Tea Party

So Two days ago I went to the Indianapolis Tea Party being a strong Republican, and still shuddering and/or thinking about hitting with my vehicle cars with Obama bumper stickers, to show my support for the belief in smaller government and less federal spending. I will say there was quite the crowd. I was surprised at the number of people there, some estimates said 3,000 people. Looking back on some pictures I took (Which I will post sometime soon) I would have to agree with that estimate. Which means the Pacers season finale at Conseco later that night just barley beat us in attendance. Okay so the Pacers beat it by a lot with 14,161 people at the game, but tickets were only $5.

As I walked away from the event while it was still going on I had a few thoughts about it and why it happened. My general conclusion was “What a waste of time.” 3,000 people holding signs, showing their displeasure with Washington and government spending, and all gathered in a small area. There were no sign-up sheets for volunteering for campaigns (whether for a candidate or issue), there were no voter registration booths, and maybe only one worthwhile speaker (Greg Garrison). At one point everyone was told to text Washington and let them now you’ve had enough. As someone one who has worked on the inside I can say that was a waste of 5 cents for everyone. The big winners there were the cell phone companies.

Not a single person (Other than Garrison) got up there and said “Hey, we live in a state that not only gave our 11 electoral votes to the current administration, but we also have 5 Democrat Congressman. 3 of which were put into office in 2006. 2 of which call themselves “Blue dog Democrats.” WTF is that? It is a Democrat who makes himself look like a fiscal conservative while encouraging more federal programs. YOU CAN’T DO THAT!

Any way the tea party was a failure because all it did was get 3,000 people riled up and sent them back home. No one told them who to call to start getting involved. How to get involved after the party. If everyone of those people would have picked up the phone during the ‘08 election and made 100 phone calls to ID supporters or encourage people to vote Republican then that would have been 3,000 phone calls. It takes maybe 2 hours to make 100 phone calls. If you can make a sign (15 min), drive downtown and park during rush hour (25 min), stand at a rally for 2 hours (120 min), and go back home (15min) (Total of 175min or 2 hours and 55 min) then you can volunteer your time to help out the Republican Party where it is needed (Or watch The Lord of The Rings: The Return of The King).

All the rally did was show that there are a lot of people in America who are upset. Well since 46 percent of Americans did not vote for Obama, you have not told me anything new. The tea party was a successful failure. The ball was put on the tee and everyone whiffed.

Campaign Stories- DST

I’ve been told that I’m a fairly good story teller and think that I’ve got a few good ones to tell too. So I’m going to begin some “Stories Series” which will consist of funny/interesting stories I’ve got. I can assume there will be a College Series, Running Series, deservingly a Drew Gamble series (my old and soon to be again roommate from college), and this first one a Campaign Series.

In 2007 I got a job on the Mitch Daniels for Governor Campaign as the driver of the famed RV One. It was my first full-time job out of college, and being a Political Science major, exactly what I wanted. Driving the campaign RV across the state took me to some interesting places and gave me the chance to meet some equally interesting people.

One particular woman I met have some series pearls of wisdom to drop on me while tailgating at the Purdue football game with the RV. We would grill out and pass out food for free, give people a chance to sign the side of the RV, and give out campaign swag. Not everyone who came up to us was a fan of Mitch. One lady asked me if I worked for Mitch and I told her that I was on the campaign. She then uttered the words I had heard so many times before, “I don’t like this daylight savings time.” Of course you don’t, is what I thought.

DST was an evil in this country that Indiana had avoided for decades, well at least that is what she and too many other Hoosiers thought/still think. An evil we avoided until Mitch Daniels came along. I had heard plenty of complaints about DST since joining the campaign. It’s too dark when I go to work, It’s too bright out when I go to bed, and even had one women point to the RV and tell her 4-6 year old daughter “That’s the man that ruined night-time.” I thought I had heard all the complaints about DST, but then this woman wrapped a fact around my brain that I could not comprehend. Here was our exchange:

Woman: “I don’t like this daylight savings time because it is killing all of my flowers.”

Me: “Umm, what do you mean?”

Woman: “Well they are getting too much sunlight now and it is drying them up and they are dying.”

Me: “That’s not possible.”

Woman: “All the extra daylight is doing it.”

Me: “No, that is not possible. All DST does is change the time on the clocks, it has nothing to do with the rotation of the Earth. There are still the same number of hours of daylight each day, the daylight hours just occur at different times now.”

Woman: “…”

Me: “Would you like a hot dog?”

I still laugh when I think about that story and the confusion on the woman’s face. I don’t think she watches much Discovery Channel. Hell, I’m surprised Mitch wasn’t blamed for global warming because of DST.