Posted on 05/16/2002 4:42:10 AM PDT by kattracks
CNSNews.com) - Environmentalists, anti-war protesters, homosexual activists, and liberal politicians are hitting the road for a "democracy tour" intended to sow the seeds of leftist activism in America's heartland.
The 2002 Rolling Thunder Down Home Democracy Tour bills itself as "a county fair with guts."
"We want to really seed progressive and populist sensibilities in the heartland," said Mike Dolan, the event's organizer. "We want to reach our sort of collective Rolling Thunder hands into the rich, black earth of the American Heartland and bring together people who haven't organized together before and perhaps, haven't been politicized."
But one conservative columnist said the Rolling Thunder Down Home Democracy Tour is nothing more than a propaganda campaign.
"The only thing that the greens and leftists have is their capacity to generate propaganda," said columnist Alan Caruba. He said the tour will "mislead" the very people it aims to reach - farmers, families and young people who may not be familiar with the liberal agenda.
The Rolling Thunder Down Home Democracy Tour features music, food, drink, and various carnival-type games. While country folks stop by for the entertainment, they'll also get an "education," according to Dolan.
Dolan emphasized that the event -- through various workshops and "rousing speeches -- will promote the themes of "taking back power," "fighting corporate rules," and "progressive values that bring us together."
Citizens will "come together to learn, participate, celebrate, and enjoy," according to the event's website.
For example, Dolan said the democracy tour will bring together the "small farmer" and environmentalists, giving them a chance to discuss alternative farming methods. Those alternative methods include organic farming - no pesticides.
Dolan said seasoned activists will be available to help young people attending the event learn how to raise funds and join protests for various liberal causes.
The tour, which started in Austin, Tex., in March, moves on to Chicago on June 15, and from there it travels to other cities, including Seattle, Tucson, Atlanta, and Minneapolis.
Echoes of Seattle
Tour organizer Dolan also coordinated the 1999 "Battle in Seattle," a mass protest targeting the globalization policies of the World Trade Organization. The "Battle in Seattle" erupted in violence, as self-proclaimed "anarchists" clashed with Seattle police in full view of the television cameras.
Seattle's mayor declared a state of emergency and the National Guard was called in to restore order.
In contrast, the Rolling Thunder tour will be more low-key.
However, it is being organized by many of the anti-globalization protesters who marched together in Seattle in 1999. They include representatives from non-profit groups, non-governmental organizations, labor unions, environmental groups, peace and justice groups, and the National Council of Churches," Dolan said.
But this democracy tour is "a non-partisan kind of a thing," he said. No one will be advocating "a particular position on particular pieces of federal legislation," according to Dolan, who indicated it's more of a goodwill effort.
"The point of all this is to have fun; it's festive," Dolan summarized. "We have beer."
Regardless of how it's billed, the list of the people planning the Democracy tour "is virtually a roster of the far left," the conservative Caruba noted.
The tour's national planners, as listed on the Rolling Thunder Democracy Tour's website, include the following individuals and groups:
Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.), the only member of the House of Representatives to vote against a resolution supporting President Bush's authority to act against the terrorists who attacked the United States; Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr. (D-Ill.); Sen. Paul Wellstone (D-Minn.); The Ruckus Society, which advocates direct confrontation as an effective campaign tactic; Greenpeace; Alliance for Democracy; Campaign for America's Future; Global Exchange, a group that has launched a Palestine human rights campaign with the goal of ending U.S. aid to Israel; the Center for Voting and Democracy, which seeks to win voting rights for convicted felons; and radio host Jim Hightower.
Selling The Liberal Agenda
Hightower, who hosts a Texas-based national radio talk show, believes a Democrat would be in the White House if the progressive left's agenda and activism had been better sold to voters.
In a recent interview with the liberal website Buzzflash.com, Hightower said, "There is, in my view, no excuse for him (George W. Bush) being president except that we did not have an organized, progressive, political grassroots, long-term effort that can appeal, not only to card-carrying progressives, but to the Bubbas out there who are mostly on our side on the economic issues, the power issues, yet are not voting because they don't see our flag flying."
It's those "Bubbas" that the 2002 Rolling Thunder Democracy Tour hopes to reach.
The Other 'Rolling Thunder'
While the 2002 Rolling Thunder Democracy Tour gears up for a summer of fun, another "Rolling Thunder" group plans to take its show on the road this Memorial Day weekend.
Rolling Thunder, Inc. - which owns the trademark on the Rolling Thunder name -- is a veterans' organization dedicated to helping disabled veterans from all wars. It actively promotes legislation to increase veterans' benefits and resolve the POW/MIA issue.
Contacted by CNSNews.com , Rolling Thunder, Inc. made it clear that its group has no association whatsoever with the 2002 Rolling Thunder Down Home Democracy Tour.
"The name 'Rolling Thunder' was trademarked in 1990, and replication of this mark by any group has been done without the express permission of Rolling Thunder," the group said in a statement.
The group said it eventually plans to take a closer look at the Rolling Thunder Democracy Tour.
Right now, however, Rolling Thunder, Inc. is busy organizing its annual "Ride for Freedom" motorcycle rally that will bring thousands of veterans to Washington on Memorial Day weekend.
The 15th Annual "Ride for Freedom" is expected to draw more than 250,000 motorcyclists from all over the country to the nation's capitol to pay homage to the nation's veterans and take part in a POW/MIA demonstration on the mall.
E-mail a news tip to Michael L. Betsch.
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Saturday afternoon at Spring Hollow Farm in Roanoke County. Chickens scattered, languidly, as a succession of cars crawled over the rut-streaked driveway. Spock, the 3-year-old family Dalmatian, was in heaven. Lots of hands to pet him, lots of new dogs to sniff.
Chalk-written signs decorated posts here and there. "Kill your TV," one said. "No Hate," another advised. A quotation from Gandhi: "First they ignore you. Then they laugh at you. Then they fight you. Then you win." Another from Adlai Stephenson, advising that freedom means nothing if it's "only the freedom to be stagnant, to live w/o dreams, to have no greater aim than a 2nd car and a television set."
The news media will happily give this circus uncritical coverage when the circus gets to their town, followed by their local 'rat candidate with complimenting solutions.
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