Screenshot of local Dem leader interaction

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Hi, I am a democrat that is understandably upset. However, I expected this to some degree.

I live in Forsyth County, Georgia and for a while was a volunteer the Dems. I stopped when I realized how f*cking out of damn touch the leadership of the party was. Its like they were doing things to intentionally drive away voters.

From early on I felt unwelcome there. They have a serious white male issue. They seem to think every white male is a right winger in disguise.

One day about two years ago they decided to protest a local ban on drag queen story hour at the local public library. They posted about it on their FB group and I commented "please don't do this, this does not drive turnout to our side."

They acted like I was a bigot of course, and did it anyways. The local Republicans used their protest on their campaign ads to show Ds were crazy, which is exactly what I said they would do.

Anyways last night when it was obvious that Harris would lose, I posted a comment asking if there would be leadership changes at the county and state level due to this failure to increase vote totals from 2020.

I attached the reply I got, and then I got promptly banned from the group.

https://imgur.com/FuAF66s

In case you are wondering why I am a dem: single payer health care, higher taxes on the rich, pro environment, and pro LGBT (I don't think drag queen story hour at a public library is a right, but you can host one at your home in this county and no one will stop you).

As you can see, the party chair went nuts on me and took it as a personal attack. She called me a troll, and then chastised me for not volunteering more (I have 6 kids).

I do not think the Ds in GA will be able to fix the bleeding.

I'm a bit surprised to hear about a local Democratic club participating in issue-oriented protests, on any issue whatsoever. Around here, the local Democratic club doesn't do that. All they do is provide a forum for local Democratic politicians and their supporters.

However....


Hosting an open-to-the-public event at one's home is not safe, ESPECIALLY an open-to-the-public event about which there is any controversy at all. If you publicize your home address in any way, ESPECIALLY regarding an open-to-the-public event (of any kind whatsoever), you never know what sort of dangerous person may show up at your home with violent intent.

Also, depending on local zoning laws, hosting an open-to-the-public event (of any kind whatsoever, especially a recurring one) at one's home may even be illegal. I would also expect it to be prohibited by many (perhaps most) HOA's.

If not the public library, the only other alternatives I can think if, for a "Drag Queen Story Hour," would be the local LGBT Community Center (if there is one) or perhaps a local Unitarian Universalist church (if there is one). Googling, it does not appear that Forsyth County, Georgia, has a LGBT Community Center.

Lots and lots of different kinds of groups hold meetings/events at public libraries. A government institution, such as a public library, should not be allowed to discriminate against any group that isn't breaking the law.

So, yes, being allowed to hold an event at a public library is a right.

So, yes, if a particular group is being singled out as not being allowed to rent a meeting room at the public library, then a protest is certainly justified.

The only question is how the protest should be organized and by whom. Instead of Democratic clubs participating in protests directly, I would have suggested creating an officially separate (though heavily overlapping with local Democratic clubs) organization, perhaps something like "Forsythians for Human Rights," to act as a bridge between the local Democratic clubs and various local issue-oriented protest groups.

Thank you for your detailed thoughtful reply.

Yes, the local Democratic party posted on their FB page they were looking for volunteers to protest the ban. The local GOP held a rally and the Ds showed up and played their part as "look at those weirdos who support this."

While I understand your concerns about their right to assemble, the reality is the local people voted for politicians that put in the ban and its popular. If you are a political party and want to win elections in this area, you've got to pick your battles. This is not a winnable one. If you don't understand why drag queen story hour is unpopular, then you are in the bubble yourself. Personally - I do not care. But, at the same time I would venture to bet that if you did a poll, something like 75% of Americans would have some issue with it at a Public library intended for kids.

Especially in Forsyth County, Georgia. This county literally chased away all the blacks in 1922 I think it was. The KKK was highly active here relatively recently (they marched here as recently as 1987).

So knowing this, put yourself in the shoes of a political leader. Why pick this hill to die on? Our goal in this county was to get to 40% of the vote. Instead, we went nowhere this cycle.

I don't blame the protest - I see it as emblematic of "oh you don't agree with our policies? Well then we are going to call you a bigot and protest you."

It was bad marketing.

From my experience going to meetings for about 2 years before I stopped - the leaders of the party are way out of whack with the common American. What you see is all the leadership has college degrees and they see the world through this lens of "everythings an outrage."

I stopped going when they had this activist come up to talk about a protest they were going to do for Trumps motorcade when it came through Atlanta. She was like, "here is what we are going to do, we are going to wait until he drives by and then shout 'Shame!'"

I'm sitting there thinking "this is a waste of my life to come here." I also realized I wanted to vote Democratic in the future and each time I interacted with the leadership I just got more annoyed with them.

What this election showed is that Democratic policies are more popular than Democrats.

I want leadership that would go "hey you know, I care about trans issues but I also recognize that this will likely backfire and make it more likely that Trump wins.

So yeah, Trump won and now look at trans issues - Trump is going to end Federal funding for gender affirming care. Was dying on the drag queen story hour hill worth it?

Was the local Democratic party looking for volunteers for a protest organized by the local Democratic club itself? Or were they just encouraging people to attend a protest organized by a separate (non-partisan) group, and/or perhaps looking for volunteers to attend a separately-organized protest for the purpose of recruiting for the Democratic Party among the protesters?


The local GOP held what kind of a rally? An issue-oriented rally, e.g. a rally against "Drag Queen Story Hour" being allowed at public libraries? Or a candidate-oriented rally?

What I am trying to nail down here is the exact roles of both the Democrats and the Republicans here -- NOT just the mere fact that they participated in one way or another.

What I'm having difficulty wrapping my head around is the whole idea of local Democratic and Republican party clubs being the ones to organize protests around any political issue, popular or not.

Around here, protests and counter-protests, on any issue, are organized by groups that are officially nonpartisan, although they tend to overlap heavily with one party or the other. Around here, the major political parties themselves focus on politicians, not on specific issues of any kind, although (1) people do discuss specific issues at party meetings and (2) representatives of a local major party club, or of a particular politician's campaign, may attend a protest (organized by a nonpartisan group) for the purpose of recruiting supporters for the party.


Depends who you are trying to market to -- swing voters or the party's base. And which of these is more important varies, depending on which election it is.

In your original post, you say that your experience with the local Dems happened "about two years ago" -- NOT a presidential election, apparently.

Swing voters tend not to vote at all in local elections. So the important thing, in local elections, is to motivate your base to get off its butt and actually bother to go out and vote, even if motivating them involves issues that most swing voters (unlikely to vote anyway) would disagree with.