About The times. (Gainesville, Ga.) 1972-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 1, 2020)
CEO OPINION Shannon Casas Editor in Chief The Times ’ Gainesville, Georgia 770-718-3417 | scasas@gainesvilletimes.com Weekend Edition - August 1 -2, 2020 Trump s delay-the-election tweet was just a On Thursday morn ing, the Bureau of Economic Analysis announced that the U.S. GDP had the big gest drop in a single quarter in U.S. history. From April through June, the economy contracted by 9.5%, with GDP falling at an annualized rate of 32.9%. President Trump, who tweets about many topics, said nothing about it. But some 16 minutes after the news broke, he did tweet the following: “With Universal Mail-In Voting (not Absentee Voting, which is good), 2020 will be the most INAC CURATE & FRAUDULENT Elec tion in history. It will be a great embarrassment to the USA. Delay the Election until people can prop erly, securely and safely vote???” While I think this tweet was a profound error for reasons I’ll get to in a moment, my strong suspicion is that it accomplished precisely what Trump wanted. By floating the idea that we should postpone the election, suddenly no one was talking about the disas trous economic data. Instead, just about everyone took the bait and started talking about this grotesquely irresponsible trial bal loon for a terrible idea. Including yours truly. The president places outsized importance on numbers — stock market num bers, COVID-19 numbers, what ever — and racking up the single worst quarterly economic number ever recorded probably bothered him more than it should. After all, 32.9% was actually better than expected. Moreover, Trump wasn’t responsible for the pan demic that caused the economy to grind to a halt in the spring. And even though his handling of the crisis has been spotty at best, a similar number would probably be inevitable under any president. Trump’s tweet was a terrible error politically for more reasons than I can list here. But here are four: First, it makes Trump look des perate. If he were up 10 points in the polls, he wouldn’t be asking for an extension. Second, Joe Biden is beating Trump badly by promising a return to normalcy. Floating the idea that the election should be postponed — something Biden predicted Trump might try, to the outrage of Trump defenders — only fuels a sense of chaos and presidential unsteadiness. Third, it forced other Republi cans to distance themselves from the president. “Never in the his tory of the country, through wars, depressions and the Civil War, have we ever not had a federally scheduled election on time. We’ll find a way to do that again this Nov. 3,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said in an inter view with a Kentucky TV station. And finally, it’s a futile idea that will go nowhere, even as it galvanizes Trump’s opponents and divides his supporters, because the president of the United States cannot unilaterally delay an election. All elections are run by the states, and the timetable for all federal elections are set by Congress. It’s this last point that we should all be grateful for, and progressives in particular should take note. Progressives, historically, have wanted the federal government to have more and more power. Many heap scorn on states’ rights and the Electoral College as antediluvian. More recently, the left has been all over the place on presidential powers. They’ve wanted Trump to nationalize the health care system to fight the pandemic but are outraged by the president’s “trampling” of state sovereignty in response to riots in Oregon and elsewhere. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio begged Trump to send in the army to fight the pan demic but is scandalized by the idea of Trump sending federal agents to quash violent protests. Well, presumably, all of them are happy that the president can’t unilaterally move elections to suit his political needs. Hopefully progressives will remember their gratitude in the years to come. One of the beauties of our JONAH GOLDBERG goldbergcolumn@ gmail.com distraction constitutional structure is that it makes it difficult for any actor to abuse power across the whole country. Even if one succeeds, there are safeguards to see that the abuse is temporary. Governors can screw up their own states but are powerless beyond their bor ders. Presidents can get away with all sorts of bad ideas but are con strained from making them worse by the various checks on their authority. And even when those checks fail, as has happened, there’s always the final check: elections, which allow voters to say, “Enough.” Nationalizing elections, polic ing, education or even, in some respects, pandemic-fighting doesn’t guarantee dictatorship or the universalizing of mistaken pol icies. But it makes it much easier. If Trump’s terrible (albeit suc cessful) attempt to distract from a bad economy served as a teachable moment for the left and everyone else, it will have been worth it. Jonah Goldberg is editor-in-chief of The Dispatch and the host of The Remnant podcast. Pandemic or protesters, law should be applied uniformly Decent Ameri cans who are feeling perplexed today shouldn’t be ashamed about it. There is good reason to be perplexed. On the one hand, in the name of health and safety, we are being asked by government to compromise personal freedoms that we have always taken for granted: going to work, going to church, sending our chil dren off to school, meeting our friends in our favorite restaurant. We walk around wearing annoy ing masks and try to respect social distancing limits. But decent Americans are per plexed because we would expect that allowing more government into our personal space would happen uniformly, that in allowing more government, we are all sac rificing together for some greater good, some greater necessity. But instead, we look around and see chaos. We see no uniformity. Protests, often violent, are sweeping our cities. The same public officials who tell us to keep our kids at home; who tell us to not pray in church, as we have always prayed; who limit our places of work and livelihood look the other way, often with approval, as hooligans tear apart our cities. Greater demands from govern ment should mean increasing respect for the law. But we’re seeing the oppo site: government making more demands while disrespect for the law increases across the nation. We just saw a decision in the nation’s Supreme Court where a Nevada church petition to be treated equally to Nevada’s casi nos regarding COVID-19 atten dance limits was rejected with no explanation. Justice Samuel Alito got to the heart of the matter in his dissent ing opinion, saying: “For months now, States and their subdivisions, have responded to the pandemic by imposing unprecedented restrictions on personal liberty, including free exercise of religion. ... Now four months have passed since the original declaration. The problem is no longer one of exigency, but one of considered yet discriminatory treatment of places of worship.” “Calvary Chapel has also brought to our attention,” con tinued Alito, “evidence that the Governor has favored certain speakers over others. When large numbers of protestors openly vio lated provisions of the Directive, such as the rule against groups of more than 50 people, the Governor not only declined to enforce the directive but publicly supported and participated in a protest.” I am looking at a photograph of a mass of protestors marching, shoulder to shoulder, through the streets of Oakland, California, this in the same state that is limit ing church attendance to 25% capacity and prohibiting singing in church. In May, the Supreme Court rejected a challenge by South Bay United Pentecostal Church in Chula Vista, California, to the state’s restrictions on church attendance. Justice Brett Kavana- ugh noted in his dissent that secu lar businesses like supermarkets, restaurants and hair salons are not subject to the same restrictions as houses of worship. A group of Orthodox Jewish Americans sued the New York governor and New York City mayor for lack of uniformity in gathering limits between houses of worship, and secular business activity, protests and demonstrations. Going hand in hand with the rioting and violence is a nation wide surge in crime. The Wall Street Journal reports increases in homicides in Mil waukee, Chicago, New York, Los Angeles and Kansas City. At the same time, there is vio lence and damage from protesters in Seattle, Portland and Louisville. We can’t have a free and civil society without law. And law means nothing if we can’t agree on what the law is and if it is not applied uniformly. Politics needs to follow law. Today’s chaos is symptomatic of law following politics. Well-intentioned citizens cannot sacrifice their freedom in an envi ronment like this. We must take the initiative to open our schools, our churches and our businesses. Amidst the chaos, citizens need to take control of their own lives. They have a civic duty to do it. It will help the nation and its recovery. Star Parker is an author and president of the Center for Urban Renewal and Education and a columnist for Creators. STAR PARKER www.urbarcure.org LITERS Hall right to maintain tax rate, provide funding for local education The Hall County School system approved the 2021 school budget by a 4-1 vote. I support that vote. I support our schools and our teachers. I support holding the millage rate steady even if it raises some tax bills. Our school administrators, and our local school board members did not choose that budget. The state of Georgia pushed that budget to the Hall County system. It forced the budget decision by cutting $20 million dollars from Hall County schools. That was not the first cut forced on our children. According to the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute, Georgia and our local delegation cut school funding under an austerity program as far back as 2003. After 16 years and billions lost for educa tion, GBPI says we were being to restore those funds. Georgia cut the income tax rate instead of fully funding schools. During the 16 years of austerity fund ing, Georgia and our local legislators found other uses for our school funds. In what might be the worst decision, your tax dollars have gone to Hollywood. The TV series, “The Walking Dead” glorifies an entertainment style known as ‘murder porn.’ Each week, viewers can watch human beings eaten alive or chopped into body parts. “Ozark,” which films in Hall County, features drug dealers murdering a vari ety of people while laundering money. Our school system, when faced with cuts, made the right choice to as fully fund the classroom as possible. That is the only choice that could provide our children and our grandchildren with an opportunity for an education. It’s only an opportunity. It’s an offering of minimal learning. Just enough. Just barely enough. It’s what we can offer now but it is not all that we want to give. Without the board’s courage and basic sense of right and wrong, our schools could not provide even that basic opportunity. I support the board’s decision on the millage rate. I support the administra tion efforts to manage funding and pro vide the basics to our children. We all should support our teachers, parents and children financially and morally in the hopes that someday we will have stron ger and better communities. Mike Parker Flowery Branch Infrastructure won’t support this planned S. Hall apartment complex In regard to the 350-unit apartment complex proposed for South Hall County in the area of Thompson Mill Road, it should be acknowledged that there is a veritable tidal wave of local opposition to this development. Initially, it should be borne in mind that this proposal has twice been placed before the Town of Braselton Planning Commission and was denied on both occasions as “not a fitting development for the area in question.” It should also be noted that upon the second application to the Town of Bra selton, the developer warned that if Bra selton did not approve the application (at that time for 289 units), he could go to Hall County and obtain approval for at least 50 more units. Which he indeed has done. Residential density abounds in the area directly surrounding the proposed apartment complex. The Village at Dea ton Creek is a highly populated active adult subdivision with 1,144 homes; Reunion Country Club is still under development with just shy of 900 homes; Del Webb Chateau Elan is in mid stages of development with more than 783 homes envisioned (only a stone’s throw from the proposed apartment complex); The Phoenix Assisted Living complex on Ga. Highway 347 is under construction and will add 162 units to the population density of the area; and Noble Vines apartment complex, which is less than 300 yards from the proposed develop ment, has 248 units with room and plans to expand. With these things being brought to light, it should be noted that Thompson Mill Road and Spout Springs Road (the two main county roads that will serve the proposed development) are two lane, county roads with no immediate plans of improvement or widening. The only other ingress and egress for the pro posed 350-unit apartment complex is at the intersection of Reunion Way/Napa Ridge Road and Ga. Highway 347. This intersection is already an extremely hazardous traffic area due to the increasing traffic flow from Del Webb Chateau Elan and Reunion Coun try Club and the fact that the Georgia Department of Transportation has refused to install a traffic light to manage the intersection. GDOT has, however, initiated changes that will only allow right-hand turns on to Ga. Highway 347 at this intersection. The addition of more traffic generated by another high-density apartment com plex will only contribute to this current and continuing nightmare. There are other justifiable reasons for opposition of this development by so many of the residents of surrounding communities. Stated simply, however, suffice it to say that our roads, infra structure, schools, law enforcement capabilities and our quality of life will be heavily, unsatisfactorily and irreparably impacted by the approval and construc tion of this development. Ron Scroggins Hoschton DKwWfthJtatVMeraCtuip LISA BENSON I Washington Post Writers Group JOEY WEATHERFORD I Tribune News Service
