I attended the NH CD-1 pre-debate rally yesterday, at St. Anselm’s in Manchester. Both sides (Guinta, Shea-Porter) had supporters in attendance, rallying for their candidate for the 2 hours prior to debate-time.
Guinta’s people were cyclically mini-bused from Jillian’s to the rally. All of Guinta’s people were either 912, campaign volunteers, or active citizens; I knew more than half of them personally.
Shea-Porter’s people were a combination of campaign volunteers, active citizens, and union members or representatives. How do I know? Well, many of them had union jackets, hats, and t-shirts. A large group of yellow-shirted fire-fighters came in after the mid-point of the rally, ceremoniously walking in front of the main line of people. Other groups of people with "United Steel-Workers" and "AFL-CIO" garb came in throughout the event.
(see more with photos and a video after the jump…)
This United Steel-Worker individual appears to have a jacket that says "Local 1357 New Bedford, MA". Wow, he came a LONG way just for this, huh?
A proud AFL-CIO member:
An ugly bunch, probably calling for more reinforcements, after they saw the throngs of Guinta supporters. "Eh, yeah, Louie, holy crap! We’ve got a problem here in Manchester – get the off duty boys from the Somerville, Medford, Cambridge, and Boston stations up here ASAP!" They arrived about an hour later…
Guinta signs and people were clearly in the majority, even with Union fill.
Only a couple of CSP’ers would agree to talk to me on camera. The video (at the end) shows one of many conversations I had with CSP supporters. He probably should have abstained because he laid out one heck of a “gimme guy” Union diatribe. What’s got his undies all bunched up is that the 2006 Republican-controlled Congress passed the PAEA act, which forced the current Congress to refuse postal rate increases because it could not show that their "extraordinary" needs (e.g. pension funding, benefit shortfalls, low cash reserves) were caused by the recession. The same PAEA act also requires the USPS to pre-fund (a.k.a. "actually paying for") its pensions – a novel idea. How about we make the USPS do this until they start to show a profit – ooops – I suppose that would require renegotiation of all their union contracts…didn’t we already see GM fall victim to the same anchor-tied-to-neck affliction? Unions…gotta love them…
Another conversation I had (with a slightly older gentleman from North Sutton, NH, wearing a Special Forces Green beret), went something like this:
- (me) Why are you here sir?
- (GB) To support Carol Shea-Porter.
- (me) Why do you support her?
- (GB) Because all the Republicans want to do is cut, cut, cut.
- (me) What’s so bad about that?
- (GB) Well, when they cut, people don’t get what they need.
- (me) Are you aware of the almost $1.5T federal deficit, and the $600-800m state deficit we have?
- (GB) Yes, so what?
- (me) Well, do you think it’s a good idea to carry that debt?
- (GB) Sure, if we need to spend it.
- (me) Well, if we need to spend it, how do we eventually eliminate that debt?
- (GB) You are starting to bother me.
- (me) All I’m saying is that you can either raise taxes, or cut spending; there is no other option.
- (GB) Leave me alone – get away from me – you are bothering me.
- (me) No problem, sir, and no disrespect intended (walking away)
Poor guy – he doesn’t even know he’s been duped.
That about sums up the response and predictable destination of most conversations you will have with a Libgressivecrat. I fully intend to do a lot more of this throughout the coming week, months, and years – and will record it for all to see. Never let up, folks, and always fight their emotion with repeated inquisition and logic – you can never lose.
Enjoy the movie…