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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsNew 'Southern Strategy'? Waves of Liberal Protest Ripple Across South
https://www.commondreams.org/headline/2014/03/19-2#.UytXN0r83Fo.facebookNew 'Southern Strategy'? Waves of Liberal Protest Ripple Across South
Demonstrations in Georgia and South Carolina highlight growing movement against conservative control
- Lauren McCauley, staff writer
Disrupting a session of the Georgia Senate, protesters unfurled a large banner denouncing the GOP-led push against health care in the state. (Photo: Moral Monday Georgia/ Facebook)
Waves of liberal protest are rippling across the South as a newly energized basefueled by the momentum of the Moral Monday protests in North Carolinaare declaring to the largely Republican establishment that they will no longer be ignored.
snip//
The focus of these demonstrations was health care, but the rhetoric of those protesting touched upon a wide swath of issues, from education to voting rights to women's health. Spinning off from the Moral Monday movement in North Carolinawhich organizes weekly demonstrations and grew into a massive march of more than 80,000 people last monththe demonstrators are borrowing the notion of morality- and agenda-based protests, including issues that resonate with the poor and minority populations in the South.
We are at the beginning of a new Southern strategy, said Tim Franzen, the lead organizer behind Moral Monday Georgia, which held its first protest in early January. The changes we need to make in Georgia to transform the state are going to take years. But with the changing demographics of the South, our victory is inevitable. This train has left the station.
In orchestrated waves of civil disobedience action, protesters in the Atlanta capitol building interrupted deliberations in the Senate gallery before rallying beneath the main rotunda and then blocking the entrance to Governor Nathan Deal's (R) office with a sit-in.
The target of the action was Deal's opposition to Medicaid expansion in the state. Rev. Raphael Warnock of the Ebenezer Baptist Churchthe former pulpit of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.stood fast in Deal's office before being arrested. "People's lives are at stake," Warnock told reporters. "We're saying if the people's business cannot be done, there will not be business as usual."
"Georgians are standing up to an extreme right-wing agenda in the Georgia Capitol," Franzen declared.
In South Carolina, protesters held up traffic outside the state house in the third weekly action organized by the South Carolina Progressive Network and the Truthful Tuesday coalition. In Florida, Alabama, Wisconsin and New York, similar groups have also formed.
"If you want to change America youve got to think states, and if you think states you think southern states," Rev. Dr. William J. Barber, Moral Mondays spokesman, told Common Dreams in an earlier interview.
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WorseBeforeBetter
(11,441 posts)mountain grammy
(26,624 posts)WorseBeforeBetter
(11,441 posts)Clique Wars are dominating GD, but I hope DU pays attention to these protests. Check out the NC forum if you haven't. The legislature resumes in May, and I can't wait to get back out there!
Whats Next for the Moral Monday Movement?
http://www.thenation.com/article/178459/whats-next-moral-monday-movement
ChazInAz
(2,569 posts)That's a thing of beauty.
WorseBeforeBetter
(11,441 posts)Moral Marches. All of it.
onestepforward
(3,691 posts)That's MY party
WorseBeforeBetter
(11,441 posts)There are a few on this site who like to poo-poo protests, but I'd do it for a living if I could! You meet wonderful like-minded people from all walks of life, network, volunteer at voter registration booths, VENT, raise awareness (which helped bring down Governor McCookie's approval ratings), etc. I cannot wait for May!
louis-t
(23,295 posts)But I hear the thrilla from Wasilla is going to speak in front of 5 people this weekend. I'm sure it will be all over the media.
BlancheSplanchnik
(20,219 posts)tavalon
(27,985 posts)Okay, a little lacking in Hispanics, but blacks and whites of all ages are arm in arm. That is my new home page. Thank you very much.
WorseBeforeBetter
(11,441 posts)I should probably do the same thing -- that pic gives me hope!
CJCRANE
(18,184 posts)mountain grammy
(26,624 posts)in the south this summer. I hope to meet him.
octoberlib
(14,971 posts)wandy
(3,539 posts)When I was a kid it was common 'folk lour' that once a country had given themselves over to communism they would remain under Joseph Stalin's iron boot for ever. There was no saving them.
Now, at least to me, it seams that once a state has given themselves over to complete GOP control they will remain "under Rand Paul's boot" forever. There is no saving them.
Is it possible that people in GOP controlled states may wake up and begin acting in their own best interest?
AlbertCat
(17,505 posts)"Folk lore"
and
"seems" not "seams".
But of course what you meant is most certainly not a typo and is accurate.
wandy
(3,539 posts)Spelling is not one of my strong points.
I was probably one of the first kids on the block to find a spell checker that would work with Internet Explorer.
Sure, even Word's spell checker can only do so much.
Sometimes I can only 'right click' and hope for something reasonable.
Thanks for reading for content.
pscot
(21,024 posts)Shakespeare wasn't a great speller either.
wandy
(3,539 posts)tooeyeten
(1,074 posts)And JFK.
fasttense
(17,301 posts)I think it was a commodore 64. Anyway it took 12 hours to check a 20 page report. We would set it up to run all night long.
wandy
(3,539 posts)My problem is that sometimes I cant even get close enough for Word's impressive spell checker to bail me out.
tavalon
(27,985 posts)But hip, really hip.
As a person with ADD, I'm supposed to have spelling problems but I don't - just goes to show you we come in all flavors and sizes. I also have dyslexia but only for numbers. This is my public apology to all those people who thought they were getting crank calls.
But back on topic, does this not rock your socks off? Coolness. Wow, I'm only 50. If I live to 90, imagine what might be! Well, it might suck horribly because of global climate change but maybe, just maybe, that will be what cements us together as humans, rather than races and sexual preference and fill in the blank here. Wouldn't that be awesome.
tooeyeten
(1,074 posts)For the GOP controlled South, they appear to believe they are better than and way different than the poor who are impacted by this GOP led legislature.
AlbertCat
(17,505 posts)..... and grew into a massive march of more than 80,000 people last month..."
I'm surprised anyone even knows about these things. I mean, it's not like it was reported (maybe mentioned) in the Mainstream Media.
BUT..... still nothing on that lost jet!
tavalon
(27,985 posts)Around here, I mean.
dotymed
(5,610 posts)But I sure as hell didn't see any MSM (print) coverage of this 80,000 people protest in Ga., I live in Tn. where
"they" won't expand medicare either.
We are all suffering. Is that not "news" assholes?
4dsc
(5,787 posts)Good to see stories like this one. I hope to see many more.
pscot
(21,024 posts)as opposed to the Koch driven, Teabagger variety.
Iliyah
(25,111 posts)especially NC - Moral Mondays. Of course corporate media pounces on anything GOPer/Libertarian/Tea Bats stuff. Thank the heavens for sites like DU. Also another way is to vote these bums out. Restore the voting rights act, further minimum wage, for God's sake stay out of women's body parts, jobs, jobs, jobs, et al.,
mc51tc
(219 posts)Texas needs Medicaid Expansion - let the "Southern Strategy" grow by leaps and bounds!
calimary
(81,322 posts)Glad you're here! So good and so encouraging to see this. Just when one is about to give up hope
We SERIOUSLY need to get out the vote! ALL OVER THE PLACE. In-Yer-Face to all those bad guys and other assorted assholes who have the gall to think they can steal this November by keeping strategically-selected voter groups from voting. BASTARDS!!!! But just stop and wrap your head around that for a moment. The most effective way they think they can win is by PREVENTING THOSE WHO'D VOTE AGAINST THEM FROM VOTING!!! For pity's sake, how freakin' pathetic is that? THAT is the only way you think you can win? By making sure those against you can't weigh in on you? Some karma they're building on that side of the aisle, 'eh? What does that say about the case they make? Besides the increasingly glaringly obvious fact that they can't win in a fair fight. They can't win on the issues. They can't win on policy - because their policies and their ideas simply SUCK. So the way they see clear to victory is to rig the game. If you can't win on the issues, win by cheating.
That should tell you all you need to know about those assholes. I wish we could find a way to keep all climate change deniers from voting! How 'bout THAT for turnabout being fair play?
Rex
(65,616 posts)The Good Old Boys are nervous! Wendy is going to kick their butts Skittles style!
Enthusiast
(50,983 posts)cui bono
(19,926 posts)So there's hope it will happen very soon.
Wounded Bear
(58,670 posts)I try not to South-bash, because I know how the Repubs operate to squelch opposition, so seeing activists like this is important.
Now if we can just get the fucking media to report on it.
bluestate10
(10,942 posts)the South coalesce into a political force that will pull that region into the future and get rid of the republican party. If southern Blue prevails the entire nation will benefit hugely.
Cha
(297,323 posts)mahalo, babylonsistah~
Raksha
(7,167 posts)blkmusclmachine
(16,149 posts)Ed Suspicious
(8,879 posts)Beartracks
(12,816 posts)Republicans have understood this for years. It's why the mid-term elections are so damn important.
Time for Dems to focus on 2014. Honestly, the fight for 2016 BEGINS with the 2014 elections.
I hope all Dems understand this wa-a-ay before November.
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G_j
(40,367 posts)Legendary journalist Bill Moyers has created a documentary about North Carolinas politics in 2013 titled North Carolina: State of Conflict. As of press time Saturday, UNC-TV does not have the show scheduled to air in our state essentially blacking out the documentary to all but those who are able to access it through the internet.
First it was Wisconsin. Now its North Carolina that is redefining the term battleground state, the shows website says. On one side: a right-wing government enacting laws that are changing the face of the state. On the other: citizen protesters who are fighting back against what they fear is a radical takeover.
The shows producers visited North Carolina over the summer, when people were gathering for weekly Moral Monday protests against the agenda of the Republican supermajority-controlled legislature and the McCrory administration. In all, more than 900 people were arrested for engaging in civil disobedience outside lawmakers chambers.
http://vimeo.com/82605522
G_j
(40,367 posts)Enthusiast
(50,983 posts)Enthusiast
(50,983 posts)Gman
(24,780 posts)It would have been nice to hear this meme here at DU in 2010 instead of the meme of teaching Dems a lesson. The GOP clearly has this figured out.
Enthusiast
(50,983 posts)Count me as one of them.