Summary

Rep. Chuck Edwards’ North Carolina town hall erupted in chaos as constituents furiously protested DOGE, a Trump administration initiative tied to mass federal job cuts and Elon Musk’s growing influence.

Attendees, including laid-off government workers, jeered at Edwards over employment losses and reduced federal funding.

Constituents raised concerns about federal job cuts affecting veterans’ services, national parks, and Hurricane Helene recovery efforts.

Edwards struggled to respond but remained unfazed. The GOP downplayed the unrest, calling it staged, though independent voters like veteran Martin Downie say they feel directly targeted by their own government.

  • Doctor_Satan@lemmy.world
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    15 hours ago

    For anyone who is not familiar, Asheville is a very Left-leaning city in a deep red state. Last time I saw that many granola crunching hippies was in my mom’s photo albums of the Haight-Ashbury district in '69. I’m not saying the town hall was full of Democrats, or that Asheville doesn’t have its fair share of dyed-in-the-wool conservatives. I’m just saying that the general mindset in Asheville leans much further Left than the rest of NC, and that may explain why Edwards was getting so much shit from the public. Buncombe County (where Asheville is) voted 61% for Edwards’ Democratic opponent Caleb Rudow in 2024.

    Here’s a pic I took of some graffiti while I was up there not long ago.

  • JacksonLamb@lemmy.world
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    15 hours ago

    It’s just the screaming of some faces being eaten by leopards. The leopards are “reckoning with” it just fine. They don’t care.

  • CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world
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    19 hours ago

    But others, like Downie, aren’t necessarily on the left end of the political spectrum. He’s a registered independent who served under presidents of both parties during his time in the Army.

    “independent”

    How to say you are voting Republican but not exactly proud about it…

    • frog_brawler@lemmy.world
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      15 hours ago

      Nah, 100% fuck that. After I moved to where I live now I registered as an independent because after 23 years of being a democrat, I’m now embarrassed to say that about myself and I also largely disagree with their capitalist bullshit.

    • tomkatt@lemmy.world
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      14 hours ago

      Nah, this isn’t true. I’m a Coloradan and registered independent. I generally vote blue, and am very socially liberal and a big believer in safety nets and social programs, providing a floor, and I’m a proponent for the idea of a national basic income, universal healthcare, and free or subsidized education. I just don’t feel that the Democrats have actually represented me or my interests in a very long time. I was originally a registered democrat, but have been a registered independent now for well over a decade.

      If we had an actual progressive party that would be something, but this milquetoast middle-of-the-road Democratic party we have today is essentially the Republican party of my youth. The dems are very conservative these days, and only left-seeming because the Republicans have continually shifted toward insane alt-right extremism since the mid/late 2000s.

      • CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world
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        5 hours ago

        Eh, I’m sticking with it. Sure, there are of course legit independents as you appear to be. But all too often I witness someone claiming they are an “independent”, they nearly immediately go on to at least “both sides” the left and the right (thus enabling the right’s very worst behaviors), if they don’t outright parrot some magamaniac talking points, which they often do. It’s almost as reliable as someone that starts off a sentence with “I’m not a racist, but…” - “I’m an independent…” - I’m usually bracing myself for what comes next. Sure, sometimes someone proves that they are actually independent, but that’s rare.

        I always thought it was rather sus, but then, post-teabagger, it went off-the-chart sus, when a zillion people were claiming they were in the “tea party” (not a real thing; the teabagger party is as much a “party” as doge is a real department of government) and never even heard of this Bush guy, even when in many instances I knew they had voted for him, 2x.

  • TheFonz@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    Where the fuck was all this rage in November, my fellow Americans? We already had four years of Trump, January 6 insurrection, a disastrous reduction in foreign relations. But I guess that wasn’t enough???

    • CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world
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      18 hours ago

      I’m told it’s all the Democrats fault that the Republicans are fucking awful people trying to steer this country into a fascist dictatorship. I mean, just LOOK at what the Democrats made the Republicans do!

      If the DNC and the candidates had only listened to these arbiters of wisdom, all would be well, I am told.

      • petrol_sniff_king@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        13 hours ago

        If you think that Chuck Schumer selling us out to the Republican double-hitler funding bill this week isn’t on some level indicative of the DNC putting a ball-gag in our mouth and bending us over, I really don’t know what to tell you.

    • rational_lib@lemmy.world
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      15 hours ago

      Most Americans have little clue what’s going on in government. They just know they’re angry about things and blame whoever they perceive as being in charge.

    • inclementimmigrant@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      These are MAGA morons, deplorables if you will, who are now upset that they’re being affected by project 2025 because they had it in their heads that they would be spared as being good whites and it would only affect minorities and liberals because they’re racist deplorables.

        • unconfirmedsourcesDOTgov@lemmy.sdf.org
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          2 hours ago

          I understand where your anger is coming from here, as I was just recently raging about lies in modern day advertising, but I’m having trouble following the line here.

          Let’s say we “stamp out of existence” all activities relating to marketing. Practically speaking, does this make all products commodities? When I walk into a grocery store, is every shelf just a plain brown box with a minimal description of its contents? “cane sugar 1lb”, “laundry detergent”, “vegetable soup”? Further, marketing includes identification of where there is demand for a certain good, so we should be shipping ice melt to Florida in July and sun screen to Montana in January?

          Can I suggest that perhaps what we actually need is better regulations around marketing practices and enforced penalties when companies go over the line?

        • AA5B@lemmy.world
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          1 day ago

          But this is what I don’t get - Trump isn’t even good at lying. Practically every word is a lie but fails on logic and he’ll usually say the opposite soon enough. How do people even fall for it? Do they actually listen to him?

          It must be just cherry-picking: if he says enough lies you can usually find one you like. But how could you reconcile that one thing you think you agree with out of a vast ocean of lies?

        • oppy1984@lemm.ee
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          1 day ago

          I know a ton of people died, and countless more where hurt, and it hurt the economy, but as an introvert hermit, GOD DO I MISS LOCKDOWN.

          I do my best to keep up the life style, but I’m still expected to go into the office every once in a while for my wasted day as we all call it.

  • null_dot@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    1 day ago

    I guess it’s good that non-political people are starting to get involved. Shame they didn’t spend 5 minutes to check which way the wind was blowing in November last year.

      • aesthelete@lemmy.world
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        1 day ago

        In the end it will always affect them directly. So they’ll remain angry until they get half of a fucking clue about the issues.

        • TexasDrunk@lemmy.world
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          1 day ago

          So they’ll remain angry until they get half of a fucking clue about the issues.

          Then they’ll be even more angry. I know I am.

          • GreyEyedGhost@lemmy.ca
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            23 hours ago

            I think the only way I could be associated with Texas is if the association included drunk. Hope you’re doing okay.

    • grue@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      Shame they didn’t spend 5 minutes to check which way the wind was blowing in November last year.

      Which is especially weird, since they should’ve learned the importance of it from the wind in September.

  • disguy_ovahea@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    This was a fun one to watch. Edwards said that he was proud to vote for the budget resolution and was booed hard. He smiled in response, like a goddamn sociopath, further enraging the people. A veteran stood up, shouted louder than the crowd and was forcibly removed by police. At the end of the town hall, Edwards hid inside the building for almost an hour, waiting for the crowd to disperse. Not only were they all waiting for him outside, they surrounded his car and made him sit in the center of a parking lot protest for 20 minutes until the police broke it up. Fuck any public servant that refuses to represent their constituency.

  • Suavevillain@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    Too bad there isn’t a Dem that could really thrive at this moment of darkness for some good. 2016 Bernie’s messaging would connect now more than ever but that time has passed. I’m glad Republican voters are mad, even if I bet it is just because they are being affected too, not really mad about the harm.

    • Ensign_Crab@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      Too bad there isn’t a Dem that could really thrive at this moment of darkness for some good.

      AOC seems to be having a moment. And Bernie seems to be in the recruitment phase for something, at least I hope he is.

      • NoneOfUrBusiness@fedia.io
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        1 day ago

        And Bernie seems to be in the recruitment phase for something, at least I hope he is.

        Don’t expect much from Bernie on that front. He’s a good progressive Senator, but he’ll never actually lead a progressive movement. I don’t know if he doesn’t have it in him anymore or if he’s just not that kind of guy, but Bernie works a lot better as a symbol than as a leader.

        • Talaraine@fedia.io
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          1 day ago

          AOC seems to be throwing in with Bernie. Yes, Bernie is getting older, but with a sort of confirmed ‘successor’ may still have some bite… as long as the Democratic party doesn’t pull the same bullshit.

          • NoneOfUrBusiness@fedia.io
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            1 day ago

            I don’t think you’re getting me. Just voting for progressive candidates won’t fix things. I don’t know if there was any point where that was enough to fix things, but if there was it definitely isn’t now. Therefore, Bernie—who did not, does not and will not recommend any method of resistance beyond simply voting—is incapable of leading a progressive movement. Bernie and politicians like him need an independent progressive movement behind them to win elections; if you put them in charge of the movement they’ll sit around doing nothing for most of the year.

            • aesthelete@lemmy.world
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              1 day ago

              I don’t think you’re getting me. Just voting for progressive candidates won’t fix things. I don’t know if there was any point where that was enough to fix things, but if there was it definitely isn’t now.

              I was a vote guy until last November. You’re absolutely 100% right. Electoralism has failed. We cannot expect elected officials to somehow fix this and we cannot expect people in Washington to fix it. Bernie said as much himself. The system is corrupt to its core and it’s gonna take a movement from the grass roots level to change it.

              Or more likely America will just become a fascist dictatorship complete with concentration camps, disappearing people, fake ass state run media, and pretend elections.

    • sowitzer@lemm.ee
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      1 day ago

      Eh, probably need an old white guy. Walz or Newsome are the two who should be getting in the spotlight now. Then the Dems get a group of progressives who will back either of them to make some waves and say what they won’t. Dems need to be more unified and not go too crazy. Too many young people are MAGA inclined, no matter how left leaning they say.

      But I’m just some guy. I’m sure they know better and it’s “her/his time” or whatever they want to push.