The Republicans and Democrats can’t even agree on that they disagree about.

Msnbc.com’s Carrie Dann writes:

Republicans and Democrats remained locked in a budget impasse Friday morning, with both sides identifying different sticking points that are preventing a deal to fund the federal government.

With just over 12 hours until the deadline to pass a funding measure or shut the government down, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid pointed to a quarrel over funding women’s health centers as the reason for the continuing standoff, while House Speaker John Boehner said flatly that only differences over spending levels remain between the two warring sides.

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Learn more about the Tea Party by seeing James Cheng's Tea Party photo essay in PhotoBlog.

It’s a bit surprising to find a winery in central Indiana, sandwiched between corn fields and patches of hardwood trees. But there it is - down the road from Monticello, Ind., and up the road from the even-tinier town of Buffalo, tucked amid a field of grapevines sits a modest home and a barn-like structure housing Evangeline Orchard’s wine-making operations. Lined up in barrels in the storage area are at least 10 varieties including blackberry, raspberry, pumpkin and, yes, tomato.

Evangeline is the latest undertaking of Lenn “Curley” Gapinski - testimony to the Indiana native’s determination to make it on his own, and figure things out on his own, including his political philosophy.

“The sun rose and set over FDR, according to my father,” he says.

But with age, the 58-year-old Gapinski has moved far from the Democratic loyalties of his family. He is staunch advocate of low taxes - maybe a 10 percent flat tax - and a free market with minimal government intervention. He proudly flies the “Don’t Tread on Me” flag next to the Stars and Stripes over his orchard. “I consider myself a patriot today,” he says.

After high school, Gapinski went off to work as a millwright at Bethlehem Steel, quickly advanced to supervisor and then moved into a mechanical engineering position on the strength of self-taught skills. He remained for 35 years, but lost his pension and health insurance as the company changed hands before retiring in 2007.

He started thinking about the Constitution back at Bethlehem Steel, where he used to talk politics at lunch with an older worker - a conservative.

It was during the Carter administration - a time of gas lines, price and wage freezes, and the coworker maintained that the government was moving into all sorts of areas that were not allowed by the Constitution.

“A light came on,” says Gapinski. “I thought, ‘Hey we can’t depend on the government for everything'... I found that although I was raised a liberal, the conservative movement made more sense to me.”

After his retirement, Gapinski and his wife, Cheryl, put their savings into this small vineyard, and he dedicated himself to two things -- growing grapes and studying the nation’s founding.

Now, dressed as George Washington - right down to the powdered wig - he teaches classes on the U.S. Constitution to Tea Party groups.

In his view, the country began going off the constitutional rails by 1913, when legislators passed the 16th amendment allowing Congress to levy an income tax.

“That (amendment) gave lawmakers the opportunity to tax whatever they wanted, and they have taken advantage of it,” says Gapinski.

Gapinski says TEA stand for Taxed Enough Already (though others in the movement dispute this), and he believes the core issue of the Tea Party is taxes.

In pursuit of that, he would like to see the Tea Party remain at arm’s length from both major parties.

“The Republican Party would love to have the Tea Party as an extension of the Republican Party,” says Gapinski. “But the Republican Party has not been true to its conservative values. We need to hold (them) accountable.”

Although Gapinski agrees with the anti-abortion position of conservative Christians, he says, “This is a personal issue, not a Tea Party issue.”

On the other hand, Gapinski’s faith and his political views are inseparable.

Speaking to church congregations around the area, Gapinski likes to show a video called “Our Godly American Heritage,” produced by David Barton, which argues that the founding fathers never intended to keep religion out of government, but wanted to prevent any one denomination of Christianity from prevailing over others.

Gapinski believes that the way the “separation of church and state” is implemented wrongly because it tries to rid public institutions of religion.

“There has been a lot of misinformation on our heritage in the last century, especially since the 1960s,” says Gapinski. “I want to show the deep relationship the founding fathers had with our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.”

In his personal life, Gapinski’s faith will guide his vote this Nov. 2.

“The night before elections, my wife and I will get down on our knees and pray. We will open our Bibles randomly to see if there are messages (God) wants us to hear,” he says. “And we will go on the Internet to do a last round of research in case there is anyone we are unsure of.”

Then, he and Cheryl will go to vote at 6:30 in the morning when the polls open.

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Emery McClendon is a husband, father, Air Force retiree, Christian, a FedEx driver, amateur radio guy and photographer. In general, his race is beside the point.

But this series is about the Tea Party, a movement that struggles to persuade some observers that it is not merely a racist reaction to a black president. The 59-year-old McClendon, as can clearly be seen in James Cheng’s photo, is a black man. He is also a prominent voice in the Tea Party movement.

McClendon was among the highlighted speakers at a recent rally in administration against the health-care package, adding his voice to the chorus with this message: the Tea Party movement has nothing to do with race.

“We are not the KKK,” he boomed with rhetorical flourish. “We are patriots.”

McClendon was raised at a time when the black population was overwhelmingly Democratic. It wasn’t easy to “come out” as a conservative Republican.

“I grew up in a household where they would break your neck if you voted any other way,” says McClendon. “But they were very conservative. My parents really didn’t know how conservative they were.”

The Fort Wayne native served in the Air Force for four years then joined the Indiana Air Guard. His 23 years as a FedEx driver paid the bills while he and his wife, Queenie, raised their three sons.

Over time McClendon decided that his views on abortion, limited government and taxation - principles he says he learned from his parents - just didn’t match liberal views.

“I ended up thinking I wasn’t a Democrat or a Republican, but more of a Reagan conservative,” he says, and he has voted accordingly since the election of George H.W. Bush.

By the time McClendon established the local Tea Party chapter last year, he had a network of conservative friends. At the group’s first rally in front of the Fort Wayne courthouse, former conservative presidential candidate Alan Keyes delivered the keynote address.

Since then, McClendon has frequently been invited to speak at Tea Party events in Indiana and elsewhere. Public speaking comes easily to him, he says, because as a child he used to travel with his uncle, a bishop for the Church of God in Christ, listening to preachers and talking morals and values.

The warm reception he receives at Tea Party events isn’t universal, even among family members.
“I’ve been called an Uncle Tom,” he says. “They say (I) should support the president because he’s the first black president. I support the president. I just don’t agree with his beliefs.”

If you get right down to it, McClendon is pretty disgusted by President Obama - even writing that Obama’s election was the saddest day of his life.

“I never thought the American people would fall for a person they didn’t know anything about,” says McClendon. “He has Socialist views and, even worse, Marxist…. He goes around the world bowing to leaders and talks about how the market system doesn’t work.”

In McClendon’s view, this show of presidential humility doesn’t mesh with the notion of “American exceptionalism” that is embraced by the Tea Party.

“We stand above because of our morals, our Constitution,” says McClendon.

“(The Tea Party) is a group of individuals who love their country and feel they are losing their country. They are finding out there are other people who are standing up for principles…. When we return to those principles, we will return to exceptionalism.”

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When we arrive, the smell of baking cookies pervades the Cosgrays’ ranch-style home in the countryside outside Monticello, Ind. Outside, it is clear and silent except for their chatter, and the crunch of our footfalls crossing the field covered by cut corn stalks.

The Cosgrays are a close family, knit together by conservative Christian beliefs. They work hard, study hard and live in a place where they have their own water and power supplies, and where they could plausibly be self-sufficient. Their oldest son Alex, 27, farms 20 acres of family land - refusing government subsidies, on principle.

To Sam and Laura Cosgray, massive government spending in the name of averting economic crisis has been an affront to their common sense, and their sense of fairness.

“We bust our backs every day going to work, teaching our children values and working, and that you don’t rely on the government... (you) make it on your own,” says Laura Cosgray, a 47-year-old mother of four. “Then the government has the audacity to come in and take our money... to prop up the banks that are failing because of corruption and greed.”

The frustration is not new to the Cosgrays. The feeling that the government was straying - getting too big, too intrusive and too liberal - had been building for them since the 1990s. When their son, Tyler, set out to join the military after the Sept. 11 terror attacks, Sam and Laura decided they wanted to serve their country too. The inspiration as to how to best do that came later.

“When (Sarah Palin) came onto the national scene, that was America right there,” says Laura. “I couldn’t wait to get home and turn on the TV (and see) the lady we have been waiting for - a conservative, a family woman. Then we started getting very involved.”

She found the C-Corn.com Website ( http://c-corn.com/) set up by Anna Kroyman, a Monticello woman who was trying to establish a local Tea Party. At the first meeting of the White County Tea Party Patriots, the Cosgrays made up six of 12 members.

They have all remained involved. Sam works long hours at Caterpillar, but he helps out with most events. So do Rachel, 20, who is studying to be a teacher, Nichole, a 16-year-old student. The snickerdoodles in the oven are for a Tea Party meeting later in the evening.

The family is quietly encouraging 25-year-old Tyler, who has finished his service in the Marines, to build the credentials he needs to run for local office in coming years.

For Laura, who was a stay-at-home mom for 17 years, it is as if she ducked into a phone booth and emerged as supercharged Tea Party activist. Energized by TV and radio host Glenn Beck, she tirelessly recruits for the Tea Party - handing out flyers at home and garden shows. When she worked at a drive-in bank, she put Tea Party flyers into the canister with the cash she sent back to the cars.

“It’s kind of like us being Christians,” she says about her enthusiasm for the Tea Party. “(As Christians) we tell people about the Lord. … It just becomes who you are.”

Laura is looking beyond the Nov. 2 election, with plans to keep organizing for the Tea Party.

“Our goal in 2011?” she says. “I think we are going to try to fund a very, very conservative Republican to run against (senior Republican Sen.) Richard Lugar.”

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Kent Hizer is a salesman for steel products and a volunteer policeman. He’s running for a seat on the board of Penn County Township - population 64,000. It’s a modest office, but the odds of beating a long-serving Democrat are slim, and Hizer is the first to say so.

“I probably will not be elected,” he tells a Tea Party meeting at the VFW hall in nearby Mishawaka.

But Hizer is not here to campaign -- there are only three people in this crowd of 50 who could vote for him. But he sees hope, and finds solace, in the Tea Party because they seem to be on the same track as he is.

“I’m on a mission to hold elected officials accountable -- local officials, and all the way up the food chain,” says Hizer. “I want to get people engaged no matter what party they are.”

Hizer says he has uncovered a concrete example of malfeasance on the part of a current Penn Township board member. Hizer used a Freedom of Information Act query to uncover a scandal involving the township trustee, who reportedly used township funds for unauthorized personal expenses and failed to document official work performed by his girlfriend.

This feeling that public officials are running amok, he insists, is not a partisan issue.

Hizer, a conservative who was raised Democrat, says it has become uncomfortable to identify himself with the party because the Republicans have “lost their way.”

Even then, he doesn’t align with every conservative stance. After witnessing someone close to him die of a debilitating disease, he now believes in the right to choose a dignified death.

“This is not in the conservative playbook,” he says.

But Hizer is most animated about getting people to step up, politically.

“I wanted to tell people to stay engaged,” he says after his Tea Party presentation. “If we hold them accountable maybe they will start looking after our interests instead of looking after their own.”

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Dick Mechling could have gone on enjoying retirement with his wife, Mickey, in their cozy ranch-style home in St. Joseph County, Ind. Like a ride on their horses — Ebby and Motion, the Tennessee Walkers they raise on their 10 acres south of South Bend — that would have been the smoothest option.

But when we met Dick, he was emerging from a training session for poll workers in South Bend. He is getting ready to be a judge at the voting place in the Nov. 2 elections — a first for him, at 68. In another first, he and Mickey have been working the phone banks in the run-up to the election, helping to get the vote out for some of the local conservative candidates.

Their activism is fueled, supported and guided by membership in the local Tea Party organization, St. Joe County Tea Party Patriots. But what first prompted their renewed interest in politics was Sarah Palin’s appearance on the scene in the last election.

“That got a lot of people’s attention” Dick says. In policy terms, Dick and Mickey liked Palin’s message about small, efficient government, he says. Beyond that was something deeper that just struck a chord: “Here is somebody who thinks more like we do than some of the people who have been in office,” he says. “She just seems like plain folks ... regular people.”

Dick and Mickey, who met in college and married soon after, worked hard and raised two daughters and horses at their home of 35 years. He worked for many years as a buyer for local pharmaceutical companies, and she was a teacher.

With the kids grown up and Palin’s appearance the scene, something shifted: “We got more interested in politics, thinking: ‘You know, maybe there is hope. ... Maybe there is someone out there who can make a difference.'”

After the McCain-Palin ticket failed to take the White House in 2008, Dick and Mickey were a bit depressed — they felt that Palin had taken a beating.

“The thing that has us energized again is Jackie Walorski’s bid for Congress,” Dick says.
They met the conservative Republican at a gun-rights gathering in southern Indiana. Walorski was holding them around the state after the 2008 election of Barack Obama.

Walorski is strongly backed by the Tea Party in a fierce battle for the congressional seat of Democrat Joe Donnelly. Donnelly, once supported by conservatives, is now reviled by them because of his vote in favor of health care legislation pushed by Obama — a betrayal of earlier promises, they say.

Dick and Mickey are heading out for a week in the hilly south of Indiana, where they will camp and ride their horses. But once they get back home, they will return to their other retirement plan — political activism.

“I see the Tea Party as an educational thing,” says Dick. “I think we have lost sight of what the government’s role, according to the Constitution, in our lives should be. ... If people are informed, I think people will rise to the occasion.”

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