The Projects Aren’t the Problem. The Politics Ignoring Them Is.

Walk into any small‑town breakfast house on a Monday morning  the kind with the mismatched coffee mugs, a waitress who already knows your order, and a bell on the door that never stops ringing and you’ll hear the kind of truth folks don’t say on TV.

Somewhere between the first cup of coffee and the second round of biscuits, somebody will bring up politics. And before long, the conversation always circles back to the same thing:

There’s a whole lot of Georgians living in the projects, in old mill housing, in trailer parks tucked behind the pines and politics barely gives ’em the time of day.

These aren’t strangers. These are the folks sitting two tables over, eating grits before heading to work. Folks raising kids, caring for their people, trying to stretch a paycheck that’s already spoken for. But somewhere along the way, they got treated like they don’t count.

Both parties chase the voters in the subdivisions with the fresh mulch and the matching mailboxes. Meanwhile, the folks in government housing or a single‑wide with a patched roof get talked about like they’re a statistic instead of somebody waiting on their eggs over easy.

But anybody in that breakfast house will tell you straight:  

These folks matter just as much as anybody else in this state.

Their vote counts the same.  

Their struggles are real.  

And the decisions made in Atlanta hit them quicker than most.

A lot of these families live in rural Georgia, not the big cities, not the places with four grocery stores and a Starbucks. They’re in the towns where the breakfast house is the community bulletin board, where everybody knows who’s sick, who’s hurting, and who needs a hand. Some get public assistance. Some don’t. But all of them get judged by people who’ve never stepped foot where they live.

And here’s the part that gets folks shaking their heads over their hash browns:

These are the people most affected by public policy, but the least likely to be talked to by anybody running for office.

Names come up over coffee, depending on who’s been in the news.  

Some folks mention Michael Thurmond, talking about how people say he’s spent decades working in communities across Georgia.  

Others bring up Geoff Duncan, noting how he’s often described as someone who talks about moderation and bridging divides.  

And sometimes you’ll hear newcomer Josh McLaurin’s name from folks who follow state politics closely and know he’s built a base in the northern metro suburbs.

But no matter whose name gets tossed around, the conversation always lands in the same spot:

“How you expect folks to show up for you when you ain’t never showed up for them?”

Low turnout in these neighborhoods ain’t about not caring. It’s about being worn down. It’s about folks who’ve been ignored so long they don’t believe anybody in politics sees them. It’s about juggling kids, bills, health problems, and two jobs and voting feels like one more thing that won’t change a thing.

That’s not apathy. That’s life talking.

And it’s on us, not them, to close that gap.

If Georgia wants a politics that reflects the whole state, then we’ve got to stop acting like the projects and the trailer parks don’t count. These communities deserve respect. They deserve to be heard. They deserve leaders who show up more than once every four years.

Ignoring them hasn’t worked.  

Talking down to them hasn’t worked.  

Pretending they don’t exist sure hasn’t worked.

What does work is simple:  

Show up. Listen. Treat folks like neighbors. Talk about the things that hit their kitchen table.... rent, utilities, healthcare, childcare, transportation, and keeping a roof over their head.

Georgia can’t afford to leave these folks behind.  

And neither can its democracy.

(Ret.) Colonel Pamela Delancy Might Be This Year's Georgia Sleeper Congressional Candidate in GA‑10

Pamela Delancy is a name most Democrats in Georgia’s 10th Congressional District have never heard and that’s exactly why her candidacy deserves a closer look. In a field where name recognition and political networks usually dominate the conversation, Delancy brings something different to the table: a compelling personal story and a profile that checks every “candidate quality” box strategists talk about but rarely find in one person.

She’s a cancer survivor.

She’s a military veteran.

She has an independent streak that doesn’t feel manufactured.

Those aren’t talking points they’re lived experiences that resonate in a district where authenticity still matters. GA‑10 is a place where Democrats really don't put up much of a fight. Last Democrat to hold that seat was Don Johnson back in 1992. Voters respond to grit, resilience, and real‑world credibility. Delancy’s background gives her all three.

She may not be a known quantity in Democratic circles, but that’s not necessarily a weakness. Sometimes the most interesting candidates are the ones who haven’t been shaped by party machinery or political expectations. Delancy’s profile suggests she could connect with voters who are tired of the same old political molds and are looking for someone who’s actually lived the challenges they talk about.

In a district as sprawling and politically complex as GA‑10, candidate quality still counts. And Pamela Delancy military service, personal resilience, and an independent voice is the kind of foundation that can make an unknown candidate suddenly worth watching.

Rural Georgians to keep an eye on in 2025 and beyond

Ron Johnson

Mayor of Donalsonville (Seminole County)

Johnson was elected mayor of Donalsonville back in 2020, located in the southwest corner of Georgia. A graduate of Florida A&M, He made history in becoming the first black candidate to ever become mayor of the city. Johnson. He currently works for the Seminole County Board of Education.

Jeren Fullmore

Pearson, Ga City Councilman (Atkinson County)

Fullmore elected in 2023 is serving his first term as councilman for the city of Pearson (Atkinson County). Fullmore is a U.S. Army Veteran and former Deputy Sheriff for Tattnall County.

Nikki Bryant

Owner of Adams Pharmacy in Preston, Ga (Webster County)

In a time where many young rural Georgians leave home and never return, Adams did the opposite. Adams who is a third generation Georgian decided to return to her hometown to open a pharmacy to address a crucial need for citizens in her home county as well as surrounding areas of Webster County. Independent Pharmacists like Bryant are need more now than ever in many of rural Georgia's poorest counties. 

James Hitchcock

Owner, 3H Cattle Co. (Washington County)

Hitchcock with his daughter

Hitchcock, a 4th Generation farmer that farms over 1500 acres of land out of Washington County. He currently serves as County Commissioner for Washington County and is considered the leader of the next wave of Georgia Ag producers.

Lisa James Mayor Pro-Tem St. Mary's (Camden County)

James is currently the Mayor Pro Tem of St. Mary's, Ga located in the southeast corner of Georgia. She is the former VP-Regional Business for Bank of America and currently is a financial representative for Modern Woodmen of America

Micah King

Former City Councilman, Glennville (Tattnall County)

King served on the Glennville. Ga City Council later ran for mayor of the city. He is also a community organizer who is an entrepreneur, President at Animation TV Network. He also works as an Financial Counselor at Soldier for Life-Transition Assistance program and at Fort Stewart where he assisted soldiers and their families from military to civilian life.

Jenny Robbins

Community Development Manager, Georgia EMC (Clinch County)

Robbins represents Georgia's Electric Membership Corporations in South Georgia by providing educational training, strategic planning and leadership development. She was also Main Street Manager for the City of Homerville

Jim Gillis, IV

Financial Planner, Investment Advisor (Clarke County)

A native of Soperton, Ga, Gillis graduated from the University of Georgia and now currently serves as a Investment Advisor Representative for Northwest Asset Management. Gillis comes from one of Georgia's legendary political families where his father, great grandfather played major roles in shaping Georgia politics and Treutlen County. Gillis IV is also president of Soperton Naval Stores and trustee of the Georgia Forestry Foundation.

Jessica Fore for GA-10 U.S. House of Representatives

Critical Issues Facing The Black Community

1. Lack of opportunity and safety. There has been a loss of  jobs and a failure to control crime in areas with a high density of black residents.

2. Breakdown of the family, Illegitimacy & welfare. Some still don’t see how welfare reduces the value of black men.

3. Black anti-intellectualism. Accusations of “acting white” while trying to get a decent education and advance to college undermine education as a vehicle for advancement. Instead, black leaders expend enormous resources to advance affirmative action (which has run its course in my opinion) at a small number of elite universities, unmindful of the effects it has had on talented young blacks.

4. Failure of K-12 schools in disadvantage urban and rural areas of the state. Teachers unions and the education establishment have been more interested in pay-raises and grants than student achievement, testing, and competition.

5. High incarceration rate of black men.

6. Reduced respect for human life (abortions). Beyond the tragic loss of life itself, this much death reduces the civility with which people treat each other.

7. Victimology. The speeches and ideologies of Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton and so called leaders in the black community undermine the initiative of many African Americans. Moreover, there is a lack of honest debate among black leaders because of the fear of being called an “Uncle Tom” for not supporting the grievance agenda.

8. Excessive race-consciousness. The Left is insincere in acknowledging the advancement in race relations since the early 1960’s, but there's still ways to go. Many black families have joined the middle class. If they lived in an independent country, they would be citizens of the 10th richest nation in the world. Race matters but not very much. Race-consciousness diminishes the importance of addressing the more important issues listed above.

Charter Schools and Rural Georgia: Can it Work?

Charter Schools would work well in some rural Georgia areas, and may offer educational alternatives to rural communities. Depending on state law and local conditions, rural communities may be able to set up charter schools that are community-based, educationally appropriate to local needs, innovative, responsive to accountability measures, and focused on student success. Rural communities with a history of community cooperation and inclusiveness, a vision that allows students to pursue educational alternatives, and the desire for a sustainable small school could provide fertile ground for a charter school.


There are caveats. Nearly all charter schools face obstacles that could be formidable in rural areas, including resource limitations, conflicts with other educational entities, and regulatory issues & also know this: there is a trend toward racial segregation in the rural Black Belt here in Georgia. After the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education school desegregation decision, all-White schools were set up in the South using public funds. Charter-granting organizations would need to guard against the possibility of charter schools being used as a contemporary mechanism to advance re segregation.


Many rural areas such as Randolph, Calhoun, Hancock, Taliaferro, Pierce Counties are resource poor, and shortages of start-up or operating capital and inadequate facilities could cause problems for a charter school. It is important to have strong community support that includes backing from educators, financial and in-kind contributions, and a continuing development effort which is lacking severely here in Rural Georgia.

Many rural areas still have relatively close-knit communities, but internal conflicts, battles with local and state educational agencies, and disputes over regulations can damage community well-being and sap the vitality of the charter schools. The charter school experiment appears dual-edged. For rural areas, the focus on school improvement might unify citizens. But poor economic conditions and conflicts might threaten these positive efforts.

A charter school might be successful if a community faces the loss of its school because of consolidation or if there is an atmosphere that supports educational alternatives. Chances for a charter school's success depend on a community's historic context and its citizens' will to persevere in their pursuit of high-quality education for their children.

A Georgia Charter School Amendment will appear on the November Ballot in Georgia. The measure gives the state legislature the right to create special schools.

The measure developed following a ruling by the State Supreme Court. The court ruled that the state's involvement in the establishment of public charter schools was unconstitutional. Specifically, the court ruled that the commission was illegal because it approved and funded charter schools despite objection by local school boards. So if you're a parent who looking for more choices for your kids, then you just might vote yes of the amendment, if not then, vote "NO". I for one think it won't pass, but its difficult to say at this point.

Farmers, Politics and Change: The Beginning of the End of Rural America?

I hope not!

While the plight of urban decay has been widely publicized,  we are confronting similar issues facing us: lack of well-paying jobs, rural brain drain, food deserts, poverty, and lack of access to quality health care have either been ignored or largely misunderstood by policy-makers and the press. Today, more rural Citizens are on food stamps and face bleaker economic prospects than their urban counterparts, despite the romantic image of small-town life often portrayed in the media.

For the past 50 years, rural America has seen its best, brightest, and most mobile flee the countryside in search of jobs as federal farm, economic, and trade policies have slowly bled family farmers off the land. Here's something I found.....Since 1960, when John F. Kennedy was elected, America has lost over 1.7 million family farms — the backbone of rural economies — with farmers in the U.S. today now outnumbered by prisoners which is ridiculous

Despite increases in farm productivity and improved planting and harvesting equipment, more insidious economic factors, like increased industry consolidation, poorly designed subsidy programs, and overspecialization in industrial livestock production, with poor contract protections, have hollowed out the countryside. Instead of prosperity, industrial agriculture has created vast profits for corporations at the top of the food chain, but left a growing number of rural America’s Main Streets to resemble ghost towns, and its residents poorly prepared to meet the nation’s important challenges of the 21st century.

While, despite a growing national awareness of food and agriculture issues, many people in urban areas have never met a farmer or someone who produced the food that appears on their plate each day, most Main Street businesses in rural America realize that their livelihood and very survival are tied to the economic well-being of the local farm economy.

And if you want to save rural America, you have to save the family farmer.

Centrist Politicos Represents Common Sense Politics

In this circus of extreme partisanship and political propaganda, the voice of the Moderate, the Centrist, the Rational often goes unheard and unsupported. Do you support extremism or do you support sanity? From a common sense Moderate/lean conservative point of view, running society is pretty simple...


Tax

Left: Tax-cuts for the poor!
Right: Tax-cuts for the rich!
Common Sense: Flat Tax for all (I'm still up in the air when it comes to the FairTax)

Abortion

Left: Yes to choice
Right: Yes to Life
Common Sense: We want to limit abortion as much as possible but there must be some exceptions.

Immigration

Left: Let em all in
Right: Let none of em in
Common Sense: Let some of 'em in (Look what has happened to Georgia's Agriculture Sector in which farmers are struggling because of passage of HB 87)

Terrorism

Left: Be nice to the freedom fighters!
Right: Kill 'em all those scum!
Common Sense: Try diplomacy first. If that doesnt work, kick ass.

Healthcare

Left: Socialized Healthcare
Right: No socialized Healthcare
Common Sense: Anything can be a cure or poison, depending on dose. We can afford a little bit of this

Guns

Left: Get rid of them!
Right: Keep them!
Common Sense: Keep them but add I.D./Fingerprints with purchase

Environment

Left: The poor Fragile Earth above all else!
Right: Drill baby, Drill!
Common Sense: Humans first but lets also try to protect our precious earth whenever possible

Government

Left: Big Government
Right: Small Government
Common-Sense: Medium Sized Government. Management of the stuff we all agree can be managed centrally. Personally, Id prefer more local Government though

Economy

Left: Help the poor!
Right: Help Corporations - they produce our wealth!
Common Sense: Help the middle class

Energy

Left: Get Alternatives to Oil and Nuclear Power!
Right: Get Oil and Nuclear Power!

Common Sense: Get Oil, Nuclear Power AND alternatives to them to become less dependent on one or two

Civil Rights

Left: More rights for minorities!
Right: Minorities mustn't impose on the majority!
Common Sense: Civil Rights for All

There's a whole lot more but you get the picture. Do these left/right positions sound simplistic or stereotype to you? Well, I didn't invent them. Extremism is not good for this country. Radicalism is what is bringing the country down. The tone between the parties needs to be more civil. The moderates of both parties need to regain power and momentum. Look, if you vote for moderate politicians, you will have a moderate government. The media (and this includes blogs, websites), can not "sell" moderate. Moderate does not make them ad dollars, the absurd, and off-kilter generate ad dollars. Being down to earth is not exciting to people. Being aggressive, radical and sensationalistic...that's what sells!

Sadly as long as Limbaugh, Beck, Hannity, Hewitt and others like them continue to fan the flames of right wing extremism, Common sense moderate politics is dead in the water. They have millions of fans that hang on every word as gospel.

More power to the Centrists!

Majority-Minority Voting Districts and Their Role in Politics

Do two rights ever make a wrong? When it comes to two important aspects of voting rights, the answer may be yes.

The first is the use of majority-minority districts. These are political districts in which members of a racial minority make up an effective voting majority. This gives them the ability to participate and elect representatives of their own choosing, and has been the solution of choice in situations where there is, or could be, racial vote dilution.

But majority-minority districts give rise to a dynamic that undercuts the very goal they are designed to achieve. While they improve the ability of minority voters to elect a candidate of their choice in a particular district, they also cost their preferred political party other valuable seats in the legislature.

This, however, is less the fault of the majority-minority districts than of the second aspect of voting rights: the strict application of the one person, one vote standard.

Majority-minority districts have at least one very curious effect: they help Republicans. This is curious because minority voters, especially blacks, vote for Democrats in overwhelming numbers.

The theory goes like this. When creating a majority-minority political district, the additional minority voters must come from somewhere. That somewhere is adjoining districts, which are drained of their minority voters. Those voters, though, are not merely minority voters-they are also reliably Democratic voters. And this makes it more likely that the Republican candidates will prevail in those adjoining districts.

Would this actually happen in practice? It's well-documented that it already has. Now, after the 1990 census, scores of majority-minority districts were created in order to comply with the mandates of the Voting Rights Act. For example, thirteen additional majority-black Congressional districts were created. They, in turn, produced thirteen additional black representatives. Majority-minority districting did, indeed, lead to the election of the candidates of the minorities' choosing.

Unfortunately, a large number of studies of the 1992 and 1994 Congressional elections revealed that this additional representation came at a cost. As a result of majority-minority districting, Democrats lost at least ten seats to Republicans. When minority voters were drained out of adjoining districts, Republican majorities were the result.

Both parties apparently notice that majority-minority districts tend to help Republicans overall, and hurt Democrats overall. In the early 1990s, the Republican National Committee pushed for the creation of more black and Hispanic districts as part of a strategy to win additional seats in the House. And in states like here in Georgia, Democrats sought to reduce the number of safe minority districts in order to improve the party's chances overall. In doing so, both parties were acting contrary to their general positions on race-conscious lawmaking.

Minority voting rights advocates, then, was faced with a choice between pushing districting plans that increase the number of minority representatives and those that increase the number of Democratic representatives. This is a real dilemma, since, of the two major parties, Democrats are generally more sympathetic to minority interests (hence the overwhelming support).

And this raises several important questions. First, we've seen that, as a result of majority-minority districting, minority voters ,who overwhelming vote Democratic, end up with fewer Democratic Congressmen & women.

But remember, the key to fulfilling the mandates of the Voting Rights Act involves ensuring effective minority participation. Democrats would be helped but would they be helped unfairly?

I think the answer is a clear no! Given that most minority groups overwhelmingly support Democrats, it makes some sense that if minorities' ability to participate truly does improve, Democrats would benefit. At least it makes more sense than what's currently happening.

What does all of this mean for this and future elections? Well, given the margins enjoyed by Republicans in Congress and many state legislatures, it reminds us that some of those Republican victories may be a result of majority-minority districting, not any genuine change in the country's political views.

To see what I'm talking about, just keep an eye on the 2nd Congressional District, as well as the 8th Congressional District where Republicans would probably look one of their own, Austin Scott by making the 2nd more democratic friendly by packing more African-American Voters into Bishop's District, while making Scott's 8th more white & republican. This is called Gerrymandering & this has hurt democrats more than it has hurt republicans, on the congressional & local level as well.