OS enjoyed lunch today at the diner in his small town. He especially enjoyed the company of Mrs. OS across the table, ever amazed that she still tolerates him after all these years. It must be love. No other explanation fits.
Along strolls an enthusiastic gent, handing out a candidate flyer for Steve Fincher, candidate for Congress. OS barely looked up from his plate, until he noticed that the enthusiastic gent was Mr. Fincher himself, who graciously sat down and allowed himself to be questioned.
He's thirty-seven, with three kids, a farmer, gospel music singer and Methodist from a small town in the center of the district. He's been well-coached, perhaps over-coached, and Heaven knows the man must be weary of talking to strangers who interrogate him.
We tried to convey a couple of ideas to him, and it's not certain we were successful.
1. The 1994 GOP Freshman Class of House members absolutely blew it. They simply muscled the Dems away from the trough and began their own feeding frenzy. Our disdain for George Bush the Younger was unmistakable. We were hostile in tone when speaking of this. He agreed, and agreed, and agreed, but we're not sure he understood the import of what he was hearing. OS asked him point blank if he was willing to look that horse's-patooty John Boehner in the eye and say 'NO'. He said he would.
2. Mrs. OS posed a more crucial question (she's a lot wiser than her husband). When push comes to shove, and you have to prioritize between your social conservatism and your fiscal conservatism, which way will you go? What's the more crucial question in your mind? He began to talk about his core conservative values, 100% pro-life, etc. Again, he's really been coached. She was attempting to find out if this nice man has been so captured by the Religious Right that he doesn't see the Bigger Moral Question, that the government is in danger of collapsing the culture itself, making other arguments moot. The Religious Right types are a biiiiig part of the problem, with real tin-foil-hat wing-nuts scattered liberally throughout their ranks. They tolerate no differences of opinion, and take no prisoners. He did say that he was running because he thinks the country is about to burn down, and that he is concerned about his children's futures. He is sincere and earnest, but we were looking for a more measured quality of mind. Perhaps in time, he'll develop that.
3. We asked him his age (37), and where he plans to be at age 50. He plans to be home by that time, no more than six terms, if memory serves correctly.
This primary is a very close call, and OS will likely vote for this gent. John Tanner is thankfully departing, a member of the YellowDog Democrat crowd that has treated this part of the world like a plantation. Mr. Fincher has some real appeal, because with young children and a family business to run, he still has some true existential and emotional skin in the game. He also would have enough energy to juggle all those conflicting responsibilities. His opponents create much, much more serious misgivings in OS's mind. But it will not be an enthusiastic vote.
OS hopes someday to talk with him again, post-primary. Fincher didn't adequately answer the culture-forms-economy questions, and perhaps OS needs to phrase them more clearly.
Roy Herron, his likely Democrat opponent, is someone OS has known in the past. He is a thoughtful man of real character, but sadly has hitched his wagon to the wrong team of horses, like AlGore, Clinton, Obama, and company. OS would be very aggrieved to witness ad hominem attacks upon the man, because it would be more indicative of the GOP candidate's character than Mr. Herron's. OS can't vote for Roy, but doesn't think he ever deserves to be trashed. It is likely that the typical RNC down-and-dirty approach would doom the GOP candidate.
Ya'll play nice out there.
By the way, OS's comment board is still open for the OS Candidate Challenge, TN 8 GOP Primary:
50 words or less from each candidate, explaining positively why he would serve the district best, and no circular firing squads allowed. No attacks, no name-calling, no nothing like that. If you do, your post will stay up, be memorialized, and OS will personally throw verbal rotten eggs at the candidate.
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