Can Democrats Rise Again in Rural Georgia?

Democrats must win back the trust of rural Georgia if they want to win elections in 2020 and beyond.

That means, first and foremost, campaigning outside of reliably liberal city areas like Albany, Decatur, Athens, Macon, Forest Park, Atlanta just to name a few and acknowledging the cultural and economic concerns of the voters living in the rural parts of the state.

They need to be in small towns, like Cordele, Douglas, Barnesville, Sandersville, Jackson, Colquitt, creating those conversations in the coffee shop, pushing back on those folks who are anti-democrat, anti-government. 

Where such voters once associated the Democratic Party with aid to the little guy and the middle class, many now see it as the party of cultural warriors, protesters, big spenders. They see the party as prioritizing the needs of immigrants, refugees and minorities ahead of middle-income working people. This doesn’t mean becoming a Republican-lite in trying to appeal to these voters. It’s not about that. It’s about having a conversation with those voters to make them understand that democrats don’t think they’re idiots.

Georgia Dems Can Win Some of the Rural Vote...

If they did one simple thing: Show up. Right now, they don’t. But that maybe changing. Sarah Griggs Amico have made several trips to South Georgia since the end of the primary, so have candidate for Attorney General Charlie Bailey, Agriculture Commissioner candidate Fred Swann among others. Stacey Abrams have made a few ventures outside Georgia, but one have to wonder can she...or will she commit to courting rural Georgia voters.

Rural voters notice the exclusion. Republicans by contrast structure their messaging around popular rural themes like Guns, The Flag, Religion, etc. They show up at county fairs and festivals, and voters respond . . . The reason they dominate elections is that they’re highly visible and constantly communicate that ‘we’re on your side and the Democrats are not.’ They win the argument by default because Democrats aren’t around to offer a rebuttal.

Word to Democratic candidates....You don’t have to become a Republican in order to have rural appeal. It’s only important that you show, that you care about local concerns, and that you are working for solutions. There’s nothing very complicated about connecting with rural voters. Success starts with simply showing up and demonstrating a genuine desire to learn. But the twice-in-an-election-cycle, 90-minute parachute drop to tour a factory, visit a farm, or hold a press conference will be seen as the political ploy that it is.

When the Democratic ticket bails out on, say the Plains Peanut Festival in Plains, Ga the candidates will have a little time in the air on their way to Tifton. 

Yes, rural areas are culturally conservative. The voters who are most concerned with those cultural issues ought to be voting for Republicans. Those aren’t votes Democrats will ever win. However, Democrats do a lot of things to hurt themselves in rural Georgia and don’t even realize it.

For instance: How about actually paying attention to rural Georgia? The impression that many rural voters have is that Democrats have morphed into an urban-suburban party that simply doesn’t care about them anymore. You don’t seem to talk about the things that matter most here. 

But....candidates like Lt. Governor candidate Sarah Griggs Amico, Attorney General candidate Charlie Bailey, Candidate for Secretary of State John Barrow, as well as Janice Laws who is running for State Insurance Commissioner have made numerous visits to rural Georgia since the end of the primary.

There is little risk in Democrats reaching for rural votes, especially in a gubernatorial year. Even if you get three out of 10 voters, ... that can make for a huge shift if the margins are so small on a state level

But at the end of the day it’s still God, guns and gays. Those issues are the old standby for Republicans to divide voters, to cut them out from where their interests might be better served. 

Hooks to run for HD 138.....McGowan to retire.

Down in HD 138, G. Bardin Hooks, son of former State Senator George Hooks will run for the seat currently held by Bill McGowan of Americus in the Democratic Primary. McGowan is expected to retire after the current legislative session.

Hooks was born and raised in Americas, Ga and co-founded Arnold & Hooks located in Americus. Hooks is married with one child and is a member of Calvary Episcopal Church in Americus.

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

Why are rural Georgians so much more likely to be conservative?

A lot of politics is about values.

In general, people who work for themselves or work for small family businesses tend to put more trust in themselves and those around them to direct resources.

Reliance on those close to you and not the government is line with the conservative political philosophy.

Further, if you live in a small town such as Hahira, Arlington, Reidsville, or Baxley, you are more likely to know the people around you. You are more likely to have trust and faith in your local community. This enhances the feeling of self-reliance, and lessens the perceived need to put faith in government.

If you live in a large city like Macon, Albany, Augusta, Atlanta everything is much more interconnected. Government becomes much more important. You see yourself as one of a large mass of people. You are more likely to be working for a large corporation. Because you see yourself as more interconnected, you're more likely to align with the political philosophy that is more about putting trust in a large institution to help mediate all these different ways in which this large group of people is interconnected. You're thus more likely to be inclined to vote with Democratic Party because it sees government as a mediator in this respect.

There is a perception by those in rural areas like for instance, say Ellaville that welfare and government spending that favors the poor happens in big cities and so does not benefit them. There is a perception in the rural community that Democrats do not value hard work and favor handouts. Democrats would counter that social safety nets are necessary. Regardless, in rural communities like Fitzgerald, Taliaferro, Lexington, issues like homelessness and the daily interaction with the effects of social safety nets are less visible.


In terms of smaller issues, rural Georgia (and America) is where coal, oil and gas can be found, and people near those resources depend on those industries for employment and so tend to have a different take on environmentalism and natural resources.

Beyond that people are more likely to hunt in rural areas and favor gun rights. They are also more likely to be religious and thus more likely to be pro-life.

Another point is that if you're LGBT, you probably won't find too many others who are LGBT in your small rural town, so you're more likely to move a big city. If you're LGBT, you're likely to care a lot about LGBT rights, and that may lead you to vote Democrat, all else being equal. This movement leaves those remaining in rural areas more conservative as they have lost members of their community that would otherwise be more liberal.

Some cities have a greater percentage of African American residents than the rest of the state does, an ethnic group that tends to vote Democrat. In rural areas, the percentages are often reversed, which increases the likelihood that a given rural area is more conservative.

Beyond a sense of interconnectedness, cities also have more people living in extreme poverty who are dependent on government services, a group that tends to vote Democrat. Because people in this predicament are less likely to be found in rural areas, they are comparably more conservative.

Further, young people often move to big cities after growing up in a small town or rural area. It can be a natural progression — especially if they go to college. Younger people tend to vote Democrat. The result is that rural areas can have fewer younger people who would otherwise vote Democrat and can be more conservative as a result of that. In turn, rural areas are much older, conservative and less diverse than a major metropolitan area.