even your OWN party doesn't want you, andy holt!

That's right folks.  Many moderate Republicans in Nashville want Andy Holt out.  I have to admit, you must be pretty awful if your own party doesn't want to keep you in office.  In fact, the support coming out from all over the state, and probably even further, for opponent and Democrat Mark Maddox is astonishing.  This blog has reached across the state too, as I have been getting inquiries about what people can do to help campaign for Mark and get Andy out of office!  I have never seen support, for a candidate at the state level, in my short time here in Tennessee.  To be honest, it couldn't go to a better candidate.

What happened in 2010, not only here in West Tennessee but across the state, was defeating for democrats. There was a huge backlash from Republicans because of our support for our President and those elected Democrats in Washington.  It's an obvious reason why, and certainly those here in the South cannot deny it no matter how sad it is.  However, what I am seeing at the emergence of the 2012 campaign season is a completely different outlook to what we saw, and inevitably knew was coming, in 2010.  The legislature in this state has taken away rights from anyone who isn't in a high enough tax bracket.  Hitting everyone from teachers, to union employees, to women as a whole, to the working class (which if I'm wrong makes up much of Tennessee).  They fought to increase privileges for the rich and fortunate, in exchange for about 3 dollars a year savings in sales tax.  They introduced legislation to bring slaughterhouses for horses to Tennessee.  A bill that would protect teachers who allow the criticism as such scientific theories like evolution in their classrooms.  This opens a whole new door about where the separation of church and state comes into play.  It wasn't eight months ago that I sitting in a biology lecture at UT Martin listening to an older woman insisting that the bible has proven theories that creationism is in fact certain and the only real and logical scientific theory.  She went on and on, and I won't waste your time with her gibberish.  Yes, everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but when you start bringing religion into the class that can, and very well may, offend another classmate of mine because they might not be Christian, or they are a Christian and completely accept evolution, but is being told they are wrong and going to hell for doing so IS A PROBLEM.  I will go a little further and say that when you start criticizing these ideas at a younger age where students are much more impressionable you will not only be improperly educating our future, you are further lowering our state's "excellence in education."  We have fallen back to 47th in the country.  FORTY-SEVENTH!  We're at the top with spending (thanks to Race to the Top), but at the opposite end in terms of the quality of our education.  Yet, we want to protect teachers that allow students to spew fallacies and criticize theories proven true over and over again.  We went from a pretty good moderate environment within the state in 2008 to as far right as possible in just a couple years.  To me, that's scary.  And guess what...it is to a LOT more people now, as well.

So with that being said, I'm going to make a guess.  With as much disgust there is across the board.  Here in the state of Tennessee , including the federal level too, there will be a turnover in incumbents.  I can almost guarantee that Andy Holt will not be in office again next January, and some West Tennesseeans (not myself sadly) will be able to breathe a collective sigh of relief from the tyranny that is Andy Holt.

I encourage more folks that are interested in donating, volunteering, making calls or anything on behalf of Mark Maddox to please let me know.  I want to see all of Weakley County and the portions of Obion & Carroll now in the 76th covered with Maddox for State Rep signs, bumper stickers, or anything with his name on it for that matter.