (the original) had a similar ethos. He like to say that, “good government is good politics, and good politics is good government.” Daley gave operatives in the Chicago machine a lot of latitude, but he was adamant that basic services – garbage pickup, snow removal – be attended to with dispatch. A precinct captain that wasn’t getting that done soon found himself outside looking in. For all the mythos about the Chicago machine, folks who lived in Chicago in those days knew that if you called your local precinct captain, you were going to get results – and quick results, to  boot. That was the primary foundation of the Daley machine. Of course, those days are long gone and Chicagoans still vote reflexively Democrat even as the city sinks beneath a tide of violence and debris.

As we go forward with CORAC, I want more and more emphasis placed on local action. We have set forth our religious and philosophical aims with clarity. We have set up a LOT of committees helping people with health and wellness, sustainability, communications, prayer, emergency preparedness and such. Now we need CORAC members everywhere to see themselves as ambassadors – or old-style precinct captains; people who watch for problems and help their neighbors to solve them.

I want, in the coming year, for CORAC members across the land to make contact with your local priests, pastors and rabbis. Find out where the needs are. Get a team of volunteers together. If there is an elderly couple needing some help with a home repair, get people from the team out to do it. If someone needs a ride into town occasionally, get someone to help. Some folks are just lonely. It would be nice to have people who could visit and chat, say a little prayer, have a cup of tea.

When I was a kid in elementary school, I loved visiting the old folks around the neighborhood. I’d make my weekly rounds. I was amazed at how glad they always were to see me. The Luckels always had a fresh batch of Brach’s soft candy in a bowl set out for me. Mrs. Thompson always had tea and cookies out for me…and on and on. I thought it was cool how welcoming they were to me, just a little kid. And they had the greatest stories. Mrs. Thompson told me how her family had come to Illinois from back east in a covered wagon in the late 1800’s. Can you imagine that? I was fascinated by them…and they liked me. It was not until after I was grown that I understood that they were both kind – and lonely. It was nice to realize that the joy they gave me by their kindness also gave them joy by my interest and lively questions and conversation.

What we are about, more than anything else, is knitting together anew the fabric of a healthy society. That is accomplished by being there for a multitude of little things. It is a kind of pointillistic painting, a whole series of tiny encounters and kindnesses coming together to reveal a much larger pattern – the pattern of a healthy, loving society under God. It is not particularly glamorous and will not feed any delusions of grandeur. It is, however, incredibly joyful as the sphere of souls you love, and souls who love you back, continues to grow by leaps and bounds. It is the stuff that sustains people through whatever comes. Friends who care for each other are what makes the world go round.

So go forth. Let us be known far and wide as the people who do stuff…and may our tribe increase, under God, and with joyful resolve. Make friends who can count on you – and you will be able to count on them.

Charlie Johnston