An Appeal to the 62%: Georgia isn’t Indiana

Last night, Charlie Harper and I were on 11Alive discussing Presidential Politics. He remarked that everyone has a crazy uncle who says racist things, but nobody in the family wants him to have the nuclear codes. That about sums up the problem Republicans in Georgia face. You share some DNA with an irresponsible bigot,  so what are you going to do about it?

Like retweeting DA King and reposting the Christian Index, voting for Donald Trump is a vote for a racist, sexist, and impractical demagogue. But Republicans other option is Hillary Clinton, so what do you do?

You can start by examining whether the perception you have about Hillary is reality, or was just a narrative to defeat policies and people with which you disagreed. In the 90’s, Hillary became the personification of the evils of healthcare reform. To defeat that idea, Hillary became an bogeyman, or bogeywoman, as misogyny was enlisted in this effort. Her failure to take her husband’s name, her manner, her suits, all became part of the conversation.

The 1993 Health Care Reform became HillaryCare, just as the 2009 one became ObamaCare. They made the idea about the person, and that time racism got called up from the minors to take part. The he’s “really a Muslim” and “not really an American” arguments were the symptoms.

This doesn’t make you sexist or racist because you opposed a health care law. But it also shouldn’t surprise you that when sexism and racism have been so much a part of the anti-Hillary and Barack rhetoric that the Republican primary was won by someone who is both racist and sexist.

Removing the tribalism engendered from those efforts, what’s left? She probably wants the CDC to be able to study gun violence. Is that so bad? Is it worse than being cool with a nuclear Saudi Arabia? Because on the issues that’s the choice here.

62% of Republican primary voters in Georgia preferred someone other than Trump in March. And over 80% of that group voted for someone whose parents emigrated here. That’s who has to make this decision.

You have decide if the gap between you and Hillary is greater than the gap between you and Trump. She’s not here to upset the apple cart, and in many areas there will be little change from Obama’s. It’s a moderate, and if you ask Bernie and his friends, a conservative agenda. If you are still closer to Trump, it might not be because of the issues.

You can’t keep your racist uncle from Thanksgiving, but you can keep Donald Trump out of the White House. For the good of the party and the nation, consider making other plans come November 8th.

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