This is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus to use an image from my favorite sport, golf.  Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all my professional positions, including as press secretary in Washington, D.C. for a Democrat Congressman from Oregon (Les AuCoin), as an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, as press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and as a private sector lobbyist.  This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write.  I could have called this blog “Middle Ground,” for that is what I long for in both politics and golf.  The middle ground is often where the best public policy decisions lie.  And it is where you want to be on a golf course.

The headline on this blog is drawn from an excellent column written by Washington Post columnist, Paul Waldman.

The first paragraph of what he wrote puts it very well:

“There aren’t many issues that unite Democrat, Republican, and independent voters, offer a ready-made villain in greedy corporations, and tick off people from all different socio-economic groups.  Which is why the “right-to-repair” movement could gain real momentum, and why any politician looking to demonstrate real populist bona fides — rather than the phony kind — should jump on it.”

So, what is “right-to-repair?”

Right-to-repair refers to proposed government legislation to forbid manufacturers from imposing barriers that deny consumers the ability to repair and modify their own consumer products, such as electronic and automotive devices or farm vehicles, including tractors.

Waldman reports that Colorado Governor Jared Polis just signed the country’s first right-to-repair law aimed at agricultural equipment.  It prevents manufacturers such as John Deere from withholding manuals and other information that would enable independent repair professionals, or farmers themselves, to fix tractors, combines and other equipment.

“This year,” Waldman continues, “bills have been introduced in 28 states to prevent companies from restricting repairs on cars, electronics, appliances and all kinds of other products.  If you’ve ever wondered why you can’t replace the battery in your iPhone, this issue is about you.  Sooner or later, it will be about almost everybody.”

Which is why Waldman says right-to-repair could become a major political issue that has the potential to appeal to both parties together. 

More from Waldman:

“We now live in what University of Michigan law professor Aaron Perzanowski calls ‘the tethered economy.’  More and more, the things we buy come with strings attached to the manufacturer, effectively requiring more payments.

“While we put stuff we buy on our counters, carry them in our pockets or park them in our driveways, the manufacturers find ways to keep extracting our money.  What makes this possible is that software is built into every piece of technology — not just obvious things such as computers and cellphones, but also appliances, cars and much more.

“That software opens up a whole new range of opportunities to control the product for the benefit of the manufacturer.”

Farmers are among the groups that have found this to be so.

In many cases, they can’t repair their tractors because the software won’t let them without the company’s permission.  This “software lock” has been particularly frustrating to those who farm because they often pride themselves on self-reliance and problem-solving.  They often wait weeks or months for the dealer to repair a tractor when they could do it themselves or have a local mechanic fix it.

A political backlash is building.

In Massachusetts, Waldman reports that voters overwhelmingly passed a 2020 initiative giving consumers and repair shops access to data sent wirelessly from cars back to manufacturers.  Last week, the Minnesota Legislature took a big step toward passing large bills with right-to-repair language.

This fall, Maine voters will have an automotive right-to-repair question on their ballots.  And in March, a bi-partisan group of attorneys general wrote a letter urging Congress to pass national right-to-repair legislation.

The new Colorado law could be important for two reasons   First, it provides relief for farmers and independent repair shops.  Second, it’s going to demonstrate that, if you pass one of these laws, the sky does not fall, markets do not collapse, and manufacturers won’t pull out of Colorado.

Waldman concludes:

“Unlike most problems, the right-to-repair issue appeals to people of almost any ideology, from those who care deeply about individual property rights to those who want to rein in corporate abuse.  The argument is easy to understand:  Manufacturers shouldn’t be able to tell you what you can and can’t do with your own stuff.

All of this reminds me of a time in the past in the lobbying and public relations company which I helped to start.  We represented a right-to-repair client that wanted to give local shops the right to repair cars instead of having vehicles go only to dealers based on limited access to software.

Back then, we fought hard against car dealers and, unfortunately, lost.

Today, given how far right-to-repair logic has come, it might not be the same this time around.