One message minority voters already sent Georgia’s GOP
The GOP’s post-election listening tour comes to Atlanta today, with a twist.
Reince Preibus, the recently re-elected chairman of the Republican National Committee, is scheduled to meet this afternoon with a couple of dozen black Republicans in an “engagement and listening session” aimed at widening the GOP’s appeal. It’s an imperative bit of outreach for Georgia Republicans — the like of which the state party, despite undeniable demographic trends away from its nearly all-white voting base, has done dangerously little.
No doubt, any number of ideas will be discussed during this session. But there’s one policy that is a color-blindingly obvious necessity for any serious attempt to win over minority voters: school choice.
Just a week ago, hundreds of students and their parents and teachers braved the cold for the annual school-choice rally on the Capitol steps. As is the case every year, the majority of these students were not white.
And almost all of them will be eligible to vote by 2018 or 2020.
If you don’t know, those are pretty much the years Georgia Democrats are eyeing as the time those demographic trends will make them competitive again in state politics.
So, let’s see … we have a group of people who traditionally don’t vote for Republicans, rallying in support of a policy that, in Georgia anyway, has been promoted chiefly by Republicans.
If Georgia’s Republicans can’t connect those dots, frankly they don’t deserve to stay in power much longer.
Not least since this annual picture of their potential future constituents comes on the heels of a resounding victory in November’s elections for the GOP-led charter schools amendment. That’s particularly true in areas of the state where Republican victories are rare.
In case you missed it back then, let me repeat some statistics about how the charter schools amendment fared:
Of all Georgia’s counties, the amendment did best in Clayton (71 percent), where Mitt Romney won just 15 percent of the presidential vote.
The amendment won 66 percent of the vote in Fulton and 64 percent in DeKalb. And here’s guessing parents who vote in DeKalb have even more interest in school choice today, given the shenanigans going on with the leadership — if that’s the right word for it — of that county’s school system.
Together, those three counties accounted for about one-third of all black registered voters in Georgia. Their approval of the amendment outpaced even the healthy support for it in counties where majorities sided with Romney (56 percent).
Yet, during the present legislative session, there appears to be little chance of seeing more significant school-choice legislation passed.
Why? Because some legislators are afraid it’s bad politics.
Bad politics? A policy that wins by double-digits in GOP-majority counties, and by even more than that in the largest majority-Democrat counties, is considered bad politics?
Yes, it goes over poorly with the entrenched educational bureaucracy. But so did the charter-schools amendment. And anyway, since when does the Republican Party side with the bureaucracy over taxpayers and parents?
If Republicans are to make inroads with minorities and other groups that typically don’t vote for them, they’re going to have to demonstrate, among other things, that they will put a priority on those voters’ interests. In some cases, that means siding with those voters’ interests over the financial interests of those who are trying to maintain the status quo.
That means putting the interests of students and parents — of any race — above those of the education bureaucracy. That means understanding that public education means ensuring all of our children are well-educated, and not necessarily that all of them must be educated by a publicly run monopoly. That means arguing as passionately for giving individuals choices in education as in health care.
If they can’t do those things, they might as well give up on the listening tours.
– By Kyle Wingfield
Tell us what you think about the site
Customer Care »
Vacation stops, manage subscriptions and more
AJC Services
Sections
Other Editions
Visitor Agreement | Privacy Statement
© 2013 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
193 comments Add your comment
Dusty
February 7th, 2013
5:25 pm
Hillbilly
Oh deary!! Your reary?? You make me cheery! Said so sincerely!
Andrew DiMartino
February 7th, 2013
5:27 pm
To all those saying that the Republican Party has never and will never stand up for minorities and women: The republicans are the reason for civil rights, and that is an undeniable fact. The reason you say that they do not stand for minorities is because democrats OVER represent minorities and women. They lie about the “war on women” and how republicans are racist just because they do not give them entitlements and welfare. I am a member of the Libertarian Party, and this is the main reason why I will never vote for a democrat in my life.They are the champions of the oppression of minorities and the redistribution of wealth, and they will be for years to come.
Aesop's Fables and other Lib Economic Theories
February 7th, 2013
6:48 pm
Outgoing transportation secretary: America is one big pothole right now
Another 800 Billion down the drain, courtesy of the big spending liberals.
Michael H. Smith
February 7th, 2013
6:51 pm
“the entrenched educational bureaucracy” is more committed to the democrat party than the ethnic minority you cite Kyle, therein is lies the reason.
You and I are on the same page, reading the same lines on this issue Kyle. The “entrenched” and the democrats they vote for year after year see what is behind our scheme to “educate” the minority Kyle and they don’t like the looks of the idea of losing political power to a minority people they can no longer “indoctrinate” and thence politically control.
Let the money follow the student.
md
February 7th, 2013
7:18 pm
A little reary for the dreary makes one cheery………
Wilbur
February 7th, 2013
8:37 pm
When you talk about education, the educrats always trash the parents. I am betting that does not wash well in areas in which the charter school amendment won big.
billy ray
February 7th, 2013
9:02 pm
You actually could have cut the statement off at “frankly the Republicans do not deserve to stay in power much longer” ; that would have been a truism and one of the rare statements that I agree with you on.
Thulsa Doom
February 7th, 2013
9:27 pm
Good grief. I guess Debbiedoright couldn’t figure out that we were talking about percentages and not absolute numbers. Jeez.
Jack ®
February 8th, 2013
5:39 am
The GOP can win the Black vote in Georgia if they follow the same rules as the Democratic party: promise everybody everything they want and to hell with anybody that disagrees.
Cutty
February 8th, 2013
7:09 am
Yeah, w Kyle and his bloodhound gang here, its no wonder us minorities aren’t voting for the GOP in droves.
MiltonMan
February 8th, 2013
7:25 am
“Well, Milton Man the funny thing about the “wastelands” of these heavily populated area, are some good hardworking, tax paying citizens who want the same for their community as you do yours.”
That is pure BS. If they want the same as me, then they would make sure their schools are the best in the state, they would make sure their children are respectful and do their homework, they would elect decent people to to the school boards, etc., etc.
None of this is evident in these areas.
md
February 8th, 2013
7:38 am
“None of this is evident in these areas.”
Agreed. Those in poorer communities still have the choice to make their lives better. I understand that some can’t afford to paint their homes or even buy a mower, but when one goes into areas where trash is just scattered through the yards it’s evident they don’t much care about making the choices.
MiltonMan
February 8th, 2013
7:40 am
“Meanwhile ground zero of the union battle, Wisconsin, is ranked 2nd in the country.”
Gotta love that 3rd-grade level lib logic. They bash cons for lack of inclusivity of blacks the “throw” out a fact that includes a state with one of the lowest percentages of black residents.
Also, libs when trying to convince us of your “facts” here are a couple of hints: (1) Become familiar with correlation vs. causation. E.g., if a teachers union is implemented here in Georgia there is absolutley zero guarantee that are students would all of sudden become smarter. (2) Quit using a single variable to win an arguement when there are mutliple variables involved with many outcomes.
MiltonMan
February 8th, 2013
7:44 am
“but when one goes into areas where trash is just scattered through the yards it’s evident they don’t much care about making the choices.”
Reminds me of the story on the local news about 5 years back when residents were complaining in an Atlanta neighborhood about “their” street and homes being flooded due to a clogged street drain. The inspector came out the next day to discover that the drain was clogged due to trash that people had thrown on the sidewalk. As opposed to cleaning up the trash, the people blamed the city for not cleaning it up.
Lee
February 8th, 2013
7:51 am
Back in the 60’s, the Democrat/Communist party realized that blacks could be easily manipulated into voting as a block by offering them a few trinkets such as welfare and affirmative action. The traitorous Kennedy brothers further sealed the deal with the ill-advised Immigration Act in the 60s which opened the floodgates for third world, non-white immigration.
Until the politically correct whites overcome their mental illness, this country will continue it’s death spiral into oblivion. They better hurry though, because the Dems are wanting to legitimize another 30 million Democratic voters through their amnesty program. Get that passed and this country will be beyond critical mass.
As the prophetic Nikita Kruchev said back in ‘61, “We do not have to destroy America with Missiles; America will destroy itself from within.”
Today, most of America’s major cities have vast expanses of “no man’s land”, with gangs, drugs, dilapidated houses and building, and a populace waiting for a handout. California is essentially bankrupt. We’ve spent trillions occupying a couple of countries in the middle east.
And neither the Dims and Repugs have a clue…
Lil' Barry Bailout - OBAMAPHONE!!!
February 8th, 2013
7:54 am
I’m guessing that occurred in one of those voting precincts that went 99% Obozo.
Parasite losers.
Grob Hahn
February 8th, 2013
7:56 am
The democrats are ejecting white people from their party. Where will they go? Republicans have little chance of impressing non-white voters. Instead they will continue to alienate their core white voters by chasing minorities who hate them for being white. I’m beginning to think republicans might just be as stupid as democrats say they are. Demographics being what they are in the US the only way to win an election is to appeal to the majority. How will appealing to the minority happen for them? Only by acting like democrats and giving away lots of “free” stuff. The pragmatic changes this country needs will not take shape under these conditions. So we are headed for a crash that will domino around the planet. For what?
Grobbbbbbb
Lil' Barry Bailout - OBAMAPHONE!!!
February 8th, 2013
8:42 am
“Republicans have little chance of impressing non-white voters”
—————–
That’s extremely insulting to non-whites, as Republicans stand for free markets, free people, personal responsibility, and achievement based on merit. Your implication that minorities are fear or oppose these things is really quite breathtaking in its bigotry.
You should be ashamed of yourself.
indigo
February 8th, 2013
8:44 am
Milton Man – 7:40
Actually, its not the job of a teacher’s union to make students smarter.
In fact, that is not the teacher’s job either.
MiltonMan
February 8th, 2013
9:00 am
“Milton Man – 7:40
Actually, its not the job of a teacher’s union to make students smarter.
In fact, that is not the teacher’s job either.”
Yes, I realize that. I was responding to one of the posts from a lib who was bashing me & “trying” to make the arguement that teacher unions = smart children.
indigo
February 8th, 2013
9:10 am
Milton Man – 9:00
I understand.
It seems that libs as well as cons can sometimes have very fuzzy thinking.
Finn McCool (The System isn't Broken; It's Fixed)
February 8th, 2013
10:41 am
Republicans stand for free markets, free people, personal responsibility, and achievement based on merit
What a bunch of BS. I need waders in this blog.
1) A Republican has never seen a “fixed” market he or she didn’t like. They like it to be free as long as it is benefiting them and then add some limitations when things don’t go their way.
2) free people? LOL. As long as you are white, heterosexual, christian, and male you should be free to do anything you want, right?
3) Personal responsibility. Yeah, until they really screw things up. 9/11, Iraq, prescription drug plan. The classic example is the journalist asking W if he ever made any mistakes or would change anythng he had done and the guy not being able to come up with a single example.
4) achievement based on merit? LOL
Finn McCool (The System isn't Broken; It's Fixed)
February 8th, 2013
10:44 am
When I think of Christianity in a good way, I never think of Republicans.
When I think of Christianity in a bad way, I always think of Republicans.
Let the poor people rot, don’t give anyone worse off than them any healthcare or help. Don’t reign in the money lenders as they bleed us dry. Get your own damn fish and loaves and leave mine alone.
Finn McCool (The System isn't Broken; It's Fixed)
February 8th, 2013
10:46 am
Spend more on military than the next 28 countries COMBINED but raise a stink when someone tries to offer its citizens healthcare or a school lunch.
Tiberius - pulling the tail of the left AND right when needed
February 8th, 2013
10:50 am
Looks like someone wee-weed in Finn’s Wheaties this morning.
The DNC talking points memo seems to be a bit nasty as well.
Rafe Hollister preparing for an Obamanist America
February 8th, 2013
10:53 am
Ann Coulter has a good column on this same subject today, where she points out that the situation for the GOP is not as bad as the government media and the Dems would have you believe.
http://www.anncoulter.com/
Dusty
February 8th, 2013
10:59 am
Well, I tell you, I’m glad we only got minority voters to worry about. Have you been reading the news? How about these doozies??
In New Guinea, they just tortured and burned to dead a twenty year old mother because they decided she was a WITCH.
IN Florida, they are hunting for PYTHONS in the Everglades. Those things are big!
In Georgia, they are offering a big piece of North Georgia to Tennessee if that state will give us a little piece of property for a pipeline. WHAT PIPELINE? Water, oil or booze? (Where do you live, Hillbilly? I worry. )
In California the police are hunting for a …POLICEMAN! He’s not a nice one, I tell you!
New England is preparing for THREE FEET of snow. Shiver my timbers!
So today is not “worry about elections day”. I gotta go remove any hex signs, set a snake trap, lock the doors and stack up some firewood. Just in case, you know.
Dusty
February 8th, 2013
11:03 am
Finn is not thinking at all. I decided that after reading his 10:44 and his 10:46. Having a bad morning, Finn?
Dusty
February 8th, 2013
11:08 am
Careful, RAFE.
Democrats will be burning Ann Coulter at the stake. They are a bit incendiary this morning.
Hillbilly D
February 8th, 2013
11:15 am
In Georgia, they are offering a big piece of North Georgia to Tennessee if that state will give us a little piece of property for a pipeline. WHAT PIPELINE? Water, oil or booze? (Where do you live, Hillbilly? I worry. )
Won’t effect me but piping water down to Atlanta from Tennessee is about the dumbest damn idea I’ve ever heard. First of all, Tennessee has no reason to agree to such a thing, second of all, the cost to pump water (yes you have to come up over the mountains) would be astronomical, third, if you think you’ve had trouble with lawsuits with Alabama, include the Tennessee River and you can add Tennessee, Kentucky, and Mississippi to the mix for sure and possibly even everything downstream on the Ohio and the Mississippi.
The wise thing would be for Atlanta to just learn to base its economy on something besides uncontrolled growth and sprawl.
Of course, it don’t really matter to me, what state my home is in, ’cause it’s my home and home is where I’m going to stay. I’m sure every other state has just as many crooks running it, as Georgia does. It’d just give me a new bunch to cuss.
snoqualmiefalls
February 8th, 2013
11:23 am
Georgia… too small to be a country… too large to be an insane asylum..
Just love Georgia politics where cons are conned on a daily basis.. Yup.
Tiberius - pulling the tail of the left AND right when needed
February 8th, 2013
11:28 am
You’ve gotta love it when a liberal blogger based in (or wishes he was in) Washington state disses another state.
‘Course, it just proves he knows little about the state he disses, which shows in his every post.
Kyle Wingfield
February 8th, 2013
11:34 am
Fyi, there’s a new post upstairs.
Dusty
February 8th, 2013
11:39 am
Well, HILLBILLY, I knew I’d get the straight facts from you. I’lm not that familiar with the terrain except to enjoy a visit to enjoy the wonders. But I want to ask you: What area of Georgia exactly do they want to exchange for a small piece of Tenn “wasteland’?
Would there be a reservoir with the pipeline? Is there a great volume of water in Tenn. we would tap into?
I think you know much more about this that many under the gold dome. Have they gotten your viewpoint? I hope so.
Just wondering ’cause Atlanta is not going to cut back. Is there anything deep ;underground that we can tap into that would not ruin present water levels?
Hillbilly D
February 8th, 2013
11:56 am
Georgia… too small to be a country… too large to be an insane asylum..
Actually, James L. Petigru’s original quote involves a different state.
Dusty
All I saw was something about “roads and rail lines”, so basically, they’d be swapping nothing. They seem to not realize that Tennessee has access to the ocean already, via the Mississippi River.
As far as folks under the Gold Dome, I was once having a general discussion about water with my local rep. He started all this about the Tennessee River and I just looked at him and told him “That’s the dumbest damn idea I’ve ever heard”. He didn’t have much to say after that.
As far as underground, that’s just prolonging the inevitable. What do they do when they suck the acquifier dry? Here’s a link to acquifiers in the Southeast. Notice that they all belong to other states, as well as Georgia.
http://www.google.com/imgres?hl=en&sa=X&tbo=d&biw=1440&bih=785&tbm=isch&tbnid=78g1qSfeM4jPNM:&imgrefurl=http://coastgis.marsci.uga.edu/summit/aquifers.htm&docid=RCd5I3xISJkI1M&imgurl=http://coastgis.marsci.uga.edu/summit/images/ga_aquifers.jpg&w=615&h=1500&ei=oi0VUZb2FMHLqgGC54GwBA&zoom=1&ved=1t:3588,r:0,s:0,i:85&iact=rc&dur=354&sig=103273934425368330063&page=1&tbnh=171&tbnw=70&start=0&ndsp=28&tx=46&ty=27
Hillbilly D
February 8th, 2013
11:56 am
Forget that link and use this one
http://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/FS-010-96/images/fig1.gif
Hillbilly D
February 8th, 2013
11:57 am
Geez this is the link for the Southeast
http://coastgis.marsci.uga.edu/summit/images/ga_aquifers.jpg
Hillbilly D
February 8th, 2013
12:05 pm
One final link. This is a map of river basins in Georgia. One quick glance at this will show you what Atlanta’s water problem is. Most major cities, especially the oldest ones grew up around water, either on the coast, where a large river ran into the ocean (New Orleans, New York, etc) or where two or more large rivers meet (Pittsburgh, etc) or on the Great Lakes.
Atlanta was built by railroad people, whose only interest was in building a railroad and not in how the city would sustain itself. It was built in 1836/37, as Terminus. Most of the folks up here in the Hills, predate that date, in Georgia, often by 50 years.
http://www.caes.uga.edu/applications/publications/files/html/B1385/images/Ma1_RiverBasins.JPG
The Flint and Chattahoochie basins, combine to be part of the Apalachicola basin, in Florida.
Anyhow, Dusty, hope that answers some of your questions.
Dusty
February 8th, 2013
12:25 pm
Thank you, HILLBILLY
I thought you would have good info. I will have to look at those aquifar maps again, maybe get one son to tell me more about what I see. He’s got a degree in geology which he doesn’t use much. I can’t get a feel about where lies the most water or how long it would last and things like that. It’s probably all there for me if I give it more study.
Keep after those government contactsl They need to talk to someone who knows what is going on from actual facts and living in North Georgia.. Good luck with that. But… Tennessee may not even give this proposal the time of day…
md
February 8th, 2013
12:50 pm
Dusty….GA is trying to play nice with TN to see if honey works better than vinegar. I’d guess it stems from the fact that GA got cheated out of it’s share of the water many moons ago due to error:
” The border issue is being raised now because Georgia has a water shortage. If the border had been drawn accurately, a small part of the Tennessee River would lie inside Georgia, giving it access to much more water than it has today. ”
http://www.flickr.com/photos/amapple/3583667471/
Dusty
February 8th, 2013
12:50 pm
Thanks again, HILLBILLY, for the river basin map. After looking at it for a quick review, I wondered about the Ocmulgee and Flint river basins. Are they not large enough to share any water or uphill doesn’t work?
If everybody was as informed on our water sources as you are, we probably would know how to answer problems better. You have helped so much to make it interesting. I plan to spend more time on this subject.
I had some sturdy ancestors too. Over in middle South Carolina most of them. I grew up on the sandhills (the “old coastline”) with plenty of pine trees and only a trickle of the Edisto River a few miles away.. Farther back in history, my “folks” lived outside Charleston. Plenty of water there.
I
Dusty
February 8th, 2013
12:57 pm
MD,
Maybe you are right about the “honey” in this project. Too bad that the “error” has been in place so long.
The sound of giving up a good strip of land for a small piece of desolate property for a pipeline just doesn’t “sit” well. Maybe a bad solution is better than no solution. The beat goes on!!
Hillbilly D
February 8th, 2013
4:34 pm
md
No, I’m not trying to play nice with Tennessee. Even if that small strip of land is in Georgia, it’s still not logistically and economically feasible to bring water to Atlanta from there. It’s an exercise in futility and political grandstanding, in my opinion.
As for the surveying error, that happened long ago. Whenever I’ve been involved in a land line case, in court, they always say, “it’s what’s on the ground that counts”, not what’s on paper. That’s were the concept of “adverse possession” comes in, which comes up in land cases in court, all the time.
Dusty
The thing about the Flint and Ocmulgee River basins is that Atlanta is at the head of them. That’s were streams are small and the water volume is, as well. That’s basically Atlanta’s problem with the Chattahoochie, it’s too far upstream and too close to the head of the watershed. It’s basically just in a bad place to be a major city. Atlanta has a smaller watershed to draw from than any major city, except for maybe some of those desert cities out west. You think fights over water rights are something here, try looking at those out west and their fights.