A crowd of Obama supporters showed up on the Lowndes County, GA courthouse steps on a cold Saturday to hear a dozen speakers for more than two hours. A diverse group of black and white, old and young, from three local counties and a U.S. Senate candidate from far away.
And no teabaggers. Jack "Flag Pin" Kingston (R GA-01) previously taunted Democrats:
“If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.” Timid or arrogant Democrats who conveniently use the wrath of a few protestors to cancel town meetings should be reminded that these words came from one of their own: Harry Truman.
Well, we can stand the heat. And the cold wind on the courthouse steps.
Not only that, Jim Parker has a request for Jack Kingston:
Jack Kingston, support president Obama!
We know Obama's not perfect. As a plurality of poll voters on
the dailykos invitation agreed:
I never expected miracles, and we need to keep supporting him with a cattle prod.
Supporting president Obama in public is a progressive act hereabouts, and a way to keep poking that cattle prod at him to get a public option. We figured if Gladys Lee could do it next door in a county of 18,000 people, we could do it in the county seat of the biggest county around. As Ruth Council explained, we can no longer sit quietly by while opponents try to sabotage everything president Obama does. Obama has to much of the time be a Cool Hand Luke, as Mrs. Annie Fisher calls him, but we can speak up for him. And to him. As FDR said:
I agree with you,
I want to do it,
now make me do it.
More than 50 people turned out. That may not seem like much to you, but this is without any advance press and in a metro area of 130,000 people. We never got that many Obama supporters in one place even during the campaign, even though we pushed Lowndes County 10 points closer to going for Obama than it had for Kerry. Like Tony Daniels says, we are again Fired up! Ready to go!
Some locals didn't think more than a dozen would show up. Well, thanks to George Rhynes (it was his idea) and Brothers United (black professional firefighters) and Gretchen Quarterman (we support the president, so we pick up a mop) and many others, many more than that showed up.
This is all any local newspaper would publish before the event:
To support ongoing initiatives, area residents will hold a rally today at noon on the Lowndes County Courthouse steps. Rally participants will hear from citizens in support of President Barack Obama, his words and actions.
The rally is sponsored by the citizens of South Georgia, Brothers United and Issues Concerning US.
That came out in the Valdosta Daily Times (VDT) the morning of the rally, even though it was submitted days before. The Quitman Free Press didn't print anything. None of TV stations and few of the radio stations carried the public service announcement.
In the Sunday paper, the VDT buried two pictures of the Obama rally deep inside (and not online). These videos are part of Citizen dialog for transparent process by Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE). I took these particular videos, and I make no apologies for their amateur quality. If the press did this, LAKE wouldn't have to. More citizen pictures on the Facebook invitation page, thanks to Elizabeth Swanson.
Instead, the VDT quoted Jack "Flag Pin" Kingston (R GA-01) on the front page above the fold (and online), as part of three health care stories in that issue, mostly similar to Kingston's party line of there are only 10 million uninsured and that's the only problem to fix.
I'd rather listen to Jim Parker tell us why we need health care reform:
And don't forget part of this metro area is represented by Sanford Bishop (D GA-02), and is a supporter of president Obama and health care reform.
For Civil War Tourette's sufferers, now a word from Betty Marini:
Do I look like one of those voters that the pundits all said would not vote for Barack Obama?
(Crowd: Ah, yes. Yeah.)
Well, she's not afraid of change.
Every time you put down the whole south, think of this little old lady school counselor from Lanier County, Georgia who came out in a cold wind to support the president. She's also a big fan of Alan Grayson, by the way.
And remember that every time you put down health care reform supporters like her and Gladys Lee and all the others who came out that Saturday, you are helping the Republican Party and health insurers oppose health care reform.
Health care opponents are ramping up their fight, because they know that if Democrats get real health care reform passed, they're going to lose even more political power. Many southerners formerly bamboozled into voting Republican have sick mothers and children and spouses and are going broke trying to pay for health care. When they realize it was Democrats who helped them, more of them are going to desert the Republican party.
Republicans already lost Virginia and North Carolina and Florida to Obama, and Georgia came so close the TV networks had to retract their early calls and wait until midnight. And it is midnight for the Republican Party. The dawn of a new day for Democrats, especially in the south.
Do you want the GOP to lose the rest of the south? Then help Betty Marini and George Rhynes and Gladys Lee and all the others help Obama get health care reform passed! We're not stopping there. Energy and education, too, as Marcus Rhone explains.
If you don't already know what we need to do, let RJ Hadley remind you:
Turn that dial back up!
RJ Hadley is running for U.S. Senate against Johnny Isakson. More about that in another diary.