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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsTo all those who want to move the convention, an honest question
Hpow would you prevent punishing those in NC that are fighting to turn the state blue? I do not deny that NC's law was evil, but it is not the will of most in NC, nor the South, but the prodict of the fact that the evanagelicals will stomp on broken glass to vote. How you do avoid cutting off those of us who, despite living in formerly red states, have been fighting like hell?
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jberryhill
(62,444 posts)But, since Martin Luther King famously refused to hold events in the South, we should honor his example.
DonCoquixote
(13,616 posts)I do hope there was a sarcasm flag somewhere.
jberryhill
(62,444 posts)At the Lincoln Memorial, wherein he said:
"We are gathered here today to condemn those racist jerkwater rednecks down south. Georgia is such a hellhole that I'm moving to Martha's Vineyard. Why Ray Charles sings about a state filled with racist hillbillies, I have no idea. Maybe it's because he's blind. But, yeah, fuck that state."
A lot of people didn't catch that part, but there was a brief microphone malfunction after the "I have a dream" part.
RZM
(8,556 posts)
nolabear
(41,956 posts)Because it's easier that way, and why do something if it's not easy.
cynatnite
(31,011 posts)That was his example and that is what we should follow. Keep the convention in NC. Stand strong and defend civil rights.
jberryhill
(62,444 posts)He was trying to march them OUT of the state, but they were given bad maps.
MLK spent years telling people "Get the heck out of the South and don't visit!"
If he had only lived, his dream of building a border wall on the Mason Dixon line would today be a reality.
cynatnite
(31,011 posts)Chan790
(20,176 posts)I wonder how many people know that 94% of Maryland (as in one of the most liberal states in the US) and the entire District of Columbia (which hasn't elected a Republican in any election in which Democrats are allowed to run since the early 1970s.) are both south of the Mason-Dixon line. So are small parts of PA and DE because the county-boundary isn't straight.
It may be the traditional boundary between the North and South, but realistically the actual modern boundary is somewhere south of McLean or Woodbridge, VA. NoVA is about as bluish-purple as eastern PA...since it also has nearly 40% of the state population, it means that the GOP has an uphill-climb every election to win statewide office.
cynatnite
(31,011 posts)Not sure how much of this info is taught today, though.
jberryhill
(62,444 posts)Most of Delaware is south of it, if you are defining it as a continued line of the southern border of PA. However Mason and Dixon also surveyed the western border of Delaware, and I am right near "the wedge", which is a notch in that border where the northern arc of Delaware meets the Mason Dixon line.
There are a number of original stones (and replacement markers) set by their survey around here.
Chan790
(20,176 posts)I had Delaware shifted north in my head about 40 miles. Delaware and Maryland are definitely not in the South.
Edit: I don't know how I forgot it was on the peninsula and not on the mainland. Must not be getting enough sleep to brainfart like that.
Cave_Johnson
(137 posts)You keep it where it is and try to get support where you need it.
Doesn't help just to go to places where everyone agrees with you.
loyalsister
(13,390 posts)Rather than focusing on a boycott, it's a good opportunity to reward businesses who are supportive of Democrats and our issues.
zbdent
(35,392 posts)bunch of lunatics outside the convention (with horrendously misspelled signs, no less) ... and show how "friendly" the South is to visitors ...
plus, I'm hoping that I will win the Powerball tonight ... which might be more likely ...
99Forever
(14,524 posts).. for acting like bigoted heathens, there is no incentive to change.
Bluenorthwest
(45,319 posts)it pass with a majority? Will is evident only when expressed as action. Those who did not vote to defeat it expressed their apathetic will. It is far, far too generous to say it is not the will of most of the State which just passed it with a strong majority. It is hard to argue that those who took no action against it opposed it.
I have dear friends in NC. They do not try to tell me that a secret majority supports us there, a majority that is too lazy to actually vote but sill supports us in a passive way, by arching an eyebrow at church or something.
You need to accept that the majority of those who care enough to vote in NC willed that law to be law. What you wrote makes me want to move the convention. Seriously. And previously, I had not really cared. But if NC is deluding itself that the majority really opposed this amendment, they should be boycotted until they deal with their reality, for unless they do so, there can be no change.
So they walk on glass, yet the 'majority' who is trying hard can not manage to show up and vote? I am not impressed.
Edited to add that it passed with 61% to 39%. 'not the will of most in NC'. Cake, and eat it too!
DonCoquixote
(13,616 posts)If you think the voting process down south is set to not be skewed towards the GOP, you have yet to learn some things. Here votes are outright tossed.
Bluenorthwest
(45,319 posts)It seems Obama carried NC last cycle. Did they forget to toss the votes? If so many opposed it, logic would say that getting the vote out would have defeated the law. Unless all the elections are in fact fully corrupt. And again, this does not really remove the responsibility of that 'majority' in that NC makes it's own election laws, and if a majority really thought it was fully corrupt, I'd think they'd make changing that into a huge priority.
California did the same thing, claimed 'most of the State' opposed Prop 8. Why? The mirror they were looking in reflected an image CA is not used to seeing.
And you know, just for the sake of it, I find it odd that Southern DUers will so freely say that their elections are corrupt to the core, but if a non Southerner were to say such a thing, we'd get trashed for 'region bashing'. It is in a way rhetorically unfair to make use of such memes when they are not permitted to others. And Southern DUers bash their own region freely, as you do here, when it works as a mitigation.
And you know, perhaps I 'need to learn some things' but perhaps it is also NC that needs to learn to organize, run fair elections, get out Democratic votes, and learn to stop passing bigoted laws....
Understand that I am from CA and live in Oregon, both of my States did exactly what NC just did. I make zero excuses for that on behalf of CA nor Oregon. We failed to win. We. Failed. Not some huge magic natural order, we, the people did the wrong thing. So did the people of NC.
former9thward
(31,961 posts)Are you saying the amendment actually was defeated but they changed the votes? In African American areas of NC the amendment passed by 2-1 margins. Was that part of the vote 'tossing' too? How did Obama win NC in 2008? Did they forget to toss votes in that election?
jberryhill
(62,444 posts)Paladin
(28,246 posts)Over 3.5 million Texans voted for Obama, and all the trends show Texas moving away from the vicious hyper-conservatism that has dominated the state for years. And yet Texas Democrats are routinely told to go fuck themselves here at DU, as if we're nothing more than part of the problem. Do what you can, with what you have, where you are. Don't expect help and understanding from self-satisfied people with closed minds---even those on your side of the argument......
jberryhill
(62,444 posts)This site is primarily about US politics. You can't expect a whole lot of concern about what goes on in other countries like Texas.
Paladin
(28,246 posts)There used to be a DU forum rule against trashing entire geographical areas. It used to be enforced to a certain degree. Ancient history....
jberryhill
(62,444 posts)Watch this ad:
There is a slogan which appears at the end of it.
Would you care to tell me who produced that ad, and spends millions of dollars to promote that slogan?
Are you telling me that slogan is advertised by people who don't like Texas?
Now go look at traveltex.com.
Same slogan.
Please - tell me who these people are that have been spending a gajillion dollars for a decade now every vacation season to give me the impression that Texas is not part of the country I live in.
You are telling me that the people doing this hate Texas? And the state does nothing to stop them?
Paladin
(28,246 posts)...between the slogan in those well-known tourism ads and your ironic use of the same slogan to promote regional hatred. But of course, you knew that already, didn't you? After all, you're from Delaware, and everybody knows that Delaware people are really, really smart.....
jberryhill
(62,444 posts)...when they even remember it is a state.
All I know is that someone has spent a lot of money for years to promote Texas with a slogan that says, to me, and has always said to me "Fuck you, we are not part of your country"
I have never understood that slogan, and am often told by Texans "oh, Texas joined voluntarily and has a right to secede". I have to believe they even teach that in the schools.
The slogan is insulting to every other state, in its intended milieu, and you can't even see why.
All kidding aside, I have always found that slogan offensive. The state advertises itself on the basis of "sort of like not being in the United States" which is a hell of a way to flip the bird at this country.
Paladin
(28,246 posts)Have as nice a day as possible; try not to let Texas spoil it for you.....
jberryhill
(62,444 posts)There are shitheads everywhere, but I'm not kidding about how the Texas tourism slogan has always been offensive to me. No other state advertises on the basis of not being part of the US.
Even Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands emphasize that they are US territories as a selling point.
But here's the thing. This scene in Wayne's World:
got huge laughs in Delaware, because nobody here has chained their ego to a freaking artificial territorial division as if being a Delawarean is some kind of accomplishment.
cynatnite
(31,011 posts)Southern Dems for the most part have to be conservative to varying degrees or else they no chance of getting anywhere.
I've seen Dems from the south get blistered here at DU for not going with other Dems or voting with the repubs. If a southern Dem caucased with the Dems for the most part, they'd find themselves booted out quickly enough and in their place would be a teabagging repuke.
I've asked some on DU what they'd rather have...a teabagging repuke or a blue dog Dem. Those are the choices we are faced with here in the south.
Paladin
(28,246 posts)
Zorra
(27,670 posts)I'd like to send a message that legislated hate and bigotry is not acceptable to the Democratic Party, or decent people anywhere.
Of course, I'm LGBT, so I might be taking this denial of my equal humanity somewhat more personally than even the most empathic non- LGBT progressive might.
I live in AZ. If the the Democratic Party Convention was being held in (blue) Phoenix under these conditions, I would be thrilled if they moved the Convention to Seattle or Boston.
DonCoquixote
(13,616 posts)How do we prevent the right from making it a win, because, if people get to hate Arizona, even if the city is blue, then the red state knows that not only are you the minority, you will also get no outside help.
I myself could see the convention moving, but what I also want to see is a genuine effort by the party to help those in blue islands increase their influence, much as Dean tried to do with the 50 state strategy. It is easily aimed at Southern states, especially as no one dared asked for a California boycott when they did THEIR anti-gay vote, even though they deserved it as much as NC did.