My Republican adventure
Last night's Wendel gig was in a church rental hall in Fairlawn, an Oktoberfest for...the Summit County Republican Party. I knew I was playing for the 'Pugs, and didn't figure that my personal opinions should get in the way of my professional duties
It almost didn't happen that way though.
As the sound guy was setting mikes, some woman came around asking about the"purple Ford Escort" with the anti-Bush bumper sticker. As I drive a maroon Ford Aspire, it took me a minute to realize that I was being referred to, and the "anti-Bush" sticker was the circle-slash W I have on the front of my car. I don't even think of myself as being particularly anti-Bush; I admire his grasp of the big picture in the war against radical Islam, but wish he'd see the same big picture in his removal of freedoms to fight that menace. (a standard signing statement to be made to Bush: "Would you want the typical poster on Democratic Underground to have this power?" Because they will...). But I also have an anti-Clinton sticker on there; when it comes to dissing politicians I am a great believer in the Fairness Doctrine.
Anyway, the woman told me I had to remove my car from the parking lot. This was going a bit far, and I overreacted. There was nothing on this street but private homes and churches; it's not like I could dump it in a strip mall somewhere. As far as I was concerned, if the car was going, I was going with it. Words were exchanged, increasingly acrimoniously. Finally I got a grip, and said "I'll see what I can do." I didn't have any special problem with their property right. They had rented the space, and it was reasonable to want to present a unified message, though it did smack a bit of the same sort of repression of alternative ideas the Rs have been doing all this campaign. But I expected the same respect for my desire to protect my property. Mike (the guy who actually booked the band) was outside, and I explained my problem, and he suggested it would be OK to park in the corner, which I did. From there, the only way my sticker could be seen would be from the garbage dumpster, and I figured anyone dumpster-diving behind a church probably needed to see the sticker. Had I been thinking, I would have told the woman, "It's not anti-Bush. the W stands for "Women"; I'm a misogynist." Or better yet, maybe, "I'm gay". Oddly enouugh, nobody mentioned the Peirce sticker in back, I guess because Blackwell has stuck Peirce so far back in the memory hole that he didn't really exist...sort of like "Cthulhu for President -why the lesser evil?" And it was a fellow Republican she was abusing, at least according to the Board of Elections; I vote R in the primary to attempt to get them to match their actions to their rhetoric. Besides, my party doesn't exist in the state of Ohio, per fiat of Ken Blackwell.
Aside from that little unpleasantness, it was a fairly good time; 'Pugs DO know how to party. We were to be there at 4, but nobody was there by then, and we didn't actually start playing until 5. They had professional sound, who were very precise with the speakers' mike, and with us; I don't think the band has ever sounded so clean; it helped that the "A team" was all there (esp. Mike Fisher and Al Demkowicz, not often with us these days). There was a DJ to fill in around (and after) the band. There was sausage and kraut, coffee, cider and beer free, pie for sale for a buck. Joe shilled it as "good Republican pie"; amusing because it was actually corporate pie (mostly Entenmanns), not homemade, and because it evoked images of Sweeney Todd. Joe was trying to whip up some Oktoberfest gemütlichkeit instead of being a good little potted plant ; not the call I would have made, but not my call to make.
After 7 they got a bunch of candidates up on stage. Their state auditor candidate (Mary Taylor) actually is a CPA, supposedly the first such candidate in Ohio history, and seemed well woth voting for on professional competence and demeanor grounds, even if you're a Democrat (it's not a terribly ideological office). But all this was just a warmup act for The Devil Himself, Ken Blackwell. Kenny came off much better here than in the debates. I have to give the man his props; he knows how to work his base, though working his base tends to scare the bejeezus out of anyone not part of his base. I mean, how dare he mention God? It all sounded very good, with lots of quotes of Founding Fathers, though hearing words like "freedom" and "democracy" coming out of that mouth made me feel like Winston Smith at the Ministry of Truth.
They had some problems afterwards; 3 cars were blocking Blackwell's bus, and it was a long process finding their owners...so much so that I suspect a deliberate monkeywrenching. No, I don't know that, so you JBTs can stay home instead of questioning me at work.
A TV crew from Athens (!) was there at the end, and Joe was working them. Things started breaking up after the band left at 8. I grabbed a hot dog and a beer, and went home.
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