Posted on 11/09/2002 2:08:46 PM PST by John Lenin
REPUBLICAN REVOLUTION: On political landscape, shake-up has just begun
Gus Cochran - For the Journal-Constitution
Thursday, November 7, 2002
Georgians awoke Wednesday to an electoral earthquake. Much of the state's familiar political architecture has been reduced to rubble and much conventional wisdom is upended.
Republicans seized control of the governor's mansion for the first time since Reconstruction. Moreover, although the Republican takeover seemed inevitable, even imminent, the real shock stems from seeing a sitting governor tossed from office, the first defeat of a gubernatorial incumbent in Georgia since the one-term limit was removed in 1976. Barnes' defeat, despite his 6-to-1 spending advantage over his lesser-known challenger, defies all the supposed "laws" of political science.
Sax beating Max is less unexpected, but if war hero Cleland is vulnerable for resisting a president on the issue of homeland security, what Southern Democrat can feel safe in Congress?
The GOP gains are the more impressive for a party of an incumbent president in an off-year election, marking only the third time in a century that the president's party has gained in midterm.
House Speaker Tom Murphy, a veritable pillar of Georgia politics for four decades, was also toppled. Having served in the General Assembly since the days of the "rule of the rustics," the speaker, who proved adept at accommodating the growing urban interests of the state, nonetheless fell prey to spreading suburban Republicanism as Atlanta wreaked its revenge on Georgia.
But appearances can be deceptive, and much of the solid substructure of Southern and American politics remains firmly in place. Money still matters; this election, like every recent election, was the most expensive in history. The parties have raised approaching half a billion dollars in anticipation of McCain-Feingold's ban on soft money, and groups were exploring loopholes and sponsoring court challenges before the law even took effect.
And competition, while fierce, is still contained to only a few crucial races. Overall, incumbents, especially in the House, retain formidable advantages, limiting the possibilities for change to a few close contests. Despite the upsets in key individual races, the net number of seats shifting in Congress is quite small.
President Bush's re-election stock, of course, will soar, and war with Iraq, already likely, begins to appear a sure bet. Republican control of the elected branches will begin to produce an even more rightward tilt in the federal judiciary. In particular, look for several Supreme Court justices to leave the bench soon, timing their retirements to reap the rewards of a Republican president and Senate for the first time since the current court majority was shaped by Ronald Reagan.
Commentators are charging Democrats with having no clear message, but what message would work? Cleland supported Bush's tax cut and voted to authorize the president to use force against Iraq. Does supporting the president on security issues but trying to focus on Social Security and the economy prove "It's not the economy, stupid?" Or does it mean there is only one real issue after Sept. 11: homeland security?
One safe prediction: This election, like most earthquakes, will be followed by strong aftershocks.
Gus Cochran teaches political science at Agnes Scott College.
Yep...no matter what issue is most important to you, what "group" you might belong to, or what state you live in...
Anyone that describes judges that would uphold the Constitution a rightward tilt is obvious leaning way to the left, like Gus "Hall" Cochran.
I wish I could claim some kind of foreknowledge of this "Earthquake" that is still rumbling through Georgia, but I am still stunned by the extent of it.
I did have an inkling of how vast and profound it might be, from the oddest of sources... in the weeks before the election, I mentioned to my wife that I "had never heard so many callers, so angry" on local "talkback" radio...
I told her that people seemed angrier than I had seen them, even during the impeachment/rape stories of X-42.
This is a sleepy, little southern "city"-- about 16,000 souls, and most people just don't get that worked up about things. But I have never seen such a white-hot level of anger, no, rage is more apt.
In some ways the McKinneys were easy targets- they were such overt bigots, and so loud, they drew a lot of attention to themselves, and too many people just got fed up with their shenannigans.
I guess Barnes ouster was the biggest surprise- a sitting Governor is hard to depose... although my mailman had said to me a week ago today "I don't know any teachers who will vote for him..."
Max Cleland... well, Max was, personally, a good guy, but he voted like Ted Kennedy... not really representing his constituents well.
The "toss-out" of Speaker Murphy was cataclysmic- that position is far more powerful than the Governor. I really am still stunned.
The area I live in was probably 80% Democrat before Mr. Reagan- a Republican had virtually no chance of winning office, despite the fact that most Democrats here were very conservative. Now, you just about can't win if you call yourself a Dem...
I hope this election thoroughly rattles the entire political system in Georgia- it's been stagnant and hidebound for far too long.
Making it sound like it was a coup d'etat apparently makes them more able to demonize the opposition.
Well, get used to it. The PEOPLE have spoken. They have shown the Democrats the door! Republicans did not "seize" anything. They were convincingly ELECTED to the positions of power and responsibility that they now hold.
Let us trust and hope that they lead prudently and wisely, and that they realize that they represent ALL of the citizenry, and not just those that voted for them.
I did note this at the time to my wife- indeed, mentioned several times that it looked like "tumbrels & guillotines" times. I was inclined to think it was just local- people were being taxed to death, insulted by the politicians, and also ignored. A rather lethal mix for people depending on votes...
Paging Mr. Breaux and Mr. Miller, you have a call on the party-switch line.
And equally important to them was the rebuke and rejection of the Democrats for their support of the Clinton Administration and all the filth that it represented.
Barnes' support of radical environmentalists and their plans for the state to seize all of the hammocks and small islands on the Georgia coast, including those that are privately owned, also infuriated many Georgians and made many others wonder when the state would decide to seize their property.
Amen!
Something the Democratic Party seemed very little concerned with.
They are more concerned with protecting their Union supporters then the Nation.
I haven't seen any real talk about this anywhere, so I'll toss it out here: I think the fact that the Wellstone "memorial" had so much resonance across the nation is proof positive that the electorate is becoming slowly-but-surely more engaged, and that they're not doing it through the usual channels (NY Times, ABC CBS NBC, Time, Newsweek, etc). Think about it for a second: As hideous and evil as that rally was, it was still largely an event local to Minnesota. Yeah, it aired on the cable news channels and C-SPAN, but it still only got the usual 90 seconds on the evening news and a little blurb in the morning paper. Yet it was all people were talking about from coast to coast, from the moment it took place until well after the votes were cast and tallied. There's no way people outside of Minnesota would have known much of anything about that disgusting event if it hadn't been for all the "alternative" routes of information dissemination now available. And those new sources are largely either conservative-leaning or truly fair and balanced.
The entire nation found out. The entire nation was infuriated. The entire nation voted the bastards out. Because we were able to know.
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