Is it possible to talk politics with our neighbors?

Do you know your neighbors' politics?

Probably not. They may know mine, as I haven't been shy about posting campaign signs for Democrats. We stuck an Obama sign in our front yard in 2008. All sorts of candidates for local and state offices. Democrats except for an occasional candidate for a non-partisan seat such as mayor or city council.

A few neighbors have asked about my signs. But most pretend they don't exist. They may actually see me and think, "there's our neighbor, Mike, out working in his yard." They may think that I don't pay enough attention to my yard, that I might do a better job of tending my lawn or cleaning snow from my sidewalks. They don't say so. As I convalesced at home from a heart attack during the winter of 2013, neighbors shoveled my walk, brought me soup, asked about my recovery. People can be so kind.

It was an odd feeling to take some time out this weekend, knock on doors, and ask people about their politics. It wasn't every neighbor, just a sampling printed out from the Vote Builder app. It included registered Democrats, those who had voted "D" in recent elections, people who had signed in at a Dem event. The Dems have decided it is crucial to talk to real live people if we have a ghost of a chance of displacing the Trump junta in 2018 and 2020. See, there's my partisan self shining through. I have concluded that you can't actually conduct a conversation with a diehard Trump supporter. Many Trump supporters have decided the exact same thing with diehard Democrats. We are balkanized like never before. Ask the people of the Balkans how it turned out when everyone started shooting their neighbors instead of talking with them. It was a messy 20th century.

Chris and I received a list from Taylor, our summer intern from Maine, and walked our precinct. Our intern is a dynamo and she is trying to get as much done as possible as her time in the West grows short. The future of our country is in her hands, and the hands of our children. I am retired and Chris is on the cusp of retirement. We have a slower pace. We've walked many neighborhoods during many campaigns. We take our time. And that's what people seem to want, time and attention. They are befuddled and distressed at the recent turn of events. They want to talk about it.

One woman who was about my age escaped from her barking dogs and sat with us on the porch. Yes, she voted for Democrats and would be interested in volunteering for the local party. She filled out one of our response cards, which updated her contact info. Our cards feature a blue Dem bison. The bison looks friendly. Some conservatives see Dems as dangerous radicals intent on taking away their guns and replacing their coal rollers with bicycles. I shouldn't be saying this, but it's all true, everything you've heard on Fox News. We want you to stare into the image of the blue bison and tell you that you are getting sleepy, sleepy, sleepy. And then bam, we have you in our clutches. Where did you hide those guns? Give us the keys to your truck.

The woman on the front porch knew the former chair of our Democratic Party Grassroots organization. "I don't see how she gets it all done," the woman said. Periodically, she rubbed her hands together, said they were sore from working in her garden. She had a beautiful yard. The dogs stopped barking. She handed me her card. We said our farewells and marched on down the street. We met a libertarian man who had registered as a Dem to vote for Bernie Sanders. He didn't think he wanted to remain involved with the Democrats due to their tax policies. He owned one of Toyota's first hybrid cars and recently drove 700 miles into Iowa on one tank of gas. He looked like a handy guy -- we interrupted him working around the house. A paddleboard was attached to the top of his truck. The man looked at it and I could see that he'd rather be on the water than talking to us.

We moved on. One woman voted for Dems but spent most of her winters in Arizona. "No politics in Arizona," I said. We all laughed. She filled out a card, said she might be interested in attending some Laramie County summer events.

We moved on. A couple walking down the street waved at us. We waved back. I wondered if they wondered what we were doing in their neighborhood. One man asked if we lived around here. We answered in the affirmative. For 22 years. Three different places. Our kids attended Hobbs Elementary, McCormick Junior High and Central High. Voted in this precinct and worked at the polls. At the next house, the couple warmed up to Chris as soon as she said she worked at the Y. They were a mixed race couple whose son had been spending his summers at the Y for four years. His parents called him out and introduced him. Chris and the twelve-year-old recognized each other.  The woman said she voted for Democrats but was too busy working three jobs to volunteer. She and her husband both filled out cards because they were angry at current events. They didn't mention Trump but didn't have to. He was black, she was white. We chatted about kids and the Y and school but only made a few references to politics. They urged us to contact them, as if they felt a pressing need to do something, anything. We said we would. Secretly, we hoped that the Dems would follow through as the party hasn't always been the most efficient political machine in Wyoming. I know that Chris and I would see to that.

We said we had to go across the street to talk to their neighbor. They told us he was hard of hearing so we had to talk loud. They didn't know that he was a Democrat. We walked over and rang the man's doorbell but no answer. The couple yelled from across the street, said that their neighbor was probably going for his walk as he usually did every day at this time. We said we'd come back.

But our time on this July afternoon was limited. Chris had to go into work for a couple hours. I had to shop for a Sunday garden party with colleagues who, during last election season, had raised quite a bit of money for legislative candidates who ended up getting walloped on Nov. 8. But we missed working with each other. We missed each other. We were neighbors, after all. People who cared about their neighborhoods and their city and their state and their country.

We walk neighborhoods for our country.

Keith Coombes at Ernie November: "You have to make things happen"

Poster for the Friday show at Ernie November in Cheyenne. Here's the plug on the Facebook event page: "HORDE OF DRAUGAR's CD-Release Party (Killer Death Metal from Cheyenne) with INCINERATED (Brutal Death/War Metal from Cheyenne). All-Ages/Free Show/Bring Donation$$$/Buy Merch/Always Fun/Never Stop/Ernie's Shows Rule."

I am still low-tech when it comes to music. If I still had a turntable, I would probably be buying vinyl. And I wouldn't be alone. There is still a market for turntables and records. Local music store Ernie November is a case in point. Proprietor Keith Coombes still stocks vinyl and it sells.

I order all of my CDs from Keith and Jason, his right hand man. Last February, when I told Jason that Moby Grape founder Peter Lewis was coming to Cheyenne, his eyes grew wide and he said only one word, "Wow." When I mentioned that Peter would be performing with Detroit spoken word poet M.L Liebler who sometimes performed with Jon Sinclair, his eyes grew wide and he asked this simple question: "You mean Jon Sinclair of MC5?" "Yes," was all that I said. Jason dug out a documentary video of MC5, one that I hadn't heard about.

These guys know their music. And their music history.

During lunch today, I dropped by the store to pick up the Bodeans CD I ordered when I was downtown for the Zombiefest. Keith was there, as he usually is, and my CD was sitting in a stack of special orders. Keith's a heavy metal guy, with multiple tattoos and piercings, but he will order anything. And buyers such as me get the good feeling that we are patronizing a local business. Ernie November is a downtown staple. As Keith rang up the sale, we talked about downtown redevelopment. He's excited about Alan O'Hashi's plan to redevelop the Hynds Building and The Hole directly across 16th Street. He likes the idea that 100-some LCCC students might end up living in the redeveloped space. We both agreed that it will add some much-needed energy, not to mention lots of kids who like to buy their music locally. And go to concerts. Keith has sponsored almost 100 shows in his tiny downtown space. He says that it takes him about 20 minutes to move his T-shirts and tie-dye clothing items into the back room and put screens around the incense and candle section. And then he just packs the fans into the store. This Friday, Horde of Draugar is coming to the store. Not my cup of tea, exactly, but he's aiming for a much younger demographic.

Keith was profiled in the June issue of Liberty's Torch, the local Libertarian newspaper. Under the header "Interviews: Capitalists & Creators," editor Brad Harrington conducted an interesting Q&A with Keith. In it, Keith says that he was like a lot of Cheyenne kids, and couldn't wait to leave town after high school because there was nothing to do. But he eventually moved back and took over Ernie November. He soon discovered that there still wasn't a lot of things for kids to do in Cheyenne.

You've got to make your path instead of to wait for it to come along. So that's what we ultimately did. We throw shows in here and we started because there was a lack of venues in town. We've had almost 100 shows in here, with dozens of touring bands from all over the world. If there's a lack of something out there, you have to take charge and do it yourself. Cheyenne's supposed to be just a 'cowboy,' western town, but here I am, the most un-country thing imaginable -- and I'm thriving. You have to make things happen.

Amen, Keith.

RNC in Tampa due for a direct hit from Hurricane Meg

The Tampa Bay area may have received only a glancing blow from Hurricane Isaac, but it's about to be hit with the full impact of Hurricane Meg. On Monday, Meg Lanker-Simons of Cognitive Dissonance interviewed Libertarian candidate for prez and former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson. He's disgruntled with the Republicans and crony capitalism, among other things. Listen to the interview here.

Santorum wins GOP straw poll in Laramie County

The Wyoming Republican Party is reporting straw poll results on Facebook. Here are the results for Laramie County: Santorum 66, Romney 55, Gingrich 6.

No votes for Ron Paul in Libertarian-leaning Wyoming?

Santorum whips Romney in heavily-Mormon Wyoming?

I can only assume that Laramie County Republicans heart Santorum's anti-birth control, anti-women, anti-gay, anti-public education, anti-public worker, anti-union, anti-immigrant, anti-EPA, anti-science, anti-99%, anti-gubment, anti-nearly-everything-good-in-this-world agenda.

I'm only assuming...

Tea Party Slim is rested and ready for June rally

Tea Party Slim is back from his travels and looking forward to the big June 15 Cheyenne T.E.A. Party Movement rally in front of the State Capitol Building.

“It’s been a good year for freedom,” said Slim. “That’s Freedom with a capital F.”

“At least you can spell,” I quipped.

Slim glared at me. “That’s all the media could talk about – misspellings on signs at Tea Party rallies. Fat lot of good it did in the 2010 elections. Tea Party candidates won across the board.”

“Good point,” I said. “The Tea Party is ridicule-proof.”

“Damn straight. You elitists can make fun of us all you want. But we show up to vote and you don’t. So we won.”

“Another good point, Slim. That’s the second time I’ve said that in as many minutes.”

He smiled. “Better get used to it.”

Slim’s skin was bronzed from his time in Arizona. I couldn’t help noticing the stitches on his forehead. “What happened there?”

He touched the wound. “ Just a little skin cancer. Doctor thought it looked suspicious so she dug it out. Thank God for the V.A.”

“You can thank me and all the taxpayers for the V.A. We’re glad to oblige.”

“We served our country and we deserve medical care.”

“I’m just noting that it was taxpayer-supported medical care. I may be an elitist, but I pay my taxes.”

“Too many taxes,” he growled.

“That may be, but without taxes there wouldn’t be a military and there would be no military benefits like the V.A.”

“My turn to agree,” he said. “I’ve paid my share of taxes over the years.”

“We all have. All of us except for the rich and big corporations.”

“Don’t start with the class war stuff. Big corporations pay plenty of taxes. Besides, a lot of those companies are defense contractors. We wouldn’t have the best-equipped military in the world if it wasn’t for them.”

“General Electric earned $14.2 billion in 2010 but paid no U.S. taxes. A New York Times report said that the corporation had a negative U.S. tax rate last year, getting a $3.2 billion tax benefit. During the last five years, GE made $26 billion in what it lists as American profits, but got the IRS to write it a $4.1 billion check. So we’re paying G.E.’s share of taxes.”

“I don’t trust the New York Times. Where did it get its information? Probably from some disgruntled overpaid former employee.”

“Public records,” I said.

“The IRS? I don’t trust them.”

“Do you know how G.E. got out of paying taxes? It lends to foreign companies, which means American taxpayers indirectly subsidize those foreign loans. Meanwhile, G.E. is slashing its U.S. workforce and sending jobs overseas.”

“All companies have to make a profit. To compete, they send the jobs to countries where labor costs are lower. Everybody knows that.”

“Maybe so. But why do you and I have to subsidize these businesses? Shouldn’t they be left to the free market that you Tea Partiers love so much? And we’re paying taxes when they aren’t. And they’re closing factories and putting tax-paying Americans out of work.” I paused to catch my breath.

Slim glared at me. “That’s the problem with you pointy-headed intellectuals. You hate the businesses that made America great. But you love the IRS. And the New York Times.”

I was tempted to unleash a barrage of ridicule at Slim. But what good would it do? The Tea Party is ridicule-proof and logic-proof. “Hope your forehead heals up soon,” I said.

He touched his wound again. “I have an appointment at the Cheyenne V.A. tomorrow. Doc will take out the stitches -- and give me my annual physical.”

“I wish you good health,” I said. “Want to be in tip-top shape for that June Tea Party anti-tax rally.”

“Wouldn’t miss it,” he concluded.

Photo from Cheyenne Tea Party rally, March 2009

Wyoming Tribune-Eagle columnist: Public sector employees are "leftist ideological forces of evil"

Former government employee (U.S. Marine Corps) Bradley Harrington calls government employees "looters" and "leftist ideological forces of evil" in this morning's Wyoming Tribune-Eagle. Unfortunately, you can't read it online as the WTE has a minimalist web site (nothing on it) so you have to go buy a paper. You can borrow mine. I'll bring it to today's rally at the Capitol.

BTW: Here's the column's header: "Public unions' bite could rot Wyo., too"

BTW: Wyoming is a so-called Right to Work State and its public employees union cannot be (and isn't) a closed shop. FMI: Wyoming Public Employees Association. I've been a member about 15 years. Here is its mission statement (the emphasis is provided by me):

It is the mission of the Wyoming Public Employees Association to serve as an advocacy group for state employees and Laramie County School District #1 by classified staff working toward introduction and passage of legislation positively affecting compensation, benefits, and working conditions of all employees. WPEA will work toward electing legislators and Laramie County School District #1 who might better support these goals. WPEA will support the rights and fair treatment of all public employees.

Guest blogger: HB 74 is not legislation that reflects our history as The Equality State

Don't have too many guest blogs on these pages. But this is a great one from Emily Cram (pictured at right), a doctoral student at the University of Indiana in Bloomington. Way back when, Emily worked as an intern for me at the Wyoming Arts Council. A writer and champion forensics student at University of Wyoming, Emily has gone on to bigger things.

However, she is a daughter of Wyoming -- a native. As such, she is free to weigh in on anything she damn well wants to. So say I. Emily gives permission for anyone and everyone to borrow her fine words and send them to his/her legislator. She hopes for wide distribution.

Emily speaks:

Just recently, past and present Wyoming governors gathered to discuss how to govern Wyoming’s future, while taking care to be sure that governance was in the spirit of Wyoming’s political attitudes and culture. As I watched Governors Mead, Freudenthal, Geringer, and Sullivan, I was moved by the sense that Wyoming is a place where our disagreements never foreclose the way that we feel a deep sense of obligation towards each other in times of need. I believe Governor Geringer was the one who said: at one moment you may fight with another on the capital floor, but the next day that person just may be the one pulling you out of a snowdrift. 

The movement of HB 74, or the “Validity of Marriages” Bill out of the House Education Committee to the full consideration of the House and Senate is more than a snowdrift. It is a bill that cuts against the core values of Wyoming’s political culture: the belief that the government should not impinge on the ways in which a person desires to conduct their personal life and the families they wish to consensually create and ethically sustain. HB 74 invalidates the legal marriages of those who have committed no legal offense. Rather than commit to building and supporting Wyoming’s families, diverse in organization as they may be, HB 74 destroys the kinds of support lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender couples ought to be able to access, just as any other human being who desires to faithfully participate in the institution of marriage. Acts that authorize only particular partnerships (i.e. the “males” and “females” that HB 74 validates), yet withhold the access to legal rights such as hospital visitation, fair housing, among others, marginalize people in Wyoming. 

HB 74 is not legislation that reflects our history as the Equality State. As the daughter of parents from Casper and Riverton, I am proud to have grown up in a place like Wyoming and still call it home. But HB 74 harms families and perpetuates the problematic belief that only certain kinds of families are valuable. I encourage the people of Wyoming to embrace our ability to disagree with each other yet always feel the need to pull others out of a snowdrift. Please support Wyoming’s families and vote against HB 74.

Sincerely,

Emily Dianne Cram

Petersen on the Dem side, ABM (anybody but Micheli) on the Repub side

The Wyoming primaries are tomorrow.

I glanced at the sample ballots on the Laramie County Clerk's web site. I'm in precinct 2-7 and a Democrat so, naturally, my ballot is less crowded than the one to be used by my Republican brethren and sistren. There are many names on the Dem gubernatorial slate. Only two serious candidates -- Leslie Petersen and Pete Gosar. When I say serious I mean that they have a serious chance of winning. The others, they are seriously running for governor but don't have a snowball's chance. I like Pete Gosar -- he's thoughtful and has said some interesting things on the campaign trail. But I'm voting for Petersen. She has the best chance in this tough year for Democrats.

My House district (8) has a race between Ken McCauley and Bernie Phelan. Bernie Phelan has the name recognition but has done very little campaigning. Ken's been all over his district several times and on Saturday, assembled a motley crew of local Dems and other ne'er-do-wells for a lit drop. I covered my neighborhood in record time with no rabid dogs or rampaging Tea Party types hot on my tail. Returned to HQ just in time to have brunch, which is the way it should be.  I call this one for McCauley.

I'm voting for Mike Massie for superintendent of public instruction. He's the only one on the Dem slate and he'd be great at it. I don't see much of a choice on the Repub side. McBride is the incumbent but he doesn't seem to have much vision for the state. Cindy Hill shows promise, but Trent Blankenship? He's already had the job and failed so miserably that we sent him packing to Palin Land. Massie is the man for this job.

On NPR this afternoon, Laramie County Clerk Debbye Lathrop said that some 2,500 people had voted absentee at the City and County Building, with another 700-some coming in via the mail. The Secretary of State's office opined that we could see a record turnout for a primary election.

Some of that is no doubt due to the full slate of good governor candidates on the Republican side. I would vote for Matt Mead. I heard him on the radio today saying that Wyoming needs to do a better job with technology, both creating jobs and upgrading our infrastructure. Rita Meyer, who spends most of her TV time boasting of her military credentials, said that Wyoming needs to focus on what it does now but do it better -- the extractive industries. I'm not sure if I got this quote right, but she said something like "trona is glass, oil is gas." So she wants more drilling and digging and to hell with alternative fuels and the future. This scares me.

One of the other Repubs, Colin Simpson, touts those old Wyoming values, which also means more of the same. He comes from a moderate family -- The Simpsons! -- and has a record of supporting the arts. According to our local paper, Simpson has run a lackluster campaign and just doesn't seem to want the job very much. But that name recognition could prove to be very important.

Last and certainly least we have Ron Micheli, the right-winger (and Tea Party fave) from Uinta County. Yes, he's a Mormon and comes from Mormon Country. He will get the Mormon vote, the Tea Party vote, maybe even the Evangelical Christian vote. Although, as you probably remember from Mitt Romney's unsuccessful prez bid in 2008, Mormons and Christian Evangelicals aren't always on the same side. Republicans all, but ask some born agains and they will tell you that Mormons are cultists and not real Christians. Not my view, but I'm a liberal pinko Cafeteria Catholic. I have no soul.

I hope the Repubs slug it out tomorrow. Micheli would be terrible for the state. He wants to cut state government by 30-40 percent and put true believers at the head of state agencies. You can just imagine what he means by true believers. He actually didn't say "true believers," but just people who thinks about things the way he does. Gubment-haters. Obama haters. Let's have an immigration law just like Arizona's. His people are "Let's take Wyoming back to the Stone Age" types. "Wyoming is what America was." A bumper sticker mentality.

Repubs never take my advice. If I was giving it (especially if they were state workers) I'd say ABM -- Anybody but Micheli.

Exploring the Enzi-Baucus connection

Let's harken back to those halcyon days of last fall. Poor ol' Laramie Democrat Chris Rothfuss was running against Republican Mike Enzi for one of Wyoming's Senate seats. Nick Carter of Gillette had already declared that he was running against John Barrasso, M.D., for the state's other Senate seat. Barrasso had been appointed by Wyoming Gov. Dave Fruedenthal to fill the remainder of Craig Thomas's term. Thomas died in office from a particularly virulent form of leukemia.

Carter, in a talk to the Laramie County Democrats in Cheyenne last summer, said that his decision to run against Barrasso was an easy one. If he had run against former Gillette mayor and family friend Mike Enzi, Nick's family would have disowned him. Those are his words.

Politics is very personal in Wyoming. Nick's family and Mike's family grew up together. Nick is a Democrat -- an abberation in the coal-and-gas-mining county of Campbell, the city of Gillette. You'd think that he would have union support but this is right-to-work state. The unions have no clout in the Powder River Basin. Workers come from throughout the West to work in the open-pit mines or the sprawling gas fields. They make great wages to take home to Montana and the Dakotas and Texas. They don't want to hear about no stinkin' unions. They may not be Republicans, but they have strong Libertarian leanings. They sure as hell aren't aligning with Obama-lovin', gun-bannin', homosexual-leanin' Democrats.

All three Wyoming Democrats running for national offices in 2008 were pounded into the dirt by Republicans. Gary Trauner rounded up only a third of the popular vote against Republican Cynthia Lummis. In 2006, Trauner came within 1,000 votes of beating House incumbent Republican Barbara Cubin. In 2006, Trauner was ahead until votes from the rural Republican northern part of the state were counted. Republicans voted for Trauner in 2006 because he wasn't Cubin. Even diehard Repubs couldn't tolerate Cubin's foolishness and the fact that she'd missed most of her House votes in the previous year.

But Cubin retired and was no longer a factor in 2008. Repubs have a 2-to-1 lead over Dems in voter registration. The votes split along party lines and that spelled doom for Dems. Only when the Repubs cross over to the dark side do Dems win. Gov. Freudenthal showed that with two big wins in gubernatorial races.

Lots of Wyomingites like Mike Enzi. A pragmatic man who occasionally wanders into wingnuttia, as he did with the Terry Schiavo case in 2004, allying himself with Bill Frist who diagnosed Schiavo's case by watching a short film from the hospital. Enzi's staff returns phone calls. He attends book festivals and the state fair. He has a health care plan that is based on his bottom-line principles. Conservative, yes, but respected by many Dems, including this one.

He and Baucus aren't that different. Enzi a practical and sensible (most of the time) Republican. Baucus of Montana a Democrat with the libertarian leanings needed to capture conservative Montana voters.

The Rocky Mountain West is a different place. Most states are liberalizing, including Montana and Wyoming. That really only applies to the urban centers, such as Cheyenne, Laramie and Casper in Wyoming and the usual places in Montana: Missoula, Billings, and Bozeman.

But the rural West is a tough nut, with more in common with rural Mississippi and rural Pennsylvania than with Denver or even Cheyenne. As long as Govs and Congressional hopefuls need those voters, you'll find an eclectic crop of leaders. Baucus, for instance. And Enzi.

I understand the confusion voiced by bloggers in other states. Here's one take from Brian Beutler on Talking Points Memo DC:

If it was up to reformers, Sen. Mike Enzi (R-WY) probably wouldn't be anywhere near the heart of health care negotiations. But unfortunately for them, he's right in the middle of the action.

If after the Democrats' historic election in November, I had suggested that one of the Senate's most conservative Republicans would stand a chance of hijacking President Obama's health care proposal, you might have waved off the threat, and rightly so. But thanks to Finance Committee chairman Max Baucus--who has insisted on passing a consensus bill at the expense of a number of liberal goals--that's basically what's happening.

Read the rest of "Has A Conservative Republican From Wyoming Taken Over The Health Care Debate In The Senate?" at http://tinyurl.com/lgqags. It sums up the frustration felt by liberal Democrats over the health care hold-up.