Nathan Deal makes a forceful, biblical case against Georgia’s ‘religious liberty’ bill (Atlanta: move, bills)

[Mutiny77]

I miss living in Atlanta but God KNOWS I don't miss Georgia at all.

[fourthwarden]

Originally Posted by Mutiny77

I miss living in Atlanta but God KNOWS I don't miss Georgia at all.

Hey man, we're fightin' back, or at least trying to.

[wilful]

Originally Posted by Born 2 Roll

I hear what you are saying and share many of the very same wishes.

But for the Georgia Legislature, pandering often exclusively to the rural, exurban and outer-suburban hard-right social and religious conservatives is so much easier, because the hard-right social and religious conservatives are the voters who participate the most frequently in elections.

Hard-right social and religious conservatives don't just participate in presidential elections, but also participate most frequently in mid-term general elections and primary elections when much of the rest of the electorate stays home.

Politicians in states like Georgia with deep red electorates know this, so they often tailor their governing agenda specifically to appeal heavily to those hard-right social and religious constituents who they know to be the most dependable voters, especially during election years such as this one.


With Georgia's demographics appearing to trend in favor of the state becoming a "majority-minority" state in the not-too-distant future, there does appear to be a good possibility that the state's politics will moderate by moving away from the hard-right and more towards the center of the political spectrum.

But right now we appear to still be many years away from that political shift in Georgia politics because of the continued extreme weakness of the Democratic Party in Georgia.

The Democratic Party of Georgia has pretty much been in a state of retreat and dysfunction for much of the past 13-plus years ever since incumbent Democrat Roy Barnes lost to Republican Sonny Perdue in the governor's race in 2002.

With the complete failure of the Democratic Party to provide balance to the state's political climate by aggressively raising funds, recruiting new voters, reaching out to moderates and centrist residents and turning out voters during primary and general elections during the past 15-plus years of explosive growth in the number of politically moderate and progressive residents in the state along with the continued movement to the right of the national Republican Party, Georgia's political climate has continued to be dominated by archconservatives (by way of the Republican Party after 2002) despite the state's fast-growing population as a whole continuing to trend increasingly towards the center of the political spectrum.

In this particular situation the state continues to be dominated by hard-right conservatives who don't always seem to necessarily have the state's best interests and well-being at heart (particularly during election years when state government feels the pressing need to pander to conservative hard-liners with red-meat legislation that often brings the state unwanted attention).

Likely the only way to change Georgia's current often hard-right leaning political calculus is for the state's currently moribund Democratic Party to work its way back into contention in state politics as a moderate/centrist party that aggressively and relentlessly raises funds, aggressively and relentlessly reaches out to prospective new voters, aggressively and relentlessly registers new voters, turns out centrist, moderate and progressive voters during primary and general elections and puts heavy pressure on the currently-dominant Georgia Republican Party to move away from the hard-right and back to the center of the political spectrum.

Until the Democratic Party of Georgia can rebuild itself back into a political force that is at least equal to the Georgia Republican Party in terms of organization, direction and purpose, the state's political climate will continue to tilt very heavily to the right, particularly during election years like these.

Insightful and well crafted take on the current situation in Georgia and for that matter much of the South. Regrettably, these political and wrong headed actions will continue for at least another decade I'm afraid, but eventually we will look back on this era as yet another futile attempt, by a bigoted element to thwart the inexorable march towards moral justice and decency.

Just a matter of time.

[arjay57]

Looks like the NFL is jumping on the bandwagon.

Georgia anti-gay law could cost Atlanta a Super Bowl

[magnetar]

You know, I'm a gay person but I'm not offended by the law because it's so blatantly a homophobic reaction to marriage equality. It's because of the way it has the potential to set Atlanta back. I'd feel the same way about an egregiously sexist or racist bill that had the same effect. I moved here because the Atlanta region seemed both progressive and quickly developing, but if the state refuses to let it be so, I may have to go somewhere else. That would be too bad because I really like Atlanta.

[Born 2 Roll]

Originally Posted by magnetar

You know, I'm a gay person but I'm not offended by the law because it's so blatantly a homophobic reaction to marriage equality. It's because of the way it has the potential to set Atlanta back. I'd feel the same way about an egregiously sexist or racist bill that had the same effect. I moved here because the Atlanta region seemed both progressive and quickly developing, but if the state refuses to let it be so, I may have to go somewhere else. That would be too bad because I really like Atlanta.

The only thing that I can say is don't take out your unhappiness with the State of Georgia on Atlanta the city and Atlanta the metro area.

As many of us have known for many years, there is a huge difference between the much more moderate and progressive city (and now metro) of Atlanta and the often much more regressive State of Georgia.

This type of legislation is par for the course in an often regressive state like Georgia.

The only difference is that in this particular instance, the stakes seem to be so much higher because the Atlanta economy is so much larger now than it has ever been.

Now the whole world is watching our embarrassment and our state legislature's catastrophically blatant stupidity.

[fieldm]

Every state has dumb and backward laws that the major city in that state disagree with

[Born 2 Roll]

Originally Posted by fieldm

Every state has dumb and backward laws that the major city in that state disagree with

That is true in many instances. The problem in this case is that this particular backwards law seems to be risking the city, metro and state's entire economic well-being.

This is a law that appears to have the potential to do some very serious (if not severe) damage to the economy of this city, metro and state.

Heck, the law already appears to damaging Georgia's image and it has not even been signed by the governor yet.

[fieldm]

Originally Posted by Born 2 Roll

That is true in many instances. The problem in this case is that this particular backwards law seems to be risking the city, metro and state's entire economic well-being.

This is a law that appears to have the potential to do some very serious (if not severe) damage to the economy of this city, metro and state.

Heck, the law already appears to damaging Georgia's image and it has not even been signed by the governor yet.

Once it is vetoed everyone will forget about it unless they bring it up again once the gov is out of office

[Born 2 Roll]

Originally Posted by fieldm

Once it is vetoed everyone will forget about it unless they bring it up again once the gov is out of office

Hopefully this controversy will be forgotten if Governor Deal vetoes the religious liberty bill....And hopefully there will not be enough votes for the legislature to override that veto, which an attempted override of a Deal veto would be a strong possibility when the Georgia General Assembly resumes next year given the strong support of this bill by a large majority of state legislators and their most active constituents.

But that is assuming that Governor Deal will veto this bill. Though Governor Deal personally does not seem to be crazy about this bill, there is no guarantee that he absolutely will veto the bill.

With the bill passing both houses of the Georgia Legislature with large majorities (about 66% of the Georgia Senate and about 58% of the Georgia House voted to pass the bill), it is clear that a large majority of state legislators and their constituents want this legislation to become law, no matter how misguided it may seem to many, including the LGBTQ community and its supporters and Metro Atlanta and Georgia's powerful business communities.

Because the bill passed the legislature with such large majorities and is backed by an overwhelming majority of Georgia's supermajority Republican establishment (each of the state's county Republican parties have passed resolutions urging the passage of religious liberty legislation), there is a strong possibility that Governor Deal may decide to sign the bill into law, even though he does not seem to have much of an appetite for the bill personally.

People who live in Georgia (including metro Atlanta) have to be prepared for the possibility that both the state and the metro area will take a massive economic (and public relations) hit on this controversy....That's because there is no guarantee that this bill will be vetoed by Governor Deal.

Many of us are hopeful that Governor Deal will veto this bill. But given the very strong support for this bill by a large majority of the legislature and their most active constituents, a strong possibility remains that this bill could be signed into law. That just unfortunately is the reality of the situation that we are in.