Cynics hide behind the Cascade Curtain

F or pure political baloney, it is hard to beat the contrivance of a Cascade Curtain.

The idea that mountains divide Washington into distinct regions — two states, really, with little or nothing in common — is no more than loose folds of rhetoric flapping in the breeze.

Certainly, differences exist between Eastern and Western Washington, but they are urban-rural frictions hardly unique to this state or defined by a mountain range.

Due south, down Interstate 5, Lewis County is more conservative than Pierce and Thurston counties. Urban Clark County butts up against Skamania County. Across the Columbia River in Oregon, the identical political constructs are called the East-West Divide.

Politicians in Salem use the same self-serving prose heard in Olympia. Pitting east against west and vice versa wastes time and money and is an excuse for stalemate.

Leadership — real leadership starting with Gov. Christine Gregoire and House Republican Leader Bruce Chandler — seeks common ground and will not allow politicians to cynically exploit differences.

“I think it’s a perception exacerbated or diminished depending on how public officials approach it,” Chandler said as the Legislature organized on Monday. “In reality, we are thoroughly interdependent.”

Shared concerns about quality schools, access to higher education, economic development, social-service case loads, transportation and the stewardship of the environment are not divisible by snow-capped geologic features.

Everyone employs hardy stereotypes, all played to the hilt during the battle over the governor’s race. Over time, jokes and insults substitute for political dialogue:

So what is the difference between a Seattle environmentalist and a terrorist? Well, you can negotiate with a terrorist.

Why is it so hard to solve a crime in Eastern Washington? That’s because the DNA is all the same, and there are no dental records.

Maybe what’s needed is a Cabinet post called the secretary for interconnectedness, someone dedicated to making the links and commonality better-known to policymakers and the public.

King County’s electoral muscle makes it ripe for caricature as a bully. A Seattle Times story last spring noted the county’s 1 million registered voters dwarf the 646,000 registered voters in all 20 Eastern Washington counties. A politically calculated shorthand renders Seattle brutish and evil.

For those nursing a grudge against the West Side, Seattle can only fuel part of the anger. The region cuts a swath from Olympia to Bellingham. Hardly monolithic, but the population and economic dynamic is bigger than one urban center.

Here is the maddening part: Everyone quietly knows regular-people connections are real and deep.

If Washington State University hosts a football game in Seattle, local alums pack the stands. Our children crisscross the Cascades for higher education.

Puget Sound farms and co-ops thrive on the support of WSU extension services. Likewise, Chandler, from Granger, knows West Side technology is at work in Eastern Washington. He is in the fruit business and he sees firsthand “the sales, marketing and processing equipment that come out of research and development in Puget Sound.”

Farm-to-market connections across the Cascades are vital. That point hit home for me years ago as talk warmed up for a third runway at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. Eastern Washington dependence on and support for a robust Sea-Tac were crystal clear.

Easy invocations of the Cascade Curtain allow both sides to talk past one another. Selling the tax package to keep the Boeing 7E7 jetliner made little headway until it was pointed out to legislators that most of the state’s 39 counties have aerospace suppliers. Virtually everyone had a stake in success.

For Puget Sound, transportation improvements are all about congestion. Chandler makes it clear the East Side is worried about safety. Different outcomes do not preclude cooperation.

Chandler is a reasonable man who sees the big picture. Times change. That covers everything from Eastern Washington sending Democrats to Olympia and Washington, D.C. (until a decade ago), to the growth of poverty in rural areas and an increase in social-service costs. Health-care worries transcend partisan boundaries.

Every day, the Cascades are crossed by people who’ve redefined employment and lifestyle options. In October, the Yakima Herald-Republic reported more than 1,000 commuters drive daily from Kittitas County into Puget Sound for work. Old choices made new.

Our state is united by more than what divides us.

Even fractious debates about things as elemental as water can be parsed out and solved very close to home. Look at local, citizen watershed planning.

East and west, we thrive on a strong work ethic, shared resources and optimism. Nothing to let politicians hide behind a curtain.