David Stack describes himself as a progressive who leans Democrat. He grew up in Bayside and worked for many years for the University of Wisconsin System.
In his retirement, Stack works as a spiritual director and pursues other interesting things as they come up. Last week, he added Republican National Convention volunteer to the list.
“The thought of we could help Milwaukee and southeast Wisconsin sort of put its best foot forward — here we are we’re sort of on the national stage,” Stack says.
He also wants to see the upcoming presidential election work. “With all the hoopla and consternation that have been around the elections the last couple of cycles, let’s help work the process the way the process is designed to work — where we have conventions, and we nominate candidates and let’s just make sure that all goes smoothly and above board,” Stack says.
His RNC volunteer experience came with surprises. After applying online and passing the security check, he attended a two-hour training. “I went to the training thinking I’m just going to see all of these t-shirts and hats and everything with all these slogans on them and that the training would be a very political event in itself. And it absolutely wasn’t,” Stack says.
Instead, he says the focus was on being professional, welcoming and nonpartisan. Then on day one of the RNC, Stack was on duty.“I and the other volunteers for that shift were in the security zone and as people came through the detectors, we directed them to where they needed to go,” Stack says.
He hoped to spend time talking with delegates and other RNC attendees. He wanted to connect with them as human beings who are also concerned about our country.
Turns out, most of those conversations were with fellow volunteers. "I presume that I was probably the only person who doesn’t regularly vote Republican. What struck me was how the other volunteers seemed to be actually hurt about the rhetoric that Trump is a fascist or Republicans are fascists,” Stack observes.
Despite their ideological differences the feelings of his fellow volunteers resonated with him. Stack, who by the way had never volunteered for a political convention or election, calls this first experience positive.
“You know, we were marshaled in groups of 100s of people and then split down into our different assignments, and I felt very good about them as people. And that was kind of my goal. It's like when you just stuff from the news and everything; then you tend to think of people as ‘other,’” Stack says.
Yet the convention — the speeches, the party platform — illustrated the stark divide between Republicans and Democrats with election day less than four months away.
I asked Stack if he thinks people can agree to disagree — will we navigate the November election and its results peacefully?
“I would hope so … I guess it depends on the outcomes and whether people accept or not accept those outcomes. If things would take a bad turn, maybe I’d be out on the streets protesting,” Stack says.
He's sure of one thing: The realization that his fellow RNC volunteers are like him will stick with him. "Yeah, they're just like me,” Stack says.
