So I was walking into my local county building to qualify for a race in 2008, and I was stopped outside the door by a couple of acquaintances. Both Republicans. One was the son in-law of a sitting county commissioner. The other was the county registrar and former chairman of the local Republican Party. They knew why I was there and proceeded to explain to me why running as a Democrat in the most Republican county in Georgia was an exercise in futility. Like I didn’t know that.
They had a pitch at the ready. Switch parties and run as a Republican. They would support me. I would win!
My reply was “That’s not me, man”. Um… that’s a paraphrase. I’m pretty sure a “Fuck No” was in there somewhere in the course of the conversation.
My little anecdote is not meant to flag my sense of loyalty to party or some such other self-indulgence. Rather, it’s this; we’ve spotted some douche bags in the last couple of weeks, and we shouldn’t be surprised if we see a few more in the next couple. It’s just their nature. It’s who they are.
Yes, it’s raw politics. Political re-alignments are hard. This latest unpleasantness isn’t really that surprising, is it? I think we all get that.
But at the end of day, I will sleep just fine at night knowing I oppose:
- Slashing education funding by the millions,
- While proposing to cut corporate tax rates,
- And starting the slow creep of killing the HOPE scholarship
The list goes on and on. I guess opposing that just makes me a bona fide member of the white liberal, black, and brown coalition of sane people in Georgia. There’s just something, a gut check moment, that deeply offends me about the direction of the Republican Party. If some folks want to board that ship… well, OK! Good luck with that!
That’s just a reflection of their character. Not much we can do with that.
A lot of spilled ink and argument will come in the coming weeks and months about what Democrats need to do to make elective in-roads in Georgia. We’re effectively starting from scratch. At least we can take a little bit of solace from the fact that these bloodsuckers won’t be a part of that dialogue.
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