Opinion: Bagging one for the Earth -- and politics

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I missed out on the great days of minor voter baksheesh, when a mailer from a candidate was regularly accompanied by a potholder stamped with the name of the candidate and some praiseworthy deed of his doing. (I always wondered whether these undoubtedly useful items also subliminally underscored the Little Woman Voter’s kitchen status. Why did the mail not also bring more gender-neutral goods, like a vote-for-me tire gauge?)

Collectors of political ephemera used to be able to find these potholders aplenty. Now, I gather, they are so rare that Cornell University has at least one in its collection – a 1956 red and white number exhorting the recipient to ‘’vote Republican for peace, progress and prosperity,’’ the Republicans in question being President Eisenhower, Vice President Richard Nixon and Senator Prescott Bush, father and grandfather of presidents.

This week’s mail brings me an updated and non-gender-task-specific iteration of the political potholder. Gloria Molina, running for her final term as a county supervisor, is sending out reusable tote bags in a striking turquoise. Accompanying it is a ‘’dear neighbor’’ note reading:

‘’Because I do not have any opponents in my contest for my final term as your member of the L.A. County Board of Supervisors, I decided to use my campaign funds on an important cause.’’ She says she’s been speaking to schoolchildren on the benefits of reusable bags and about Americans’ profligacy in throwing away a tenth of a trillion plastic bags every year. Therefore, ‘’I have enclosed one as my gift to you …using it – instead of extra plastic bags – can be your gift to our community and our environment.’’

That’s all just fine and dandy, and laudable. But now here’s the potholder promotion part: on the side of the bag, in big letters, with a yellow check mark, it reads ‘Re-Elect Supervisor Gloria Molina.’’

A potholder is something you use in the privacy of your own home, without regard to party affiliation; if a Nixon potholder can deliver the baked goods out of the oven, you can use it even if you’d never dream of voting for him.

But a recyclable bag gets carted hither and yon. It’s a two-handled billboard. Will I really see GloMo bags at the checkout at Superior Warehouse or Trader Joe’s?

Still and all, we are a nation of people who wear other people’s names on our pecs and glutes – you’re welcome, Messieurs Hilfiger, Dolce and Gabbana – so political designer tote bags might be the new next thing. Maybe a fancy Sarah Palin hologram bag that winks atcha.

-- Patt Morrison