ku # 1173-74 / civilized ku # 2320-27 ~ an odd night out
Friday, September 7, 2012 at 12:00PM ;)
Post, steps, flowers ~ Willsboro, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggen
Camp Flat Rock wing ~ Willsboro, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggen
Flat Rock bedrooms wing ~ Willsboro, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggen
Lake Champlain shore ~ Willsboro, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggen
flat rock ~ Willsboro, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggen
Interior ~ Willsboro, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggen
Interior # 2 ~ Willsboro, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggen
Pack basket ~ Willsboro, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggen
Rocky point ~ Willsboro, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggen
Vermont ~ Willsboro, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggenYesterday evening, the wife and I went out for a $1,000.00USD-a-ticket political soiree. The event was for our good friend (the wife's ex law partner), US Congressman Bill Owens (a Democrat).
What made it an odd night out is twofold: 1) we don't ever have any $1,000 nights out, and, 2) the party was chock full (34-36 of 40) of top-1%-ers Republicans, a group we don't normally hangout with. Nevertheless, we sorta had to attend, so we sucked it up and went.
The party was held at Camp Flat Rock, a seasonal privately owned Adirondack Great Camp on the shore of Lake Champlain. The camp is listed on the National Registry of Historic Places and, even though privately owned, it is under the stewardship of the Adirondack Nature Conservancy to ensure that the land (40 acres) will not be developed in the future.
The soiree's host family (the camp owner) are dyed-in-the-wool, multi-generational Republicans - one of the family's patriarchs broke open a bottle of champagne on the occasion of Franklin Delano Roosevelt's death, apparently believing it was cause for celebration - and most of the other attendees, the wife and I excepted, were of the same political persuasion.
Why a Democrat political fundraiser attended by mostly Republicans, you might asked?
My guess is simple ... most of the attendees could be classified as "lost generation" Republicans. That is to say, Republicans who, although they be Conservatives (most might actually be Rockefeller Republicans*), are most definitely not beady-eyed zealots of the Tea Party / Republican far-far Right Wing political persuasion. I am fairly certain that most, if not all of them, are quite dismayed by the current state of their beloved political party.
As such, they appreciate Democrat Bill Owens and his true practical and bi-partisanship approach to governance - he voted with Republicans 35% of the time. He is an honest-to-god political moderate, dedicated to sensible political compromise in order to get things done and he has no stringent political ideology to which he must adhered at all costs.
It is extremely unfortunate that Bill is in such a minuscule minority in the US Congress. Our country needs many more like him on both sides of the aisle. Here's hoping he is re-elected simply because he's a good man and I don't want to be represented by his moronic Tea Party-backed opponent.
*a member of the Republican Party of the United States of America, who is fiscally conservative, but not Christian conservative, and politically ambiguous on social conservatism.
Reader Comments (1)
Amen. I was a card-carrying Republican for 36 years, but the weekend that Tom DeLay convened Congress to consider a Terry Schiavo bill, well... that was all I could take. I look forward to the day that I can return - if I live long enough.
Bob