It's not R vs. D in Georgia. It's values vs the absence of them.
Herschel Walker... you've got to be kidding
A great deal of the nation is focused today on Georgia, and for good reason. For those who are misguided over what this election is about, I want to introduce a perspective that focuses on actual American values, not the patently ridiculous, left vs. right, liberal vs. conservative or Republican vs. Democrat. While pundits babble on from all “sides,” I suggest that voters in Georgia and the rest of the nation, give very serious consideration to whether candidates, issues or parties, embrace our constitutional values… or not.
Voting by party affiliation, especially since the Trump era, has clearly demonstrated that nearly half of America, has become more addicted to the so-called conservative values (spoiler alert, today’s GOP is NOT conservative, but extremist) than our national values. A review of true conservative principles, like President Eisenhower’s 1956 campaign platform, demonstrates actual conservative values, not the xenophobic, dishonest and un-American culture wars anchoring today’s GOP. People and parties are what they do, not what they say. Neither party is guilt free, but in the span of my voting lifetime, beginning in our bi-centennial year, it is today’s Republican Party, controlled by the MAGA crowd, that has deviated the furthest from our values, as enshrined by our founders. I’m sorry if this offends anyone but as our second president, John Adams said, “facts are stubborn things.”
The proof is in just how many congressmen and senators voted consistently to enable Trump’s dismembering of our democracy and as will become known in time, his traitorous activities. Only two sat on the January 6th panel and neither will return to congress next year. In the midterms, 178 “election deniers” were elected as Republicans. This goes on and on, disgracefully including an armed insurrection against the US government. When 99% of elected members of Congress, consistently voted to enable a traitorous, corrupt, insurrectionist, the party itself declares themselves, un-American.
Today, in three of the most read and least-biased media outlets, The AP/ Associated Press, Reuters and the BBC, there are some great pieces talking about the Georgia’s runoff election for a US Senate seat. Even in the most credible of media, this election is framed by the usual, modern US understanding of politics, that it’s between parties. This alone should raise questions in the minds of well-informed citizens.
Parties or “factions.” were never part of our constitution, and in my personal opinion, I would prefer that we did away with them… completely. At worst, I would accept them if, there was full transparency re: campaign finance and that only personal donations were allowed, up to a very small amount, say, $100.
All obstructions to the execution of the laws, all combinations and associations under whatever plausible character with the real design to direct, control, counteract, or awe the regular deliberation and action of the constituted authorities, are destructive of this fundamental principle and of fatal tendency. They serve to organize faction; to give it an artificial and extraordinary force; to put in the place of the delegated will of the nation the will of a party, often a small but artful and enterprising minority of the community; and, according to the alternate triumphs of different parties, to make the public administration the mirror of the ill concerted and incongruous projects of faction, rather than the organ of consistent and wholesome plans digested by common councils and modified by mutual interests. However, combinations or associations of the above description may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely, in the course of time and things, to become potent engines by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government, destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion.
- Washington did not publicly deliver his Farewell Address. It first appeared on September 19, 1796, in the Philadelphia Daily American Advertiser and then in papers around the country
Of course, after the SCOTUS ruling on “Citizen’s United,” our most prestigious SC Justices seem to think that allowing PACs and others to operate in shadows and behind doors, without donation accountability, is an American value. While that I have zero law experience, this case doesn’t even pass the common-sense test. It has only exacerbated what President G. Washington warned us about in his Farewell Address at our very first, democratic transition of power. What’s happening in Georgia is evidence, that he was spot on in 1796. Corrupt factions would destroy everything our founders desired for representative government. Government by, with and for the people. Paraphrased from the last line of President Lincoln’s, Gettysburg Address.
Government, especially the principles that ours was founded on, are not only the law, but the identity of America, and Americans. Herschel Walker embraces zero of those qualities. Reverend Warnock, most of them. It’s not about party but whether or not voters in Georgia prefer their Republican brand over the embodiment of the values our founders bequeathed us.
Don’t get me wrong, I despise all parties and advocate for neither. My focus is based exclusively on, the values that shape and control our destiny as a nation and whether they conform to our national values. Which candidate embodies the closest perspective to our values, not the values of parties which as the Trump administration has so painfully proved, was the precise opposite of all our founders held dear and intended for us.
I feel shame for Georgia that this race is even close. An obvious lack of character and American values is what Walker puts on display daily. He’s kept from reporters’ questions due to constantly talking unintelligible gibberish, has a life chock full of deviation from morality and now, even deviation from reality. Warnock, though human, has long devoted his life to the greater good and lived within the values passionately argued over while developing our system of government, nearly two and a half centuries ago.
Our founders were not only brilliant, but passionate about what it took to sustain our nascent republic. Madison, long considered the “father” of our Constitution did extraordinary research into representative government, dating back to ancient Greece. He laid them out for comparison looking for flaws in each system that caused them to fail. His remarkable analysis can still be read today. Reading his work will make you even more ashamed of what our style of “politics” has become. Watching SCOTUS pave the way towards more state control, especially of elections has our third president, Madison, rolling in his grave. The best informed in the world regarding representative government, while fathering our constitution integrated common-sense with deep research. He did this so that our government of principles, would endure, not become what we see today.
So today in Georgia, will her voters give us a man who can implement Madison’s design for government or just another Republican hack in the Trump vein, who will give them a controlled vote to support their modern pursuit of greed and dismantling of our constitution further? This is not a rhetorical question? This is literally a litmus test for the Republican party voters in Georgia, just as the red whimper was for the party during our midterm elections. America has lost at least a generation in our progress towards, “a more perfect union.”
Like I have written before, my home state is Texas, which after 27 years of exclusive Republican rule, has gone from principled conservatism to failing by extremism. Their midterm platform embraced election denial as a plank, anti-constitutional efforts to put religion (their version of Christian Nationalism) into schools, which by the way, are still failing and the scapegoat of all of their mismanagement for decades. Teachers left last year at historically high numbers. My wife’s old school, pre-retirement, it was 30% and… those same teachers, if they manage to stay and retire, haven’t’ had a cost-of-living increase in 19 years. Across Texas, over 70% of teachers seriously weighed quitting.
Electing Walker over Warnock will anchor Georgia to a situation like Texas for another six years and worse, his vote in the Senate would impact every American. For Georgia, he’ll just be another humiliating weight around the neck of decent Georgians, regardless of party. While that I do, strongly prefer Warnock for Georgia and the nation, it’s not because he’s a democrat. Simply put, it’s because he can truthfully demonstrate a lifetime of service to the greater good and within the boundaries of our constitution. Walker… he’s in service to the highest bidder and the most persuasive manipulators. In many ways, he embodies a modern version of the Old South where powerful, mostly white politicians take advantage of and use a black man for their own benefit. Precisely what Warnock has opposed his entire life.
Georgia, Texas and the entire nation, must be set free of the chains of party over country. We have by birthright, only one set of national values. Anyone who has read even one, credible, American history book, will know how far we as a nation have deviated from our lofty values these past few years. We haven’t driven off the democracy cliff yet, but we’re running out room if we don’t get back to who we are… as Americans.