“Occupants of public offices love power and are prone to abuse it." – George Washington, Farewell Address, September 17, 1796
“Occupants of public offices love power and are prone to abuse it." – George Washington, Farewell Address, September 17, 1796
A slice of the Freedom Rally |
By Gretchen Garrity
Groups
of citizens from Christian County, including the Missouri
Freedom Initiative and Grassroots Patriots of Christian County, traveled up to the Capitol to attend the
protest organized by grassroots activist Catherine
Dreher of Rogue Politics.
Dreher threw the event together quickly after Sen.
Caleb Rowden and Sen. Cindy
O’Laughlin attacked members of the Missouri
Freedom Caucus in a contentious few days in the Senate last week.
When
we arrived we heard cheers and applause coming from the rotunda. It
could not have been the rally, since that wasn’t scheduled for a
couple hours later.
Instead,
it was a gathering of well-organized activists from groups like
Missouri Voter Protection
Coalition, Vote.org, a
contingent from Jobs With
Justice, and the United Auto
Workers.
Some
of these groups claim to be nonpartisan. I really hope people
understand the current narrative that is being pushed by these
leftist groups. They are anything but nonpartisan. Don’t fall for
it, whether it’s
Jobs
for Justice
or
United
Springfield PAC
.
Really,
the “voting rights” rally was a perfect foil for the protest in
support of the
Missouri
Freedom Caucus
.
From the photos below you can see that a generous guess of attendance
was about 150, if you count the chairs (which had been mostly filled
at the height of the rally) and those standing on the edges,
including the media.
News
coverage of the event followed along the lines of this
article from the
Columbia
Missourian
.
Notice how the pictures are framed in the linked article. Notice that
the article does not provide links to the organizations mentioned in
the article (doing a little digging would out their far left
agendas). Notice how Rep. Dean
Plocher is given the last word, as if he was the Republican hero
trying valiantly to get IP reform passed. Eye roll.
Here
are pictures I took of the event. A different perspective.
As the other rally finished up. |
Side view during the organized rally |
Lots and lots of signs |
GRASSROOTS
IS REAL
Enjoy the videos:
Let’s
move on to the grassroots-organized freedom protest. In just a few
days, Dreher and her compatriot Kirby
Lane, also of
Rogue
Politics
,
put the word out and the people came. Packed into an upper hallway on
the second floor, about 400 citizens from all over the state made the
trek to support senators Bill
Eigel, Denny Hoskins,
Andrew
Koenig, and Rick Brattin
and the rest of the Freedom Caucus and to call for the leadership
resignations of senators Rowden and O’Laughlin.
Besides
senators Eigel and Hoskins, speakers included native Missourian Doug
Billings of The Right Side
podcast, Sen. Andrew
Koenig
,
Sen.
Jill Carter, Rep. Justin
Sparks, and several more. The rally lasted over an hour and was
interspersed with prayer, song, and deafening cheers.
Although
the RINOs in the state legislature are doing their best to blame
their perfidiousness on the Freedom Caucus, Missourians know that
legislators like Plocher, Rowden and O’Laughlin are the ones who
have stood in the way of IP reform and other legislation important to
citizens.
After
the protest, members of the Missouri
Freedom Initiative conducted a
Knock
And Shock
,
visiting as many legislators as possible to encourage them to support
the following bills in the House and Senate:
SB735,
SJR61 and HB1955.
Grassroots
is real.
And
it’s growing.
Hundreds & hundreds (!) of Missouri Freedom Fighters have shown up @ the MO Capitol today to support the @MOFreedomCaucus ! Second floor of the Capitol is absolutely PACKED…I’ve never seen anything like it in 15+ years. #MOLeg pic.twitter.com/mp6kh4gdK7
— ThePeoplesSpeaker™️🇺🇸 (@SpeakerTimJones) January 30, 2024