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BARROW NEWS-JOURNAL
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 2016
Opinions
“Private opinion is weak, but public opinion is almost omnipotent. ”
~ Henry Ward Beecher ~
mike
buffington
Will Trumpism
survive?
No matter what the outcome of next
week’s presidential election, the Republican
Party is facing a crisis. The nomination of
Donald Trump as the party’s candidate has
fractured the GOP and created a civil war
within its ranks.
The question now
is: Can the GOP sur
vive, or will its factions
splinter in such a way
that leads to a third
party?
Neither the
Republican nor
Democratic parties
are as unified as
they seem. Because
our political tradition
revolves around two
parties rather than a
multitude of small parties, both Republican
and Democrats are really a combination of
narrow special interests groups.
Nor are the two parties as static in their
core philosophies as some believe. Both
parties have changed their stand on contro
versial issues over the decades.
The most notable shift has been on race
and civil rights. It was Lincoln’s Republican
Party that championed abolition of slavery.
Democrats for decades fought equal rights
for blacks.
That only changed after 1964 when
Southern Democrats lost the fight against
the Civil Rights movement. Black voters
shifted away from Republicans nationally
and now vote overwhelmingly Democratic.
So the major realignment of the parties
isn’t unheard of.
Over the last few decades, the Republican
Party has been a cobbled together group.
There is the business faction that focus
es on lowering corporate taxes, supports
immigration reform with a path to citizen
ship and free trade with other countries.
There is the evangelical faction that is
anti-abortion and anti-gay marriage.
There is the patriotic faction that focuses
on the nation’s military and its role as a
policeman in the world.
But Republicans have traditionally lacked
support from many minority groups and
white working-class voters. That’s why in
2012, party leaders called for an expansion
of the party’s values to include a more
diverse group of voters by reaching out to
minority groups.
Then came Trumpism. Instead of reach
ing outward, Trumpism has narrowed the
Republican Party in 2016 with its strain of
nationalism, isolationism and populism.
While its Populist strain has brought in
more white working class voters, it’s lost
many of its white, educated voters and
alienated many female, black, Hispanic
and other minority voters.
Instead of reaching out, Trumpism has
turned the GOP inward. And Trumpism is
directly at odds with the GOP’s business
faction — it rejects immigration reform
and a path to citizenship and it rejects free
trade.
Trumpism may have done long-term
damage to the party’s efforts to expand its
tent of followers to include more minority
groups. That’s a problem in a nation that
is increasingly diverse as the overall white
population becomes a minority.
Perhaps even more problematic for the
GOP is the war within its ranks between
white voters. Trumpism’s populist appeal
to white working class voters has created
a huge amount of anger against the GOP’s
more educated, moderate white voters.
Many working class white GOP voters see
the moderate wing as nothing more than
weak traitors. They rail against the “elite
establishment” of the GOP, an establish
ment that is mostly made up of moderates.
For their part, the moderate establish
ment despise the gruffness of Trumpism
and its appeal to the nutty alt right. The
establishment GOP abhors Trumpism’s iso
lationism, Islamophobia and its dog-whistle
calls to bigotry.
If Trump wins next week, then the mod
erate GOP leadership will have to decide
if it will go along with Trumpism’s dark,
nationalist agenda, or if it will stand back
and allow Trumpism to fail. Without the
support of a GOP Congress, Trumpism is
an agenda without a lifeboat. Either way,
the GOP will be at war with itself.
If Trump loses next week, then it’s likely
the GOP will devolve into an open war of
finger-pointing. Hillary Clinton is the perfect
opponent for the GOP to face. It’s difficult
to imagine a more flawed Democratic can
didate.
But if she wins, the GOP will have nobody
to blame but itself and its own dysfunction
al system that allowed an outlier like Trump
See Buffington on Page 6A
curfTooNz.cM
Voters could get two senators
for the price of one
There’s not much suspense about
who will win Georgia’s senate race.
Republican incumbent Johnny
Isakson has been ahead of his
Democratic challenger, Jim Barksdale,
by 10 points or more in most recent
polls.
Libertarian Allen Buckley
may peel off enough votes to
keep Isakson under 50 percent
and force a runoff election, but
that’s not very likely.
If you’re a betting person,
your money should be on the
senator to win a third term in
office.
The question is whether you
will see another person finish
out that six-year term.
That brings us to the real
issue that hasn’t been dis
cussed much in this campaign:
Isakson’s health.
The senator had serious medical
problems the last time he ran in 2010,
when he was hospitalized twice and
spent time in an intensive care unit
because of an irregular heartbeat and
a blood infection.
When I talked to him a few weeks
after that election, he acknowledged,
“I almost bought the farm.”
Isakson, who will be 72 in December,
has a medical issue in this campaign
also, having been diagnosed in 2013
with Parkinson’s disease (he said he
first displayed symptoms in 2012).
Parkinson’s disease is a degenera
tive disorder of the central nervous
system that damages a person’s motor
skills.
There is no cure for Parkinson’s,
although there are some medications
and therapies that can ease the symp
toms.
The disease gets progressively
worse and in its later stages can cause
depression, hallucinations, delusions,
and paranoia.
One of the rumors that’s been
making the rounds in the political
community is whether Isakson would
serve his entire senate term or resign
after several months to allow Gov.
Nathan Deal to appoint a replace
ment, perhaps former congressman
Jack Kingston.
Isakson’s longtime strategist and
confidant, Heath Garrett, says the sen
ator intends to serve the whole term.
“He verified as soon as the diagnosis
was finalized that he would serve the
entire six years,” Garrett said. “He was
unequivocal about that.”
Regardless of Isakson’s good inten
tions, the senator has a serious dis
ease that could keep him from serving
out the full term to which he’s elected.
It’s a question that should have been
asked by his opponents, but they’ve
been too timid to talk about it until
recently.
In a debate on Georgia Public
Television two weeks ago, Buckley
finally went where Barksdale, for
some reason, won’t go.
“I don’t mean to be mean,” Buckley
said.
“But the best thing for Johnny, his
family, our state, and our country,
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would be if he were not running right
now. I’ve talked to a lot of his friends
who will tell me that confidentially.”
“I think that’s a veiled reference to
the fact that I disclosed a year and a
half ago that I had Parkinson’s, which
was the hardest thing
that I ever did and also
the best thing that I ever
did,” Isakson replied.
“Every week that
goes by in this cam
paign, people come up
to me and thank me for
making known publicly
what they themselves
have privately known
about themselves,” he
said.
“The only way
you play things like
Parkinson’s is to be
open and forthright about them. I tell
everybody I intend to win that battle
and I will win that battle.”
“I’ve got the energy to go up there
(to Washington) and put in the fight,”
Buckley said. “No offense, I’m young
er than you.”
“I’m not going to hold your imma
turity and your inexperience against
you,” Isakson replied.
Barksdale stood silent during this
exchange before meekly saying: “I
do think it’s appropriate that we ask a
commitment to serve out the full six-
year term.
“But I’m not going to question why
he’s here.”
That debate exchange illustrates
why Barksdale is losing whatever
chance he might have had to win this
race. If your opponent is having medi
cal problems that could interfere with
them carrying out their job, it’s valid to
raise that as an issue.
Barksdale has been too gentlemanly
to do it.
In any event, the polls tell us that
Isakson probably will win another
term in office.
I wish him the best as he embarks
on that six-year journey, but it’s very
likely that people voting for him will
get two senators for the price of one.
Tom Crawford is editor of The
Georgia Report, an internet news ser
vice at gareport.com that reports on
state government and politics. He can
be reached at tcrawford@gareport.
com.
The Barrow News-Journal
Winder, Barrow County, Ga.
www.BarrowJoumal.com
Mike Buffington
Scott Buffington
Co-Publisher
Co-Publisher
Scott Thompson
Editor
Jessica Brown
Photographer
Susan Treadwell
Advertising
Sharon Hogan
Office & Reporter
Also covering beats is Alex Pace.
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This election and
my mental health
There’s always talk about how the presidency
ages a person in office, but can presidential elec
tions age the public?
Well, I feel like this election has taken a toll on
me, at least stress-wise. I feel exhausted, weath
ered, more lines in my face, my blood pressure
reaching unwanted personal records.
Presidential campaigns now stretch for two
years, and if this were a real horse race, it would
be animal abuse.
I hit a breaking point about a month ago. It
just got to be too much. I’ve grown so tired of
everyone’s opinions — mine included. I have
to fill this space with opinions, even on weeks
when I’m tired of my own ramblings, which is
pretty often. My face and
words are always in this
space. It’s just a part of the
job, but I frequently don’t
want to express anything.
Nevertheless, if I’m going
to do it, I feel compelled to
be emotionally honest. And
that’s often not fun at all — or
wanted by anyone, even me.
Though I express opinions
for print, I’ve actively avoid
ed political discussions with
anyone lately. It feels so
pointless. Persuasion feels
like a lost art, both in persuading and in allowing
a good argument to alter our viewpoints. We seem
collectively incapable of this, like our emotional
truth is all that matters in this world. And I’m
lumping myself in there too. I’m no saint.
So when I talk about this race, all I feel is
anger — rage actually. I don’t feel any hope or
goodness. I just don’t. I’m at a low point. I’m res
olute that what I feel is true, just as you probably
are too. And if we disagree, we could probably
start shouting pretty quickly, because, man, I feel
angry enough to shout just about anyone down.
I will shout for real, with passion and with wild,
crazy eyes that tell you I’m not scared of fighting
you. I have reached that state. You probably have
too. I’m not afraid, not at all. I’m too angry to
be scared. There is no choice that excites me,
but one — Trump — strikes deep fear in me. I
genuinely find him unhinged at a perilous time
in world history. (I just wrote another 500 words
backing up my point, and I immediately deleted
it.) Because what’s the point? Right? There’s no
point anymore. You have your opinion and I have
mine. No one is budging. There is only hostile
comment layered on top of hostile comment, like
an inedible cake of hate and we all have a fork
and a plate. We all dig in, growl and show our
dirty teeth to each other. All that said, I won’t be
surprised at all if Trump wins. I think he is riding a
historical wave that polls don’t necessarily reflect.
Whatever you think of his candidacy, it’s as much
a social movement as it is about a person. And
there’s real power there. We just disagree on
whether it’s a dark or bright power.
I have often wondered how a country can
reach a point of civil war, but as our abilities to
agreeably disagree diminish with alarming speed,
that possibility seems less and less remote. I say
this sincerely: agreeably disagreeing is a real
skill. And we have a massive deficit of that skill.
In fact, we don’t even recognize the need for it
anymore. Somehow, civil discourse has come to
signify weakness, not emotional maturity, or even
patriotism, which it is. To argue policy vigorously,
and then to let that go and show real empathy
and care for your debate adversaries, that’s how
we should be. We share this time and space on
the planet. And to spend our brief time gnashing
teeth at each other, well, that’s truly a waste of our
precious time. But we can’t seem to see this. And
whoever wins, I fear what the next few years hold.
I really do. This isn’t pretty, folks. The tenor of our
times is cancerous and metastatic.
This type of rage, whatever side you’re on, is
not mentally healthy. I recognize this in myself.
The adrenaline and cortisol have been coursing
through my body. I have felt like a stroke or heart
attack could be in my future. I’m not exaggerat
ing. And all this fury eventually turns to sadness,
depression and real hopelessness and self loath
ing. Rage is something I loathe in myself whenev
er it gets the best of me. And let me tell you, it has
defeated me lately. Truly.
When I step back and assess this, I realize that
I’ve allowed what’s uncontrollable to control me.
The world will spin and be what it is. I can either
allow it to consume me, or I can try to get a firm
grip on what I can control. Forget Trump, forget
Clinton. Live your life. Let the world be what it’s
going to be. You can only control a small sphere.
The rest is beyond your reach.
So, I’ve tried to go hard away from all this mess.
I’ve started running more, doing daily pushups,
dieting. I deactivated my Facebook account, at
least until the election is over. I’m trying to stay
off the Internet and duck my head in the sand —
at least on presidential news — as much as my
job allows. I’m trying to focus on making music
and writing creatively in ways that have absolutely
nothing to do with all this stuff. I’m pushing our
kids on the tree swing more. I’m spending more
time looking toward the heavens and thinking
See Mitcham on Page 5A
Zach
Mitcham