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The Braselton News
Wednesday, November 16, 2022
Opinion
Notes of moderation in midterm elections
Did America
return to politi
cal “moderation”
during the mid
term elections?
That question
seems relevant
given the mixed
results of the var
ious races around
the country.
In the big pic
ture, it appears
that Republicans
will retake the House,
no small thing. But there
wasn’t a “Red Wave” of
GOP winners as some pun
dits (and Republicans) ex
pected.
On the other side, the
Senate will remain in Dem
ocratic hands: The runoff
here in Georgia between
Democratic incumbent Ra-
pheal Warnock and GOP
challenger and celebrity
Herschel Walker won’t de
termine the balance of pow
er as some thought it might.
Perhaps even bigger,
however, is that a lot of
2020 “election deniers”
supported by former pres
ident Donald Trump lost
their races.
• ••
So is the Trump Effect
waning?
Perhaps. Some in the
GOP are hoping Trump
will stay out of the Walker
contest and that
he will not soon
announce plans to
run for president
again in 2024.
From kingmak
er, Trump is now
seen by many in
the Republican
Party as a drag on
GOP candidates.
While he still
has diehard sup
porters who are
caught up in cult of person
ality around Trump, a lot of
mainline conservatives ap
pear to want new blood on
the ballot — and to avoid
the chaos and egomaniac
that surrounds Trump.
Florida Gov. Ron De
Santis is seen by many
as the heir to Trump, a
younger, smarter version
of Trumpism without the
baggage of the real thing.
Trump obviously sees
DeSantis as a threat and
has spewed anti-DeSan
tis rhetoric over the past
week.
Despite Trump’s bluster,
many of his former allies
have turned on him follow
ing last week’s weak GOP
election results.
• ••
And there are other clues
that seem to suggest the
nation’s extreme polar
ization in politics may be
moderating, at least a little.
For one thing, there
hasn’t been widespread
questioning of the elec
tion’s outcome as many
(including this writer) ex
pected. While there are
still some key races being
counted, it doesn’t look
like election-deniers are
going to tilt at windmills
very much this season.
Most candidates who
lost their races have con
ceded, maybe not with
much grace, but at least
there're not looking to tear
the nation apart by claim
ing widespread fraud as
happened in 2020.
The public seems tired of
the bogus claims of fraud.
In addition, the WSJ re
ported that a survey of lo
cal school board elections
across the country didn’t
sweep in a large number of
angry parents who sought
to overturn curriculums on
race and FGBTQ issues.
Racial and gender issues
don’t seem to be at the top
of most voters’ priority list
despite all the heated rhet
oric over the past year.
And last, a lot of moder
ates won in big races prov
ing that extremism isn’t
necessary to win at the
ballot box.
Here in Georgia, mod
erate Gov. Brian Kemp
easily won over rival Sta
cey Abrams. While some
Trumpites hated Kemp for
not bowing to Trump’s de
mands in 2020 to cheat in
the state’s ballot counting,
that venom wasn’t enough
to keep moderate Kemp
from getting re-elected.
In addition, Kemp gets to
take a victory lap over the
state’s new voting rules put
in place after 2020. Those
new rules seemingly had
no real impact on who vot
ed in the midterms despite
cries from the left that they
would keep large groups of
people from voting. In the
end, people who wanted to
vote did get to vote.
• ••
The only non-moderate
Republican in Georgia who
didn’t win was Walker. The
celebrity football player
greatly under-performed
at the polls compared to
Kemp among GOP voters.
Walker’s flaky comments
and hypocrisy was just too
much for some GOP voters
to stomach.
The upcoming runoff of
Walker vs. Warnock is still
up in the air and the out
come will turn on, well,
turnout.
If the race were for con
trol of the Senate, a lot of
Democrats would be mo
tivated to get out and vote
for Warnock. But since the
race’s outcome won’t make
that difference, some Dem
ocrats may stay home, giv
ing Walker an edge.
On the other hand, if
Trump inserts himself into
Walker’s race. Democrats
could be motivated to show
up on election day while
some Republicans might
stay home.
How all that shakes out
could be a test of Trump’s
influence in Georgia; and
staying quiet isn’t Trump’s
strong card.
• ••
And then there was the
abortion issue. It seems as
if the Supreme Court ruling
that took down Roe motivat
ed a lot of younger Demo
crats to go to the polls. Even
in more conservative states
where the abortion issue
was directly on the ballot,
majorities voted to adopt
laws that were more moder
ate than many anti-abortion
advocates had wanted.
Candidates who say
they’re against all abortions
in all circumstances (as does
Walker) will need to rethink
their position if they want to
win in the future. The nation
isn’t as anti-abortion as the
far-right imagines.
• ••
Taken all together, it
seems as if many citizens
voted last week to move
away from political extrem
ism and toward more mod
erately-toned candidates.
That’s true for Democrats
as well as Republicans.
Democrat Abrams did
poorly in her second race
against Kemp because of
her intemperate comments
that torpedoed her appeal
among moderate indepen
dents. Swing voters didn’t
like her and her “progres
sive” agenda.
• ••
Hopefully, the nation will
continue to move away from
the kind of extremism that
came to a head on Jan. 6,
2021. That day, the nation
saw what happens when a
diet of lies and propaganda
get fed to people by their
top elected leaders, mainly
their president.
Maybe the results of this
election cycle will embold
en the moderate wing of the
GOP to dump Trump and
put forward candidates who
have substance and charac
ter rather than depending on
celebrity and vile rhetoric
to get elected.
Mike Buffington is
co-publisher of Mainstreet
Newspapers. He can be
reached at mike@main-
streetnews.com.
With Thanks
giving coming
up, most of us
will enjoy turkey
in some fashion
or other during
this wonderful
holiday when
we stop and say
thanks for the
good things we
enjoy.
An enduring
high five is in or
der for the many organiza
tions and individuals who
go the extra mile to see
that families in need enjoy
a nice meal at Thanksgiv
ing.
Americans are gener
ous at Thanksgiving, and
Americans are also so
cial on the last Thursday
in November. Each year
approximately 46 million
turkeys are killed for the
holiday. That translates
into 1.4 billion pounds
of turkey, according to
the Internet which further
informs that is
about one turkey
for every person
in Spain — for
whatever that’s
worth. Turkey
has become more
and more popu
lar for those who
are avoiding red
meat.
With a modi
cum of research,
you can learn
some very interesting
facts about turkeys.
Only the male turkey
can gobble which comes
about during the mating
season. If you are a turkey
hunter, you know what it
is like to be sitting in a
blind in some remote area
before daybreak and hear
that distinct sound. There
is nothing quite like hear
ing an expert coaxing a
gobbler into range of your
shotgun as he is attracted
to the sounds of a hen with
which he wants to mate.
Turkeys
Wild turkeys can fly,
and in short bursts, they
can reach 55 miles per
hour. While wild turkeys
can see better than hu
mans, according to the
experts three times better,
they sleep in trees because
they can’t see as well at
night. By flying up into
the trees to roost keeps
them from becoming easy
prey for predators. They
roost at dusk and fly down
at dawn.
An advocate of the tur
key was founder Benja
min Franklin who consid
ered the bald eagle, which
became our national bird,
“a bird of bad moral char
acter,” because of the
eagle’s habit of stealing
from other birds. Franklin
called the turkey a “much
more respectable bird, a
bird of courage and a true
original native of Ameri
ca.”
Like the Bison, the tur
key almost became ex
tinct. When the European
colonists arrived here, it is
estimated that there were
more than 10 million wild
turkeys in the country.
They were a popular
food item for the early
settlers and with no lim
its and no hunting restric
tions, they were hunted
with abandon to the extent
that by 1910-20 the turkey
population was down to a
couple hundred thousand.
One thing that helped
the wild turkey to make a
comeback was the Great
Depression. A lot of peo
ple, to survive, left the
farms and moved to the
cities to find work. This
caused the native habit for
turkeys to return, and the
turkeys gained a footing
for survival.
Conservationists were
important too for the tur
key’s survival. Since some
states had a total loss of
turkeys, there was an ef
fort to try to catch turkeys
in the more populous ar
eas and move them to the
states which had lost its
turkey population.
Do you have any idea of
how tough it is to capture
a wild turkey? The suc
cess rate was almost nil.
With the introduction of
the net cannon, however,
the game changed dra
matically. The net cannon
enabled conservationists
to capture turkeys easily
and then transfer them to
states which had lost their
turkey population.
Today there are over 7
million wild turkeys roam
ing about which brings up
the question: “Where do
we get those 10 million
turkeys for Thanksgiving
dinner?” There are turkey
farms everywhere with
turkeys being raised do
mestically to be killed and
processed for the Thanks
giving season.
The bison escaped ex
tinction and so did the
turkey, fortunately.
There’s little hunting of
bison anymore, but tur
key hunting is one of the
most rewarding of out
door experiences. Before
daybreak, the pre-dawn
stillness is enrapturing.
The distinct sound of the
gobbler resonates as a
hen flies in to investigate
the decoys.
As daylight begins to
emerge the gobblers ap
pear for dialogue with
the hen. A well-timed
shot gives you a memo
rable experience, as one
only gets from an emer
gence into nature in early
morning.
On Thanksgiving Day,
I will be thankful for
the turkey comeback and
thankful, too, for the op
portunity to stalk a wily,
wild turkey.
Loran Smith is a syn
dicated columnist and
longtime UGA football
radio personality.
Whenever I
meet someone,
inevitably, their
first comment is,
“You must be a
Georgia football
fan.”
Truthfully, I re
ply. “I’m an SEC
fan. I love to see
all the teams do
well and cele
brate when one
wins the National
Championship.”
In this column, I strive
to sidestep controversy.
Life has enough without
me adding to it. But I’m
a Southerner. I’m the first
female sports reporter to
cover SEC football, full
time. Until I, at the tender
age of 21. began covering
the Georgia Bulldogs at
home, on the road, and
Tuesday practice (fol
lowed by a press confer
ence), it had been all men.
Occasionally, another fe
male showed up.
I was regular. I covered
the historic Texas-Georgia
game in the Cotton Bowl
in Dallas (Georgia pulled
out an incredible upset
over the number two-
ranked Longhorns. 10-9). I
was the only woman in the
press box; or. in
my case, “girl.”
In the seasons
that I covered
Georgia, only
once did I see an
other female in a
press box. It was
Georgia at Geor
gia Tech and she
was there to write
a sidebar (an in
teresting story
boxed off to the
side of the game story).
This, I explain, to give
a bit of authority to what I
have to say now. The only
stadium in which I haven’t
covered an SEC football
game is Mississippi State
and that’s because they
either played in Sanford
Stadium or weren’t on the
schedule.
This, too, I must say: I
am an old-fashioned SEC
enthusiast. I will never root
for any new team west of
Arkansas. In the last 15 or
20 years, the SEC has done
what was once considered
impossible: it became THE
premier conference in the
United States. The con
ferences with USC, Tex
as, Oklahoma, Oklahoma
State, Ohio, and Michigan
ruled for so long — but the
SEC football fans
SEC flew under the radar.
Then, they soared with the
equivalent of an F-16.
Today’s success is root
ed deep because of some
of the best head coaches
ever to run college football
programs: Georgia’s Vince
Dooley (I’m unabashed
ly partial to my beloved
Dooley), Alabama’s Bear
Bryant, Auburn’s Shug
Jordan, Arkansas’s Frank
Broyles (I adored him, too,
and have framed photos of
me with him and another
with Dooley), Ole Miss’s
Johnny Vaught, Tennes
see’s Robert Neyland and
Florida’s Steve Spurrier.
This is why the moun
tains in me emerges when
I proclaim that I’m “agin”
the SEC accepting teams
west of Arkansas. These
rivalries among SEC teams
stretch long and serious.
The Alabama-Auburn ri
valry is so filled with fire
and emotion that it in
spired an entertaining,
eye-opening book called
“War In Dixie: Alabama
vs. Auburn.” Half of the
book is Alabama’s side
of the story, the other is
Auburn’s. One side of the
book is done in Alabama
colors, the other side in
Auburn’s. It is written by
two Northern reporters
who had never seen the
likes of such a rivalry until
they came South to cover
the game.
The Georgia-Auburn ri
valry is the oldest in col
lege football history: 100
years.
It troubles me for outsid
ers to push in because the
SEC TV money is so good
and because they want to
play in the best confer
ence. The core teams spent
a hundred years building
it and creating their rival
ries. No new “friends” are
needed.
That, though, is not the
point I want to make. I am
saddened at how unkind
and downright mean that
SEC fans can be to each
other. I wish people fought
for Jesus like they do their
home team.
I read an enormously
mean comment against
Tennessee from an Ala
bama fan. When I discov
ered that the woman was
the mother of a much-be
loved pastor, my heart
sank.
Tennessee is known as
the Volunteer State be
cause, in every American
war, they sent the most
volunteers of any state. If
only for that, they deserve
admiration.
Please. Let’s celebrate
our comrades and not
mean-mouth them. Partic
ularly over a college foot
ball game. Including the
outsiders, uh. newcomers.
Ronda Rich is the best
selling author of What
Southern Women Know
(That Every Woman
Should.) Visit www.rond-
arich.com to sign up for
her free weekly newslet
ter.
The Braselton News
Mike Buffington Co-Publisher
Scott Buffington Co-Publisher & Advertising Manager
Ben Munro Editor
Taylor Hearn Sports Editor
Wesleigh Sagon Photographer/Features
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