Blake Schwendiman's Blog and Blook

Chapter 9

Wednesday, 09 March 2022 – 12:00 p.m. MST

Laura Sorensen listened intently to the introduction being provided by Dr. Everett Pomeroy, Vice President and Dean of Arizona State University’s college of Liberal Arts and Sciences and former Chair of the Department of Political Science. Dr. Pomeroy was a very good speaker in his own right, but today was Laura’s day. She had been invited to provide a brief question and answer period regarding her Senatorial campaign on campus. She glanced around Gammage Auditorium, noting the large crowd of students and wondering how many were attending solely for class credit.

Dr. Pomeroy recounted Laura’s service in the community. He insisted on calling her Mrs. Sorensen even though Laura preferred the more informal use of her first name. She had developed what she considered to be a grass-roots candidacy that had spawned from years of community service. Though she was married to the wealthiest man in the country, she never felt that she was a shoe-in and she had never leaned on their limitless resources as a crutch. Her campaign was her own. It was born of a desire to serve and nurtured by her values and hard work.

“Mrs. Sorensen is here today to provide a very brief question and answer period. Because of her limited schedule, we, the staff and your peers have preselected three questions that will be presented. These questions have all been submitted by students and Mrs. Sorensen has not been provided with the questions prior to arriving,” Dr. Pomeroy stated as he finalized his remarks. “Please welcome Mrs. Sorensen with the respect and dignity owed her for her years of civil service. Mrs. Sorensen.”

Dr. Pomeroy turned and began clapping. The crowd provided warm applause as she stepped behind the pulpit.

“Good morning, Arizona State University,” she opened. Again, applause rang through the auditorium – more applause perhaps at the mention of the school name than when she was introduced, but Laura understood the politics of politics. “It is a distinct pleasure to stand in this auditorium, the preeminent center of arts of my own alma mater.”

Laura paused. She waited for the again-increased applause to fade. “Before the questions, I would like to make another call for you to vote in the upcoming elections. Whether you choose to vote for me or not, please get out and vote. Since the turn of the century, the youth vote and the minority vote have grown and become more important each election year. Though this is not a federal election year, remember that the great State of Arizona needs to hear your voice. You lay the foundations for the future of this state. Don’t miss the opportunity to lay a foundation whose path is parallel with your own.”

The crowd again raised its collective voice in applause. After settling, a student stepped to an adjacent podium and issued the first question. “Mrs. Sorensen, can you please tell us about your party and why you have chosen to run as neither Democrat nor Republican?”

Laura expected this question. Though she had answered it dozens of times before, the question of her party alignment constantly arose.

“Two party politics is a double-edged sword that has become an increasing divider in our country over the past several decades. As we have seen, this country has become polarized on party lines in such a way that often election decisions are made primarily on party boundaries and not on platform boundaries. This is greatly concerning to me and I honestly wrestled with this decision for years before committing to my candidacy.”

Laura had great stage presence and excellent public speaking training. Her words flowed effortlessly and engaged audiences of all kinds. She could speak to children without condescension and to adults without presumption. She spoke fluent Spanish – engaging Arizona’s second majority population with ease.

She continued, “I did consider for a time aligning myself with either the Democrats or the Republicans. Either choice would have provided me with about fifty percent of the votes needed to win this election. Unfortunately because of my husband’s prominence, the opposing party would have taken issue with me on grounds related neither to my platform nor my candidacy. Now, as I have chosen neither party, both the Democrats and the Republicans get the choice to either waste their money on negative politicizing or on promoting their own candidates. Either way, my candidacy becomes less encumbered by the mudslinging and derogatory campaigning. Additionally neither the Democratic Party nor the Republican Party truly represents my platform, as many of you know. I am a strict pro-lifer and a staunch gun-control activist. Imagine the headaches I would cause for either party.”

She stopped. The crowd laughed and applauded again. As the auditorium silenced she finished, “It is my primary mission in this campaign to ensure that you, the voters, individually, understand who Laura Sorensen is and what she stands for. I am not interested in being classified by an aging political party.”

The crowd again applauded. Laura smiled. She was pleased to see that many more of the students seemed to be engaged. Quinn had often told her that speaking was her gift. Something, he said, that had been given to her that few others had. She had never seen herself as a particularly adept speaker, but she enjoyed it and she enjoyed being a part of something bigger. And she did very well.

The young questioner poised the second question. “How do you respond to the allegations that your Senatorial bid is nothing more than an opportunity to position yourself and your husband in a more controlling position in Washington?”

Laura smiled. This is the second most popular question, she thought. “I respond pragmatically,” she said, pausing for effect. Usually such a short answer had the effect of stunning the audience into thoughtfulness. Most people had barely enough time to engage the question in their own minds and a short answer caused them to evaluate whether they had really heard what they thought they heard. There were a few chuckles in the audience – a stray student or two that weren’t completely sure if that was the entire answer.

Laura continued, “Let us assume for a moment that there are two types of people in this country, pessimists and optimists, and that every person falls into the extreme end of either camp. The pessimists will always cry foul regarding the political candidacy of a person with money. They look for conspiracy in the mundane and seek wrongdoing in all political machinations. The extreme optimists, however, search for a political ideology that unfortunately eludes most of this great country. They often fail to see the corruption and unknowingly exacerbate it by continually re-electing the wrong constituents.

“Fortunately most people fall into an area within the extreme edges of optimism and pessimism. Those who cry foul against my candidacy are on an extreme edge that I will not likely persuade to move. My work, my goal is not to convince the extremists, but to inform the intelligent and to provide a platform that is compelling to the majority. My candidacy is not about my husband and has never been. We love each other, we respect each other and we support each other, but his business is his and my business in politics is mine.”

Laura stopped. There was always more to say, but she had learned that in most cases less really was more, especially when speaking.

The young student waited for the crowd to quiet, then continued. “What are your primary goals and where do you see yourself in twenty years?”

Laura took pause. This clearly came from a student. This was an unexpectedly pleasant query. No one had asked her that question in a public setting before. She smiled and began, “I have many goals. Some for my family – I would like to see my kids go on to college, get married and have families. I have personal goals, but I’m sure that’s not what you’re looking for.” She laughed softly. “No, I think you’re interested in my political goals and that is probably the hardest to answer.

“Since just before the turn of the century, I believe that this country has become mired in what I call the politics of mediocrity. It started benignly as political correctness. At some point in the past fifty years we became more concerned about political correctness than political decisiveness. That fed into a culture of mediocrity. People began to lower standards in all areas of life in an effort to placate minorities all types – race, sexual orientation or even skill level and aptitude. Our schools began to reject rewards based on achievement for awards based on attendance or simply existence. On one hand we, as a culture, have been claiming to embrace the differences in humanity, but on the other hand we have been trying to deny that there are differences. Not all people are Einstein. Not all are Monet. But I fear that we are cultivating a generation that fears to allow an Einstein to be an Einstein because she might offend a Monet by being more gifted mathematically. And in turn we fear praising a budding Monet because it may offend the less artistic.”

Laura paused, as if carefully considering her statements. “My concern is that we are moving backward as a country and as a people. Countries formerly considered third world are progressing at a pace that the United States achieved after World War II. China and India have become the third and forth largest economies in the world and are gaining momentum. In the past decade, the pace of technological achievement in India alone has caused many of our top analysts to suggest that within another twenty years, we may be looking to India as the leader in all advances technical and biotechnical. We may be losing our edge because we are losing our competitiveness.

“My goal is this: to empower our citizens again to achieve. Honestly, I am not sure what specific steps can be taken, but I think the starting point is to re-introduce achievement based rewards at all levels of our society. Let us bring back the honor rolls to schools, let us provide more meaningful incentives to small research facilities. Let us ensure that our own government agencies are not outsourcing research and development any more. I see a vibrant, re-energized country that is an exciting place for all people to live. My goal is to ensure that the United States does not become deprecated to second best by any standard and that its citizens know that they are not second best.

“As for a twenty year outlook, I suspect that most of them will be spent in the Senate. Perhaps,” Laura’s tone grew playful, “I’ll be worried about selecting a running mate for a Presidential bid.” Laura winked to the audience and waved. The crowd erupted with applause.