Cowards or bigots?
Slim pickings in the governor's race
Rusty Tanton | www.radicalgeorgiamoderate.org | Bio
I can describe the current political climate in Georgia only as harnessed moral bankruptcy versus unharnessed moral bankruptcy.
Republicans want to ride into office on a wave of bigotry and pandering. Democrats can't find a wave of their own to ride, so they're content to just get out of the way of the Republican wave so as not to be crushed by it.
A friend of mine wrote that Democratic gubernatorial candidate Cathy Cox is dead to him. Earlier this week, Cox said she supports Sonny Perdue's call for a special state Legislature session before this year's midterm election. To the tune of tens of thousands of dollars per day, the session would be called to pass a new constitutional amendment to prevent the scourge of gayness from eroding the sanctity of marriage. Nevermind that the sanctity of marriage is eroding just fine on its own without gay folks' help.
Democrats looking for a wave to ride could do worse than to follow the example of William Hartsfield, Atlanta's mayor from 1942 to 1961, who coined the term "the city too busy to hate."
Hartsfield, it's written in Clarence Stone's Regime Politics: Governing Atlanta, 1946-1988, was a segregationist early in his career, but softened his stance as the city's gradually-enfranchised black electorate gained clout at the polls. While his detractors criticized him for being too cozy with the business community, he quietly built a coalition among inner-city blacks and Northside white elites to counter the same kind of bigotry Republican candidates espouse today.
Similarly, I think the Democratic Party should try to shed its Republican-assigned image as an anti-business party to attract libertarian free-market types into its flock. A rough synopsis of the message, which would need to be written in more marketing-friendly language: Republican nannyism and bigotry is bad for business. You'll do better when we're elected.
Functional examples:
"Republican hostility toward gays, who are more affluent and spend more money in this state than average, is going to send their dollars elsewhere."
"Republican hostility toward stem cell research is sending biotechnology companies to other states."
"Republican hostility toward birth control will keep women out of the workforce longer and will rob state employers of productivity and income."
The last one is coming soon. Wait for it.