Sweeping across more than a dozen North Carolina cities today, Taking the Dream Home marks the latest evolution of the Moral Monday protests that saw more than 1,000 arrests this summer in the Tar Heel state.
Provoked by popular outrage over issues ranging from North Carolina's voter ID bill to education, healthcare and women's rights legislation, the August 28 events will converge on Elizabeth City, Greenville, Chapel Hill, Wilmington, Boone, Greensboro, Concord, Charlotte, Lincolnton (where the movement’s leader, Dr. Rev. William Barber, will be attending), Sylva, Winston Salem, Raleigh and Dunn.
Building on momentum from Occupy Raleigh, Moral Mondays and the Forward Together Movement, Take the Dream Home represents the first time in state history that 13 simultaneous rallies are being held across North Carolina. One issue has galvanized people in particular: the renewal of Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act.
The section was stuck down by the U.S. Supreme Court in June, and the rallies Wednesday will emphasize the demand that North Carolina congressional representatives renew this part of the landmark law.
Conservatives Criticizing North Carolina's Republicans
What started as a few people standing up and saying no to the powers that be in the state legislature has evolved into a mass movement so powerful that even members of the right are now criticizing the GOP in North Carolina. Right wingers are now talking about how the Raleigh republicans forgot the working class, and there has been a sober assessment within the ranks as to why North Carolina's “republican revolution” suddenly became so unpopular.
One source of the surprising conservative commentary is Anthony Dent, a writer and reporter for the American Conservative, who slams the GOP and closes his latest article with heavy criticism of the late session abortion regulation bill.
Another registered republican, who is a judge, admitted at the last Moral Monday organizational meeting in Dunn that mainstream republicans — as opposed to the GOP and Tea Partiers — are beginning to come to their senses and realize that North Carolina's popular movement isn't just made up of liberal tree huggers who want free government handouts, but represents broad swathes of the population.
Beyond that, the message is sinking in that Republican Gov. Pat McCrory and Republican state house member Thom Tillis, among others, face steep chances of re-election as numbers now show just one in five North Carolinians remain on their side.
No wonder, then, that so many politicians here felt the urgency to pass the voter suppression law: if they can keep people who are against them from voting, they may still have a fighting chance. But with the roar that's coming out of all corners of the state this Wednesday, it would seem it is the public's voice, not republican backpeddling, that residents in North Carolina are more interested in tuning into.
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