2012 a Litmus Test for Georgia Dems?

With the 2011 season coming to a end, now is the time to start talking about the 2012 political season.

With all of the attention being to paid to happenings up on Capitol Hill & rightfully so, down here in Georgia, 2012 will be sort of a litmus test for the future of the Georgia Democratic Party.

Now if you want to talk about a party that's at a serious crossroads look no further than the State Democratic Party here in the Peach State & 2012 will be the year that sets the tone for the party going forward

Operatives at the State Party have to decide what direction the party should take....do they want to continue to take it to the murky waters of the left, which will never gain a strong foothold here in the empire state of the south....OR...do they want to reposition it to what it was when they had its most successes of the 1990s all the way up to 2001......back to the center?

There are some who think that taking the party to the left will eventually appeal to everyday mainstream Georgians who mostly are centrist/conservative in nature. NO IT WILL NO'T!

There are those who think that the Latino population will rescue the party from its doldrums, but you're talking about 10-15 years down the line. And there's no guarantee that the Latino population will continue to increase here in Georgia over the next few years & who's to say that they will be a monolithic voting bloc for the party like African-American have been for over 45 years? Do you really want to put all of your eggs in that basket?

I remember attending a democratic party meeting down in South Georgia last year where a white liberal burst out saying..."Hey let's forget about the white working class vote, we don't need then anymore" & let's focus on increasing our minority strength here in Georgia. Now that's where the "Let's wait for the population to shift" theory comes in. That kind of attitude will absolutely hurt the party even more in its attempt to appeal to Whites.

There will be some Conservative Democrats running for office next year for the state legislature & it will present the democrats with another opportunity to show that they are really a BIG TENT PARTY because right now that moniker doesn't apply to them. Its not healthy for the party in the long run....hell RIGHT NOW to be a party basically made up of only majority Black Georgians, sprinkled with Latinos, Gays, Lesbians & a handful of Urban/Suburban White Liberals.

2012 will the litmus test for the party. Will they show a openness for helping elect Moderate/Conservative Democrats, black or white? Or will they continue to support one track minded, out of touch, weak candidates who can only appeal to one demographic & have the inability to appeal to those who doesn't share the same views as they do?

The key person to keep an eye on is Miguel Camacho who was elected to recruit candidates for the party. This is a whole different ballgame, this isn't Chatham County where you can look around the corner to find a candidate with a snap of a finger, you're talking about statewide, especially Rural Georgia where he's got to find democratic candidates that has the ability to appeal, to connect to every person no matter of race, religion or background. That's going to be the hard part for Camacho who probably has never ventured to isolated areas of rural central 7 South Georgia