Tea Party Politics at a Colorado Landfill

So this morning I load up a trailer and head to the Custer County landfill (how backwoods folk in the West dispose of their trash) and the laconic landfill dude notices my Obama-Biden sticker on the back of the car and says, “Well it’s going to cost you $300 for that Obama sticker.” He isn’t smiling. I try to laugh it off and counter, “Oh, yeah? I thought I’d get the 50% Obama voter discount.” Landfill dude and his sidekick (if they had a TV detective show it would be titled Bald & Grizzled) are not amused. They launch into a Tea Party argument with more passion than I want to deal with, lugging a load of trash at 10 o’clock in the a.m. Grizzled says, “I don’t care what kind of minority runs the country, I just want one who knows what the hell he’s doin’.” (True quote.) He mentions minority in his first comment about Obama, trying to show how open-minded and all he is. Bald says, “That’ll be $18.” I grin and say, “Well with that 50% discount, I guess it’s nine then.”
He shakes his head like I’m skating on thin ice. The Gail Collins op-ed in today’s NY  Times has some good examples of nutty “I’m mad as hell and not going to take it anymore” Tea Party behavior.
Grizzled and Bald have replaced my favorite landfill dude, with whom I used to argue Global Warming. His basic take on the subject was, “Those scientists don’t know a thing.” But we had some good discussions, although neither of us would budge. For perspective, he would admit that the Wet Mountain Valley was regularly covered in snow November to April; now, that’s a rarity. I live below an abandoned (defunct is perhaps the best word) ski resort, which flourished in the 1980s. It has now become a Christian resort. One that features sharp-shooting on the weekends. (Prompting me to wonder, “What would Jesus shoot?”) Kind of creepy, when the Christian out-of-towners on the hillside above you are shooting guns all afternoon.
A recent piece on Global Warming, which too many have conveniently decided is a myth, in MSNBC, headline of “Latest Decade Warmest on Record”: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38454658/ns/us_news-environment/