Highlands Bunker – E12 – Meet People Where They’re At
Megan Hart of Network Delaware joins RE Vanella to talk about the politics of Sussex County and how to organize in a place that seems beyond saving.
patreonusercontent.com-mp3 version
Ed Note: This was ready to go on Friday as usual. They even drop when partying in New Orleans! Because they are a semiprofessional AF outfit. It is my fault that it wasn’t posted.
This is an important discussion. Sussex is about to get another RD and we can’t afford to absent mindedly hand it over to the Republicans.
“Beyond saving”..lol. Sounds like what republicans say about NCC.
Went out to dinner last night and it sounded like I was in a restaurant in New York or New jersey. I wonder why all these people (mostly Democrats I presume) are leaving the liberal bastions and moving to Sussex County Delaware?
You really listened intently. I can tell.
RSE’s goldfish brain observation aside, I’d like to dedicate this episode to mouse. He’s our reliable beach correspondent on here. A lot of the stuff Margaret and I discussed with Megan he’s been mentioning on here for years.
Sorry , didn’t even listen, didn’t have to. The whole premise that Sussex County seems beyond saving (politically speaking) is just simply wrong. If anything I could say that it’s on it’s way to becoming “blue”.
I work in the developments that the transplants from Democrat strongholds are moving to and I see the bumper stickers, and I talk to the people who will continue to vote for the same type of politicians that created the environment that influenced them to move away from those Democrat bastions in the first place…. I’ll listen to it now and see if my take was wrong.
Did you miss the word seems? I feel like maybe you did.
Why would the “whole premise” of me producing an hour long podcast with a community organizer be condescending hopelessness if I didn’t think folks could actually be organized?
You can’t be, clearly. You’re fucking dumb. Other folks. Better ones.
THE FUCKING TITLE OF THE THING IS “MEET PEOPLE WHERE THEY’RE AT”!
Christ all fucking mighty…
Big Chief Monk Boudreaux & the Screaming Eagles…. Play.Me.Out
Well, I listened and it sounds pretty professional and I agree with a good number of the points, but the condescending tone with all the upward inflections at the ends of phrases is laborious. Had to skim through it for my own sanity. Sometimes I can’t tell whether a statement is being made, or if it’s a question.
One thing I did take away from it though, was that Network Delaware is definitely a partisan organization.
Clean water is a communist plot against big ag! Well funded schools are how we indoctrinate your children with Maoist philosophy.
……
Big reveal y’all. RSE doesn’t get it. He “agrees with a good number of points”… But those points seem¹ “liberal” or partisan in some way. He just can’t put his finger on it… I actually know what it is…
…..
¹seem
Sure, I call certain areas “liberal” bastions, but I like true liberals, I am liberal in many ways, I just don’t agree with the Democratic Party, and I can’t understand people who flee from areas of Democrat control because of high taxes and then bring with them the same mindset that caused them to leave in the first place.
@RSE “I wonder why all these people (mostly Democrats I presume) are leaving the liberal bastions and moving to Sussex County Delaware?”
First, you probably would be better served in life if you formed opinions and made decisions based on actual information and data rather than presumptions, beliefs, and whatnot.
Second, your presumption is actually incorrect. Generally the transplants arriving here from liberal bastions have one of two primary motivations.
The first is that they desire to reduce the taxes the currently pay. They don’t want a lower cost of living. They just don’t want to give it to the government. The problem they have is that they want what they had where they came from, but don’t want to pay for it. Many of them have yet to learn that there is no free lunch. In Sussex County, you don’t pay nothin, but you don’t get nothin. For many that’s a rude awakening to discover that taxes are price you pay for civilization.
The second reason, is that they want a slower pace of life to enjoy in their later years (lower, slower, Delaware) and the beaches, restaurants, activities, etc. abound here.
Most are not liberal Democrats. Nor are most of them on the right. They are mostly moderately conservative, just not right wing nut jobs that you find in Western Sussex. Generally they are fiscally conservative and socially liberal.
Pete Swartzcopf did not get re-elected because he is a Democrat he got elected because he is Pete. Ditto Ernie Lopez as a Republican. Party don’t mean squat here except to the hard right west of Rt 5 or wherever the hell the border is, who rarely make it into Rehoboth because they think that gayness is contagious.
You may work in these developments, but you certainly don’t know the people who live in them.
I know plenty of them, but I really don’t make it a great priority to get to know everyone in a sea of little plastic houses stacked and racked for maximum profit.
Most of those people’s drinking and waste water management is done through a publicly traded company called Middlesex Water Company. They are doing some good stuff thanks to a bi-partisan bill that will help clean up water quality in Sussex County. http://investors.middlesexwater.com/news-releases/news-release-details/tidewaters-expertise-tapped-create-delawares-first-non-profit
Water management is going to get better in Sussex with bipartisan support, and we don’t need New Jersey style confiscatory taxes to do it:
https://www.carper.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/2018/9/carper-cheers-deal-reached-on-major-bipartisan-water-infrastructure-bill
Oxymoron, that.