Posted on 01/01/2011 9:33:20 PM PST by Zakeet
Georgia Democrats enter the upcoming 2011 session of the General Assembly reeling from a series of defections and facing an uphill climb toward relevance.
The once-dominant party holds 85 of 236 seats in the House and Senate, Democrats’ lowest ebb since Reconstruction. And the number has been slipping.
Since the November election when the party lost control of all statewide offices, nine Democratic legislators have become Republicans, including Athens Rep. Doug McKillip, who switched less than a month after his colleagues elected him chairman of the House Democrats.
Now party leaders are scrambling to find new growth strategies while attempting to be more than a speed bump for the Republican majority.
The task is daunting. Mirroring a trend across the South, much of the state party’s white, rural base has fled to the Republican Party and Democrats have struggled to find attractive candidates for statewide posts they held for generations.
Newly elected House Minority Leader Stacey Abrams, D-Atlanta, admits her party’s primary function in the short term will be as a check on the Republican majority’s power.
[Snip]
The defections by rural, white Democrats continue a trend that’s made the Georgia Democrats a more urban and African-American party. As a result, the power of its African-American Democratic leaders has grown while the party’s statewide influence has dwindled.
[Snip]
Fifteen years ago, African-Americans made up a third of Democrats in the House. Now they are a two-thirds majority in the House Democratic Caucus and hold most of the leadership positions. In the Senate, African-Americans make up more than half of Democrats compared to one in four in 1996.
(Excerpt) Read more at ajc.com ...
And identifying themselves as the party of the working and middle classes with republicans beholden to special interests...is exactly the propaganda that may work if the republicans aren’t willing to expose the democrat duplicity.
People forget, things get a little better economically, the news edits out things having to do with cultural degredation such as queers and abortion....and it’s easy for the RATs to slide back into congressional seats.
I hope Georgia can keep their heads on straight as I also hope for many other states in this country. Some places are beyond hope (CA, NY, etc)
“You’ve got to be kidding? Within 2 years, the Tea Party went and forced Arlen Specter out, voted Bob Bennett in Utah out, got Toomey, Rand Paul, Mike Lee and others elected to the US Senate. The GOP is about 1/3 Tea Party in the US House.”
Wait and see how they will be subverted and neutralized. I sincerely hope that is not the case but I doubt it will be the otherwise.
Wait and see how they will be subverted and neutralized. I sincerely hope that is not the case but I doubt it will be the otherwise.Within 2 years, the Tea Party went and forced Arlen Specter out, voted Bob Bennett in Utah out, got Toomey, Rand Paul, Mike Lee and others elected to the US Senate. The GOP is about 1/3 Tea Party in the US House.
But whoever suggested that the Tea Party would let it go at that? We should be very publicly making preliminary plans "peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances" now.We must put the part of the GOP which doesn't want to get the word on notice. And I would think that there will be at least one candidate for the Republican presidential nomination ready and willing to lead that movement. Probably Governor Palin, IMHO.
Newsflash: The Democrats have a death grip on their constituencies, are highly organized, can get out the legal and illegal vote in the areas of highest population, and thanks to their ability to employ key constituencies in government, academia, and the media, are a self-funding organization. These are their back-ups. The entire dole-based population is also theirs, from kids diagnosed with ADD on SSI, to welfare moms in Section 8 housing, they have troops the Republicans can only dream about.
Their default voter base is always more than half of the electorate. The GOP's only national chance is to attract the so-called "independents." Unfortunately, the GOP at the moment has no program, no plan, no leaders, and no clue. If we are not careful, the Evil Party will kick the Stupid Party's butt.... again .... in 2012. We will still be in this depression and the Republicans will take the blame ...again.
Why has everyone forgotten that today's "Southern Republican" was yesterday's "Southern Democrat." They were Democrats because in the olden days, up to FDR and then LBJ, the African-Americans were Republicans!
Hmmmmm...isn't that about the same time that The RATS of the day organized a little organization they called The KKK?
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