{"id":37144,"date":"2025-10-04T14:53:38","date_gmt":"2025-10-04T19:53:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lincolndemocrat.com\/?p=37144"},"modified":"2026-01-09T10:01:03","modified_gmt":"2026-01-09T15:01:03","slug":"37144","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lincolndemocrat.com\/?p=37144","title":{"rendered":"I only ever wanted to be a normal politician"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/lincolndemocrat.com\/?p=37139\">Last post<\/a>: I broke my back three weeks ago tomorrow<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/lincolndemocrat.com\/?p=37149\">Next post<\/a>: Mr. Smith Goes to Washington<\/p>\n<p>Harry is an information omnivore. Over 19 years he written about every topic on the list to the right. For more, use this blog&#8217;s search function (upper right). Or email Harry a question here: <a href=\"mailto:harrywelty@charter.net\">harrywelty@charter.net<\/a>. Or ask any AI engine to summarize Harry Welty. Or give him a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=UmdNSCsFM7Q\">3 minute listen<\/a>. Or read <a href=\"https:\/\/lincolndemocrat.com\/?p=37201\">Harry&#8217;s campaign flyer<\/a>. Or google &#8220;Harry Welty&#8217;s snow sculptures&#8221;.<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.snowbizz.com\/images\/logos\/Snowbizzlogo.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/54355119116_1d02cd0154.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><br \/>\nAnd this little miracle proves it. <\/p>\n<p>My son never smiled when I took his picture but what a winning smile he gave the photographer who took this photo of my family in what I think was my first successful campaign for office in 1994. In 21 campaigns I&#8217;ve avoided using my family in campaign shots. They are not props and god knows some pretty terrible elected leaders can take lovely family pictures. Besides, I do what I think is right and that puts targets on my family&#8217;s back.<\/p>\n<p>In 1994 two people came out of the woodwork. One was a moderate Republican and the other was a rip snortin women&#8217;s libber Democrat. They offered to manage my campaign under one condition. I had to follow their instructions to the letter. I so promised and they got me elected to the School Board. I have always been so grateful that last year when I wrote my second book <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Not-Your-Usual-Republican-Lincoln\/dp\/B0D575CVTC\">I dedicated it to them<\/a>. I dedicated my first book to my Dad. <\/p>\n<p>They may be happy that I only sold about twenty books.<\/p>\n<p>I stubbornly refused to quit the Republican party in college although I had had no use for Nixon since I joined my high school debate team and began researching foreign aid in 1967. In 1968 I gave a speech urging my non voting schoolmates not to support Nixon. So why did I become a College Republican? I hint at that in my book. Lets say I was irritated at my enlightened college chums who badmouthed Republicans. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.snowbizz.com\/HWRepublican\/George_Robb\/georgerobb.htm\">My hero grandfather<\/a> was a Republican. <a href=\"https:\/\/duluthreader.com\/articles\/2019\/12\/05\/114034-the-reverie-of-a-busy-mind-at-4-am-december-3\">So was my Dad<\/a> who I listened to in junior high cuss out the Democrat who was President Lynden Johnson every time he sent American boys to Vietnam.<\/p>\n<p>This might be a good time to chide Democrats for the airs they give off that led MAGA voters to turn their backs on them. I can&#8217;t do that here. I have always liked Democrats. How could you not like a party about which the wonderful humorist Will Rogers said back in the Depression era, &#8220;I don&#8217;t belong to no organized political party. I&#8217;m a Democrat.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Well, I may have given a sense of where I was in a few of my old Not Eudora Columns. Here&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/duluthreader.com\/articles\/2023\/11\/16\/126511-not-a-goldwater-republican\">Not a Goldwater Republican<\/a>. Its as good an explanation as any why I became a Republican.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Last post: I broke my back three weeks ago tomorrow Next post: Mr. Smith Goes to Washington Harry is an information omnivore. Over 19&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31,127],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lincolndemocrat.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37144"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lincolndemocrat.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lincolndemocrat.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lincolndemocrat.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lincolndemocrat.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=37144"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/lincolndemocrat.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37144\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37243,"href":"https:\/\/lincolndemocrat.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37144\/revisions\/37243"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lincolndemocrat.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=37144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lincolndemocrat.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=37144"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lincolndemocrat.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=37144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}