Watch out, conservatives. The REAL ‘moral majority‘ is in town, and this time they’re coming from the left. The New Observer reports that Raleigh, North Carolina police arrested 84 demonstrators this Monday for protesting a slew of blatantly cruel and immoral policies promoted — and often enacted — by a Republican governor and GOP-led state legislature. Some of these leaders were taken to jail while praying for an end to the GOP’s agenda. Organized by clergy and diverse groups, including the NAACP, five religious denominations, and Raging Grannies, the weekly “Moral Monday” civil disobedience events at the state house have been gathering steam since launching in late April. This latest round brings the total number of religious leaders and other citizens arrested to more than 480:

For the seventh Monday since April 29, a growing crowd of demonstrators gathered late in the afternoon outside the legislative building to raise voices of dissatisfaction with the Republican majority’s legislative agenda.

Although Governor Pat McCrory dismisses the protesters as “outsiders,” researchers from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill interviewed 316 people and discovered this wasn’t at all the case. Only five respondents came from out-of-state, most came from within or around the immediate Research Triangle area, and the demographics fairly reflected the state’s population:

The average age of the protesters, according to the UNC researchers, was 53, with 25 percent under age 36. Sixty percent were female, and the racial breakdown largely matched the 2010 Census findings – 79 percent were white, 17 percent African-American, 6 percent Hispanic and the rest were Asian, Pacific Islander, Indian or other. Elizabeth Benefield, a 53-year-old fundraiser, came with her 17-year-old daughter and told reporters: “I want the legislators who are intending to roll back our rights to hear our voice and know we’re not in favor of it. There’s too much at stake, and justice will always prevail. They can pretend not to listen, but we cannot be silenced.” Alas, North Carolina’s liberals have little hope of warming the cold, shriveled hearts of their Republican lawmakers or persuading them to reverse their laws or change their agenda. They’re just biding their time in hopes of throwing the bums out when the 2014 elections roll around. Reverend Dr. William Barber, president of the NAACP’s North Carolina chapter and the most visible leader of this emerging grassroots movement told the American Prospect: “We’re going to make sure that the contrast is so clear between meanness and immorality and extreme politics and the politics of love and justice and compassion, that when 2014 comes, the people will be able to make a decision.” It’s not surprising that folks are turning out in droves to reject the GOP’s increasingly heavy-handed, senselessly cruel, and regressive legislation. The list for this litany of complaints is at least 12 items long and growing, according to information gathered in articles by Think Progress‘ Jack Jenkins, and Addicting Info‘s Stephen D. Foster, Jr. and Deborah Montesano:

In his inspiring Open Letter to State Leaders — recorded on video — the ever-riveting Reverend Dr. Barber states in his rich, resonant baritone:

“I’m calling on [State House] Speaker [Thom] Tillis, Governor McCrory, and the Pro Tem [State Senate] Leader [Phil] Berger to look into the eyes of the people affected by the policies of cynicism and the policies of division are sowing, and see the hurt it will reap in North Carolina.”

Here’s the video:

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