Hey Red State DUers!! A message for y'all!

[DonRedwood]

Gerrymandering
Fox News
The Right Wing
Red State Houses
Koch Brothers
Pat Buchanan
Super PACS
Voter Suppression
Poll Taxes
Bad Polling
Corporate Media Lying to you
Red School Boards
"Papers Please?"

These are the battles you Democrats in red states are fighting just to get or keep the ability to vote. You are fighting every day for the things many of us in the blue states take for granted. We get mad at your states but we are not mad at you. You are fighting the good fight. You are the battleground states. Your right to vote is the battleground itself.

I have your back. The people who have recced and commented below have your back. Please understand that anger at the policies and laws from the people in the above list is not anger at you. We know where you stand. Our hearts ache for you when we see your rights being stripped away. It is hard to understand how these things can happen in the United States and to our compatriots. We know it must make you feel like total crap to wake up in the morning under that authoritarian rule.

I promise in the future to always try to remember to make sure I state who I am really angry at in my posts. I am not mad at Florida. I am mad at Florida Republicans. I do not think Mississippians are all stupid. I think Mississippi Republicans are a bit dim. I will do my best to not be a lazy typer and take the time to be more careful how I phrase things.

Our Southern and Midwest DU Family should not come in here and be criticized and put down. See that list up above? Those people are already doing that EVERY minute of EVERY day. Our Red State DUers should come in here for family, for support, for ideas and most importantly, they should know that we have their backs. And having someone's back means you aren't constantly criticizing them because of where they live.

Besides, those Southern Drawls are so cute!

[yesphan]

1. Thank y'all

very much !

[DonRedwood]

2. It must hurt to be a DUer from Ohio sometimes!!

I know we've been plenty mad about Ohio in here. You guys did an amazing job of Getting out the Vote there!

[yesphan]

11. Well Don,

I can't speak for Ohio, but I can assure you that it does indeed hurt to be a DUer from Oklahoma.

[DonRedwood]

14. oops....I saw the Ohio room was your fav so i jumped to conclusions.

[ancianita]

12. Stickin' together.

[DonRedwood]

17. We gotta! Most of my political donations this year went to Red States

I figured they needed the help more than anyone in my blue state.

[Arkansas Granny]

3. Thanks, Don. Sometimes it seems that all of us here in the South get tarred with the same brush.

[DonRedwood]

8. I've done it myself--mostly due to lazy typing or limited headline space

Feel free to call me on it if I slip up!!

The first goal I ever remember having was seeing all 50 states. (I'm at 36 or 37 now) So, at age 8, I started reading about every state in the encyclopedia. Of course I don't remember everything I read (Arkansas has some good crystal caves, if I recall) it left me with a real interest in accents, different foods (grits? I was very curious to eat "a grit" when my Texan neighbor offered me some in 7th grade).

So, I have a real love for our country and its people.

[Care Acutely]

4. In central Nebraska we are considered "accent neutral" but

thanks for the awesome post!

[DonRedwood]

10. That's what my daddy would have called a "flatlander" accent

His family is from Kansas.

[Tikki]

5. We lived in Louisiana for a year...

Very kind people to this little lost couple from the Pacific NorthWest...



The Tikkis

[DonRedwood]

19. I was at camp lejeune and the people there were super nice

During all my car trip miles through the South I never met a mean person, never had a bad experience. The peeps were awesome.

[Liberalynn]

6. Kick

[Avalux]

7. Thanks DonRedwood!

I still have my yankee accent though, even after living in Texas for a very long time. My roots run deep.

[DonRedwood]

22. A few more elections and we are going to LOVE a BLUE Texas!!

If there was a national law against gerrymandering then Texas would be half blue already!

[MuseRider]

9. Very nice and thank you.

Actually saying who you are disparaging would be very helpful and stop telling us to move.

You all in true blue states who have never lived in a very red state have little idea what it is like here. You all work so hard to keep your state blue, we work 3x that hard to keep our school board from dropping science for the bible and school boards are only one tiny part of the whole.

I have tons of respect for your states for keeping the country from falling into what we here in Kansas are facing. Keep up the good work but please remember that we rarely see or hear from national candidates, the national parties rarely offer us money or help, we can't find enough democrats to run who can afford to pay for it themselves. We are going to be like this for some time as there are few left who are willing or able to run, the party is a shambles.

My state is now fully run by Brownback and the Koch brothers. Don't expect much more than the worst possible outcomes here and please remember that we are here fighting with the only thing we have, our loud but unheard voices and our liberal hearts.

[socialindependocrat]

20. Thanks much! Very enlightening.

I think we need a term to identify the idiots that we are blaming

Like CRAF "Conservative Republicans At Fault"

How do we specify who we are talking about here?

[DonRedwood]

23. I've been trying to add RED or BLUE to a lot of my comments

or taking time to say" Texas Republicans are....." instead of "Texas is..."

[DonRedwood]

21. Thank you for sharing that.

I think the counter argument from people tell you to move is to answer: "You're in a blue state, they don't need you there. You should move here to help change the state to blue."

You're there doing your part already!

[kentauros]

26. That's a good retort!

I'll remember that one

[DonRedwood]

59. yeah, just don't use it against me later on!!

[kentauros]

62. I'll remember the fishatar

to differentiate you from the rest

[DonRedwood]

68. i like my fish

I have a star now and could have a custom one...but I like the fish. :0)

[kentauros]

74. It's a nice fish.

I like it too.

I also like Fishbone

[Indpndnt]

80. Well, I did use that counter argument two days ago.

The response? I quote, "soory- I'm not stooopid enough to move to a red state..."

[barbtries]

38. i'm all for

going back to Dean's 50-state strategy. it's time.

[DonRedwood]

58. I think we should aggressively go after every state that borders a blue state and spread from there.

[ancianita]

13. Thanks for this.

[DonRedwood]

24. Welcome to DU!

I hope everyone's been friendly :0)

[DonRedwood]

25. Oh, and where are you from?

[Tennessee Gal]

15. Well, blessed your little pea pickin' heart!

I, for one, truly appreciate your post!

[DonRedwood]

18. I HAVE picked some peas!!!

And I really appreciate the posts from the South. It actually gives me great piece of mind to see you all are there and fighting!

[Blanks]

16. I grew up in Idaho...

Lived in Kansas for 16 years, Louisiana for 2 1/2 years, and have lived in Arkansas for 10 years now.

Honestly, until this election, because of Facebook; I had no idea how many conservatives I'm surrounded by.

I realize now that the loud boisterous bullying ones don't get challenged a lot because most democrats know that they are outnumbered.

I hope that there is more of a national effort by the democrats here for the mid-terms. We will be electing a new governor (the current one is a very popular democrat) and I believe all of our house representatives are republicans now. Blanche Lincoln got kicked out of the senate a couple years ago (barely won the primary). I believe Pryor is still the other so he would be the only congressional democrat from Arkansas right now.

Every political commercial that I saw before the election was for a republican. I expect that since they are tea partiers their record will be easy to attack. We just need good candidates next time around.

Unfortunately I think Mike Ross didn't run in the last election because he wants to be governor in 2014. He's a weasel.

[Cleita]

31. I used to live in Idaho. Because I was rather outspoken about what I

thought of the lumber and mining company dominance of the area, I was called a Birkenstock wearing, California liberal more often than I could count. btw the people calling me those names were the hard-working and rural poor of the area, who will no doubt vote against their own best interests over and over, because they listen to the lies the politicians tell them and to the churches they go to. It's very sad really.

I also lived in Kansas a couple of years back in the early sixties, so I sympathize with you.

[Blanks]

63. I lived in Manhattan.

When I lived in Kansas what struck me the most about it was the obsession with the weather.

It didn't matter what the person did (that you were having a conversation with) for a living; they'd tell you what the weather looked like. If you went to the convenience stor; they'd talk about the weather. I guess all of those generations of being farmers made them respect the weather.

I was there from 1983 to 1999 and politics in the university town didn't bother me too much. I despised Bob Dole when he was running for president, but otherwise there wasn't a lot of politics in my day to day life.

BTW, how about those Wildcats.

[DonRedwood]

66. that's all they talk about here too.... the one thing we all have in common, i guess?

[DonRedwood]

54. Well, thank you for the Clinton. You still get credit for that!

[Blanks]

64. I hope the both of them show up in 2014...

and back congressional candidates whoever they may be. I don't think it would take much for the whole contingency to turn to blue.

We just didn't see much this time around. The candidates looked kind of old and tired. There should be plenty of state representatives to run for national office.

[MynameisBlarney]

27. Thank ya

Kindly!

[DonRedwood]

61. Welcome to Du!

[MynameisBlarney]

65. Thanks again!

I'm really liking it here so far.

[DonRedwood]

67. people are pretty nice! just make sure you think your argument through before you type!

Some of these guys will eat you up for lunch if you aren't factual. :0)

[MynameisBlarney]

69. Hehehe

I may be new here, but I'm not new to forums. I very rarely post things I can't back up, but when I do, I am not ashamed to admit when I'm wrong.
I've been a regular poster on huffpo, crooks and liars, raw story for years...though it's been a long time since I've posted regularly on crooks and liars.

And anyway, I have been in agreement with most of the posts I've read here.

[patrice]

28. You'd think other Dems would appreciate the difference between something and nothing

(in red states), but, then, perhaps that's what some posters do get, hence the acid poured upon "stupid" red-staters, gotta be sure that something feels like nothing, after-all, so there's more for "us", whoever that REALLY is.

[Whisp]

29. that was a very good post. ty. n/t

[democratXX]

30. Thanks Don

From an Idaho underdog.

[DonRedwood]

78. Well Howdy Idaho! Welcome to DU!!

I was looking at the Senate map...almost the whole Northern Border went blue...except that little bitty bit of Idaho. (And some independent Northeasterners). But we still love ya!

[RKP5637]

32. Some of us end up in red states because SH** happens. And then in states like KS the

march is redder and redder, and KS, for example, has been purchased by the Koch brothers. Many parts of KS are quite beautiful, such a shame what is happening to a nice state. The loss of Kathleen Sebelius as governor really put this state on a far right march. And TPTB wonder why people keep leaving KS, always a WTF to me. KS is usually seen as a joke to the rest of the US. What a shame we have such creepy politicians here and even more of a shame is why the people vote them in.

[Blanks]

70. I got out of the army at Fort Riley...

and that's what I was doing there for 16 years; trying to get through school.

Joan Finney was elected while I lived there and Bill Graves. Apparently things must have gotten worse after I left. I didn't mind Kansas so much (of course I lived in a university town).

Kansans seem very suspicious of the government and a little more aware of 'brother in law' deals; which seem so common here in the south.

I believe Brownback was a senator when I left, and I just absolutely despised him.

[RKP5637]

71. And they voted him in as Governor and from what I've heard will do so again when his term is

up. It's gotten so bad here many republicans just run unchallenged. And the moderates have pretty much all been voted out. I'm getting out of here too ... it's gotten so red I don't see a path back. Pockets are OK in the state, but as a whole it's sure red, far far far redder than when I came here. Frankly, it's gotten spooky. Brownback will now get "anything" he wants.

[Blanks]

75. The pendulum can swing pretty fast.

I expect that it'll swing back again soon.

I feel like if it were made more clear that the republican controlled house held the economy hostage for political gain; they would lose a lot more seats. Probably some governor seats too.

[RKP5637]

77. Somehow, the message does not seem to penetrate the minds of those that

need to know that. Hopefully, eventually it will ...

[Blanks]

79. I expect they (the administration) let the red states go...

Which was a good move for an overall strategy. However, for those of us in the outposts; one might be justified feeling a bit abandoned.

I hope the resources are available for the mid-terms. I'd really like to see a documentary about the tea party and it's financial backing. I think that would help open eyes.

[DonRedwood]

81. I don't think Kansas is a joke--I think the right wing has taken advantage of the culture there

in rural America where church plays a bigger role. The Koch Brothers and their ilk use their money to by the support of the religious. They buy out the media. I do hope the internet brings more news and information than the conservative media.

[heaven05]

33. okay

+1000

[loyalkydem]

34. Thanks

I livein NC now. Swing state most likely in next election

[DonRedwood]

83. It will be fun watching NC, TX and AZ turn blue :0)

[OneGrassRoot]

35. Nice :) K&R n/t

[barbtries]

36. your post made me cry.

i'm in NC

i don't feel like i belong here though. yet here i am. gotta keep fighting the good fight because it looks like i'll be here for a spell yet.

thank you.

[Taverner]

37. Red State Lefties always fight the hardest

We get spoiled in California

[barbtries]

40. gawd i miss California

home sweet home. it's going to be coming out of the darkness now too. i'm homesick.

[Taverner]

41. Come back :)

Paradise on Earth (sort of ironic, sort of not)

[barbtries]

44. i'm committed to the job i have here in NC

which is ironically better than anything i had in CA. i'll have a new career when i get back home and that's on my boss's dime, i cannot complain. also my son is in University here which i never could have managed in CA. what is dirt poor there is managing here, what is barely getting by there is living pretty darn well.

but the election has really soured me on the place. and the summers ("sweats" as i refer to them) suck.

[Taverner]

45. Well, there always is the "triangle"

Chapel Hill, Raleigh-Durham and RTP.

Aren't people supposed to be a bit more openminded there?

[barbtries]

46. where i am

and yes, i am in a largely blue area. thankfully.

[lisainmilo]

39. Raised in BLUE state, now live in RED state

Those raised in RED state and are RED really do believe all the FAUX crap...and their is no changing their minds, at least my immediate family I have married into. I can show em' Snopes, Factcheck, etc...some family no longer speaking to other family members. Them moneymongers are doing a great job f*ing with the minds of ordinary people.

[RKP5637]

72. Yeah, it sure has changed. I remember when there could be differencing ideas, but most people

came to an agreement. Now, it's just a gut wrenching argument with Fox lies and crap being spewed. I really think the underlying motivation for Murdoch beyond money is to start a civil war in the US. Ordinary people used to often have a sense of balance in life, somehow often about 60 to 70 percent of the country seemed to agree, there was middle ground. Now, that middle ground is being destroyed by Fox News and the like. Frankly, Fox News is a Creature Feature show.

[txdemsftw]

42. Thanks for the nice post...

I live in TX and I absolutely love it here. I love the people, the scenery, the food, the conversation, the weather (yes, even the hot weather!), the lakes, the cities (Austin is my favorite city ever) and the quality of life here.

Stereotypes suck and people need to think before they speak. Please don't bash a state in which you have never even been to..and don't try and act like just because you 'drove through that state one time" or "I knew a guy a long time ago from there" that you know everything, because you don't.

It's just as rude as stereotyping gay people, black people, latino people, white people, etc...it's rude and uncalled for.

....anyway, thank you Don for the post! Bless your heart!

[nolabear]

43. Thanks, Cher. It's complicated.

Any two dimensional view is a limited and limiting one. The realities are complex and interesting and often hard. Thanks for the open heart. We don't promise we won't bruise it but as long as we all keep trying we can overcome and be proud of who we are together.

[flygal]

47. i guess that's me - Montana is red for romney but we have some common sense.

thanks though!!

[freshwest]

51. Certainly first in fighting corporate money, WTP>ATP>CU. May you prevail.

[Mira]

48. Thank - y. Preciate it.

I'll try to recollect this when needed.
And - all joking aside - I like what you wrote and am glad you understand.

[freshwest]

49. Plus a million thanks to all of you who stood to give TX and FL Democratic victories!

You are heroes, all of you.

I've left out some of the states, but you all know who you are, battling in the belly of the beast.

Thanks for your courage!

And thanks Don for the appreciation thread. United we stand, divided we fall.

[Blue Palasky]

50. We know how it is

I like to think that my age group (under 30) realizes that our time is coming. Even here in south Texas.

[onestepforward]

52. Thank you!

Much appreciated!

[ProudProgressiveNow]

53. This Latino in Arizona....

thanks you.....

[felix_numinous]

55. How else to turn red states blue

but from the inside out? To all the red state lefties! I'm living in a red state now and get a chance to talk with many Republicans ---I always hope to give them a lot to think about.

Mostly I tell them I think that the 1% owned media is lying to us--and that we should always suspect any group that wants to turn Americans on Americans, while they laugh all the way to the bank....stuff like that.

Thanks for this DonRedwood!

[SaveAmerica]

56. Thank you! and Why, Thank you ; )

I've wanted to leave, the slick of hate tries to stick everywhere, but I stayed to make a difference and was able to before this last election. Now NC is home to the majority of your list.

Save us!!

Thanks for understanding us, we're here and we haven't given up!

Ya'll

[Z_California]

57. Awesome Post

So ditto'd. Love and support to my red state brothers and sisters.

[Elwood P Dowd]

60. Blood pressure pills during the day and a few cold beers at night help relieve the stress.

I was born in the south and have lived in southern red states for over 60 years -- the only exception was almost 2 years living in the Washington, DC area. You just have to be careful what you say about politics with people you don't know. With the ones you do know, just keep giving them facts to counter the barrage of propaganda and lies from Fox, Limbaugh, etc., and some will eventually wake the hell up.

[RKP5637]

73. There are good people in the south, but now they've been sooo brainwashed by the

"barrage of propaganda and lies from Fox, Limbaugh, etc., and some will eventually wake the hell up."

[Honeycombe8]

76. Get your photo ID! And get registered ahead of time. BE PREPARED for next time! nt

[BlueJazz]

82. Most of us here don't mind the "Talk" about red states. I live in Florida and I know it's...

...a Republican hell-hole.

[TBF]

84. Well I think I've avoided the southern drawl -

but then I'm originally from the midwest. Sometimes I feel like I'm living in a foreign country down here. Thanks for the support!

[LiberalLovinLug]

85. I don't know how y'all do it

It sounds like its just the way it is in the Red States, that everyone is assumed to be a Republican or a right wing Libertarian. Kids just grow up hearing their parents rant on and on inspired by the echoes of Fox News dancing in their heads. I can see how those kids just assume the Republican mantle, even if they are not particularly political. Its a matter of fitting in.

And if your godless liberalism is somehow leaked you would be instantly ostracized as someone who is trying to show off in some way, someone who is inexplicably and purposely going the "wrong way" like Billy in Midnight Express. Because it can't be because you are actually correct on the issues, EVERYONE knows that, so it must be that you are either crazy, or an asshole that is begging for a fight.

Maybe I'm being overly dramatic. Their does always seem to be a healthy wingnut population everywhere though, including where I am, above the 49th. But I can't imagine trying to live immersed in that culture.

[eridani]

86. Strange culture shock story

My husband and his sister, and our young nephew, visited their father living in Mississippi so that he could meet his grandson before he died. Since both dad and second wife were older and frail, they got in the habit of taking long walks on country roads when the old folks were napping. It was October, so the weather was mild--heat and humidity not such as to make walking unpleasant.

It was a strange experience for them to walk on roads with no shoulders and six foot deep ditches--necessary because clay soil doesn't absorb water very well. What utterly astonished them was that one day, a car stopped and offered them a ride to the homeless shelter in town!

They were caught between being utterly bewildered that people taking a walk would be assumed to be homeless or in some other kind of trouble, and being impressed with the kindness and care immediately offered to strangers.

Maybe nobody is in the habit of walking outdoors because it usually is too hot and humid for that? On 101 in Oregon, if someone is walking along the broad shoulders of the road, drivers will usually assume that they are walking along the road because they want to. No one is going to stop for you unless you are carrying a gas can or have your thumb out. Lots of touring bikes are out during the (relatively) dry season also.

[Jamastiene]

87. Thank you and everyone who agrees.

It means a lot when people recognize that we want our states to become more blue, even if we are fighting an uphill battle and often lose that battle in our states. We are still trying as hard as we can. It truly is an uphill battle.