One of the great difficulties in motivating political demonstration or action by conservatives in Boise isn't that there aren't a lot of them--but most of them (unless they are refugees from the Soviet Union or California), simply don't understand what the urgency is. My wife and I tell the natives here about things that are the law in California, or just commonly accepted social practices, and they look at us as if we have told them that every city council meeting in California starts with a human sacrifice, followed by an orgy.
Considering the local ho-hum attitude, I guess that we should consider the 100-150 people that turned out for the Boise Tea Party today to be pretty decent. This was held on the grassy triangle in the middle of Ninth Street, which heads north to the state capitol.
Lots of signs, of course, many of them at least good bumper sticker sloganeering. As proof of the inevitable rational self-organizing nature of free people, without guidance or direction, everyone with a sign occupied a spot where cars passing by could see us--and occasionally toot their horns in approval!
One person identifying with "V", the hero of V Is For Vendetta, was wearing the Guy Fawkes mask. And of course, since many of those involved were Paulistas, the Ron Paul for President signs were present. (I didn't have the heart to tell them that 2008 isn't coming around again.)
And this sign says, "You can't borrow to prosperity."
This being Boise, we opened in prayer, and closed with someone dressed up as Ben Franklin, delivering a message that perhaps Franklin would have approved of, while my friend and fellow California refugee Jack Stuart, dressed up as Patrick Henry, delivered the famous "Give me liberty or give me death!" speech.
I did not catch this guy's name, but he explained that he was Navajo, and that if you want to know what the future for America is like, look no further than an Indian reservation, where the federal government has for many years exercised enormous paternalistic power--and it is reflected in alcoholism, short lifespans, high rates of diabetes, low home ownership, and utter misery.
While I agree that this is certainly a major component of what is wrong on reservations, I think that is a little overstated. The alcoholism and diabetes problems are interrelated, and to a large extent genetic.
At the risk of sounding like a liberal, I suspect that at least a little bit of the alcoholism problem derives from the sense of loss and failure that comes from having been defeated--and having your entire culture and civilization thrown on the scrap heap of history. There's an enormous loss that many tribes suffered as a result of the conscious effort by the federal government until surprisingly recent times to replace the native culture, language, and customs with those of white America.
The intentions of this cultural imperialism were good: to help the Indians to become part of the mainstream of American society. But good intentions are not enough--and in that respect, the state of the reservation is a valid warning of what happens when Big Brother in D.C. decides that a "stupid" traditional culture (for example, rural Americans clinging to our "guns or religion") needs to be replaced with something more modern.
Anyway, I'm glad that I went. I had a chance to meet a few Republican activists, with whom I have effectively no connections. Partly, Idaho seems to be weak on Republican activists (in spite of voting solidly Republican), and partly, the few that I meet act like I am some sort of virus.
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