Strom Thurmond's Dixiecrat Days: Newsreel

Marvin Griffin stump speech, Gainesville, GA, September 8, 1962

Forum State Senate District 25 Georgia 2012

Converting U.S. Hwy 82 in South Georgia to Interstate Will Help Solve Atlanta's Traffic Woes

Here's a Thought: Convert U.S. Hwy 82 in South Georgia into Interstate

Makes sense to me. With the talk about the T-SPLOST dominating the conversation as voters head to the polls next tuesday to vote for races for the legislature & local seats as well, there's more questions about whether or not the T-SPLOST will be the answers to Atlanta's Traffic woes. Let's face it, this is a bill designed to deal with the nightmarish Metro Atlanta traffic, with a olive branch extended to Rural Georgia to receive a piece of the pie....well crumbs in terms of T-SPLOST $$$$$ to repave roads, build new bridges, etc.

We should not be having this problem had then Gov. Roy Barnes plan to build a Northern Arc not been shot & beaten down by the GOP who at that time was in the minority. But it did & as a result, Metro Atlanta's Traffic Woes grew worse & worse to the point that its becoming a major thorn in the side for the business community who's trying to attract more companies to relocate to the city that was coined at one time: "The City Too Busy To Hate"

Well here's a solution that could have a major impact in unclogging the traffic that flows through Metro Atlanta. Throughout much of southern Georgia, U.S. 82 is paired with State Route 520 and designated as "Corridor Z" and "South Georgia Parkway. From Brunswick to Tifton to Albany to Dawson, & then merging with Hwy 280 which extends to Columbus, converting U.S. Hwy 82 to a Interstate System would give travelers & especially truckers another way to avoid the Metro Traffic, thus easing some of the traffic flow through Atlanta. Many travelers take I-20 West if they are traveling up from I-75 from Florida to Birmingham or Memphis because they want to avoid the country roads & sparsely populated towns. In my opinion this would be the shot in the arm Atlanta needs to fix its transportation woes. Because I don't think the T-SPLOST will solve the transportation problem that's handcuffed Metro Atlanta for the last decade. I maybe wrong, but I don't believe it will! And like it or not you will pay more in sales tax if this thing pass. Is it wise to make Georgians pay more in taxes when our economy is still in critical condition & Georgia's Unemployment rate has risen back up to 9%? You be the judge

HD 139: Conservative Democrat Thomas Coogle Goes On TV with Jobs AD

Ad started airing yesterday on WMAZ-13 Macon and will run all the way up to Next Tuesday's Primary

Turn the lights off on you way out!

When any small rural county, less than 10,000 population, and more especially less than 5,000 population, start seeing a drop in its city and county population, it also tends to loose a very large majority of total county tax base dollars. Normally those tax base dollars are tied to the industry within any county. Population and Tax base seem to always be tied together. These tax dollars are what keeps vital services operational inside any city or county. Critical vital services at the top of that list for rural counties which are directly tied to the county tax base, are the county healthcare, the local hospital and often including the local rest home, and the public school system. This tax base for any county is very important for a rural county’s survival.

Why? More often than not, when you see people moving out of a small community, its not because they want to, they are more or less forced to because of the lack of jobs. A County has to sustain a good job base to keep residents. It must maintain and sustain Industry. More often than not, Industry is the largest job base and tax base within the county. And its very important for any county to remember the rules of economics applied. You have to have industry come first, not retail. If you create industry first, retail stores will always follow. Industry will not follow retail. 


The one single source regarding loss of population for rural cities and counties is "jobs", or lack of jobs and industry. When a county starts loosing jobs, that normally means that the jobs, businesses that were once there, have abandoned the community, leaving a void of both jobs and the tax base which they once where supporting or paying to the local authorities to keep vital services in place. First you see small stores board up the storefronts. Usually mom & pop, local owner stores and services. Next you see the local healthcare system(s) suffer and needing new additional county tax dollars to stay open, or loose their local hospital, or doctor. And last be not least is your public school system. 

When most local citizens finally start to notice and pay attention to the problem at hand, just now realizing what is happening, "what I call connect the dots", is when their local school goes from 11-man football down to a 6-man football team. Then most local citizens finally notice all to well, the slow and steady decline that has been going on for years but has just now registered on them. Where did all our students go? What happened to all our local owned stores? Why is our local tax rate rising higher and higher each year? Why is our town, community, and public schools loosing all our young people?

For most Georgia counties such as Macon, Hancock, Telfair, Randolph, Dooly, Taylor, Clay, Calhoun County, the loss of population is the greatest in the age range from 24 to 42 years of age. That's why most rural community public schools all across Georgia are getting smaller and smaller each year in student population. Because these are the age ranges of the younger population, couples with children, needing full-time jobs and a good paycheck. Without the industry your county will lose jobs. As each job goes, normally that means the industry left first, then the job followed.

So not only did the county loose it's younger population it also just lost the industry or tax base that helped support most vital services inside the county. Which also lead to the family moving, which in turn had a house, paid taxes on it, a family that bought local goods and supplies, etc........so the county now is having a domino effect with the repeat of loss in jobs, tax base, loss of tax on the business, loss on the family home when the couple moved, loss of health care, loss of students, and loss of many other community wide issues. Now that same tax base loss has to be made up from the fewer local citizens remaining within the community or county, either through higher taxes, higher property valuations, or both.

Typically what a declining county does gain, is now most of its citizens left behind are over 62 years of age. Communities of retired individuals and couples. Many rural counties show a higher countywide age range than that. With a county population only taking a rise in older citizens, one could only ask yourself this? If the average citizen is over 60 years of age, and there are no new jobs to support our city/county which will retain or bring in younger residents, where will our county be in 10 years, or 15 years from now? It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure this out, if you as a county citizen, or county leader, set there and do nothing to help find new jobs and bring industry into your community now, in 10-20 more years, your town and community will be a ghost town. With no changes in regard to gaining new industry, you may end up being the last one left. As the old saying goes, "Turn the lights off on you way out!"

Time for changing of the guard?

Unlike the overhyped presidential election, where little actual disparity can be found between the likely candidates, a number of state and local races are putting a real choice before Georgia voters.

The upcoming primary election could be described as a contest between members of the old guard & their handpick successors and an emerging new guard. The old guard represents the familiar names, faces and policies of the incumbency. These are individuals who are experienced and well connected politically. They know how to close ranks when they perceive a threat to their influence, and are perfectly willing to call in mutually supporting favors from their fellow politicians.

When faced with a choice between power and principle, these leaders will generally choose what preserves their power. None of this should be construed as proof of evil intent on the part of the old guard; instead, it illustrates a common trait of human nature that power, once obtained, is a very difficult thing to let go.

The new guard can best be described as individuals who have recognized a need for leadership that is grounded in the principles of limited government and greater accountability to the people. To them, raw political power is less desirable than keeping government power within its correct boundaries.

Most of the new guard are newcomers to politics and are running for office out of a sense of public virtue rather than personal gain. Public virtue, in this sense, is synonymous with the concepts of service, self-sacrifice, and disinterestedness. It denotes a choice in which a person’s self interests are voluntarily put aside and sacrifices made for the benefit of society in general. In the case of the new guard, many of the candidates are stepping forward at considerable personal cost to serve where they recognize a need for more principled leadership.

Because many of the emerging new guard do not aspire to be career politicians, the old guard often dismisses them as idealistic and inexperienced. This is a mistake. The new guard candidates, in most cases, have devoted a great deal of time and effort to understanding the challenges and opportunities before us, as well as the foundational principles by which good government operates. This is something the old guard has, in many cases, forgotten.


Name recognition alone used to be sufficient to carry the day for the old guard, but the proliferation of readily available information combined with a growing sense of government overreach has prompted many voters to do their homework.

The old guard senses that a shift is taking place and is doing its best to protect its power from what it foolishly labels “radicals.” But a closer examination of what motivates these new guard candidates to run for office will reveal that, in many cases, we finally will have an actual choice in the coming election.