RALEIGH – Are you angry yet?
If so, you should know that you’re not alone. Your concerns are shared by North Carolinians across the state – from the mountains to the coast, from the biggest cities to the smallest towns, from younger people just starting out in life to older folks on fixed incomes.
They are angry about billion-dollar bailouts, trillion-dollar deficits, and multi-trillion-dollar plans for a federal government takeover of our health care and energy industries.
They are angry about the billion-dollar tax hike just passed by the North Carolina legislature, a foolish policy that will hit our households hard in middle of a recession and make our state an even less attractive place to create new jobs and businesses.
They are angry about government intrusion into private matters that ought to be left for free citizens to decide for themselves, rather than having bureaucrats tell us what to do.
But while all of these dangerous policies deserve our scorn, there’s something else that should make you still angrier: seeing North Carolina citizens called a “mob” when they stand up for freedom and stand against government bailouts and takeovers.
There is, in other words, no shortage of reasons why North Carolinians are angry.
But North Carolina conservatives can’t afford just to stay mad on the sidelines. It’s time to turn anger into action. There are a number of ways you can do that.
First, please consider joining your local Freedom Club. The John Locke Foundation created our Carolina Freedom Clubs initiative earlier this year as a means of 1) making introductions among Carolina conservatives who may not know each other, 2) giving local members critical information about the issues facing their state, and 3) building the financial resources we need to conduct research, host local events, and publish new local editions of Carolina Journal, our monthly newspaper.
So far, we’ve held two sets of Freedom Club meetings in our seven targeted regions:
• Piedmont Freedom Club — Mecklenburg, Union, Cabarrus, Gaston, Iredell & nearby counties.
• Triangle Freedom Club — Wake, Durham, Johnston, Orange, Chatham & nearby counties.
• Triad Freedom Club — Guilford, Forsyth, Davidson, Alamance, Davie & nearby counties.
• Sandhills Freedom Club — Cumberland, Moore, Lee, Harnett, Robeson & nearby counties.
• Southeastern Freedom Club — New Hanover, Pender, Brunswick, Onslow & Columbus counties.
• Down East Freedom Club — Pitt, Craven, Wilson, Nash, Carteret, Beaufort and the coast.
• Western Freedom Club — Buncombe, Henderson, Catawba, Burke and the mountains.
In response to the call, thousands of North Carolinians have either joined their local Freedom Clubs (with a minimum contribution of $100) or made smaller contributions to support the operations of the John Locke Foundation. We’ve been overwhelmed by the response. But we’re just getting started.
Starting Wednesday night in Raleigh, we’ll be holding enough round of Freedom Club meetings across the state, this time focusing our attention on the daunting challenges facing our education system. Please check the schedule and make arrangements to attend the Freedom Club meeting nearest you during the next few weeks.
Second, North Carolinians seeking to turn their indignation and profound concern for the future of their state into productive action should join a grassroots organization such as Americans for Prosperity or FreedomWorks. Both of these organizations have very active chapters here in North Carolina, and specialize in taking the policy ideas and information of groups such as JLF and turning them into activism – in the halls of Congress, the halls of the General Assembly, and the halls of city and county offices across the state.
Third, keep reading Carolina Journal. We appreciate your willingness to spend some time with us each day catching up on the news of the day, reading exclusive CJ content, and visiting our radio and television sites. In the coming weeks, we’ll be adding even more exclusive content to CarolinaJournal.com – including morning and afternoon updates, more pics and videos, editorial cartoons, and much more. Enjoy!
But keep that righteous anger at least at a simmer. It’ll come in handy later.
Hood is president of the John Locke Foundation