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PAGE 4A 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, Write a Letter to the Editor: Let us know your thoughts: Send Letters to Editor, The Barrow News-Journal, 77 E. May Street, Winder, Ga. 30680. Letters can also be emailed to sthompson@main- streetnews.com Please put “Letter to the Editor” in the subject line. Please include the city of the writer. 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. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to: The Barrow News-Journal 77 East May Street Winder, Georgia 30680 Published 52 times per year by Mainstreet Newspapers, Inc. Periodicals postage paid at Winder, Georgia 30680 (USPS 025-132) Email: chris@mainstreetnews.com Phone: 770-867-NEWS (6397) SUBSCRIPTIONS: $25.00/yr. 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