AWOL Lindsey Graham Town Hall Set for May 29

Lindsey Graham has been AWOL since 2017. He's absent from the state he represents. He is invisible in Washington. Graham has become "Aways Whimping Out Lindsey." 

Join sponor Indivisible Summerville and others on Thursday, May 29 at 6:15 pm at the Scottish Rite Temple 1051 Sam Rittenberg Blvd. West of the Ashley for a Town Hall, where Graham may not report for duty, but the citizens he represents will. 

Here is a link to the location and images of the auditorium.

The Lowcountry is represented by two congresspersons and two U.S. senators. Forceful and dignified, sometimes wrong-headed representation, such as that once offered by Strom Thurmond, Mendel Rivers, and Fritz Hollings, has faded out of recollection.

Starting in 1980, the Lowcountry began to elect lesser people. Arthur Ravenel, Mark Sanford and Jim DeMint didn't bring the force to represent the people who voted for them in the Lowcountry. 

They have in turn been replaced by an even weaker, sometimes bizarrely distracted new group of Republicans. 

The cost has been staggering. The once mighty Navy Base, replete with high-paying jobs, is now a slowly evolving real estate development zone pocked with empty slabs where buildings that could have been used rotted to the ground. Local wages have slumped. Our cost of living here has skyrocketed. Transportation has become gridlocked. The long-promised, Lowcountry Rapid Transit System depends on threatened federal funding none of the current Republicans representing us seems to care about. 

This new generation of Republican leaders can't bring home the bacon. They refuse to deliver on policy. They enable the psychopathic cretin living at 1600 Pennsyvania Av. 

Senators Graham and Scott both ran against Donald Trump for President. They know he's unfit. Congresswoman Mace voted to impeach Trump in 2021. 

However, they're unwilling to gamble on the support of the people, voters, and taxpayers they represent and protect us. They do the will of the lobbyists who give them campaign contributions, and serve Donald Trump.  They all avoid real interaction with voters, opting for tightly controlled meetings on private property or no real contact at all. Most of the time, they're phones aren't answered. The hear the MAGA mob. They don't listen to us. 

Trump is taking FEMA apart, but we know how essential that support is after a Hurricane. Hugo wasn't fake news. Our port is a major employer with good, high-paying, often union jobs, but Trump's tariffs threaten the import of parts for Volvo and BMW, which go out as part of their exported cars later. The massive amounts of food provided to local food banks and assistance programs have dried up. Whole programs have been defunded at MUSC and the College of Charleston. 

Nancy Mace obsesses about Bathrooms. Tim Scott hardly comes out of hiding. Lindsey Graham is AWOL. 

While that may stand for Aways Whimping Out Lindsey here, it's actual military meaning is Absent Without Official Leave. The military punishes AWOL because it opens gaps in our system of defense. . Its a dereliction of duty. The most important military and economic power in the Western Hemisphere is in the hands of a psychopath. Judges, harmless tourists, green card holders, and American Citizens who just look Hispanic are being arrested.

Trump wants to ram through his "Big bill" before anyone can read it. It's so full of toxic landmines and Trojan horse terrors we all need to set down and go over it. Graham, as our Senior Senator needs to go first. He and his staff are paid well for that work.

We do not need him AWOL from listening to his constituents during the recess. He can chill out at his Sullivan's Island Beach House some this recess, but we have to talk. 

In an ideal world (which SC has never been in it's 350 years of slavery, rebellion, segregation and oppression) our Senator would invite us to a meeting room in a government-owned public building. They would take and answer our questions. Afterwards, they would get selfies with our kids. We might disagree, but we would communicate. 

We disagreed with Mark Sanford a lot, but he turned up all over the district, all the time. Hollings knew what the pending legislation before him did, and his staff often called with detailed updates. If you could handle it, they often had questions for you to help them do their job. 

There is no reason Lindsey Graham can't do this on Thursday. He has staff. He is in town. Local activist groups have paid for the room. It seats 350 citizens, image right. We need to fill it.

We'll have new AWOL Graham buttons for the first 50 people through the door.  

All the seats for the No Show Nancy Town Hall earlier this Spring at Mt. Pleasant Town Hall were full. Plenty of Republicans were present. We all sang America the Beautiful at the end. The citizens showed up and did their part. Nancy Mace ignored us. We'll remember in November 2026.

This Thursday, we do it again. Graham needs to be there. He probably won't be. Graham's staff will pore over the archived livestream video later, picking through the political tea leaves. 

You may get more actual attention out of Thursday from Graham's people than Sanford or Hollings ever gave you in person, since they did this sort of thing several times a week. They wanted to know and knew the people they represented. For Graham, Scott and Mace, hearing from anything but the hand-picked supporters at some private country club dining room is as rare as a sit-down with the residents of North Seuntinel Island. 

Maybe the natives are hostile, but Graham took the job. We need to be there Thursday. So does our Senator.

#chsresist

#TIDEACT 

#scpol