The South Can Rise Again
by Carlyn Reichel on November 20, 2008 in Opinion
Before November 4, I’d bet dollars to donuts I was one of about four people at HKS who cared about Georgia politics. And to clarify, I’m talking about Georgia as in the largest state east of the Mississippi River, not Georgia the formerly communist country on the Black Sea. The country of Georgia has received much more attention of late, and deservedly so.
But I digress already. Georgia is usually just lumped into a mass of Southern stereotypes and redneck jokes. Some of which are unfortunately true (yes, the Civil War was once legitimately brought up in one of my classes as the War of Northern Aggression), and some of which have only served to exacerbate a dangerous political “wisdom.” Ever since Nixon’s “Southern Strategy” pried the South away from a yellow-dog Democrat stronghold and turned it into the Republican fortress it has been for the last 15 years, strategists have refused to bother with the South.
As part of the Women and Public Policy Program’s office-training course last year, I was incredibly disheartened to hear every speaker and consultant, Republican and Democrat alike, say that the only way a Democrat from my part of Georgia could get elected to office was to move. (To help paint you a picture, I’ll just describe my native corner of the world as “Huckabee country.”)
And I bought into the conventional wisdom. I bemoaned that my absentee ballot was likely never even counted because election margins from my county were so dismal for the Dems. I still am bitter about the low quality of candidates recruited to stand as straw-men placeholders on the ballot against feckless incumbents seen as Republican juggernauts.
But 2008 has brought hope that I never thought possible. I always knew, even when Obama was targeting Georgia as a possible win in his new electoral map, that we would be a McCain state in the end. But the mere suggestion that the South is on the table again gets me all excited. And now, I’m downright atwitter.
“But why?” you ask, “McCain won Georgia by 52.2 percent.”
“Because,” I reply, “Bush won by 58 percent in 2004.”
And the Democratic swell in Georgia is not just for Obama alone. His historic election has brought minority voters out of the shadows in Georgia like never before, it’s true, but the Democratic largesse is trickling down the ballot to more “typical” Georgia politicians too.
I’m talking about Jim Martin. He’s old, he’s white, he’s a UGA fraternity brother, he’s a good-ole-boy who came up the ranks of Georgia politics via traditional routes. Not exactly a candidate of change in the same way President-elect Obama was. But he has given Saxby Chambliss, the feckless Republican incumbent, a run for his Senate seat in what everyone, myself included, predicted would be an easy stroll to reelection.
Hence, I’m atwitter.
There are three U.S. Senate seats still undecided. Alaska and Minnesota will be decided by recounts (if they haven’t already been called by publication), so all we can do is sit and wait for the results to be certified and a candidate to concede. In Georgia, thanks to the quirks of a 50 percent plus one election law and a contrarian third-party candidate, and even though Chambliss leads Martin by over 100,000 votes, it’s going to a run-off. Run-off! In Georgia!
That means there’s more work to be done, and for the first time in years, Democratic resources and talent are flowing into Georgia. Obama’s best organizers are on their way. The DSCC opened the money spigot two weeks before Election Day when Chambliss’ numbers started to drop, and I’m sure it’s still flowing full bore. For anyone suffering through election withdrawal, now is the time to break out your best fake drawl and pick up a phone for change in the Southland.
With remarkable wins in North Carolina and Virginia this cycle, and substantial gains in Georgia and other southern states, politicians and party operatives alike can no longer afford to flog the conventional wisdom that the South is a Democratic wasteland. And once this conventional wisdom is shattered, the other problems will begin to fall away too.
Long-hiding Democrats who, like me, felt that their vote wouldn’t matter will sign up to be counted. Better candidates will put their names forward for the ballot if they think there’s a chance they might actually win. Donors will actually contribute if they don’t see their money as a wasted protest gesture. I know I did.
While in my heart-of-hearts, I suspect the 3.4 percent of Libertarian voters will ultimately tip Republican in the December 2 run-off and Chambliss will spend another six years embarrassing me in public, I hope against hope that I am wrong. (And not just because I need to find a job in a few months, though that’s a strong motivator too.)
The piece of information that gives me the most hope on this front comes from my hometown, nestled in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains. The father of one of my closest friends, and one of my favorite dyed in the wool Republican sparring partners, officially cast his general election ballot for Jim Martin. Hope-filled as I was, that’s a change I wouldn’t have believed in six months ago if it slapped me in the face.
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2 Responses to “The South Can Rise Again”
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WE HAVE MORE TO DO:
Democrat Jim Martin is in a runoff against Bush Republican Saxby Chambliss for the Senate seat from Georgia. Bush’s Saxby Chambliss voted against spending a few measly dollars to provide health care coverage for Georgia, and Americas needy children. But he supported wasting hundreds of billions of your dollars, and the life BLOOD of Americas finest on an unnecessary war in Iraq.
At a time when 47 million of you have no health insurance coverage, and over 100 million of you with insurance are just one major illness away from complete financial destruction. Bush and Saxby Chambliss voted to make the heart break of bankruptcy relief even harder for all of you to use.
You see, Bush and Saxby Chambliss, and his family don’t have to worry about their health care coverage. They have the finest health care coverage your tax money can buy for them. Courtesy of you. The American Tax payer. In fact, no one but the super rich can afford the health care coverage you the tax payer provide for Saxby Chambliss, and his family for FREE! with your tax dollars.
He supposedly works for you. But he doesn’t think you and your family should have access to the type of taxpayer supported FREE health care that you provide for him, and his loved ones for FREE!. Doesn’t that just make you BURRING MAD!
Vote for JIM MARTIN for US senator from Georgia. Vote for JIM Martin who will be on your side. Vote for JIM MARTIN who will work with President Obama and a majority congress for you. Vote for JIM MARTIN most of all for your-self, your family’s, friends, and loved ones. Vote for JIM MARTIN for a better America, and a better World.
Don’t let Saxby Chambliss make a chump out of you by tricking you into voting against your own best interest. Saxby chambliss is NOT! on your side. He’s not one of you. He is on George Bush’s side. And we all know what a catastrophe the Bush Chambliss administration has been the past 8 years.
Contact all your family and friends and do every thing you can to see to it that JIM MARTIN and GEORGIANS! take that senate seat back for Georgia, and America. No matter where you live in America. This is important to you. President Obama will need all the help, and power you can give him to try and fix this catastrophic mess that the Corrupt Bush Chambliss administration has created.
As I said before you will have to vote in overwhelming numbers to overcome the Bush Chambliss “Let Them Eat Cake” vote fraud machine. Vote early if you can. Then help everyone you can get to the polls and vote for JIM MARTIN. You and your loved ones don’t have to be Saxby Chambliss’s victims anymore.
I know you will get it done. Just like you did for President Obama.
God bless all of you
jacksmith - WORKING CLASS…
I hope people in Georgia have more sense than that.