Utah Tea Party Article in the New York Times

[KevinW]

'Spot on' is spot on, old chap!

So at risk of extending the politics still further,
Id like to hear more about the Sarah Palin comment.

I thought she was the Tea Party leader?

[Tommy]

Are forum rules the same for advertisers and moderators as they are for ordinary members? This is, of course, a rhetorical question because anyone who pays attention already knows the the answer.

[David Kirkham]

big-boss,

Thanks for the kind words. Yes, being kind to people works the best. It's hard to have a discussion when the first thing you say to someone you just met is, "You're wrong." You aren't likely to win many friends that way. I think many people would be surprised by how much we all have in common with each other. Many people say yesterday was a "Tea Party victory." I don't think it was a Tea Party victory as much as it was an American victory. Newly engaged people got involved and influenced the process. That is how it is supposed to work. I have been in countries where it doesn't work that way. I have traveled all over the world and no matter where I have been, I am always thrilled to be back in America.

Yes, America was founded on responsibility and accountability. Hopefully, we can bring some of that back to government. It's been away for too long...on both sides.

David

[David Kirkham]

Originally Posted by m5extc

Great article David, thanks for sharing. I am impressed by the writer, though having differing opinions was able to report without name calling or anything else unproductive.

Andrei

Thanks for the kind words. I was very impressed with Matt Bai. We didn't agree on all things political, but we had a very long discussion on many topics. At no point did our discussion ever become disagreeable. He worked very hard emailing me back and forth to get the story fair and accurate. He did a great job.

Orrin called me after the article came out and started the conversation by saying, "David, I have been in Washington over 30 years and that is the first time I have ever seen the New York Times say something positive about a conservative. How did you do it?!"

I said, "Well, I 'bribed' them with our cars."

Meaning,

I had just come into the pits from giving some hot laps to friends when I noticed a man walking up to the car. (I was giving rides in the prototype billet chassis.) The brakes were hot, the slicks were gummy, the faint whiff of burnt oil was in the air. I pulled off my helmet and he introduced himself,

"Are you David Kirkham?"

"Yes"

"I'm Matt Bai, from the New York Times."

Looking beside me I saw one of our helmets on pit wall and grabbed it and handed it to Matt.

"Here, put this on."

While he was putting on the helmet, (and before he could object), I gently "maneuvered" him into the passenger seat and started strapping him in.

He looked a little bewildered as he fumbled with his chin strap. He tried to say something, but by then it was too late. I had already strapped him in. I jumped in, tightened up my belts, and put on my gloves. I turned to him then, flipping up my visor said,

"Ugh, you better hold on."

I slapped down my visor and lit the Kieth Craft 482. I slipped the Tremec into first gear and eased out the 7 inch twin-disc on the specially lightened Kirkham flywheel. We rumbled down pit lane, my chariot rearing to launch. We eagerly rolled up to the flagman, waiting until we got the green flag indicating the straight was clear. Feathering the gum balls at the edge of accelerative traction we catapulted into the straight. The prototype car handles like a dream. The Keith Craft 427 has an endless supply of torque. The tires hadn't had time to cool off so I knew they were still sticky. Life is good. We leaned hard into the straight before I stabbed the braking point at turn 1. As I heel and toed the down-shift, I could see him squirm as he grasped for anything to hold on to. (We all remember our first ride )

We drifted for 3 hot laps, then came the checkered flag. The session was over. 3 laps is about all a passenger can stand anyway. We idled back down pit lane and I cut the motor as we pulled into pit row. When he got out, he turned to me with an enormous smile and said, "That was incredible!"

When he wrote of that ride in the article, "We are not who you think we are. We are serious people with serious abilities," he was right. I had achieved my goal. I wanted him to understand they we (The Tea Party people) are the American Dream. I wanted him to understand there are many people across our beautiful land who can still build something with their own hands to make their own dreams come true--no matter what those dreams may be.

David

[David Kirkham]

Originally Posted by JWilly

Mr Kirkham, Good luck with your efforts. I think everyone wants a govt. that is financially responsible. Problem is, for me, the Tea Party in many places has morphed into a social conservative movement. I don't think this is what the TP founders had in mind for the party. Is it?

I have helped to organize many Tea Parties in Utah (I think 18, but I have now lost track). I have never seen a "social[ly] conservative" sign at any of our rallies. The Tea Party isn't about that--at least here in Utah. No one even talks about it. Everyone seems to understand once you lose your economic freedom, your political freedom isn't far behind.

David

[David Kirkham]

Originally Posted by Excaliber

I absolutely support David in this project and a tip of the hat for getting involved. That was an interesting article. No question, Cobras DO bring people together, our views may remain different, by it's OK.

Ernie,

YES! That is what it is all about. Let's look for common ground first. Then, discussing our differences will be much easier.

David

[David Kirkham]

Originally Posted by Brent Mills

Good work, David! We need more people with your drive working to address the challenges we face.

Now don't go forgetting your family here!

Brent,

I could never forget you guys. You are the best bunch of guys on the planet. My world has expanded to include a few more friends. It's a great thing. You can never have too many friends.

David

[David Kirkham]

Originally Posted by Excaliber

David, the battle may be more about the public perception of what the "Tea Party" stands for than your personal version or what your immediate Tea Party affiliates bring to the table.

You know the Tea folks have gotten some really bad press over time and the party is so wide spread and disconnected with it's various branches all over the country it is difficult to get a clear picture of what exactly they do or do not stand for.

A little negative press goes a long way in forming public opinion, much farther than a little positive press. Sad, but true, negative ad's do have an impact, even if they do irratate us.

Ernie,

All the Tea Parties across the US (and now the world) sprang up out of the weeds. (That is why they call it grassroots.) We are all individual and really not connected together--other than a deep belief in America and a burning desire to "balance the checkbook."

Yes, some press is negative. But some, like this, is very positive. It is a start. I imagine if we didn't yell at each other so much, we all might start saying nicer things about everyone else.

Originally Posted by Ronbo

If the tea party movement had worked as intended we'd have a fresh batch of third party (libertarian or constitutionalist) appointments. Like every other movement it's picked up it's fair share of fleas.

Telling Palin "You don't speak for us" would be a good start.

We've just slowed the bus down...

Sorry Jamo, just tellin it like I see it.

Yes, we are a young movement and there will always be growing pains. The goal is to learn from our mistakes and get better for next time.

David

[David Kirkham]

Originally Posted by KevinW

The tea party is reported, rightly or wrongly in the UK as a right wing fringe movement gathering momentum to the embarressment of the republican party, who fear that association with them will loose them seats in waivering marginal states. dont really know if this is correct or not.

i also didnt understand David's comment on socialism and serfdom.

im probably ignorant of US sentiment, but i also dont understand the socialism connection.

I wrote an answer to this which I haven't published yet...might as well here.

I read Reich's WSJ Opinion that business leaders should fear the Tea Party and wrote a response--as both a Tea Party Organizer and a businessman.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...086257706.html

Free Market Business Has Nothing to Fear From the Tea Party

It is both sad and unfortunate that Robert Reich, as noted in his 29 October 2010 opinion in the Wall Street Journal, thinks the Tea Party ideals are "extreme or fringe," and that "Business leaders should be standing up to this dangerous idiocy..." Wanting to balance our nation’s checkbook is not "extreme, fringe, or idiocy." As a business owner who organized Utah's first Tea Party (with the express purpose of unseating Senator Bennett), I can firmly state free-market business has nothing to fear from the Tea Party.

I wish all Americans could see what I have seen. Perhaps we would then all understand the true suffering unleashed by ill-advised TARP, bailouts, and stimulus packages. Tea Party people understand "the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result." I have seen with my own eyes the long-trodden "Road to Serfdom" in the ashes of companies across this world who were anointed "too big to fail."

In early 1995 I started to build my own American dream when I landed in an enormous aircraft factory in Poland which produced three MiG's a day at the height of the Cold War. The factory had been in a tailspin after 1990 when the Soviet Union had cancelled all their military contracts. By the time I arrived, the situation at PZL Mielec was grim. Day after day I walked past somber lathe and mill operators who stood motionless behind a thousand silent machines--waiting for someone, anyone, to give them work. The lights were off because Poland's defense industries could no longer afford to keep them on.

Slowly, the fear of uncertainty enveloped the city. As time passed, I watched the tail spin of PZL Mielec, a company "too big to fail," slide into an ever-constricting death spiral. I was there the day the guards abandoned their posts. I was there the day some 20,000 men and women, who had endured a lifetime in Poland under the odious chains of socialist rule, lost their jobs and were turned out in the cold. I was there the day the life of Poland's crown jewel of Socialist State, "The People's Aircraft Company," was snuffed out in a fiery crash. I was there the day the once thunderous skies over the “People's Aircraft Factory” were stilled.

The Polish bailouts were bankrupt. The government failed to keep their promises to their very own people. Socialism was defeated--but tragically, so were the workers. Soon, and endless stream of displaced men lined up at the door of our newly formed factory to beg for work. I saw the fear in their eyes and the smoldering wreckages of families who wondered how to survive. Their lives were cheated by those who governed in egalitarian tyranny.

Later, the US Department of Energy asked my brother and I to travel to Snezhinsk, Russia to work with Minatom and Russia's top nuclear weapons engineers. Snezhinsk is the "closed city" where Russia developed their first atomic bomb. People who went in--never came back out. Gary Powers (the U2 pilot) was shot down trying to take pictures of the city we walked through. The US government was afraid Russian weapons engineers would sell their secrets to Iran or to other undesirables because they had no work, no money, no life. The DOE asked us if we could convert those engineers to a free-market economy (as we had done in the old MiG factory in Poland) to prevent a world-wide catastrophe.

Over the course of a few years I worked with those engineers. There were many times we were able to wander off just to talk--away from the interpreter (who was undoubtedly KGB). Polish is quite similar to Russian so I was able to roughly communicate. Sadly, all they spoke of was getting their children OUT--out to America, the land where dreams come true. At night, I watched those brilliant men surrender their lives to the nightmare of vodka. After falling unconscious, the women carried them home. Yes, the women. The women swept the streets. The women operated the lathes and mills. The women worked on the streets with pick axes and shovels. The women stood in the indescribable Siberian cold and sold trinkets to support their families. The women paid "protection" money to the police who constantly harassed them. The women paid the price.

The Tea Party people are mad because President Bush opened Pandora's box and threw our economy into an ocean of debt with the passage of TARP. Now politicians deceive us saying the cement shoes of over 17% real unemployment--of their own making--are really life preservers. Their claims that each new program is generating "savings" are somewhere between delusions and lies. You can no more save the free market by abandoning free market principles than Chamberlain could have saved Europe by abandoning the Czechoslovakian people to Hitler’s National Socialists. I wonder, was TARP “Prosperity for our time?”

Obama famously told "Joe the Plumber" that he just wanted to "spread the wealth around." Tragically, Obama is repeating a mistake played out time and again throughout human history. For untold thousands of years, kings and rulers looted their subjects. Then, the productive hid their greatest wealth--their mind--from the asphyxiating greed of those in power, thus, impoverishing all and creating a stagnate world of despair. Poverty can not be banished by mortgaging debt or by changing workers into beggars. I have seen the disease of wealth destruction--masquerading as wealth redistribution--it inevitably metastasizes into trickle-down despair.

Trickle down despair is a sword with two edges--it cuts rich as well as poor. Undeniably, poverty breeds despair. I have lived and walked among those who suffered. But confiscating wealth from the rich drives producers into economic exile and countries into bankruptcy. As Margret Thatcher said, invariably, other people's money runs out--leaving the poor to pay the price of infernal socialist designs. During the election, Obama proclaimed, "At a moment like this, the last thing we can afford is four more years of the tired, worn-out, old theory that...prosperity trickles down..." Ironically, the “tired, worn-out, old theory” of trickle-down-economics is actually quite new. It was born when 56 men signed the Declaration of Independence and then defended it with their blood. They boldly proclaimed to the world they were free to produce, free to pursue their own happiness, and free from the confiscation of their wealth by looters and tyrants. Those men took the first hammer blows to the foundations of the real tired, worn-out, old theory, that power and wealth should be taken from the desperate many and given to the privileged few. As Ayn Rand said, “So long as wealth was made by conquest, there was little to conquer."

I have lived and worked in the depths of socialist hell. As a businessman, that's why I started the Tea Parties here in Utah. I have helped to organize 17 more since then. According to Sam Adams Alliance research, 47% of the people in the Tea Party are, like myself, newly engaged citizens in the political process. We are a force that will not go away. We are engaged. We are educating ourselves. We are learning the process. Mr. Reich, we invite you to come to our next Tea Party and find out who we really are and what we stand for. There you will meet some of the kindest, most patriotic people in our country. Who knows, you just might find some life-long friends; I know I have.

In December of 2008 I vowed to do everything in my power to remove Senator Bennett from office. With the help of countless people across the state of Utah, we succeeded in that goal in May of 2010. On Tuesday, the Tea Party removed many of those in congress whose fingerprints stain foul legislation. In 2012 the Tea Party will remove President Obama from office. Only those supporting socialist policies, Republican and Democrat alike, have anything to fear from the Tea Party.

David Kirkham, President
Kirkham Motorsports
Utah Tea Party Organizer

[392cobra]

That is absolutely wonderful David !!!

I will be passing it on.

[David Kirkham]

Originally Posted by KevinW

'Spot on' is spot on, old chap!

So at risk of extending the politics still further,
Id like to hear more about the Sarah Palin comment.

I thought she was the Tea Party leader?

The Tea Party really doesn't have a single leader. It was (is) a spontaneous (uncoordinated) uprising of the people against elite politicians who quit listening to the people they professed to represent. We Americans do that sort of thing when we have had enough of those in power. It is called the Tea Party. Many years ago we weren't happy with taxes and laws imposed upon us from a distant, deaf ruler. So, we sent a message we didn't like it by throwing some of his stuff in the harbor.

Sarah Palin brings a lot of energy and passion to the discussion. Many in the Tea Party agree with her--many don't (as evidenced by posts on this very thread). I don't think she thinks she is the only leader. I don't think she thinks like that. I think she is thrilled there are a zillion leaders. Everyone who stands up is a leader. There are many people across the US who are helping to organize and educate people. I think she just wants to help, excite people, and to do what she thinks is best for the country. I think it is GREAT she is speaking out. I think it would be GREATER if we would ALL speak out about being fiscally responsible. I think we can all agree on that. We simply can't spend all the money (and more) and demand our children will vote taxes on themselves in years to come to pay for our excess.

That is what this is all about. There are many voices that add to the discussion. No one has all the answers. We don't all have to agree on everything. The one thing we in the Tea Party all agree on is politicians spending all the money and then blaming everyone else has got to stop. I'll use every tool I can find or make to send that message. I happen to have cars--so I use them. Everyone uses what they can. When everyone pitches in life is easier for everyone.

David

[saltytri]

First, for Jamo's sake , let me say that my admiration for David K. doesn't have anything to do with his politics and this isn't a political comment- we surely do agree on some things and probably don't on others. What we all ought to applaud is that some folks go to the trouble of sticking their chins out there. That's a whole lot harder to do than just grumbling about things we don't like.

David I.

[67JET]

Mr. Kirkham
That was a great response. I think the best part was when you said "In 2012 the Tea Party will remove President Obama from office." Maybe there will come a time when we have the option of voting for you. I'm just saying.... You know..... I would......

[playtimeover]

Hey David. The article is so good. It has some interesting word/phrase to read. Good article.

[Jamo]

Originally Posted by saltytri

First, for Jamo's sake , let me say that my admiration for David K. doesn't have anything to do with his politics and this isn't a political comment- we surely do agree on some things and probably don't on others. What we all ought to applaud is that some folks go to the trouble of sticking their chins out there. That's a whole lot harder to do than just grumbling about things we don't like.

David I.

Thanks, and in response to Tommy, the rules are the same (believe it or not)...the distinction I was hoping folks would see here is that we can all appreciate a fellow member doing something for others, not unlike raising money to help someone finish a car or to support someone helping others in times of need or disaster.

Unfortunately, folks can't seem to limit their discussion, and I can understand how tough it is to do. You wouldn't believe how much i want to say on the subject...but I'm under the same rules.

All that being said...time to close this discussion. Congrats again to David on the recognition he's getting for his dedication.