Posted on 03/08/2010 7:38:03 PM PST by MitchellC
They were no farther apart than the width of Water Street.
A large crowd on one side, with signs, a cause they believed in, and the will to defend it. A modest crowd on the other side, with signs, a cause they believed in, and the will to defend it.
But if one were to read the signs and listen to the shouted chants and slogans from each group, it was clear that the two were in fact poles apart in their views of America as it is, and as these politically opposed U.S. citizens want their nation to be.
Flint met steel in front of the Hilton Riverside in Wilmington, North Carolina, and the sparks flew.
Inside the downtown hotel, U.S. Senator Kay Hagan spoke to a business organization gathered to promote economic growth in the city’s core.
Hagan has become something of a lightning rod due to her liberal voting record – most notably her support for the controversial Obamacare health proposal.
At the Friday (March 5) dust-up in the Port City, the fuse had already been effectively lit when Hagan cast her lot with Washington liberals to invoke “reconciliation”, a controversial procedural tactic.
The loophole would allow Obama faithful to disarm Republicans, who want to put the budget-busting “reform” on ice – permanently, if they have their way.
Republicans would be denied the right to filibuster the divisive health care behemoth,which might then pass with a simple majority in the U.S. Senate.
Americans for Prosperity (AFP) thus urged their members and supporters to rally outside the Hilton to express their displeasure with Hagan’s avowed actions to advance the health care overhaul.
An estimated 300 conservative citizens answered the call, and they were clearly charged up, remaining on hand for over two hours.
Rally organizer Dallas Woodhouse, North Carolina AFP director from Raleigh, was interviewed for this Examiner.com election 2010 news report:
“A lot of people are here because Senator Hagan said in a conference call that she favors reconciliation, which I think was a shock to so many people. Yes, we know she supported the bill, she voted for it, but we thought she might have more respect for the process. If we are going to have a big change in health care, it ought to be bipartisan. Medicare was bipartisan. Social Security was bipartisan. It doesn’t just mean inviting Republicans to the White House for tea and crumpets, it means putting some of their ideas in the bill and scaling back the government takeovers.”
Frank Nichols of Wilmington echoed those sentiments: “Government’s getting too big. It’s taking over everything. We cannot pay for and sustain what the liberals have got going through with health care. They are doing the shell game to pass it. I’m a small businessman. I own a transmission shop. The taxes are killing me, and they’ll probably get worse.”
Robert McCartney, a Wilmington Republican, said, “I’m here protesting Kay Hagan because of her policies, such as voting for Obamacare. I’m totally against that, as most of us here are. Also, she will not hold any town meetings to hear our voice. She got elected to be a public servant, and she’s not fulfilling her obligation.”
On the other side of the street, a smaller group of citizens – though equally vocal and adamant – raised their voices and signs in support of President Obama’s signature health care program.
Wilmington activist Clancy Thompson was spokesman for the liberal opposition contingent:
“We have at least a couple of groups here – MoveOn.org, and Organization for America – organizations that support the Obama legislation for the most part, organizations that believe the future of this country lies in developing universal health care, improving our education, taking aggressive steps to become energy independent from foreign powers. We have to be able to have green technology in this country because China and India are leaping ahead of us.
“What’s happened in the last decade is unconscionable. America is falling behind in technology, in math, and science, at the expense of the nation’s future. We’ve been spending money senselessly on wars for the past decade, moving into places where we have no business. If those resources were put toward more constructive ends, we’d be light years ahead. We’d be leading the world.”
As the day wore on and the shadows lengthened, the shouts and taunts flew back and forth, but civility was not totally ignored, and the two groups – the conservatives, and the liberals – eventually scattered, each having had their say, and surely determined to renew the battle another day.
It’s the great American way.
http://www.americansforprosperity.org/north-carolina
http://www.ncgop.org/site/c.osLZIdMSJvH/b.5606099/k.BFA8/Home.htm
ping
Robert, you are an idiot. She's representing the people who elected her. For whatever reason the people of N.C. voted for Obama and her in 2008. They would say elections have consequences, deal with it.
The people of N.C. and other conservative states need to start electing conservatives and eschew electing Republicans. Republicans are just politicians who main goal is to get re-elected.
Cleaning the slime out of the sewer one seat at a time.
Thank you for the ping! Nice to read of the turnout.
Obama won NC by just about 25,000 votes.
Over 25,000 conservatives voted for Barr.
You can thank the conservative Barr voters for giving NC to Obama.
Yes, elections do have consequences.
The fight needs to be made in the primaries.
Dole ran a lousy, lackluster campaign in a strongly Democrat year. Hagan managed to hide her Liberal tendencies pretty well and did much better than Obama.
I don't think she will have that advantage her next election.
For info, several Western NC county GOP organizations will be staging a protest at Heath Shuler’s Asheville on Thursday March 11.
Time: March 11 (Thursday) from 12pm to 2pm
Location: Heath Shuler’s Asheville office
356 Biltmore Ave., Suite 400
Asheville, NC, 28801
Event Description:
Join us as we visit Heath Shuler’s Asheville Office to let him know that we are “Seeing Red” over this health care reform bill and the un-American tactics being used to forward it.
Despite a FULL YEAR of debate, town halls and grass roots protesting, the Obama Administration is set to defy the will of the American people and ram Health Care Reform through Congress using shady deals and parliamentary gimmickry. Finding no traditional means to pass the sweeping legislation, President Obama has called upon the Democrats to walk the political plank, break Senate decorum and use a Machiavellian - by any means necessary - procedure to finalize its approval.
We the people, have now been put on 2 Week’s Notice; the Administration has called for a final vote by March 18, 2010. Such utter disregard for the people whom Congress is supposed to represent must be met with and equal and FINAL push back. It is well past the time for our Representatives to listen to the people. Let’s show them, in a bold move of solidarity all over the country, that we fully understand the legislation, that we reject it, that we are angry and that we are serious! BE THERE! Where: Heath Shuler’s Asheville Office
Dole also was heavily stung by the charge that she didn’t spend enough time in the state. I know serveral people who cited that as a primary reason they didn’t vote for her.
Pointing out that their vote handed Zero another vote didn’t seem to register...it is registering now.....
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