Georgia Democrats Need A More "FOCUSED" Message To Draw Rural Voters.

Another election is upon us and just like previous years, Democratic recruitment was abysmal in both the State House and State Senate seats.

Georgia Democrats (mostly based around Metro Atlanta) know they must do better in rural areas. They know that, but so far they have failed to come up with a answer to solve ins woes in a region they once had a significant presence. Minority Leader Stacey Abrams doesn't have a clue because she is too tied up with her own personal and political ambitions at the expense of House Democrats who appear satisfied with being in the minority for the next 10, 15 years. The only people who know the pulse of rural Georgia are State Reps. Debbie Buckner (D-Junction City), Virgil Fludd (D-Fayetteville), Scott Holcomb (D-Tucker). Even with Dubose Porter who is a product of rural Georgia and a former disciple of former Senator Sam Nunn it seems doesn't have the answer of he in fact does have the answer, but is outnumbered by progressive liberals who know control the DPG and othe Democratic groups.

The bottom line is progressive Democrats based in metro Atlanta still don’t quite get what’s working at the grassroots down here. It’s not soft messaging about rural development. What’s working is a clear “Which side are you on?” message when it comes to defending rural schools and services, and the teachers and public employees who provide them, against a Republican austerity message that shifts even more of the burden from the wealthy to working families making less that $50,000 a year.

Schools and services are what keep small towns strong. If the fight is between Democrats who want to defend public schools, public services, and Republicans who want to sacrifice them in order to give tax breaks to the rich, that’s when you’ll see rural voters (White Working Class Voters) shifting back to the Democrats. The problem is how to break then from

Candidate Chris Irvin Agriculture Commissioner 2010 in Vidalia

the trance of Republicanism since the Reagan Era.

Reaching rural voters will take a strong message from Democrats here in Georgia. Republicans offer a simple message of cutting taxes. When in power, their party is more unified. For Democrats to compete, they must have an economic message that also appeals to poor and middle class families.

Metro Atlanta Democrats like Minority Stacey Abrams may not want to hear it, but the temptation for those Midtown liberals is to shake their heads over those down state, godforsaken white-working-class voters who are voting against their own interests. But this reaction misses the complexity of the political dynamic that’s taken hold in this state. It misdiagnoses the Democratic Party’s growing conundrum with working-class white voters. And it also keeps them from fully grasping what’s going on in communities like Hahira, Eastman, Vidalia where conditions have deteriorated.  If the Democrats are to avoid going the way of the dinosaur, they have to solve the rural riddle here in the Peach State!

Georgia Dems, Carter, Nunn, Barrow and the Future

Despite all of the hope and enthusiasm from Georgia Democrats, Tuesday night was a reminder that more work needs to be done in order to be competitive again here in the Peach State.

The biggest problem facing Democrats here in Georgia is their inability to attract white voters and having a message that can appeal to moderates and conservative democrats....plain & simple! Forget Independent Voters because there are no such thing as a TRUE independent voter....most lean either to the democrats or republicans.

Nunn and Carter got under 25% of the white vote, which is not enough to be competitive statewide int he near future. On the bright side, they got close to 30% of the black vote, so despite all the talk about black voters not turning out, they did this year despite voter turnout being at a record low across the country during Tuesday's election.

For all the talk about demographic changes and registering more minority voters they need to do a better job at attracting those who are already registered to vote, black and white. Too much they rely on urban and suburban areas of Atlanta, Lilburn, Albany for their votes and very little on rural, mid-sized areas of Fitzgerald, Swainsboro, Douglas, thus leaving huge swaths of the state to the GOP.

Look at the state legislature, democrats have done a poor job at candidate recruitment on the house and senate side and that starts with the leadership in both chambers. That needs to change and change soon and that starts with electing new leadership who knows that leaving 80% of the republican legislature unchallenged is not good for the state, nor the party. Now is the time for Rep. Scott Holcomb, yes I'm talking to you, to run for minority leader and to locate potential democratic candidates to add to a democratic house caucus that's (with the exception of a dozen legislators) made up of 'Dead Weight" or "Seat Warmers".

Michelle Nunn ran a good race, but she ran the type of race that made National Democrats proud, but on the flip side, this is still the south and this is still Georgia and she didn't put enough emphasis on Georgia and too much on National Issues. Even Rep. Jack Kingston said she didn't exert enough independence from the National Democrats and looking back on it, he's right! That Ferguson mailer did have a negative impact on both Nunn and Carter thus their white support fell below 25%.

DuBose Porter should run for the 12th Congressional District in '16, if he decides to bypass a full four year term as head of the Georgia Democratic Party. Porter came in under tough circumstances to rebuild the state party that hit rock bottom and now is a viable and fully functioning party. And there's always 2018 in which Porter will be in his 60s.

I for one do not see Nunn running for political office again. That's the feeling I get, but who knows.

Jason Carter also ran a good race, but you have to give the Deal Campaign credit for highlighting his experience, which I think hurt Carter towards the end. Why Carter didn't run on expanding medicaid is a question only he can answer. That was a winning issue, but he made very little mention of it. Everyone assumes he will the front runner for governor in 2018, but you better look out for Kasim Reed and possibly John Barrow.

And speaking of Barrow who I call the smartest politician in the entire state, I didn't expect to see him go down to Rick Allen who ran on absolutely nothing, except tying Barrow to Obama, just like Austin Scott who also ran on nothing when he defeated Jim Marshall in 2010 by tying him to Nancy Pelosi.

Barrow is the wildcard here because he has options. He gets to sit back and re-charge his batteries for another "likely" run for office...either for the U.S. Senate in 2016 or for a statewide office in 2018. And it's a longshot, but Barrow could be on a list of possible VP contenders for Hillary Clinton.

Another is Kasim Reed. You know and I know he's going to begin to lay the groundwork for a potential 2018 race. And look over to Columbus, Ga where Teresa Tomlinson (D) will be someone who may look to move up the political ladder if she has a successful second term as mayor of Columbus.

Forget About Being Nice: Democrats Need To Tap The Anger Vein In Voters

Midterms are all about anger....and in some instances rage.  Polls never really show the exact extent of this.  There’s no identifiable or authoritative Anger Poll – a "how angry are you" poll. Personally, I’d like to see an anger poll.  Not another level of dissatisfaction with Congress poll or how much voters disapproves of President Obama poll.  And even though it’s something like news for the horse race gamblers, some of us get unbelievable headaches from survey after survey measuring how much half the public still detests the Affordable Care Act or "Obamacare" a it called.

But, an anger poll could go beyond the political divisions and reveal the root cause of electoral anxieties we see in polls and hear on the street.  The deciding factor in this upcoming midterm elections isn’t really about which party base is the most mobilized, but it’s more about how angry or anxious certain blocks of voters are.

This is problematic for both Democratic and Republican parties.  However, at this stage, it’s much more problematic for Democrats as the left has proven itself incapable of using voter anger as a valuable resource simply because they are too nice.  While progressives are writing diatribes and pity party scripts, conservatives are coming up with creative twists on anger and that strategy works everytime. Defensively, Democrats are earnestly rolling out a wave of populist themes designed to win the hearts and minds of lost base voters. From the minimum wage to equal pay, the issues seem solid on paper and in polling headlines bearing upbeat assessments of a Democratic Party comeback in this year’s highly critical midterm election.

Issues such as the minimum wage increase appeal to non-white voters at a much higher rate. But for any democrat to do well this november and win, he or she will have to go after the white vote. For all the talk about democrats needing to turnout their base, which will not be on the level of that of 2008 or 2012, white voters..those who are middle of the road, bluecollar will be the deciding bloc for democrats this year. If the Democratic party, is to thrive for instance like here in Georgia, it cannot simply accommodate itself to Republicans. The party needs to seize control of the battle for new ideas, reinvigorate its grassroots base, and develop new mechanisms for communicating its ideas to the public.

Diagnosing Democrats Problems In Georgia And Why They Continue To Lose

I'm not what you call a die-in-the-wool liberal demorat, nor an "Obamacrat". I never served on any democratic committees. I once served as chairman of my local democratic party (Temporarily). I reside in Small Town, Rural Georgia, where most democrats are far different than those in the urban areas of the state, socially conservative, fiscally responsible, economically moderate. Having said that, I know (and I'm not being cocky here)......I know why democrats haven't been able to win in this state over the past decade, or why democrats in the legislature have a hard time recruiting canddiates. And I don't need graphs, a 20 page thesis or political scholars to tell me why democrats have such a hard time winning. 

For starters, let's start with candidate recruitment. Liberal, progressive, (whichever you wanna call it) candidates works in areas that are heavily diverse with voters who are center-left. But they will not work in areas that are not as diverse where voters are center-right/independent.  The quality of candidates democratic leaders have found and supported have been abysmal. Ideology is another factor. Black and White Bluedog Democrats are met with suspicion nowadays within the party mainly because of the recent party switchers the have endured over a 5-6 year period. But I'm here to tell you, without them, democrats will NEVER sniff the possibilty of being the majority again..at least in my lifetime. 

In recruiting candidates, you must find that person who's background fits within that State Senatorial or House District. What's the median income of that district, the racial makeup, the voting tendencies, what issues resonate with the voters of that district because let's face it, all districts do not have the same problem. If a district have a high number of Social Conservatives, then you need a candidate who's not afraid to talk about his/her religion or if it's a area high in poverty and lack jobs, you need a person with a extensive background in business who can articulate the problems facing the area and then can come up with a solution to the district's problems.

Or if its a district that haven't elected a democrat in years (locally and legislatively) then you need to recruit someone who have a ability to appeal cross party lines and someone who's not afraid to disgree with the party on issues that maybe out of step with the voters of the district.

And the last....in overly majority black districts, the reason these types of districts were created in the first place was to assure the election of black elected officials due to the VRA of 1965, but it came with a heavy price. It severely weakened the democratic party as a result...and I'm going to stop right there! If a candidate happens to be white and running in a majority black district (and I'm speaking from experience)......stop trying to influence a election out of fear of a majority minority district being represented by a white democrat! If the white candidate voted republican in the past....so what? All that matters is who is the better candidate with the better message, who can appeal to the masses, regardless of skin color or gender. The Democratic Party is supposed to be the "BIG TENT PARTY" or so it claims to be. Instead of trying to cut the legs out from up under the white candidate out of fear the majority black district being represented by a non-minority, embrace him/her and let the chips fall where they may, but I know that's wishful thinking especially with the current leadership in the legislature

Now democrats troubles as far as winning can be attributed to a few things: (1) Culture (2) National Democrats (3) Values (4) Unwillingness to court white middle and lower class voters (5) Rural Black Voters

Culture & Values are issues have hounded democrats since the 1970s. Culture is the shared knowledge, behavioral norms, values and beliefs that help people to live in families, groups and communities. It can be defined by religion, work, region, or some other status. For decades National Democrats stances on cultural issues have been detrimental to local democratic candidates. From Gun Control to Gay Marriage, those issues have had a trickle down effect on democrats who don't hold those views and thus these moderate/conservative democrats have to continue to fight back charges of they support gun control or favor marriage between the same sexes.

National Democrats: Like I said, National Democrats are out of step with majority of Georgians and in areas that are not as diverse, less populated and are conservative on social and economic grounds. Now being the realist that I am, democrats cannot not going to win every rural county in Georgia. Some they can definitely win, but the trick is not to lose some of these rural counties so badly which contribute to republican margin of victories in the last few election cycles. The question is how to appeal to rural voters in an election year without the benefit of having a president on the ballot who would spur turnout among democratic base voters of young, minority, college educated suburbanites. But to be successful, democrats should not be so eager to embrace the National Democrats and its politics. Develop your own brand of politics (case in point John Barrow & Joe Manchin)

White Bluecollar Voters: Despite all the talk about demographic changes coming to Georgia, Democrats cannot forget about White Bluecollar Voters. You still need them! Democrats need to win the support of this significant group of voters who are now part of the Republican coalition.  A high number of white working class voters have historic ties with Georgia Democrats, even among those who currently vote Republican. Some have personal memories and others family traditions of past Democratic voting. No comparable connection or previous ideological affinity exists with today’s upper income or other Republican voters. While white workers are overwhelmingly cultural traditionalists they are not all conservatives. Despite the cliches of “conservative white workers” the group is actually divided, depending on the issues, with majorities being “populist” on some issues and conservative on others. So Dems cannot give up on this group and put all their eggs in the basket on minority voters who are not the most reliable bloc of voters out there.

Rural Black Voters are different that those from the Cities. They're no doubt the most socially conservative group of voters in Georgia, they're fiscally discipline, but economically liberal and some, not all, but some support school choice. In courting rural black voters, a candidate must run two campaigns. Word of Mouth (Barbershops, Churches) and the Airwaves. This approach is used everyone, but it is very important in small isolated communities in Rural Georgia

2012: Democrats Are Still Wanted/Need in Rural Georgia!

But in order to be successful, the key will be attracting Whites, who once was democrats, now call themselves republican

Currently the strong majority of Georgia Democrats are Moderate to Liberal. Some of the urban areas are not as Liberal as some might lead you to believe (Columbus, Valdosta for example) but the Liberal faction of the Georgia Democratic Party is the mainstream of the party and they have the strings at the moment. In Rural Georgia, they are moderate/conservative or just plain conservative.


But Democrats face a problem down here: they have to get past the wine-and-cheese stereotype that Democrats carry in rural Georgia. 'They have allowed their opponents to define them as people with no normal values. 'They don't like guns, they don't pray, they don't believe in Christ.

Theoretically, the Democratic message should play well in small-town Georgia at a time when the economy lags. The party of Jefferson and Jackson, which not long ago owned the back roads and general stores, is seen in much of the state as disconnected from ,if not contemptuous of the people who spend their weekends hunting, at church or watching stock cars.

A rural strategy here should be centered on issues that aren't usually the focal point of Democratic campaigns, like taking vocational education and broadband technology to remote areas, job creation thru agriculture, etc.

Democrats biggest problem is with White Males who hail from small town Georgia. 'Rural white guys think democrats are all a bunch of punks, weaklings, softies, wimps, that take after their more ultra-liberal base that control the party........ I can go on & on.

Working-class white Georgians who turned away from the Democrats appear to have done so in part because their views shifted to the right on some issues, in part because they perceived the Democrats as shifting to their left on some issues, in part because some issues on which they were never aligned with the party's positions increased in importance to them, and in part because they lost confidence in the Democrats' ability to deliver on key issues.

The party needs to say to white men, 'We're not ignoring you. But if you look at the Healthcare Bill that was pushed by President Obama, Pelosi & others left-wingers, many whites say or think that its a bill designed to help the Poor Folks, in other words giving poor, well let me word that better, low-income individuals a "Handout". And plus conservative republicans have rekindled the notion that Democrats want to raise taxes to create social programs for minorities "at the expense of hard-working whites." That has been a winning strategy for the GOP going back over 40 years. And that is what the Heathcare Law called "Obamacare" is view by many who are opposed to it.

Rural Georgians have long felt like second-class citizens. With their small numbers now reduced their political clout has waned & their way of life is largely misunderstood by those who grew up in urban and suburban America.

Values in the Democratic Platform are the same as in rural Georgia. The message is clear that Democrats believe in helping your neighbor, in pay-as-you go economic policies, debt reduction, self-reliance, excellent public education, a fair tax system and honest wages for honest work.

Their message is one of outrage on the undeclared war on the middle class. This past legislative session saw the Georgia Republican's Agenda, hitting smaller, rural areas particularly hard, for example the revamped Hope Scholarship Program that will make it even tougher for rural students to obtain a Hope Scholarship among other things & a Tax Reform package that will come back up when the legislature reconvenes this summer that will put extra tax burdens on blue-collar, hard working rural Georgians.

Rural Georgia can make a difference in an election. A democrat won't be able to win in some conservative areas in a State Senate or State House district, but if he/she showed up and campaigned that he/she would raise his/her percentage points. That would help that candidate get elected. I feel that this example is a valid consideration in winning elections. In a very conservative rural area, the people in that area may need to adjust their thinking of who best represents them. It’s not about winning or losing. It is about how you can raise the Democratic vote in your conservative area.

But here in rural Georgia, we've had good, strong candidates run for office. Some should have won, but with the lack of infrastructure & organization from the Democratic Party Machine in Atlanta, it becomes impossible for a candidate to mount a strong race by him/herself. And when you throw in republicans nationalizing local races with campaign literature tying a local democrat with national figures like Nancy Pelosi, Charlie Rangel, people they have or never will meet, nor agree with politically, that just make it even harder to win in a conservative area of the state.

To close this out, The Democratic decline can be attributed to the Democrats loss of rural, white voters, generally conservative. There is no way around that fact. There is simply no significant pocket of white liberals who could join with blacks to create a Democratic majority. And as the Rural White Democrats shrink within the Democratic Party, the influence of the Black Caucus rises. What that means is that you get a more liberal face on the Democratic Party, and the cycle of driving conservatives away continues and it usually accelerates.

The Georgia Democrats have a strong message to rural Georgia stating that the Republicans are putting special interests ahead of Georgia’s families. That message should resonate with rural voters, not just white, but black as well. But like I said earlier, a non-traditional democratic strategy platform is the way to win in these parks. Different areas have different problems. Run LOCAL & local only!

Part 1: Do Georgia Democrats have what it takes to Play Ball Again here in the Rural Red?

Now, what does this have to do with the future of the Georgia Democratic Party? Well, my point is simple: if the Democratic Party is to have a future, it must find it in the unifying, post-identity group politics and values of populist rural Georgia. They need to champion conservative social values; wrap themselves without embarrassment in the American flag; slather on a healthy dose of religion; and leaven it all with the traditional liberal concerns about economic justice. In other words, if the Democratic Party wants to flourish in the near-term, it had better seek out the lost Populists among it former coalition partners and invite them back into the big-tent. Otherwise, Republicans will continue to dominate our state politics.

The inability to pick up seats on the local level for state senator & rep going back to 2006 is due to not paying attention to rural white working class voters concerns down state in part to not addressing social and cultural concerns. We ignore those concerns at our peril. At the same time, though, there has been a view that we can override those concerns (up to a point) by appealing to the white working class on the economy. That alone will not enable democrats to begin picking up more support among this reliable voting bloc.

Consequently, it's important to develop an economic agenda that appeals strongly enough to the white working class to be able to pull some of its members into our column. DEMS DON'T HAVE TO WIN THEM ALL, JUST SOME WILL MAKE THE DIFFERENCE IN A ELECTION. In developing this agenda, I would argue, dems have to swallow hard and acknowledge a couple of daunting obstacles that stand before them.

For one, policy agenda of economic liberalism -- modest increases in the minimum wage, labor law reform, improvements in education and in job training, financial aid for college students, universal health care is necessary to the economic security of non-college households in general, be they white or minority. But the forms of help that it offers to the white working class aren't large enough and wouldn't flow into their hands quickly enough to persuade them to dems us as an obvious slam-dunk alternative to the Republicans.

For the other: For all the talk about economic populism, Democrats no longer have the ability to make a truly effectively economically populist appeal to the white working class. I'm talking about the ability to do it, not the desire to do it. There are certainly Democrats who lack the desire. But even those who have the desire nevertheless lack the ability.

In order for an appeal to economic populism to win over its audience, it must do more than attack the big guys. Rather, it must address three assertions to its audience. The first: You are the backbone of the state's economy. The second: The big guys are making it hard for you to make a living because they are thwarting your ability to act as the backbone of the economy. The third: In your struggle with the big guys, we're (Democrats) are on YOUR side -- and here's how we're going to help...

But even economic liberals here in the state can no longer make such an appeal. They can't do it because they won't make the first assertion, and thus won't utter the last 12 words of the second assertion. They could say these things in the past. In the agrarian days, they could go before a crowd of farmers and tell them: It is the sweat of your brow that feeds and clothes our nation. In the industrial age, they could say to factory workers: It is your muscle that drive the wheels of our mines and mills. They could echo the words of "Solidarity Forever. "It is you who plow the prairies, build the cities, dig the mines... -- without your brain and muscle, not a single wheel can turn. Today, though, if Democrats stand before the white working class, they can't even make a proper beginning: YOU are the backbone.

Democrats can't say it because they don't believe it. What they do believe is something quite different: We now live in the age of human capital. Non-college workers, be they white or people of color, be they union members or otherwise, lack the crucial human capital of a four-year degree. (After all, the gap between college earnings and non-college earnings is much larger than it used to be.) The economy is now a knowledge economy, and higher education is a crucial source of knowledge, and so how can non-college Georgia workers be its backbone?

To go beyond their base and into the white working class, Democrats also have to be willing to go beyond a couple of their assumptions about what belongs in the liberal economic agenda. The first step for Democrats is to acknowledge that there is a problem.

One point on which all Democrats need to agree is that the party needs a red-state strategy, Georgia version of the DLC (Democratic Leadership Council).

Dems have to find candidates that are able to talk to, not at working class voters of this state. The last election, Roy Barnes did try to talk to working class folks, but with the anti-"D" fever so strong & the fact the RGA spent millions in attacking Barnes thwarted any attempt he had in appealing to this bloc of voters.

The time for excuses are no more. Where the Democrats are failing to connect, the tea party is succeeding. That rising conservative movement has been extraordinarily good at tapping into the fury of families not only here in Georgia, but across the nation, who are neither rich nor poor.

Democrats have failed to relate to white working-class voters. Black working-class voters never abandoned the party, but the percentage of working-class whites who identified as Democrats fell over a 10 year span in this state.