Gubernatorial Race 2018 (Atlanta: reputation, exercise, historic)

[Born 2 Roll]

Originally Posted by Pemgin

Republicans have centered every statewide campaign around winning overwhelming support from ultraconservative rural whites. I wonder how much longer that's going to be a viable strategy. Atlanta accounts for about 90% of the state's growth and a lot of rural areas are shrinking.

It's not just the state's current ruling Republican regime that has centered every statewide campaign around winning overwhelming support from deeply conservative rural white voters.

The Democratic ruling regime before them also focused extremely heavily on turning out the conservative rural white vote in statewide elections for the dozen or so decades that they controlled and dominated Georgia's political scene.

The old Southern Democrats (or "Dixiecrats" as they were called in many circles) won many elections, particularly at the state level, by connecting into rural voters often visceral dislike of a heavily black and progressive urban Atlanta by campaigning strongly against the perceived excesses and debauchery of the strongly disliked Atlanta.

Though, as the state continued to grow with the addition of new residents in Atlanta's suburbs in the late 20th Century, the Democrats did began paying more attention to black voters out of necessity as Republicans continued to ascend to parity and eventually into power on the strength of overwhelming support from white voters in Atlanta's explosively fast-growing outer suburbs.

While Atlanta's suburban growth was buoying the Republican Party upwards towards parity (and eventual dominance) in the 1980's and 1990's, Georgia Democrats were able to hold onto power for more than two decades (from the Reagan Revolution that started with the 1980 election until 2002) by fusing an unlikely coalition of conservative rural and outer-exurban white voters with black and progressive white urban voters that helped them to elect pivotal political leaders like Joe Frank Harris (who was critical in helping to lure the Olympics to Atlanta as well as fund the construction of the Georgia Dome and the expansion of the Georgia World Congress Center), Zell Miller (who lead the way in dramatically increasing funding for education with the establishment of the Georgia Lottery and the HOPE Scholarship as well as made the first unsuccessful attempt to take the Confederate battle emblem off of the Georgia state flag) and Roy Barnes (who successfully lead the way to remove the Confederate battle emblem off of the GA state flag) to the Governor's Mansion.

Originally Posted by Odium14

Got enough leftists in Atlanta don't need yankee invaders coming down here trying to change MY state into some leftist nanny state.

Originally Posted by DreamerD

Why do you think you can say that this state belongs to you?

Originally Posted by samiwas1

And what the hell makes it YOUR state, and not MY state? Because you're a country-dweller, that somehow makes you special?

With the state's political structure being geared almost exclusively towards catering (and sometimes pandering) to deeply conservative rural and exurban white voters, and with deeply conservative rural white voters dominating the state's political climate and electoral process during the state's entire existence through the current day, it is not at all surprising that rural/outer-exurban residents like Odium14 understandably think that political (and social and cultural) control of Georgia is exclusively their province.

There has not really ever been a time when deeply conservative rural and exurban white residents have not held a dominant stake in Georgia's governance... So to now be faced with what appears is the very serious possibility of a progressive black woman being elected governor for the first time in Georgia's 285-year history feels like the end of the world for many people who have known nothing but the control and domination of Georgia politics by the white male-dominated power structure.

[DreamerD]

Originally Posted by Born 2 Roll

With the state's political structure being geared almost exclusively towards catering (and sometimes pandering) to deeply conservative rural and exurban white voters, and with deeply conservative rural white voters dominating the state's political climate and electoral process during the state's entire existence through the current day, it is not at all surprising that rural/outer-exurban residents like Odium14 understandably think that political (and social and cultural) control of Georgia is exclusively their province.

There has not really ever been a time when deeply conservative rural and exurban white residents have not held a dominant stake in Georgia's governance... So to now be faced with what appears is the very serious possibility of a progressive black woman being elected governor for the first time in Georgia's 285-year history feels like the end of the world for many people who have known nothing but the control and domination of Georgia politics by the white male-dominated power structure.

Exactly! And this is the fear that politicians prey on.

[JayHey]

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/22/p...mn%2Fthe-daily

Covers how Kemp has done more than any other person in the US to disenfranchise voters.

[green_mariner]

I refuse to vote for Kemp. I was never going to vote for him in the first place. His political ad featuring him pointing a gun at a teenager (i.e. his daughter's date) and putting on that "redneck" persona was a big turn-off for me. When I heard about his voting rights controversies, that sealed it for me even more. He was recorded saying this:

"Democrats are working hard, registering all these minority voters that are out there and others that are sitting on the sidelines."

I live in Georgia (though at this point I am seeking other places to live in). As long as I'm here, I must have my say. Being a Black man myself, I have every reason to distrust Brian Kemp.

[atltechdude]

Obviously Abrams. I don't personally think she's all that qualified but I refuse to vote for another Republican as long as an unqualified maniac is the leader of that party.

[Pemgin]

There's something phallic about how he has his shotgun sitting in his lap in the "Jake" ad.

His whole shtick is pathetic. The big truck, the dozen or so guns laying around as he talks to "Jake," the chainsaw, the explosion. It's a goofy facsimile of a "manly man." But hundreds of thousands of our neighbors have bought it wholeheartedly.

[JayHey]

I know all sorts of stereotypical joke stories about Southern dads, doesn't mean I want the Governor of our state to embody those jokes.

[green_mariner]

Personally, I have been given more reason to distrust Brian Kemp, especially with the voting suppression controversy.

[KingKanye]

Education, healthcare, foreign policy, transportation/infrastructure - these are all things that people around the world find important when making their votes.

But there is a loud minority here in the U.S. that only care about guns above all else. I find that pitiful.

[green_mariner]

This gubernatorial race will be volatile. Liberal vs conservative, Black vs White. And I do expect some tension. Georgia has some political divides that are not only regional, but racial. Outside of the inner parts on metro Atlanta, the racial divide is very pronounced. Majority black counties vote Democrat. Majority white counties vote Republican. In alot of states, it's a rural vs urban thing. In Georgia, as well as some other Deep South states, race plays a big factor. Rural vs urban isn't as pronounced in Georgia. I'm seeing it. I don't see any Black people supporting Kemp. So far, I've seen Blacks and White liberals support Adams. I've seen only White conservatives support Kemp.