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Calling Out Rand Paul's PACT Act Vote in Deep Red Western Kentucky! [1]

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Date: 2022-09-02

Rand Paul didn't expect us to show up at the VFW with this!

Rand Paul showed up in Western Kentucky Wednesday, August 31st to visit some of the small, rural communities. Four Rivers Indivisible learned he was invited by the VFW to the very small community of Bardwell-- and we knew we needed to show up. We had already executed a plan for the billboard shown in the thumbnail, and knew it was perfect to use for signs at the event. The billboard will go up Sept. 19th in Paducah, Kentucky and run until the election.



The dew point dropped dramatically that day, so the weather was beautiful. Being short notice and during the week, it was hard to get volunteers that were available, but six of us showed up, and I made posters to elaborate on the message:





Local historian, author, and Kos blogger Berry Craig was available and he covered the event and published this story in Forward KY: Paul Protested In Deep Red Western Kentucky



I contacted the local television station and they sent a reporter to cover us. You can see the video of the coverage here: Paul talks tornado recovery in Mayfield; protesters in Bardwell call out his vote against PACT Act



Here are a couple of photos (Berry Craig):



This event worked very well on a number of levels. First was the reception we received from the local people who attended the event. We didn’t know what to expect. My spouse was apprehensive about going, not sure about the reactions we would get. When I arrived early, I found the organizer inside the building-- and while at first he made a comment about “we like to keep things calm around here in Carlisle County”, he quickly pivoted as I talked and emphasized “We are just here to hold our signs and want to be sure people are informed about his vote on the PACT Act”. He said “That’s what we fought for, the First Amendment rights of Americans” and said he had no problem with us positioning ourselves at the top of the hill where the long driveway split to the front and back parking lots that everyone (including Paul) would pass as they arrived.



We did have one person pretty early on approach and make a negative comment and walk off, and many people drove past with a “thumbs down”. But we also had one man stop to say he was here because he was upset about the PACT Act vote and said he was going to bring it up. Then we had some longer conversations, including with the chair of the local Republican Executive Committee and a local police chief. The chief was very interested and wanted to look up the bill as he spoke with us, and read it. The chair talked a LONG time, and I had extended “deep canvassing” with her that evening (looked up her email) and basically she is really an Independent that thinks she is a Republican, lol. She also picked up on the “autism” sign as she has a young grandson with autism. That night she told me they talked about us inside and asked her for her opinion. “I told them I thought you guys were GREAT! And I was so impressed with you and got so much out of the conversation and really enjoyed talking you.” She said she was surprised they weren’t more negative and the mood was again “That’s what we fought for, freedom and the First Amendment rights of Americans. They have every right to be there. ” She did say they mentioned they were “glad we weren’t a big mob” (not sure if she used mob but that’s my recollection) and glad that we didn’t go down the hill and stand on the highway.



So additionally, I learned from my conversations with this local Republican chair that some of them are definitely not what I encounter typically. All of our group felt better about having interactions like this. I think it definitely helped in inhibiting negativity that we were a small non-threatening group of white people (sigh), and that we were focused not on D vs R but on Paul’s PACT Act vote specifically. That could be done in a non-partisan way. And of course no one knows who Indivisible is around here, so we don’t have the problems of the toxicity of Democrats quite as much.



Rand Paul drove by eventually-- staring straight ahead of course. And I love the news report saying that when they asked him about us he said “no comment”.



The chair told me that Rand Paul decided to lead off his talk with them by defending his PACT Act vote. He said something about not having community healthcare options so people don’t have to go to the VA, but maybe he hasn’t done his homework because that already exists. He wanted the funds capped and again talked about how people with high blood pressure would get help. So what? As we told the reporter, they served our country and deserve treatment and healthcare.



As one of our members stated in our post-event discussion: “After viewing the media coverage on WPSD both last night and this morning, it’s obvious that Rand Paul’s appearance in WK would have only been politically advantageous for him if not for our protest. There wouldn’t have been any coverage about his push-back against the veterans’ PACT Act. His appearance on local news would have either ended with his visit to Mayfield, which was showcased as him doing what he could to help with recovery, or the Bardwell report would not have included anything about his attempts to block help for suffering veterans. I thought WPSD did a good job explaining our grievances and showing the flip side of Paul’s agenda. No KY politician is going to rally against the tornado victims…that’s a given. But Rand Paul did rally against our veterans who were sent to sacrifice their lives if necessary.”



Our next event is the Mayfield-Graves Gourd Patch Festival on Sept. 17th, where we will have a voter information center like this one (Murray Pride Festival, June 2022):



We include Rock the Vote! rock painting at these events, painting some rocks ahead of time and setting up tables for kids and adults to paint their own rocks.



Indivisible helps support groups such as ours by providing Distributed Fundraising accounts and having match periods where they match donations. We can use these funds for all voter engagement/education efforts and Federal races, although not for state level ballot initiatives such as the anti-abortion amendment to the KY Constitution on the ballot this fall. We will find alternative ways to address that and plan to have materials at this booth and focus a lot on that this fall.



We are doing a Charles Booker billboard in Paducah, going up on the other side of town from the anti-Paul billboard:

And here’s the Paul billboard again, just because.

We also have this image approved to use but haven’t done anything with it yet.



I also want to add that Indivisible has had FANTASTIC training meetings, including a monthly Rural Caucus event, a Truth Brigade that uses research-tested messaging methods to counter disinformation with “Truth Sandwiches” and many other resources. I’ve learned a lot about talking to voters and messaging strategies.



If you’d like to support our work, you can donate here:

Four Rivers Donate



If you visit the donation link, you can also see a promo video highlighting many of our activities that we put together in May. It also shows images from our Masks for Mayfield project, which I diaried about here.

Masks for Mayfield

Masks for Mayfield Part 2



Thank you for reading!

ORGANIZE!!!!!

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/9/2/2120352/-Calling-Out-Rand-Paul-s-PACT-Act-Vote-in-Deep-Red-Western-Kentucky

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