7-17-25

We need good people to run for office…..there is always some election or another

that’s going on…..and I’ve got to tell you, campaigning for public office is one of

the most rewarding and most exhausting things I have ever done…..just when you

think you’ve got it figured out you lose sight of the goal, or you can’t see a way

around, or you don’t have the resources or the volunteers…..campaigning is not for

the faint of heart, I’m telling you…..but all the same we need people to run who

have strong principles, and strong spines, who will put in the hours, knock on

doors, give the stump speeches, all for the opportunity to be the person selected for

such a time as this…..I don’t care what level of politics, it all matters, local, state

and federal….it all matters….but its hard sometimes to find that way forward….

Have you ever had one of those moments when you had absolutely no idea how to

move forward?.....I mean that in both the literal and figurative sense….it can be

really disconcerting to suddenly realize you don’t see a path…..I used to spend a

lot of time in the outdoors whether it be military or civilian….I was always really

comfortable with a map and a compass and a sense of direction…..but it doesn’t

matter how good you think you are with directions, or map reading, at some point

you’re going to have that moment when you realize something ain’t right…..I’ve

spent time in the Rockies, the high plains deserts of Utah, the Appalachians and the

Smokies……in Colorado we hiked for a week along the Continental Divide well

above the treeline….it was epic….there were times when you would come over a

ridgeline and see the snowcaps, the crystal clear blue sky and stumble up on a high

mountain lake and swear you were the first person blessed to ever see that

spot….no trails, no roads, just a map a compass and a backpack…..but I’ve also

hiked through more narrow and wooded vistas, just as beautiful in their own

right…..and most of those on actual designated trails……I remember once taking a

group of kids backpacking in the Smokies….it was beautiful…my favorite time for

packing was in the cold months so this would have likely been in late November or

December…..and there had been a major winter storm that had come through the

area just days prior…..but the weather was all clear by the time we hit the

trailhead….but a half-day into our 4-day pack and the trail just disappeared…..if

you’ve ever hiked some of those trails, or along the Appalachian Trail for instance,

you may have seen how the trails are often marked with a paint blotch on a tree, or

a small sign that indicates you are still on the path…..but there is also the fact that

when you hike well established trails that are used often that you will just as easily

be able to follow the footsteps of others who have actually worn a path into the

ground over time……well, as I mentioned a minute ago there had been a major

winter storm just before our packing trip started…..and as we moved further into

the Smoky Mountains it became very obvious that the storm had been

intense….trees were down, the landscape was muddled, debris was

everywhere…..and then all of a sudden the trail just disappeared…..I mean it was

gone….we were in one of the thickest parts of the foliage on an uphill climb when

the trail just fazed out…..it was buried, blocked, and obscured by debris and

downed trees….we couldn’t even see where the markers were because so many

trees were down….I had a map and knew our rough position…..but wow…..we

literally had to drop all of our packs and fan out…..it took twenty minutes or so

until somebody yelled, “here’s a marker!”…..so we gathered up packs moved to

that marker and then had to repeat the process until we found another marker and

then again…..it definitely slowed our progress…..but we regained the path and

made our way forward….it wound up being a great trip…..but for a while there we

had to forge our own path……

I’m sure you’ve had it happen on the road…..you miss a turn, or come up on

construction….and what do you do? I remember once Charlene and I were driving

home late late one night….maybe 1 in the morning….we had just moved our

daughter to college down in Auburn and were coming up the road near

Talledega….the same road we had just driven on early that same morning…..only

suddenly the road was gone….it was completely washed out from a mud slide and

had barriers across the highway…..talk about confused….tired as a dog and so

confused as to how the road that I had just been on was now gone….what?....so I

got out of the car with a flashlight and walked up to the barriers and looked at the

hole and just stood there as another car pulled up….i asked that driver, “what do

we do now?”….he just stared at me and said “I have no idea”…..we doubled back,

found a side road and worked our way through farm lanes and fencerows just

basically following the direction of the moon until suddenly we broke out on a

main road and finally made our way home…..it was a 45 minute detour, making

our own path, trying to find a way forward…..but we eventually did…..

My point here is that there is usually a way…..there is usually an avenue of

approach, an ingress and egress point if you will…..but you may have to search for

it and it may take a few detours to get back on track…..okay, so now some of you

have already figured out that I’m using all of that as an analogy….yes, yes I am….

It can be anything in life….you get off that course and you’re not sure what to do

next….don’t stop moving forward….but let me take a minute and talk to those who

are out there who are running for office, or working for someone who it…..

In political speak I can tell that this is the onset of the primary season and there’s a

bunch of folks out there who are running hot races…..Alabama especially, this is

going to be a crazy season as literally every single legislative position in both the

State House and Senate is up for reelection, AND every single statewide position

like Governor, Lt. Governor, Secretary of State, all of them, are open seats with

folks jumping into those races for rowdy primaries……and then there’s the race

for the US Senate seat being vacated by Tommy Tuberville…..and its no different

in Tennessee……Governor is up for grabs as Bill Lee leaves office, one

Congressman and possibly Senator Marsha Blackburn are jumping into that race,

which also means that their seats in the US delegation for the Volunteer State will

also be open…….wow!...this is going to be madness and I can sympathize as

someone who has run some tough races…..and here’s the thing, truthfully some of

the candidates who are running may feel behind….maybe the polls are low….or

the opponent has more money and is doing more speeches….or you can’t find your

momentum…..or you’re just plain tired…..well, in politics a week is a lifetime and

this primary has 9 months to go and you can stand on your head that long my

friends……I’ll tell you what you do….you get a good night’s sleep and then hit the

ground running…..there is always one more chili supper to go to…..one more door

to knock on….one more phone call to make….one more vote to ask for…..there’s

an old saying in politics that there’s only two ways to run a political campaign:

scared and unopposed……I’ve never had the luxury of running unopposed myself

so I just ran my races like a scalded dog and was told more than once that the way

forward didn’t look good….that some pollster, or other had decided I was down

and so we worked harder and proved them wrong……

There’s some magical stories out there about the dark horse candidate winning the

race……I mean look at Donald Trump….nobody gave him a snowball’s chance

when he came down the gold escalator to announce his candidacy…..We all went

to bed imagining life with Hillary Rodham Clinton as President of the free world

and like a freight train Trump just barreled on through…..or how about that guy

….that good ol’ boy truck driver from New Jersey named Edward Durr who only

spent $150 on his campaign and worked his tail off and beat the New Jersey

Speaker of the House who was seen as the most powerful man in their state

politics….or right here in Alabama when back in 2010 Senator Lowell Barron was

the man who had held sway over the Alabama Statehouse for decades and was

seen as one of the most powerful men in Montgomery…..and along comes a no-

name dude named Shadrack McGill who campaigned his heart out despite massive

dirty tricks heaped on him by Lowell Barron’s cronies….and ol’ Shad McGill

became Senator McGill by beating Lowell Barron by one point in the final

polls…..

Politics is like hiking trails…..sometimes it’s a clear as it can be and sometimes it

seems like the trails have been wiped away and all you can do is get out your map,

orient yourself to the ground and try to find the trail again….but whatever you do,

you keep moving forward, you can’t sit still, trails don’t appear on their own….you

have to push forward, you have to find the trail markers, and you look for the signs

from people that have gone before you……and sometimes, when it gets really

crazy, that’s when you become a pathfinder, a trail blazer, and you just you’re your

own trail through the political forest……that’s politics

What I’m saying here is that some of you candidates are staring at the primaries

and feeling like they are a million years away…..you can’t see the path

anymore….people keep filling your head with their version of what you’ve got to

do or what your opponent said about you……and just can’t see the way forward

because you’re exhausted……well, suck it up candidate!.....the path is still there

and you may have to jog some sideroads and look for markers on downed trees but

the path is still there….having been in that situation I just want to encourage you

and your volunteers…..run like a scalded dog! Be pathfinders……there is always a

way forward and election day will get here…..

And that’s a wrap for the Rightside Way!