Lawn Chair Debate: Divided Nevada Neighbors Find Some Common Ground

LAS VEGAS -- For some time now, everyone in my neighborhood has known how Dave Alexander feels about politics. He was the first person we knew with a "One Big A** Mistake America" bumper sticker, appearing within days of President Obama's 2008 election. As the debate over the health insurance reform bill raged, the bumper stickers morphed into signs hung on his truck and trailer, the same trailer he loaded with huge plastic bins full of anti-Obama/Reid/Democrat/Socialism T-shirts he distributes at tea party gatherings around Nevada. As a journalist, I had seen him with a small group of protesters waving signs just outside the security perimeter at the high school where Obama appeared in February. And, of course, Dave was decked out to the nines when I spotted him in March at the state's biggest tea party event, the Showdown in Searchlight.

So Dave is hard core, and in the heat of the nation's tightest, highest-profile U.S. Senate race, it was no surprise when his support for Republican Sharron Angle began sprouting in his yard, on his vehicle and in the windows his townhouse.

Then, last month Alexander's next-door neighbor revealed her allegiance ... to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, the four-term Democrat hoping to hang on Nov. 2. Alexander, the die-hard right-winger who was anti-Obama before Obama was even inaugurated, shares a wall with – gasp! – Democrats.

We often hear about how deeply polarized America is, so I wondered what it would be like to get Alexander and the lady next door with the Reid placards to talk politics. Would it be the intractable, hostile exchange that we're led to believe is the only way these days? This is a middle-class neighborhood where the yard signs are almost evenly split between Reid and Angle, where every block has vacant, foreclosed homes, and where it's common to hear of someone up the street who lost his construction job or who went back to work because her retirement investments had vanished.

It turns out, Dave Alexander and Jodi Warman have more in common than one might expect. Warman, 68, is a retired Broadway dancer who worked as an insurance broker after her performing days ended. She's a lifelong Democrat and native Ohioan who has been in Nevada since 1970; Alexander, 52, is a Vegas tour guide who moved to this home, where he lives with his elderly mother, in 1985. Both are unmarried.

The conversation was, indeed, enlightening. Warman had to be coaxed -- nervous that she'd feel overwhelmed by Alexander's stridency. But once they sat side by side in lawn chairs, they learned that they agreed on more than they expected.

An edited transcript follows. They gave me about a half-hour; Warman had errands to do and Alexander was just hours away from beginning a two-week road trip with the Tea Party Express. That's how they roll.

Politics Daily: Were you always a conservative Republican, Dave?

Dave Alexander: Yeah, pretty much always been a conservative-minded person mainly because of my heritage and my family background. My parents were both immigrants. My dad was an immigrant from England through Canada and my mom was an immigrant from Germany through Canada. My dad said he felt back then he had left one Socialist country for another and decided to come to the United States.

PD: Why are you a Democrat, Jodi?

Jodi Warman: It runs in the genes. My father was a labor union organizer in the 1930s. My father's side of the family particularly were all liberal progressives. In the 1950s, my father was even red-baited and there were a lot of problems with that and he ended up changing professions. The consequence of that was that there was some ostracism. So I lived through that whole era.

PD: Have you, Dave, ever voted for a Democrat? And Jodi, have you ever voted for a Republican?

Alexander: No. Never.

Warman: Yes. Ford in 1976 over Carter.

PD: Do you, Jodi, feel that people like Dave ever gave Obama a chance?

Warman: No, I don't. He probably made the tactical error of trying to be bipartisan and the result has been unfortunate. But absolutely I think that the Republicans have basically put up a wall and anything that Obama's for they're against, period.

Alexander: Not so, really. I started actually liking candidate Obama. In the beginning I thought he was a very intelligent, good-looking, well-spoken young man. I let the Jeremiah Wright thing go because the news media, you know, spins everything. I let the William Ayers things go, that did start to concern me a bit. A little bit later on, when his wife came out on TV and said this is the first time I've ever been proud of my country, I just about flew out of my chair. The reason why is that, well, I don't live in a multimillion-dollar mansion that had anything to do with a Chicago slumlord. I didn't go to Ivy League schools. I didn't work for a prestigious law firm, and I'm darn proud of this country. [Michelle Obama's statement actually occurred before the Wright or Ayers issues came up.]

PD: What were your first impressions of Sarah Palin?

Alexander: Uh, Sarah Palin took me a little while to get to know her a little bit, but once I studied up on her, looked into her background, her voting record, what she actually did as a politician, I was quite impressed by her.

PD: Do you think she should be president?

Alexander: Yes I do. Absolutely.

Warman: Well, I think she's very attractive, and in her way very articulate. I remember my first impression was extremely positive because she gave that speech at the Republican Convention. She was very impressive. I've since decided I don't think there's too much behind that facade. I recognize that she's a very clever woman. I don't necessarily think she's terribly intellectually curious when it comes to political matters, but she's obviously here to stay for some time. She's, I guess, earned her right to be where she is, but I don't think of her as an intellectual. I don't think of her as particularly intelligent, and I certainly -- even if I voted Republican for president -- I would be very hard pressed to say I would ever vote for Sarah Palin.

PD: Are you pleased or displeased with the Obama presidency so far?

Warman: Well, like many people I am concerned about the economy and so I am not real happy with the way things have gone but I don't attribute it to the Obama administration. I think they're basically doing all they can and I think the economy will improve. I think the Republicans are laying it on the current administration and I think they created the problem and it started in the Bush administration.

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Alexander: I agree to some extent that one of the problems with our political system is that whoever seems to be at the top of the pile there gets the blame or the credit for whatever goes right or wrong at that time. Now where President Clinton put into effect the redlines for people to own homes, this set up the Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae thing, they were the actual people behind this deal. When it all starts falling apart at the end of the Bush administration, he gets the blame for it, unfairly so. Now, George Bush was responsible for a lot of bad financial decisions in this country as well and that's why I'm a member of the tea party organization. It doesn't matter whether they have an R or a D behind their name. I'm trying to fight liberal progressivism for the simple reason that this country was founded by 56 men who risked their lives and the lives of their families to create a land where people have an opportunity to succeed.

PD: Before this administration, were you as politically active as you are now?

Alexander: No, sir. My entire life, I've tried to live a peaceful life. I enjoy outdoor sports. I jog. This is the first time I've ever been so shocked that I felt that I had to get up and do something. I've never seen anything like this before.

PD: It has been said that the people in the tea party movement are primarily concerned about economics and not necessarily religious conservatives. Where are you? Are you against abortion? Are you against gay rights?

Alexander: I look at a lot of different issues. Border control -- I lived in San Diego, I saw what happened down there growing up. The economy -- I have a lot of issues on that. Abortion is a great example. I go the conservative route for a lot of it, but then again, there's certain parts of it that I'm for. I'm actually for abortions to a certain point, which is an anti-conservative stance. One of the reasons for that, we've seen this happen before in our history. If you make abortions illegal, you're going to have illegal abortions. We've seen the results of that before. And if gay people want to live together, if they want to have the same rights and benefits as a traditionally married couple, I got no problem with it. But why aggravate traditionally married people by calling it marriage? Call it something else, civil unions or whatever, as long as they're getting the same rights and benefits as everybody else.

PD: Jodi, does that surprise you to hear that from Dave?

Warman: A little bit, yes. But I think that there is a lot of that other element in the tea party movement. The fact that he doesn't necessarily think it doesn't mean it's not there. It encompasses a lot of those kinds of people.

Alexander: Look, you're going to have a few people in any movement who just go too far. I can tell ya I've been to well over 100 of these tea party events so far, and there's very, very little. Most people, even in the tea party movement, they personally like President Obama. They just don't like his policies.

PD: Really? You think he's personally popular with those people?

Alexander: Yeah, with quite a few of them. I can't ever say that I haven't heard the n-word used at a tea party [event], but it's rare. I was up in Reno yesterday and never really heard anything you'd put in a hate column. Nothing. Now, on the liberal side, you have people beating up other people. There hasn't been a reported act of violence by a tea party member.

PD: In Nevada, there was a fistfight at a candidate forum between an Angle and a Reid supporter. Do you think that those things and the other things you've mentioned reflect a divide in this country that's gotten kind of mean?

Alexander: Uh, not so much with the tea party people. I haven't really seen that. You see different anger levels by different people. I, myself, have been personally affected financially by this Obama administration.

PD: How so?

Alexander: Well, during his campaign, I don't know how many hundreds of times we heard he was not going to raise the taxes on middle class Americans. Well, two weeks after he got elected, my pack of cigarettes went up 60 cents. Mr. President, I don't make anywhere near $200,000 a year. You raised the tax on my cigarettes. [Obama signed a law raising the federal tax on cigarettes by 62 cents a pack in February 2009, effective in April 2009.]

Warman: That's sales tax. That's not a general tax on income. I don't know how that relates.

Alexander: It relates because the day before, I was paying 60 cents less. And because of an action of him, it went up 60 cents.

PD: Jodi, does all of Dave's political stuff all over the lawn and everywhere else make you uncomfortable?

Warman: Yeah, it's irritating. It's in your face.

Alexander: I disagree. But I do feel strongly about what I believe in and, yeah, I do want to get the word out.

PD: Do you understand her political views?

Alexander: Yes. It has to go back to the beginning, our founding fathers. The cornerstone of our founding fathers was to have an opportunity, not to have someone take care of you from the cradle to the grave.

Warman: That's not how I feel. I was formerly a self-employed person selling insurance, so I have comported myself in such a manner that I'm a self-starter. I've had my own business. I absolutely don't believe in cradle-to-grave. But we do have to take care of people in this country. Not cradle-to-grave or 100 percent welfare. I am a social liberal and I'm a fiscal conservative if anything.

PD: What do you think of the health insurance reform that was passed by Congress?

Warman: I'm glad it got passed. I don't think it went far enough. If I had my way I would have had the public option. And remember, I am an ex-insurance agent. I sold this stuff. I made commissions off it. I'm coming from the point of view that should be really more pro-insurance, but I've seen what insurance companies have done. I know those guys. So right now I come from an extreme point of view with respect to that. I question whether private enterprise should even be involved. I don't like when the profit motive gets involved in someone's life.

Alexander: All we need to do is look at Western Europe, especially the country of England. If the public option is so good, why are the British people backing so far away from it?

PD: Do you support any part of the health insurance reform plan?

Alexander: Yeah, I do. Like the part about not being dropped for pre-existing conditions. When you buy insurance, you sign a contract with them to take care of the financial end of this stuff once you get sick, and then you do get sick and they drop you? I don't think that's right. But my biggest problem with the Obama administration is that the two things they could have done that actually have lowered costs, they didn't touch; being allowed to purchase insurance across state lines and the lawyers who are profiting way too much out of this. Of course, the Obama administration is in bed with the trial lawyers association.

Warman: I don't disagree with that totally because I think that does have a lot to do with cost savings. I certainly wouldn't recommend shelving the system, though. Now that the bill has passed, the Republicans have said we're going to get rid of this, we're going to get rid of that, but everything is so inextricably woven into everything else, you simply can't do it. If you unravel it, it's the end of this. Buying insurance across state lines, do I think it's going to save money? Yeah. Is it going to be dramatic? I don't know. And certainly, with the trial lawyers, I can't disagree with that because I don't like that either.

PD: Dave, is President Obama legitimately the president?

Alexander: Yes. I personally feel he is a U.S. citizen and that the reason the White House is so quiet on it because it's a win-win for him. It's distracting people from more important issues and, if he is indeed a U.S. citizen, which I personally believe he is, then it makes disbelievers look not so smart.

PD: Do you think he's a Muslim?

Alexander: That I don't know. I think he has some very strong Muslim points of view. He seems to be bending over backwards for them. That's impossible for anybody to tell, what's in a man's heart.

PD: What do you think of Harry Reid?

Alexander: In the beginning, from what I understand about him, he was way more conservative than he is today. He's gone way over to the liberal side now and it's really angered a lot of people.

Warman: You know, I've lived in this city for a long, long time. I even remember when he was on the gaming commission [in the late 1970s]. I think he's done a great deal for the state of Nevada. It would be a pity for him to lose this election. He obviously has the power in Washington. It's too bad it all gets tied in with Obama and Nancy Pelosi and they've made him out to be the bad guy. I think to some extent Harry Reid is the sacrificial lamb here. Do I think he's the most articulate man? No. He's said some really kind of stupid stuff. But he's good for the state of Nevada.

PD: What do you think about Sharron Angle?

Alexander: From what I've seen so far, she seems to be quite an intelligent lady. She's had her gaffes, but I don't know how many times in your life you've heard people say they want to see a real person in office. Not a lawyer who's been polished up and molded like a plastic statue, all shined up and sold to us. But when you get a real person, they're gonna be a little rough around the edges.

Warman: Well, I will say one thing about Sharron Angle, she is consistent in her beliefs even though she's tried to soften them lately. But when they say she's extremist, I wholeheartedly agree. Her views on abortion, immigration, homosexuality, you name it, she's on the right side of right for me.

Alexander: Y'know, even if she's not the sharpest tack in the box, it doesn't really matter that much. She's not going to have any real power. But what she is going to have is a vote. If she's going to vote for every good common-sense conservative legislation that comes up and against every money-spending, tax-raising liberal initiative that comes up, I'm for her.

PD: Jodi, does it surprise you that people will vote for Sharron Angle?

Warman: It really is pretty inexplicable. So many people hate Harry Reid. If that weren't the case, I don't think she'd be a serious candidate. They blame him a lot for the economy, unjustifiably so.

PD: Dave, there's nothing Sharron Angle has said over the last several months that could persuade you not to vote for her?

Alexander: Well, no, not really. They made a big hoo-hah about her wanting to eliminate Social Security...

PD: ...because she said so. Before she said she didn't.

Alexander: What I think happened there was a poor choice of words on her part.

PD: Is this country just impossibly divided?

Alexander: No, I think we just found some common ground today on that one issue with the tort reform and purchasing insurance across state lines.

Warman: I think there's always been a way, and I never felt that we haven't got any common ground if we sit down and have a discussion or anything. But certainly, we disagree. In a basic way, we disagree. Do I like having a neighbor that's got trucks and signs and things like that? Of course, that's uncomfortable for me. Yes, it's awkward. Do I think it's awkward because I have a neighbor who disagrees with my political opinion? No, absolutely not.

PD: Dave, do you worry at all about how polarized America is?

Alexander: Yeah, to a point. We gotta get people to come together. When I watched the Obama get-together there with the Republican folks for the health care thing, he seemed to pretty much close them out. It was that holier-than-thou attitude. It was that, I won, you lost, it's my way or the highway. He didn't treat those folks very bipartisan at all.

PD: So assuming the Republicans take over the House and perhaps they take over the Senate, do you think the Republicans will treat the Democrats the same way?

Alexander: I would hope not. I would hope they would come together.