Newspaper Page Text
The ADVANCE, October 26, 2022/Page 6A
Stye Aiiuancg
OPINIONS
“I honor the man who is willing to sink
Half his repute for the freedom to think,
And when he has thought, be his cause strong or weak,
Will risk t’other half for the freedom to speak.”
-James Russell Lowell
editorials
American Democracy Isn’t
in Peril — So Long as
Americans Talk to Each Other
American democ
racy, we have been
told, is in grave peril.
It’s a perspective
we hear echoed doz
ens of times per day in
the mainstream me
dia: If this next elec
tion doesn’t go pre
cisely how our hal
lowed elitists desire,
surely tyranny will fol
low. As one of those sagacious experts, MS
NBC’s Joy Reid, recently put it on Twitter,
“It’s terrifying how many Americans will
choose literal fascism, female serfdom, cli
mate collapse and the reversal of everything
from Social Security & Medicare to student
loan relief be they think giving Republicans
the power to investigate Hunter Biden will
bring down gas prices.”
Polls show that this message has filtered
down to many Americans, mostly Demo
crats. According to the latest New York
Times/Sienna poll, fully 11% of Democrats
say “the state of our democracy” is the most
important problem facing the country, com
pared with 17% who cite the economy and
another 17% who cite inflation; 9% of inde
pendents feel the same way. More shocking,
just 46% of Americans say that “America’s
political system can still address the nation’s
problems,” compared with 48% who say that
the nation is “too divided politically to solve
its problems.” And fully 74% of likely voters
say American democracy is currently under
threat.
All of which imply we should be pretty
damned worried about the state of the re
public.
And yet when we drill down, we see
broad agreement among Americans that
their neighbors aren’t their enemies; that our
institutions are worth upholding; that the
only remedy for our current political ills is to
continue to work within the constitutional
system. According to that same poll, just
20% of voters say they’ve had a disagreement
with family or friends over politics that hurt
their relationship; just 14% say that some
one’s political views “tell you a lot about
whether someone is a good person”; just
30% say that presidents should violate the
laws to pursue “what they think is best.”
Just 14% of likely voters say we will need
to “go outside the law” to fix our democracy
Please see Shapiro page 9A
By Ben Shapiro
Abrams Claims Abortion Restrictions
Are Behind Inflation Concerns
'Having children is
why you're worried
about your price
for gas,' Georgia
Dem said.
By Anna Allen
Georgia Democratic
gubernatorial candidate
Stacey Abrams claimed in a
Wednesday interview with
MSNBC that abortion re
strictions are at the root of
voters’ concerns about infla
tion.
Abrams’s comment
came after MSNBC’s Mike
Barnicle asked how she
would alleviate Georgia vot
ers’ concerns about infla
tion, noting that abortion
“nowhere reaches the level
of interest of voters” as the
increased cost of living.
“Let’s be clear. Hav
ing children is why you’re
worried about your price
for gas. It’s why you’re con
cerned about how much
food costs,” Abrams re
sponded. “For women, this
is not a reductive issue. You
can’t divorce being forced to
carry an unwanted pregnan
cy from the economic reali
ties of having a child.”
According to a poll by
the Atlanta Journal Constitu
tion, 69 percent of Georgia
likely voters ranked cost of
living and the economy as
the most important issues
in this year’s election. With
the U.S. economy struggling
under the Biden adminis
tration, Abrams is among
many Democratic candi
dates trying to divert voters’
attention from inflation to
abortion, hoping the over
turning of Roe v. Wade will
energize their voter base.
Voters in Wisconsin this
week chided Democratic
Senate candidate Mandela
Barnes for his singular focus
on abortion and not talking
enough about the economy.
Throughout her cam
paign, Abrams has attacked
Georgia’s recently passed
heartbeat bill, which bans
abortions once a heartbeat
is detected, usually around
six weeks. Last month, she
falsely claimed that a heart
beat heard at six weeks is
“a manufactured sound de
signed to convince people
that men have the right to
take control of a woman’s
body.”
Abrams is trailing Re
publican governor Brian
Kemp by 5.6 points, accord
ing to RealClearPoliticss
most recent report.
Anna Allen is an assistant
editor for the Washington Free
Beacon. She graduated from
Patrick Henry College in 2022
with a degree in journalism.
She is also a fellow with the
Intercollegiate Studies Institute.
She can be reached at anna@
freebeacon.com.
LETTER TO THE EDITOR...
Help for
Domestic
Violence and
Sexual Assault
Survivors
Editor, The Advance News:
October is Domestic Violence Aware
ness Month, and Georgia Legal Services
Program (GLSP) urges all Georgians to
support domestic violence and sexual
assault survivors. While GLSP provides
services in 154 of Georgia’s 159 counties,
the local office works with survivors in
Toombs County and ten other surround
ing counties.
GLSP attorneys help survivors to
obtain Protective, Stalking, or Dating
Violence orders. We can also help with
the financial independence that most
survivors need to establish before they
can leave violent homes. Child support,
healthcare, food security through SNAP,
CAPS-Child Care, Rental Assistance, and
Victims Compensation are financial pro
grams that maybe available to survivors.
We are fortunate in our service area to
have a Judiciary well versed and informed
about the issue of family violence. Geor
gia Legal Services Program collaborates
with domestic violence shelters, private
attorneys, and other service providers in
our service counties who are committed
to ensuring the safety and stability of sur
vivors of family violence and ensuring that
abusers are held accountable.
Please help GLSP get the word out
to those who need help. Survivors can
contact Georgia Legal Services at www.
glsp.org or (833) 457-7529. All services
are free. GLSP represents survivors with
moderate or low incomes.
Wanda Andrews, Senior Staff Attorney
Some random thoughts
on some random subjects
If you had
the opportu
nity to
with a
Russian
about how the
current war
with Ukraine
has
their lives,
what would
you want to
ask them? I may very well have that
opportunity in the near future with a
family that lives near the Ukrainian
border. If you would like to be a part
of the interview, get your questions to
me as soon as possible. Don’t ask me
how the interview is going to happen
or when. I don’t know. Because of the
obvious risks of the interviewee
speaking freely in a totalitarian state,
the less I know about the details, the
better for all. I can tell you that I trust
the source arranging the interview
completely....
If the Georgia Legislature and
Gov. Brian Kemp’s intentions were to
suppress voting rights in upcoming
elections as opponents claimed, they
are doing a lousy job. On the first day
for early voting in Georgia, more than
131,000 people cast ballots. It was a
record-breaking increase of 85% over
2018, when 71,000 Georgians voted
on the first day. Also, an Atlanta Jour
nal-Constitution analysis of election
data shows that Blacks, who account
for 29% of the state’s population, cast
39% of the ballots the first day. Will
somebody let holier-than-thou Delta
CEO Ed Bastion know? He needs to
stick to trying to take care of his un
happy pilots and flight attendants in
stead of sucking up to special interest
yappers and looking like a political
stooge....
I have to roll my eyes when I hear
people talk about the good ol’ days. If
you were Black and lived in the South
in the 1940’s and 50’s, chances are the
days weren’t all that good. I have just
finished reading “Mudbound” by
Hillary Jordan, which portrays events
in Mississippi during those times and
the prejudice and cruelty toward
Black people. Even more disturbing
was the acquiescence of otherwise
good people as to what was happen
ing. After I finished the book, I turned
on the television to watch football. It
turned out to be an Ole Miss game. I
noticed that the majority of players
were Black. Enthusiastically cheering
them on in the packed grandstands
were mostly whites, likely some de
scendants of those white suprema
cists of yesteryear. I would posit this
occurrence comes closer to being
good days than those earlier times.. .
Speaking of football, I heard
someone say recently that the best job
in America is head football coach at
Auburn. You get paid millions of dol
lars and you only have to work for a
couple of years....
Two words you need to be careful
By Dick Yarbrough
using around me: Patriot and Chris
tian. When you storm and ransack the
Capitol of the United States because
you didn’t like the results of an elec
tion, you are not a patriot. You are a
thug. Same thing with Christian.
Right-wing groups have usurped the
term as though they are the Chris
tians and everyone else is not. I won
der if they have read Jesus’ Sermon on
the Mount, including the Beatitudes
and the Golden Rule and 1st Corin
thians 13:4-8. (Look it up.) I think
we all know the answer to that
I had the privilege of serving for a
number of years on an advisory board
at the United States Military Acad
emy at West Point. I once asked the
superintendent how they knew an ap
plicant would make it at West Point
since they only accept about one out
of ten that apply. Two word answer:
Eagle Scout. They have the self-disci
pline, the motivation and desire to
succeed. I mention because Craig
Schwall will receive his Eagle Scout
recognition next week. He is the son
of my friend, Fulton County Superior
Court judge, the Hon. Craig L.
Schwall, Sr. I know personally how
hard the young man has worked for
this distinction. He will do well....
Finally, thanks to all of you for
your condolences on my not winning
the Nobel Prize in Literature again
this year. I truly thought I had a shot,
and I could have used the million kro
ner bigtime. But I do have my stan
dards, and if I had to tell all the icky
things like that Frenchwoman did
who won it, it would embarrass us
both. Plus, I haven’t done most of that
stuff, including kissing a goat on the
lips. Don’t believe me? Just ask the
goat.
You can reach Dick Yarbrough at
dick@dickyarbrough.conn; at P.O. Box
725373, Atlanta, Georgia 31139 or on
Facebook at www.facebook.com/
dickyarb.
0l,t A&uance
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