Last week Arn McConnell wrote a letter to the editor of the Sentinel in response to a letter Kelly Sloan wrote about TABOR.  American Patriot didn’t like the word Tea Party linked to Kelly Sloan or to Americans for Prosperity. He made his point by posting a comment at this blog. (See Comments at “Scott Tipton is Toast,” posted on June 30.)

So, American Patriot, you are right. Democrats are clueless about who is in and who is out when it comes to the Tea Party. It does give me some comfort that the local Tea Party does not claim Americans for Prosperity (A Koch Brother’s Production), or Kelly Sloan (a Canadian participating in American politics, albeit one who is working on becoming a citizen,) or Scott Tipton (who IS toast.) I’m not so wild about the thought that the local Tea Party endorsed an angry man in the GOP primaries, or that despite their claims of Democrats as members they seem to vote for the eventual GOP candidate regardless of primary endorsement.

From the perspective of the local Democratic Party, of which I am an officer, if you call yourself a member of the Tea Party, you are a member of the Tea Party, even if that membership is questioned by other Tea Party members. Speaking of membership, the Tea Party is not a political party in the sense that they field candidates, they only endorse candidates. They are not recognized in the state of Colorado as a “party.” They appear to be part of the Republican Party. And it isn’t just me thinking that, Utah people think so too (see link below.)

American Patriot, I do appreciate your continuing efforts to educate Democrats about the real motives of the Tea Party. I applaud your efforts to educate the public about Koch Brothers using their wholly owned subsidiary Americans for Prosperity to pay for busses full of protestors in Grand Junction and insurance on some conservative events. I hope you will continue to enlighten me and my readers, but for now I can’t see any daylight between Scott Tipton’s votes and the rhetoric of the Tea Party.

I will say that the local Tea Party did show some daylight between them and the Republican Party when Craig Meis abused his power as a county commissioner. Grand Junction needs a voice that challenges elected officials. There aren’t enough Democrats to do that, so keep up the good work, American Patriot. But don’t expect many Democrats to rush to join the Tea Party—we don’t think hating government is patriotic and we don’t want to drown government in any bathtub. (Some of us even think that Konola was a better candidate than King. Maybe that’s an ego thing.)

P.S. If you’ve missed me lately it is because I’ve been gardening in South Dakota and then soaking in my turn of the last century claw footed bathtub.

Homework

July 1 Sentinel Letters to the Editor

http://gjresult.com/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=886 ßGJresult 2010 endorsements

Tea Party in Utah

Craig Meis Defiant After Tea Party Calls for Resignation

On occasion I post a comment to the on-line edition of The Daily Sentinel. When I do, it usually leads to a discussion with a conservative. Often that conservative is “American Patriot,” a local Tea Party leader. In a recent conversation, he explained to me that I didn’t belong here and that I should move to Boulder. He went on to explain how things were just fine here in Happy Valley before people like me got here; that the people usually “got it right;” that people with calluses on their hands could think, blah, blah, blah.

Yesterday I happened into a diner for breakfast, and sat at the counter, since I didn’t have an entourage. (I’m often alone, single women over a certain age often are.) Shortly after I sat down, a man sat on the stool next to mine. We started a conversation that sounded a bit like a friendlier version of “move to Boulder.”

Without knowing anything about me, other than I was clean and not young, he started telling me about what this community was like before people from outside came here. He complained about fish ladders because it ruined good fishing holes. He explained how his family raised him on the proceeds of their apple orchards, including how imperfect fruit ended up as cider or applesauce, thanks to a local food processor—now gone. He explained how a lot of the local orchards don’t make money because they don’t do the things they are supposed to do in order to maintain their trees. He remembered a lot of farmers growing sugar beets, and how they were processed right here. Another ghost company. He told of working for coal mines that supplied the power plant in Cameo that, in turn, supplied Grand Junction with power. He was proud of his sons who shoe horses, explaining that horses in the east have their shoes glued, not nailed, in place.

That conversation lasted one full breakfast. Why? Because I understood enough to make appropriate comments along the way. You see, my story isn’t all that different. I grew up in a mining town. My grandfather worked for 50 years in the hoist room, where men and ore were lifted from the mine. My other grandfather was a rancher and farmer. He worked the sugar beet factory when the crop came in. He introduced the Black Angus breed of cattle to South Dakota. He wrestled all comers for money during the Great Depression. He raised eleven children as a share cropper. Both of my grandfathers had calluses on their hands, and neither of them was stupid.

My father was in the Army during WWII. After serving in Alaska, he went home to work for the mine. Because he did not want to work underground, he worked as a safety inspector. Because he dressed well, some kids in the neighborhood believed he was a spy. But we were poor. My mother’s brother would bring us milk in bottles the dairy couldn’t sell because the seal was improper. My dad hunted and fished to supplement the family food budget—we ate deer and pheasant and duck and trout. My mother had a garden, and canned vegetables and fruits, doing her part to put food on the table. Every fall I got one new school outfit from my parents and another from my grandparents. I was constantly told by parents and grandparents that I had to do well in school if I wanted a good life.

Eventually my father moved the family to metro Denver so that he could earn more money working in maintenance at a bank. He went to night school to learn how to be a stationary engineer, changing careers when he already had four kids to feed and clothe.

So, “American Patriot,” let me tell you something. Just because I wasn’t born in Happy Valley does not mean that I know nothing about what it is to make a living by working the land, or working in dangerous mines, or being at the bottom of the socio-economic scale.

I’ll tell you something else. Even though I am the first person on either side of my family to go to college, I didn’t get my political leanings from college professors. I had grandparents and parents who were registered Democrats. They knew that Democrats fight harder for the little guy—the worker. The little guys in Grand Junction need to be a little less provincial. The GOP, and their pandering to multi-national corporations, does nothing to bring back the Happy Valley you remember.

One final thought, Progressive is not an insult. You prefer being backwards?