In Georgia politics, there are actual people on the other side who could be impacted by any novel concept or ridiculous proposal. If the same individuals are interested in the system and are prepared to take action, they also have the ability to vote their leaders in or out in Georgia’s next elections.
For better or worse, some of my favorite columns have focused on the Georgians who oppose the ideals.
The decision made in 2022 by a group of affluent Atlantans to divide the Buckhead neighborhood from the city in order to establish a city of Buckhead has to rank among the worst. In addition to the lack of information regarding the future of Buckhead’s parks and schools, I almost immediately learned from the locals that the city, which is located 60 miles east of Atlanta, had been known by that name since the early 1800s.
Their goal is to steal our name. When I visited Buckhead, a local told me that they were attempting to take our symbol, the deer head, and everything that had been part of our past and turn it into their own.
One of the many reasons the Buckhead breakaway attempt failed was the impact it would have had on the less wealthy Georgians who lived in the old Buckhead.
I’ve written more recently on Georgians who are eager to find out what the second term of President Donald Trump may bring.In Dalton, where state representative Kasey Carpenters stated he supports Trump but opposes his immigration crackdowns on Latino labor, Hispanic immigrants fear for their family and neighbors.
According to Carpenter, those individuals are not there to harm you or steal your job. They are merely trying to live their lives and provide for their families as best they can.
Similarly, Dr. Dorsey Norwood, a pediatrician in south Atlanta, is concerned about the impact on her practice of Medicaid cuts for low-income patients, as 85% of her young children are insured by the program.
“We’re just trying to make ends meet,” she said. A 15% reduction? I doubt I’d be able to maintain the company.
As much as I’ve learned from Georgia voters, for a political junkie like me, covering the state’s major races has been like going to the candy store every day.
Which other state could elect Democratic U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnockin and Republican U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene in the same election and see both of them rise to prominence in their respective parties virtually immediately? And where else would Trump be able to win his GOP primary by more than 50 points in 2022 despite targeting the incumbent Republican governor, as Gov. Brian Kemp was? In 2024, Trump and Kemp managed to put their differences aside, but they may soon be at odds over who candidate to support in the upcoming Senate race.
Voters’ voices told us all we needed to know about the state’s future in the upcoming election in a number of my campaign essays.
Even though Joe Biden had already won, Trump loyalists in Alpharetta informed me in late 2020 that he would never be inaugurated. At the time, I had no idea what they meant, but on January 6, I did. Black guys told me at a rally in Cobb County last October that they would vote for Trump in 2024 even though they didn’t support him in 2020 because Democrats had never earned their support. We now know that they were not alone in their feelings.
My columns have occasionally been in the “someone has to say it” category. I stated that both Herschel Walker and Georgia voters had suffered during the campaign following his unsuccessful and regrettably dishonest Senate candidacy.
He withdrew from the public eye for almost two years before discreetly returning to UGA to complete the degree he had never earned. Along with many Georgians, I had to remark, “Hershel Walker, good job.”Walker has now been nominated by Trump to serve as ambassador to the Bahamas, which is another unprecedented development in Georgia politics.
This column will continue to focus on the actors, leaders, politicians, and power-hungry individuals who give Georgia politics their distinctive flavor and have a significant impact on events in the South and the country. It will be about all of us, the citizens who elected those leaders, throwing them out of office and having to deal with the fallout from their daily choices.
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