A Tale of Two Meetings.

I had a choice between attending two meetings last Thursday night. The meeting of the local Tea Party, which is just getting started, and the meeting of the local Democrat Party. Since I wanted to go to both, and couldn’t figure out how to be in two places at once, I had to compromise.

The tea party started first, thirty minutes earlier than the other one. So I went early enough to meet the candidates who were there before the meeting started. One of the candidates for Georgia’s 9th district Congressional Seat was there, and one of the candidates for Attorney General, and I wanted to shake their hand and take their measure.

Then I went across the park to the library, where the Democrat meeting was being held, and once again found myself taking someone’s measure. Only these were all people that I knew, some of them for a long time. I know their families, one of which is my own. I know how they were raised, and I know what kind of people they are.

One of those people was my brother, who was resigning after 12 years as the Chairman of the local party. Sitting beside him was the guy who had agreed to become the new chairman (yes, they had to talk somebody into it), who I will refer to as Obama-man. I call him that because he has never been involved in local politics until 2008, when he went to one of the OFA training camps, and started working with the local parties as per their instructions.

Obama-man’s father was one of my father’s best friends when we were younger, and his sister was one of my best friends. During our high school years, I spent as much time at their house as I spent at my own. Sitting beside Obama-man was a woman that I will call Dee, whose family has been  involved in local politics longer and more deeply than my own.

 I had to bite my tongue several times, and a few times I didn’t bite quite hard enough. It was painfully obvious that Obama man is still spending way too much time at dailyKooks. When he made reference to “the teabaggers across the street”, Dee told him “That’s so seventh grade.” before I had time to get my tongue out from between my teeth.

Ditto the comment that Republicans are trying to co-opt the R word, which confused me momentarily. Upon hearing the explanation that they were referring to the word “retard”, I explained my confusion by saying that I thought for a minute that they were talking about the other R word, which has been the Democrat’s response to any questions or criticism for the better part of two years.

    But I was there on a fact finding mission, and I have found that you can find more facts when you can keep your mouth shut. My other brother, along with another good friend on the County Commission, are both up for re-election this year.

They have both been elected three times on the Democrat ticket. But they both know that it will be uphill sledding for them this year, because they understand, and for the most part agree with, the current anti-incumbent sentiment. They also know that they are going to be saddled with a national Party agenda that they neither approve of nor agree with.

So my advice to them is pretty much the same as it has been to all Democrats who are not Obamacrats, whether they are on a ballot or not. We can either leave the Party entirely, loudly and publicly. Or we can stand up within the Party, and renounce the Obamacrats and their behavior, loudly and publicly.

I have been asked many times why I am still a Democrat, even though I support Sarah Palin and many other conservative candidates, and this is why. I know many of these candidates personally. I know their charachter, and I know their hearts. I have watched them struggle to come to terms with the fact that their Party has left them, for all intents and purposes.

So I will continue to be a Palin Democrat, at least for now, and I will continue to fight the good fight from both the inside and the outside. I will work for and campaign for these Democrats, as I always have. But that contribution and cooperation will come with a price. And that price is the candidates acceptance of my promotion of the Tea Party movement, and the conservative candidates that I have chosen to support, and my repudiation of the National Democrat Party.

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