LeMario Brown: A Case Study in the New Populism

Donald Trump didn’t just disrupt the Republican Party; he rewired the entire political ecosystem. The new normal isn’t polished resumes or party loyalty—it’s emotional resonance, economic urgency, and cultural authenticity. And in Georgia, that shift is already reshaping the terrain.

So what this means for Georgia Democrats?

1. The Old Playbook Is Crumbling

- Voters—especially in rural and working-class communities—aren’t moved by institutional endorsements or technocratic policy briefs. They want someone who feels like them, who talks like them, and who fights like them.

LeMario Brown on his tractor in Fort Valley

- Democrats who cling to metro-centric messaging or elite donor circles risk alienating the very voters they need to win back.

2. The New Litmus Test: Can You Speak Bread-and-Butter Truths?

- Candidates must show they understand the cost of groceries, the fear of hospital closures, and the pride of land ownership. It’s not about ideology—it’s about dignity.

LeMario Brown is emerging as a rural centrist populist who reflects this new political reality:

- Authenticity Over Optics: He’s a pecan farmer, not a polished insider. His voice carries the weight of lived experience, not rehearsed talking points.

- Economic Justice as a Unifier: Brown’s message “We all got to eat” cuts across partisan lines. It’s not left or right; it’s survival and fairness.

- Community-Rooted Solutions: From youth violence to infrastructure, he talks about patrolling with the community, not policing over it. That’s a populist ethos rooted in empowerment, not control.

And crucially, he’s not afraid to challenge the Democratic establishment. His work with nonpartisan civic groups like Peach Concerned Citizens shows a commitment to listening first, labeling second.

So what this means for the Lt. Governor Race?

If Brown runs for Lt. Governor, he could:

- Disrupt the Democratic primary by forcing a conversation about rural equity, veterans, law enforcement, economic justice, and cultural preservation.

- Attract swing voters who feel abandoned by both parties but still believe in Georgia’s potential.

- Redefine what it means to be a Democrat in the South—less about party orthodoxy, more about pragmatic populism.

This is the kind of candidacy that doesn’t just win votes, it reshapes coalitions. If Democrats embrace this shift, they could build a durable majority rooted in working-class dignity and rural pride. If they resist it, they risk becoming irrelevant in the very places they need to win.

Floyd Griffin, not Bee Nguyen can win in the General Election.

Over in Baldwin County, Retired Colonel, former State Senator and Mayor Floyd Griffin is one of only three Democrats who hail from outside of Metro Atlanta. Griffin is running to secure the Demoocratic nomination in hopes of becoming Georgia's next Secretary of State in a race that features Bee Nguyen who is the party's favorite, despite not having accomplished much during her time in the Legislature.

Right now according to a recent poll more than 60% of Democrats are undecided in the race in the race for Secretary of State.

Griffin joined the U.S. Army in 1967 and gradueted from the Army Command and General Staff College as well as the National War College.

This isn't Griffin first time running for a Statewide office. in 1998 he ran for Lt. Governor, losing to eventual winner Mark Taylor, who has endorsed Griffin's bid for Secretary of State. Before than, Griffin ran for the State Senate 25th District where he became the first black candidate to win a majority white district since reconstruction.

For Democrats, they need to focus on who can WIN in the General Election, not who can win solely in metro Atlanta. Right now Democrats in the metro Atlanta region refuse to look beyond their metro area base when it comes to supporting democratic candidates.Bee Nguyen is the Georgia Democratic Party's preferred favorite (even thought they pretend they don't endorse candidates in the General Election). She is also the favorite of left wing supporters and groups on the west and east coast and up north as well. But in a primary that will be dominated by black voters who make up more than 2/3rds of the primary vote, its very likely the democratic nominee will be a black candidate and it just might me Floyd Griffin or any other candidate in the race like Michael Owens or Dee Haigler.

Letter to Peanut Politics: I Supported Trump, Now I Regret It.

I live in one of the poorest parts of Georgia and I'm one of the few members of my family and community who no longer support the president. The fact that my own rust-tinged trailer is distinguished by a lack of signs in favor of Trump is a personal point of pride. I begin each day by mentally preparing myself for whatever Donald Trump latest assault on working people is.

His decision making is hurting poor people, working class voters everywhere, including the rural, white, black and working class like me and my neighbors. It will hurt many of those whose support for Trump has been among the stringent and vocal.

Here in rural Southeast Georgia, the wiregrass region I love, the scenery is offset by stark markers of rural poverty. Dilapidated barns, abandoned farm and outhouses, and mobile homes. Areas in nearby small towns and communities reveal more than a few empty bank owned homes. This isn't all that surprising, considering that the area I live is one of the poorest n the state of Georgia. Yet despite their relative ubiquity, I'm go smacked by the juxtaposition of the name Trump, synonymous with exorbitant wealth, in front of a rusting mobile every time I see one.

According to the many Trump supporters I know, Trump won their loyalty because of his so called outsider status and promise to not only take on, but dismantle, a corrupt, ineffectual political establishment. And now some of them are having regrets about supporting this fraud of a president. Many of these people, myself included, have struggled financially due to job loss and foreclosure. We often have had to rely on things like public assistance to get by. Is our collective financial instability the fault of a crooked political establishment? Many people here sure think so.

One of Trump's most apparent and effective wants of playing up anti-establishment credentials was calling out and criticizing Hillary Clinton's ties with Wall Street bigwigs like Goldman Sachs. Despite being a billionaire himself, Trump lack of political experience helped enable his populist appeal. He claimed to want to save the middle class which is a bald lie in part by changing current tax laws that allow billionaires to pay lower taxes on their enormous paychecks.

Trump, let's face it is a fake and a fraud to many who supported him. He lies on a daily basis, he's untrustworthy and I will not vote for him ever again. Poor people who have been victims of foreclosure, including the white and black working class ones in my community are having buyers remorse with their vote for Trump in 2016. Many people here lament the face that the size of their families and networks have dwindled because people have been forced to relocate out of economic necessity. I can't help but worry and wonder how many are empty homes (mobile or otherwise), will be soon dot the landscape I love so well. I am a red state South Georgia Democrat who voted for Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Ronald Reagan, Jimmy Carter, Barack Obama....even George Wallace in 1968. I vote don't for Trump, but believe me I wouldn't vote for him again in a 100 years.

Wayne
Millwood, Ga
Retired

Rebirth of the Bluedog Dems...Time to make a comeback!

For some time now it has bothered me how the tide has turned against the classic blue dog, Sam Nunn Democrats. The tide I describe isn’t a Republican tide, but rather a Progressive (liberal) tide that has overtaken the Democratic Party. 

A battle within the Democratic Party that by all accounts seems to leave Blue Dog Democrats in the dust and forgotten. Blue Dog Democrats are chastised, if not just blatantly ignored to benefit an extreme left wing, socialist, hyper oversensitive political correctness wave, called Progressives. Progressive leaders just don’t have any tolerance at all for fellow Democrats who are unwilling to subscribe to their brand and wing of the Democratic Party… and it shows.

Blue Dog Democrats are what I classify as Democrats who fight for the working person, fight for strong unions that put people to work. They love good businesses who create tax revenue, employ people and support them. They fought for civil rights and continue to do so. They understand that welfare is a hand up not a federal giveaway program to secure future voters. Sam Nunn Democrats are those who have traditionally fought against unfair business practices and are fiercely loyal proud Americans who bleed for the red, white and blue. Sam Nunn Democrats have proven to fight for Democracy around the world and are proud of their country and what we represent.

Progressives… well they have transformed the Democratic Party into a party that fights for the non-worker vs. the worker. They fight against business vs. supporting business. They fight for socialism and are staunch fighters against capitalism.  They fight for illegal immigration vs. supporting those who chose to abide by the law to obtain legal citizenship. 

So where has the Sam Nunn Democrat gone? I know they are still some among us here in the Peach State, but over the last few decades they have become the silent majority. A silent majority in the Democratic Party that has stood by and watched the minority Progressive wave slowly plant its roots. Silent, while at the same time willingly accepting unwarranted criticism and being cast aside by the vocal Progressive activists.

I can say that it is time for those of you who still believe in the Blue Dog branch of the party to get vocal and fight. Fight for your place in the party of Jefferson-Jackson

Embrace and recruit candidates that have shown the ability to lead and deliver results, who fit their district while proudly displaying their zeal to make local, state and federal government better. Look at what’s happening with the Republican Party.

Donald Trump: A First Class Con Man

One of the reasons he was elected was because of the perception of his being a successful businessman. But one of the reasons that you know that America isn’t yet owned by Trump is that it’s still in business.

Yet as Trump continues to play the American people and the world, the question has to be asked: are we more willing now to be conned? Do we invite being played; even expect it?


Donald Trump spent his entire campaign railing against the establishment and promising to “drain the swamp.” But now that he has begun announcing his cabinet choices, many liberty-loving people are getting increasingly uncomfortable with the Wall-Street-studded, war-loving picks. Instead of draining the swamp, it seems like he may be repopulating the swamp with bigger predators than before.

I really hoped the President-Elect proves me wrong, but we have a responsibility to speak the truth, regardless of how unpleasant it is. The question has to be asked…did Donald Trump just run the biggest con game in history by telling us all what we wanted to hear?

Many people voted for a man who boasted of sexual assault, a man whose “university” defrauded thousands of people, a billionaire who thought the minimum wage was too high. You switched from Barack Obama in 2012 to Donald Trump in 2016 many were white working-class voters because you they thought he was on their side.

You don’t mind the lying. In fact, you’re all in with the biggest lies, the baseless claims that three million people voted illegally, that Obama ordered a wiretap of Trump Tower, and on, and on. The lying is disruptive. Yay for disruption!

You don’t mind the flip-flops. Last year, Trump said the unemployment rate was “one of the biggest hoaxes in American history.” This year, because he’s president, it’s very real. Last year, Wall Street was a puppeteer for the Democrats. Now your man has brought in Goldman Sachs puppeteers to run the economy. Last year, a golfing president was lazy. Now your guy has paid 14 presidential visits to a golf course.

You’re not bothered by the foreign policy incompetence, the siding up to gangster regimes and human rights violators, the snub of the rest of the world in the name of America First. You don’t mind unleashing polluters. If the job creators want filthy air and foul water, give it to them.

You shrug at all of this hypocrisy and craziness, because you still think he’s going to help you. But you’ve been played, sucker-punched, duped. You can continue to believe Trump has your back, but the evidence is already overwhelming that the people his presidency will hurt most are those at the bottom who gave him their trust.

Trump acknowledged as much when told that the health care plan he pushed would significantly harm his base.

Given that Trump’s approval rating, which is at a historic low, given that a majority of Americans believe that Trump is not honest and does not care about average people, it’s easy to think Democrats can abandon the voters who abandoned them last year.

White voters without a college degree, who went for Trump by almost 40 points, are never going to come around  no matter how much this president turns his back on them.

The condescension, like the opioids, may feel good as well, but it won’t do anything to help the forces of reason and progress. The way to bring around the forgotten men and women is to remind them, every day, that Trump has forgotten them. And to give them something  say, Medicare for all, being pushed by the energized Bernie Sanders base to back words with action.

Trump is banking on the ignorance of voters who took a chance with him. His budget proposal — a cruel, Dickensian document — offers nothing but pain for these people. An Appalachian economic partnership that helps workers in 420 of the nation’s poorest counties would be abolished. Seniors who need Meals on Wheels for food and social contact would lose the service. Cancer victims, waiting for something miraculous to come from the extraordinary work of the National Institutes of Health, will have to wait longer, as Trump cuts cancer research to fund his Mexican wall.

If you’re a poor kid in Georgia looking for that college break that will get you somewhere, his budget slashes tuition grants for you. If you’re a single mom living in Baxley trying to hold onto a job, he could force you onto welfare by eliminating the after-school program that enabled you to work full time.

He promised “insurance for everybody” and then supported the ill-fated Republican plan that would have added 24 million Americans to the uninsured. Those in their 50s and early 60s, and the working poor, would have been hit hardest. And Medicaid recipients, many of whom didn’t realize they had coverage for the first time in their lives thanks to Obamacare, would have been left out.

Oh, but Trump is bringing back jobs  that’s why many in the midwestern states such as Ohio, Michigan put him in office. About those jobs: The coal mining initiative is a hoax. Let's be real here.  This is because of the free market, turning to cheaper natural gas for power, and energy alternatives because they are the future.

The bottom line is that America elected a con man to the White House