20 minute read
The Libertarians Are Coming
THE LIBERTARIANS ARE COMING Though they are long shots in just about every race, Libertarians are getting on ballots across Northern Michigan this year in unprecedented numbers, running for everything from township trustee to Congress.
By Patrick Sullivan formed in the last couple of years. live a normal life and not have anything to Northern Express reached out to some of do with the political realm.”
Something in the ether, maybe, brought the candidates to find out what drove them But it just so happened that there were together a bunch of people who, over the last to throw their hat into the ring. others clamoring for just the same thing at year or so, declared themselves Libertarians the time, so he found help and support from and got nominated to run for local, statewide, FACEMASKS AND A BID FOR CONGRESS people like Gundle-Krieg, who was already and federal office. At the statewide Libertarian convention gaining momentum in the effort.
They’re not an easily organized group in Gaylord, almost everyone wore Boren said that he believes people are of individuals, but they are united in their facemasks, said Benjamin Boren, who is more drawn to libertarianism today because conviction that something is not working running to represent Michigan in its 1st of a combination of the executive order in this country under a government that is Congressional District. Wearing masks is requirements in Michigan spurred by the controlled by two parties. something Boren said he supports. But, pandemic and because of the authoritarianism (Quick brush-up for those unfamiliar: Like like other Libertarians interviewed for of the Trump Republican Party. Democrats and Republicans, Libertarians don’t this article, there’s a caveat: Boren said he “First off, I think a lot of people feel — share a singular opinion on all societal and thinks people should wear them as a matter not everyone, but a lot — that the two-party economic issues, but if you had to distill their of personal responsibility, not because the system seems to be broken,” Boren said. guiding philosophy to a singular commonality, government tells them to. “Everyone’s freaking out. This pandemic you might say they believe first and foremost Boren was born and raised in Nevada, is hard to get used to, but it was a huge eye in the liberty of the individual and that near Lake Tahoe, to parents who worked opener for a lot of people.” government should take a smaller role in the in real estate. The 35-year-old has moved The people drawn to libertarianism pretty activities of the state. Some believe it should around a lot, but for the last few years much just want to get the government to do a limit its reach to providing only police, courts, he’s lived just south of Charlevoix, where lot less, even amid a pandemic, he said. and military, while others believe that more — or less — is necessary.) Donna Gundle-Krieg, a real estate agent, candidate for Mancelona Township trustee, “It’s not like [Libertarians] think they know what and a Northern Express columnist, helped organize the Northwest Michigan Libertarian other people need in their life. They just want to live Party affiliate to help get candidates on the ballot across nine counties in northwestern their life and don’t want to be told how to live it.” Lower Michigan this year. She said that there were plenty of folks who wanted to sign up; they just needed a little organization to help them along. he moved to be closer to his parents for a “It’s not like [Libertarians] think they
“In the past, people have inquired, and time. He thought it would be a short-term know what other people need in their life. they get sent to the head of the state party,” stay, but it hasn’t turned out that way, and They just want to live their life and don’t Gundle-Krieg said. “They never get to as he’s settled in, he’s found a political want to be told how to live it,” Boren said. meet that person or have that comradery. home of sorts in the Libertarian cause in Another factor that Boren said he … You need likeminded people to get Northern Michigan. believes increased the number of people who excited about this. It’s hard to be excited Boren, who works part-time at a identify as Libertarian is what he calls the when you’re all alone.” tobacco store in Traverse City and part“Amash effect,” after Justin Amash, the GOP
At the statewide convention in Gaylord time as a heavy-equipment operator, said congressman from Grand Rapids who left July 18, the Libertarian Party nominated he’s voted for candidates from both major his party in protest over Trump’s policies and 61 candidates for the 2020 general election, parties throughout his life but has become later became a Libertarian. Amash made the including nine candidates for U.S. Congress, increasingly drawn to the principles of party switch during the state’s stay-in-place 10 candidates for the Michigan State House, libertarianism. A couple years ago, he order, when a lot of people in Michigan had eight candidates for statewide offices, and decided to join the local Libertarian Party, extra time on their hands to do things like The Villager Pub, Charlevoix Whitefish Dinner Vernales, Harbor Springs Dry-aged Tomahawk Ribeye Amical, Traverse City Chicken Pot Pie The Rowe Inn, Ellsworth Herb-encrusted Rack of Lamb 32 for county and township races. Many of the local candidates are running for office in Northern Michigan, thanks primarily to the local Libertarian organizations that have then discovered he’d have to help create one in the region first. The prospect was daunting. “This is such a scary time,” Boren said. “I would love to look up libertarianism online, he said. Boren said if he had to choose between a Republican and Democrat, he wouldn’t, because both want too much control over 10 • aug 10, 2020 • Northern Express Weekly
people’s lives. He said he likes aspects of each — he is pro-Second Amendment, like most Republicans; and pro-LGBTQ-rights, like most Democrats, for instance.
Despite his enthusiasm for libertarianism, he is still a reluctant candidate for Congress.
“I would prefer to do something else, honestly, but no one else would step up,” he said.
Boren said he, his campaign manager, and most of his campaign volunteers are millennials who lack experience but who have passion, though he said he doesn’t look at his campaign as a symbolic one. He said he wouldn’t run unless he thought he had an outside chance to overcome two well-funded candidates from the major parties.
RACIN’ JASON JOINS THE RACE
Of all the Libertarian Party candidates in Northern Michigan, none has the kind of name recognition of Jason Crum, who has spent decades working as a deejay at stations from Petoskey to Gaylord to Traverse City. He was also a winning contestant on the reality television game show Forged in Fire that aired last September on the History Channel. Now, he’s running to replace state Rep. Larry Inman in the Michigan House.
Crum said he started out as a “rebellious youth” who didn’t want to follow in the footsteps of his father, an attorney, or his mother, an academic, and instead launched himself into a career on the airwaves, moving from Rochester, Michigan, where he grew up, to Petoskey, where he got his first radio gig almost three decades ago.
Crum’s last radio job was the morning slot at WKLT in Traverse City, where he was known as Racin’ Jason until a shakeup late last year put him out of work. Since March, he’s been driving a bus for BATA.
The outset of a global pandemic was Village Cheese Shanty, Leland not the easiest time to take a new job that North Shore Sandwich involved close contact with the public in
Benjamin Boren tight quarters, but he managed to get through it and has stayed healthy.
Crum, who lives in Kingsley and has six kids, ages 8 to 24, continues to wear a mask whenever he’s driving his bus or visiting a store. He also frequently washes his hands and said he instructs his children to do the same.
The 50-year-old is not against following protocols that are backed up by science in order to stay safe, but he said he is against the government telling him what to do.
“I never had much of a political bone in my body. I mean, I definitely have opinions on things,” he said. “It was actually Gov. Whitmer’s executive orders that made me really start to question what was going on in Lansing. The Legislature should be involved in a situation like this. I just don’t like ruling by executive order.”
He was also frustrated that his own state rep, Inman, the troubled Republican, was missing in action following a partial acquittal/hung-jury verdict on federal bribery charges last year.
So, since Crum didn’t ever really identify with either of the major political parties, when the nascent Northern Michigan Libertarian Party approached him about running on their platform, Crum hopped on
Jason Crum board. It made sense, he said, because he said he is fiscally conservative and socially liberal, and after he checked out the party’s website, he said he found very little in the platform that he disagreed with.
Crum said he has no political aspiration, and that if he is elected, he would only serve one term.
He knows he faces an uphill battle; he sees plenty of yard signs as he drives his bus and recognizes that his opponents from the major parties will be much better funded.
THE LIBERTARIAN BUREAUCRAT
Andy Evans knows that his job would be in jeopardy if, someday, the Libertarians took over state government and dismantled the bureaucracy. The Cheboygan resident works at the Michigan Department of Natural Resources’ customer service center in Gaylord. But if he had his way, that job wouldn’t exist. The only reason it does, he said, is because of how complicated the state’s hunting and fishing code has become over the decades.
He insists that he would eliminate his own job if he had the chance.
Evans is running for county commissioner for District 3 in Cheboygan County.
“I’ve always been a real student of history and politics throughout my lifetime, and I tended to vote Republican,” Evans said.
He said that though he always leaned Republican, the strong positions Democrats
Andy Evans Cory Dean have traditionally taken on civil liberties have narrowly lost — by three votes in 2012, and lured him in the past. Nevertheless, Evans by three percent of the vote in 2018, when he eventually grew dissatisfied with both parties ran amid a larger field of candidates. and concluded that there have been a lot of This year he will be among five candidates empty promises they’d made in the past 20 who are vying for four spots on the board, years. A couple ago, he was listening to a and since the others are all Republican, Dean local call-in radio political radio show that thinks he might have an advantage because featured a state Libertarian Party official as a there are no Democrats running. guest. Evans said he liked what he heard, and, “This time I’m running as a Libertarian,” after some investigation, he was converted. Dean said. “I feel at home. It’s like I finally
Evans helped start a Mackinac Straits found a party that feels right.” region Libertarian affiliate, which covers four Dean, who works for a truck-rental counties in the Straits region. company, said that he believes Libertarians
“The federal and state governments, I need to start small in order to grow their power. feel, have become far too intrusive into our “Maybe we can win at the lowest levels of lives,” Evans said. “I feel like government is government and work our way up,” he said. becoming pretty unrestrained of late.” Dean said he has been a “political junkie”
Evans said the Libertarian Party is a good since he was a teenager. He grew up in a alternative for folks interested in getting into Democratic family and became a Republican local government in a place like Cheboygan, as a teenager because of Ronald Reagan. where Democrats rarely run for local office, Dean said he gradually switched from and Republicans often run unopposed. Republican to Libertarian as he gradually
Still, like the other Northern Michigan became disillusioned and felt a growing sense Libertarians, Evans is realistic about his that government is run like a dictatorship. chances. He ran for the same county “The conservatives just seem to want to commission seat in 2018, in a three-way race, use the government to get you to do what they and he got just six percent of the vote. want,” Dean said. “[Libertarians] don’t want our
This time around he will be going headgovernment forcing its views on anyone.” to-head with an incumbent Republican. He Dean said part of the reason there are so said the situation improves his chances, but many Libertarian candidates in Northern he still considers himself a longshot. Michigan this year is because of the recent
“My opponent — he’s a well-established creation of the regional affiliates, which enable incumbent, very well-known in the people to get on the ballot as Libertarians. community, a former undersheriff,” he said. Four years ago, Dean said he wanted to run as “I have an uphill battle.” a Libertarian, but he only had the state office REPUBLICAN TURNED LIBERTARIAN “I tried to investigate running before, in
Cory Dean, a 51-year-old who has lived ’16, and I had a hard time having anybody get for decades in Blair Township and raised four back to me,” Dean said. “[Having a regional kids there, is running as a Libertarian for Libertarian organization to assist] helps. You township trustee. need to feel like you have some support.”
He’s run before as a Republican and to call, and it didn’t work out.
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Fresh-Pressed The Latest Local Albums You Need to Hear Now
By Craig Manning
So 2020 has not been a particularly great year for arts and entertainment. Film releases have been delayed. Concert tours and music festivals have been canceled, with no indication of when they might realistically return. The lights won’t come back up on Broadway until at least 2021. We’re rapidly nearing the point where we’ll run out of new TV to watch, thanks to the suspended production schedule in Hollywood.
And yet, there have been a few bright spots. Hamilton made its way to our TV screens by way of Disney Plus. Taylor Swift shocked the world with the surprise release of her eighth album, folklore. And in Northern Michigan, local musicians have stayed active and creative, entertaining their fans with everything from live streams to brand new albums. If you haven’t been listening to local music, make it your mission to seek some out. Bars and bigger concert venues might be harder to come by right now, but the musicians highlighted here prove the talent isn’t. Ready to plug in? Start with the seven 2020 records from local artists that we’ve had in regular rotation this summer.
David Chown, Miriam Picó, and Laurie Sears - Live at St. Andrews
Local pianist David Chown has spent quarantine trying to figure out what the future career of “musician” looks like in the age of COVID-19. He’s taught piano lessons via Zoom, performed more than 60 Happy Hour concerts on Facebook Live, and even started a new company called “MusicHub.Live,” aimed at helping musicians achieve richer sound and video quality with their live streams. He also found time to mix and master this September 2018 concert, a performance with local singer/songwriter Miriam Picó and multi-instrumentalist songwriters Rachael Davis and Lindsay Lou, both now in Nashville, for a record released in May called The Dream That Holds This Child.
Laurie Sears at St. Andrews Presbyterian Church in Beulah. It’s a jazzy treat, featuring standards from Gershwin, The Beatles, Aretha Franklin, and more, all played with sensitivity and superb musicality. Chown’s rollicking piano, Sears’ flute and saxophone accompaniments, and Picó’s acoustic guitar and mandolin strums provide the perfect backdrop for Picó’s smooth, soulful vocals. The concert was a benefit performance for Northwest Michigan Supportive Housing and the Women’s Resource Center, so 10 percent of proceeds from album sales will be donated to those causes as well.
Ernie Clark & The Magnificent Bastards - Family Album
Ernie Clark & The Magnificent Bastards are based in Reed City, but the band’s story begins at Leelanau Sands Casino in early 2017. There, while sitting in the audience at a Marty Stuart concert, Clark realized that he wanted to give his musical aspirations “one more shot.” A lifelong musician with a lengthy track record of playing in bands, Clark’s performance career had largely gone dormant at that point, limited to little more than an open mic night here or a church performance there. He placed an ad on Craigslist and put a band together, and the rest is history. The Bastards’ rip-roaring, genreseems to be stuck in a constant cloud of upheaval and crisis. Then again, Bernard — an activist who has spent years using music as
colliding mix of country, rockabilly, blues, gospel, rock ‘n’ roll, and even punk is on full display with their January 2020 debut, titled Family Album. The album’s guitarheavy songs call back to everything from The Band to Creedence Clearwater Revival to Neil Young, with palpable energy that will have you yearning for COVID-19 restrictions to be lifted (well … yearning even more than you are already) so you can see Clark and these guys bring down the house at some local bar.
Charmer - Ivy
Were you a fan of emo back in the late-1990s or mid-2000s? While the genre’s mainstream fortunes have faded significantly from their 2000s peak, when bands like Jimmy Eat World, Dashboard Confessional, Fall Out Boy, and My Chemical Romance were all over the airwaves, emo is actually still a thing. Charmer, a quartet from Marquette, plays within the genre’s sandbox and delivers records that sound like classics from your angsty youth. They draw influence from “Midwestern Emo,” a subgenre whose history includes bands like tenor recalling the frontmen of other acoustic-driven indie-folk bands like Guster. What’s most striking about Everywhere I Roam,
American Football, Sunny Day Real Estate, and The Get-Up Kids. The songs — guitar-driven recollections of faded summers and disposable photos of broken relationships —are classic mixtape fodder, with an appropriately hefty emotional wallop. Released on April 3, Ivy was meant to be accompanied by a headlining tour throughout the Midwest and New England — a sign of Charmer’s growing national platform. COVID-19 scuppered those plans (for now at least) but expect Ivy to be one more step toward prominence for this talented young band.
Treeskin - Learning Michael Dause is best known as the drummer for Traverse Citybased indie-folk trio The Accidentals. For several years, though, he’s also made his own music, under the moniker of Treeskin, a project he said aims “to look at personal shortcomings and anxieties, learning to love yourself, and moving forward with a purpose.” The fittinglytitled Learning, released in February, was inspired in part by a serious car accident last summer, from which Dause was fortunate enough 12 • aug 10, 2020 • Northern Express Weekly
is thoughtful and moving, bearing a pensive indie rock sound that recalls the early heydays of indie heroes like Death Cab for Cutie and Sufjan Stevens. The first song, “Drive,” is both an indirect acknowledgment of the accident that inspired the album and a tribute to Dause’s own drivers education teacher, while “Kerrytown Blues” is a wrenching vignette about social anxiety. The lyrics are intimate and honest, rendered even more personal by the fact that Dause plays almost every instrument you hear on the album.
The Sweet Water Warblers – The Dream That Holds This Child Traverse City singer-songwriter May Erlewine has had a busy 12 months. Last fall, she released arguably her best solo LP yet, with the politically-charged Second Sight. Later this month, her team-up with the Woody Goss Band — a new group fronted by Goss, who plays keyboards for the Ann Arbor-based funk band Vulfpeck — will bring a new groove-driven album called Anyway (out Aug. 14). In between, she joined forces (and voices) with fellow vocalists and Davis brings her gospel background to the project, while Lou is a known commodity in the bluegrass genre. Those styles, along with Erlewine’s folk-pop sweet spot, pave the way for a dynamic and incredibly impressive album — the debut full-length project for the trio, which first sang together in 2014 under the moniker of “The Sweet Water Warblers.” Stunning vocal harmonies are the cornerstone of the Warblers’ sound, which recalls everything from country vocal groups like The Chicks (formerly the Dixie Chicks), to Rumours-era Fleetwood Mac, all the way to lively southern gospel.
Seth Bernard – Let Love Lead the Way “Wake up, keep waking up/The sunrise won’t be denied.” Those words are the foundation to “Keep Waking Up,” the optimistic opener from Northern Michigan singer-songwriter Seth Bernard’s new album, Let Love Light the Way. It’s a comforting message in a year where getting out of bed has meant re-entering a world that a tool for education, social justice, and transformational societal change — has a tendency to see the best in things that others might look upon more grimly. Let Love Light the Way exudes the warmth and uplift of unshakable optimism, even amidst its quiet, gingerly melodic acoustic folk songs. It’s music made for rainy days and troubled times, and since we seem to be dealing with plenty of both in 2020, it might be just the record you need most right now.
Sean Miller – Everywhere I Roam
Sean Miller is one-half of the Petoskey-based acoustic rock duo The Real Ingredients, a collaboration with his long-time friend Traven Michaels. Both multi-instrumentalists, Miller and Michaels manage to make a surprisingly rich and full-bodied sound for a duo, bringing in everything from acoustic guitar to harmonica to saxophone. Typically, Michaels takes on lead vocal duties, his smoky to walk away without any severe injuries. The resulting collection
a debut solo EP that Miller dropped at the beginning of March, is hearing Miller behind the microphone. His lovely baritone voice, which lands somewhere between Steven Page of Barenaked Ladies and Darius Rucker of Hootie & The Blowfish, gives the songs a nostalgic ’90s roots-rock vibe. Particularly striking is “Canned Peaches,” a sweeping ballad about cherishing all the fleeting, beautiful seasons of your life — lest you miss out on the metaphorical harvest of good times and great memories.
