An Answer to Ms. Greene’s Appearance in the Neighborhood
Last Saturday Marge Greene, the Republican Representative from the northwest corner of the State of Georgia to the U.S. House of Representatives spoke at the Kootenai County Republicans’ Lincoln Day fundraising dinner at the Coeur d’Alene Resort. Greene’s place on the podium in our neighboring county was secured months before her juvenile heckling Joe Biden (unsuccessfully) at the State of the Union speech, but, surely, her antics only burnished her image for the right wing faithful who attended the event. Judging by the posted video clips, her speech was peppered with nonsense about the threat of immigrants taking over Kootenai County and how the good, God-fearing Republicans of Kootenai County need to stand up and repel them.
Apparently, the organizers of the Kootenai Republican event wanted to keep at least some of what was said at the event on the quiet: the dominant news outlet in the area, The Spokesman-Review, was not allowed to attend on the hopelessly lame excuse that “press passes had already been allocated”. As a result Garrett Cabeza’s Spokesman article that appeared the next day wasn’t complimentary, but it lacked illustrative quotes from Greene’s speech. Spreading Greene’s themes beyond the dinner audience was left to clips that appeared on social media sites like Rumble, conveniently outside the consciousness of those not habitually sipping at those cesspools.
Greene is a far-right conspiracy theorist who has shown support for QAnon and says the 2020 election was stolen. That her vile rhetoric was featured by Kootenai County Republican Party should be a wakeup call—which brings me to serious efforts to defend democracy, the Hijacking Democracy Symposium a week from this Saturday put on by the Kootenai County Democrats (also mark your calendar for the Spokane County Democrats’ Tom Foley Legacy Dinner upcoming on March 11 in the evening—more later).
I am a great fan of Luke Mayville, one of the panelists at the Democracy Symposium. Luke led the huge—and successful—grassroots effort to bring the Medicaid expansion to Idaho using an Idaho State ballot initiative. He and countless volunteers succeeded over the howls of Republican legislators in the very red state of Idaho. Their success stimulated subsequent disingenuous efforts by Idaho State Republican legislators to make an already challenging ballot initiative process nearly impossible for the citizens for whom it was designed—another Republican power play.
February 25 11 AM – 3 PM at the Red Lion Hotel, Templin’s on the River in Post Falls, Idaho. (Just a half hour east from downtown City of Spokane.)
“This symposium features top local and national speakers addressing the issue of combating extremist ideology. It is another response to Marjorie Taylor Greene’s planned visit to our area.”
Panelists Include:
* Dr. David Adler — prize-winning professor, author, Constitutional scholar,
and international expert on economics.
* Luke Mayville from Reclaim Idaho.
* Dr. Sarah Lynch from North Idaho Pride Alliance.
*Representative Ilana Rubel from United Against Hate.
The afternoon panel session addresses the controversy swirling around North Idaho College and its impending loss of accreditation—another project linked to the Kootenai County Republican Party. Dr. Adler will also appear on that panel.
Check out the details and purchase tickets by visiting the Facebook event page: https://tinyurl.com/3wrcp7ak.
Or by visiting the Act Blue tickets page.
For those interested in attending who find the price tag for the event a deal breaker [$40 (including lunch), $15 for students (also including lunch]) I am told there are funds available. Inquire through the Contacts Page at kootenaidemocrats.org.
I plan to attend.
Keep to the high ground,
Jerry