Good day and welcome to DKos Adheville. This is the weekly DKos Asheville open thread where we try to get together every weekend, and then drift in and out throughout the day. We hope this group serves to invigorate us locally and regionally here on Daily Kos, building on the sense of community that's grown through our online engagement. DKos Asheville can give us all a better sense of connection, a better understanding of who we stand with, work with, and share with. We hope, through this community, that we can do a better job of leveraging our orange passion for progressive politics to help elect more and better Democrats.
Asheville and all of Western North Carolina are wonderful places to visit. We have a powerful progressive presence, both cultural and political, and for the most part everyone is really nice. And the views are breath taking. If you've never been here, we promise you'll love it.
Thank's Dave and SteelerGrrl for the great diaries over the last two weeks.
The date for the next great DKos Asheville meet up hasn't been set yet. I think the best opportunity is for late August, early September so we can rev up for the election. If not that, maybe we should consider a fall leaf color experience in October. What do you think?
I loved all the advice for things to do in Asheville last week and the connections this place brings. I'll be in Hickory this afternoon performing, so if you're nearby come say howdy. Kos mail me and maybe we can meet up.
Tom Sullivan writing for our great local blog Scrutiny Hooligans has an excellent post this week about the dark side of North Carolina's Republican party. I'm not sure there is another side to them actually, but is well worth the read.
A New Kind Of Systematized Cruelty
Each week, Moral Monday groups in Raleigh protest legislation passed by political vandals bent on unmaking the 20th century in North Carolina. The vandals’ allies are at work attempting to do the same across the country, uprooting the systems put in place that built America into a superpower. Not weapons systems, but systems put in place by the people and for the people to make their lives just a little bit better. Political vandals wearing flag pins and waving Gadsden flags consider those systems — the country everyday Americans built in the 20th century — an abomination, and believe themselves to be our betters, not “traditional” Americans.
This week, Cynthis Greene shot back at NC Speaker Thom Tillis for saying so: Let’s just be clear, Thom: I’m not interested in your brand of tradition; I’m interested in the best, most humane traditions of our state. And I think you need a history lesson: Our North Carolina was a state that opened some of the nation’s first public health departments and publicly funded libraries—signs that at least some people in government cared about public health and education.
North Carolina is truly a battleground in the culture war pitting the far right against all that is just, sane, reasonable. Asheville is the state's progressive beacon in that sea of trouble. This post by Tom Sullivan, with help from Charlie Pierce, shines a light on what we are up against. Highly recommended.
As I mentioned at the top, I won't be around to host today so please jump in and fill the spaces below. I'll check in this evening. Have a great day!