Instead of helping families clean up after the deadly Good Friday tornadoes, Rutherford County Republicans gathered by the hundreds on the square in Murfreesboro last night to protest the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and paying taxes to fund veteran’s benefits.
Rutherford County Republican Party Vice Chair Lou Ann Zelenik praised the angry crowd for taking to the streets to protest the millions of dollars in federal stimulus funds set to invest in our county’s schools and enhanced health care benefits for our county’s veterans.
The angry crowd of Bush Republicans also protested extending unemployment benefits for Rutherford County’s unemployed and the change in direction over the past 8 years of failed conservative economic policy of unprecedented government expansion, deficit spending and tax cuts for the wealthiest 5% of Americans.
Meanwhile, Rutherford County Republicans are working hard to force Governor Bredesen to reject federal stimulus funds that would extend help to Rutherford County’s unemployed. Rep. Carr is a co-prime sponsor of HJR 0150, a bill that urges Gov. Bredesen to refuse funds from the federal stimulus bill that will help families in Rutherford County who are unemployed.
Newly elected Rutherford County Democratic Party Chair Jonathon Fagan is not impressed.
“Where were all these folks when George W. Bush and a Republican Congress were running up trillion-dollar deficits with no bid contracts and tax breaks for oil companies?” Fagan asked. “Instead of picking up a microphone and whining about taxes, we Democrats from across the state will be partnering with the city of Winchester in helping our fellow citizens clean up storm damage on Saturday April 25 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.” Details can be found on the Democrats’ Web site, www.rutherfordcountydemocrats.org.
Fagan said the Republicans can keep their new headquarters.
“Our U.S. congressman is a Democrat named Bart Gordon, who has $1 million cash on-hand,” he said. “We Democrats would rather have a congressman than a pretty little headquarters.”
Fagan invites people of all political stripes to join the RCDP and statewide Democrats April 25 to help Rutherford County families clean up after Good Friday’s tornadoes.
When I vote I vote for the right person. I don’t vote for parties even though over the past 15 years I leaned Republican. I read the paper this morning. I could not figure out how to comment over there. I hope you don’t mind the comment here. I don’t know what to think about these tea parties. Part of me thinks we do need to control government spending. I understand the drastic spending is now necessary after the failures over the past few years.
I voted for Bush twice. I hate to admit that. Go ahead and attack me. I’m used to it from some of my own family. I took the stickers off my car in the last year of his Presidency. I was ashamed our country was in such an awful shape and heading in the wrong direction. My daughter has to be taught in a trailer because politicians felt tax cuts were more important than the issues that affect my life. I think a lot of Republicans feel that way which is why you heard people at these tea parties also express anger at President Bush.
But I want to address what the county Republicans are no doing. I want to see us protesting the poor treatment of our veterans. My nephew is home without a job and I feel my country is abandoning him. It is breaking my heart. He left here a proud man and has returned broken and abandoned. My sister and I spend a lot of time on the phone with little answers for what’s next. He needs help. His family needs help and what do I see Republicans doing? Protesting funds from the stimulus package that was long overdue him and other heroes. That’s what they are. Heroes. I supported President Bush and the war in Iraq, but I’m shocked to learn from my nephew that the help he needs isn’t there while everyone got their precious tax cuts. Did we need the kind of tax cuts that has him sitting at home looking at a country that has abandoned him? Does my daughter deserve the education she’s getting right now? Excuse my language but hell no.
We ought to be ashamed of ourselves. Republicans need to take a long hard look at those of us who supported the party and the situation we are all in as Americans. We need help and I didn’t see people willing to help my family on the square yesterday. I saw people rejecting the help we need. I believe in the core values of the Republican party but I’m sad to see those principles slowly abandoned. I would have left this for Lou Ann to read on the RCRP blog, but it’s broken.
Sincerely, Janice
[...] County Democrats want to know why instead of “helping families clean up after the deadly Good Friday tornado,” [...]
This is unconscionable and despicable that the RuCo Dems would play partisan politics with the victims of Friday’s tornado. These people lost their homes, their belongings, and - yes - even a couple of them lost their lives…
And the Rutherford County Democratic Party is going to politicize this?! Really? I had friends who’ve lost everything. EVERYTHING! They have NOTHING. And you’re going to make this about Republicans and Democrats?! Seriously?!
This shows poor character, and it is in poor taste. Hundreds of Murfreesboro residents - and even people from other parts of the state - have come out of the woodwork to help the people affected by the tornadoes on Good Friday. They were Republicans. They were Democrats. They were Independents. They were apolitical. They were men. They were women. Brothers. Sisters. Sons. Daughters.
AND YOU’RE GOING TO POLITICIZE THIS?! Get real.
Read my response.
The April 25 clean up is open to everyone Matthew. How many of those hundreds of Republicans protesting against funding schools and veterans benefits do you think will show up to help? I haven’t seen them promote it at all. The clean up is for everyone and was organized by the Rutherford County Emergency Management Agency.
These Democrats are offering their help and are finally stepping up and doing something good. It’s been years since I’ve seen this. They want to help my family and my neighbors. Not a single Republican at that protest helped me, my daughter’s school or my nephew, a hero in my family’s eyes. The Republicans protested the help they need more than ever in this economy. I hope the county Republicans prove me wrong and make up for it and show up by the hundreds to help clean up our city. But I doubt hundreds of Republicans will bother to show up. Fox News Channel isn’t talking about it so they don’t know about it I bet. They have lost their way and have lost their minds and have lost my vote for a long time.
Sincerely,
Janice
It’s a shame, Janice, that this is still about politics for you. I’ve already been out there. Lou Ann told those who attended last night’s rally to help their neighbors who were in need. This post suggested that Republicans were doing NOTHING. NOTHING to help the people whose lives have been destroyed by the tornadoes.
It was partisan hackery, and it’s a shame that you guys can’t put that aside for two minutes, but you can use it to capitalize on the plight of the tornado victims. Today’s post was morally reprehensible and should be taken down in the interest of good taste.
As a Democrat who moved here from the Midwest, I understand the hardships these people are facing in the wake of last week’s tornadoes. It’s tough. And for this county party to level such accusations at Republicans - that they have not helped - distracts Democrats and Republicans from the task at hand: helping our neighbors. I spent most of this past weekend helping people pick up the pieces, and not one of them asked me if I was a Democrat or a Republican. Why would party affiliation matter?
The cleanup effort is open to all, just like the TEA Party. Any republican is welcome. Hope to see you there!
Ain’t that something? You invite Republicans to do something constructive and helpful for families in need and then they start talking about how political it all is. There is nothing political about helping families. There is nothing at all political about the Rutherford County Emergency Management Agency organizing this or Democrats inviting Republicans to help. Yesterday’s tea party. Now that was political, and I guess that’s all it takes to get Republicans out on the streets of Murfreesboro. That tea party was as political as it gets. And they got hundreds of angry Republicans to come out and protest the federal government’s help for my daughter’s school and the health care my nephew deserves for serving his country. THAT IS POLITICAL AND THAT is a shame.
Now the Democrats are inviting all those hundreds of protesting Republicans to help and now they are mad and calling that political? We will see come April 25 if Republican decide to cower behind that sorry excuse. That tornado didn’t come through here choosing which homes to destroy based on parties. It is time Republicans come out in the hundreds to help like they came out in the hundreds for their political protest.
I was there at the square for the tea party and the liberal media isn’t reporting the truth but what’s new. There were thousands of us. I’m tired of my tax dollars paving the parking lots at the projects while people on welfare buy and sell drugs all day but that is what Obama has planned if you read the stimulus package. He wants to take care of his own and now his soldiers are politicizing the tornado. They won’t be happy unless they try to trick us to come out and make it look like more Democrats were cleaning up Murfreesboro. Let the communists do it by themself. The more of them cleaning it up the less of my tax money will be spent to clean it up.
Yeah, Eagle1, Obama wants to take care of his own, like unemployed contractors in Rutherford County, disabled veterans at the York VA, and handicapped school children throughout RuCo schools. Its no surprise that a selfish republican like yourself would think that’s just terrible.
My father used to tell me, “Son, if you carry your lunchbox to work, then you’re a Democrat.” For thirty years, I have “carried my lunchbox” to work, so to speak. My father’s dad operated a store in east Tennessee during the Great Depression, and I can remember him talk about how ashamed he was when the store was forced to close. It was stories like those that solidified my support for the Democratic Party, and it’s instances like this that make me blush.
Basically, whoever wrote this is suggesting that Republicans are protesting rather than helping the people who were affected by the tornado, and that is just not true. It’s a shame that someone would stoop this low as to try to pit Republicans and Democrats against one another when we should be working together.
I hope I can expect better from the leadership in the future.
OSD, I have lived here in Tennessee all my life and grew up in a Democratic household. My dad was a farmer and my mother did clerical work until the late 70s. I have always been a Republican. I came pretty close to voting for John McCain until my nephew came home from Iraq and I saw a brave young man with everything ahead of him come back broken and into a system that failed him and abandoned him.
The more we learned about the cuts in veteran services that occurred over the past eight years I was in real shock and awe and deeply ashamed that for years I defended these tax cuts not realizing I wasn’t seeing a single dime of those cuts and I suspect neither did you unless you make over $500,000 a year. In that case you ain’t bring a lunch pale to work my friend. The more my sister and I started looking for help through veteran groups and government programs the more we saw who was really fighting for us.
I don’t agree with Democrats on a lot of things especially all the social stuff. But we need help. My daughter is an entirely different story for another time. This stimulus bill is needed and everyone of those hundreds of Republicans who stood out there on the square protesting those funds have not a single answer for me as to what they intend to do for my family. What’s worse is the county government and Democrats have an open invitation for people to come together to help families after those storms and county Republicans are saying the same thing as you. “Those Democrats are politicizing things.” What the hell were those people out there politicizing at these tea parties? My nephew and my daughter’s lives. That’s what. It was another wake up call for this old gal.
I have said my peace here and thank God America said theirs and voted for a man who is finally changing the direction of this wayward country. Now it’s up to us to make sure that change comes to Tennessee. I will make damn sure of that until my nephew gets what he deserves for fighting for your right to protest the help he needs.
OSD,
do you really think that publicity stunt organized by wealthy right wing nuts like Lou Ann Zelenick and Howard Wall was really for lunchbucket democrats? what i saw was a bunch of silver-spooned republicans trying to convince real people that they’re on our side, and moaning about having to pay their fair share of taxes. part of the whole budget they were complaining about gave TEMA increased funding for disasters such as the tornado, so they were basically complaining about funding the very folks who were digging and cutting us out of this mess!
It’s just like everything else republican since they lost the election…..they vote no…no…no. Doesn’t matter what it is…it’s just no…..no…no. All they want is to take over again….hand have it their way….which didn’t work for the past 8 years. I was a republican for 40 years….but no more. Talk about playing politics, that’s all they know. I’m a proud Democrat,living in a republican county in PA, ever since Obama came along. I worked harder to get him elected that I ever did for any republican candidate.
Talk about using politics…that’s all they do anymore.
Long live Ron Paul!!!