4A Midweek Edition-October 28-29, 2020
The Times, Gainesville, Georgia | gainesvilletimes.com
LOCAL
Brown
What some
Republicans
are saying
Jim Brown, 57, of
Gainesville, cites religious
liberty as one of his top
issues.
“I’m a Christian, and
I think it’s obviously
important to worship as I
choose,” he said.
Replacing late Supreme
Court justice Ruth Bader
Ginsburg ties into his
ideals. “I’m conservative, and I like to
make sure my views are adhered to on the
Supreme Court,” Brown said.
The economy is important “for me, being
a small business owner,” he said. “The Dem
ocrats are going to tax me to death. I’ve lived
through both (parties in control), and I know
what happens there. I tend to side with the
Republican... because they tax less.”
He said he favors Trump “because he
is a conservative and he’s the one on the
Republican ticket. Is he perfect? No, he’s
not perfect, but as far as the options we have
available, he’s a much better option than Joe
Biden.”
Brown said he can’t see from the Demo
cratic perspective how conservative think
ing is flawed, “because I don’t know what
their thought process is.”
Warren Daubenspeck,
69, of Gainesville, said he
sees balancing the budget
and the country’s national
debt are key issues for him.
“I don’t think our coun
try should be in debt and,
at some point in time, it’s
going to have to be paid,”
he said.
Daubenspeck
Marlow
Schade
Presidential picks
] Do not plan to vote \^\ Undecided
] Jo Jorgensen, Libertarian | Joe Biden, Democrat
1.12%
Donald Trump, Republican
56.6%
Honestly local
We know credible local information is crucial now more than ever. For this article, Times
staff developed a political survey, emailed it to readers and subscribers, 712 completed
the survey, staff analyzed the results and followed up with a politically diverse selection
of respondents who indicated they were willing to speak further with a reporter. While
it is not a scientific poll, it gives insights into the issues important to our community
ahead of the 2020 presidential election. To our subscribers, thank you for your
support; it helps us provide the journalism you’ve come to trust. For those interested
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Daubenspeck said one of the main reasons
he voted for Trump in 2016 was the potential
to replace several Supreme Court justices
with ones holding a literal reading of the U.S.
Constitution.
“And he was able to do that — in fact,
three of them, or 2 y 2 so far,” he said before
the U.S. Senate’s confirmation of Amy Coney
Barrett on Monday, Oct. 26.
As far as his support for Trump, “I look at
the alternative, and I think the alternative
vote would be for a more socialistic type of
government and more federal government
involved in our lives,” Daubenspeck said.
He believes the Democrats “live in a bub
ble ... who don’t know what the common per
son is thinking about. ”
“What we’re thinking about is making sure
we have worked hard our whole lives and it’s
OK to be prosperous and we shouldn’t have
to pay the government abnormal taxes,”
Daubenspeck said. “It’s OK
to be that way.”
For Jennifer Marlow,
61, of Gillsville, public
safety is a main concern
for her and at the heart
of key issues, including
immigration.
“A lot of the things that
go on (locally) involves
drugs and ... maybe some
(people) over here ille
gally — some who have been deported and
come back,” she said. “I’m really glad police
around here are up on this and stopping a lot
of the drugs, which is a big concern to me.”
Marlow said President Trump “some
times says things he shouldn’t say, but he will
say what he means, and you know where he
stands. I feel like he is fighting for us. I think
he is trying to make it safe here for us and
doing what he can.”
She said she believes Biden, by contrast,
won’t be a strong leader, if elected.
“I feel like he won’t be the one making
decisions. I think they got him in there just
to get people to vote on that side, and some
body else is going to be taking over for him,
probably.”
Jennifer Schade, 43, of
Gainesville, who identified
as moderate on the survey,
said the Second Amend
ment may be a major
political issue these days,
but don’t overlook the First
Amendment.
“If we lose (both), we
lose our fabric,” she said.
The First Amendment is
actually a larger issue for Schade, particu
larly blocks on freedom of speech or press.
“Even if it’s a bad idea, I’m better off hear
ing the bad idea, rather than being told you
can’t hear it because it’s a bad idea,” Schade
said.
Immigration “is important to me because,
while I have wonderful friends who are
immigrants, they have come here legally,”
Schade said. “They’ve done the process....
It is a safety concern for me because I want
to be able to know who my neighbors are —
people who are vetted.”
As for Trump’s appeal, “I appreciate the
fact that he is real, regardless of how he’s
portrayed,” she said. “If you look at what
he actually does versus what the media says
about him, he’s been fair, he’s been overgen-
erous to underprivileged communities.”
Schade conceded “he has a terrible
mouth, but that does not make him a terri
ble human. Maybe he’s like me — you can’t
always articulate what we want to say, but
we know what we’re going to say and do. ”
She believes Democrats and more liberal
thinkers think incorrectly that those who
are more conservative “don’t care about
poverty, don’t care about race. We all have
the exact same problems. We just disagree
on what the proper solution is.”
Gary Vogel, 66, of Gainesville, said he’s
never seen an election “where there’s so
much distinction between the two parties.
You’ve got one party that’s for a lot of things
I’m in favor of and one party that’s really
against things I’m in favor of.
“I’m almost tell people I’m not voting
for Donald Trump. I’m voting for the First
Amendment, the Second Amendment, the
Supreme Court candidates, all conservative
issues.”
Vogel added: “I thought (Trump) was an
egotistical, arrogant crazy man for years. I
don’t think that so much anymore, but he’s
still certainly a lightning rod for controversy
based on some of his tweets and the way he
belittles people.... I think he could be more
presidential.”
If he had to pick out a top issue, it’s the
Supreme Court makeup.
“That’s going to decide so many issues for
the next 30 years,” he said.
The COVID-19 pandemic is not as big an
issue to Vogel and many Republicans in the
survey.
“You’ve got to respect that it’s out there,
but I think we’ve gone totally overboard,”
Vogel said. “To shut down the entire econ
omy of the United States for six months is, in
my mind, is insane.”
As a hardware store owner in South Hall,
“if I had to be shut down for three months, I
would not be coming back,” he said.
“I don’t understand people who would
even vote for a party that is pro-abortion,
that wants to defund the police, that has sup
ported riots in the streets of United States
cities that have refused outside help to quell
those riots.”
What some
Democrats
had to say
Nancy Hunt of Gainesville said her vot
ing decision came down to values.
She said a “respect for human rights and
dignity” is important to her. In 2016, foot
age from 2005 of President Donald Trump
discussing groping women — “when you’re
a star, they let you do it,” he said — resur-
BY NATHAN BERG
nberg@gainesvilletimes.com
A Hall County elementary school prin
cipal will retire due to health reasons after
nine years heading his school, according
to an announcement from the Hall County
School District.
Sardis Elementary School Principal Neil
Yarrington has worked for 23 years in the
school system.
“It has been a real honor and privilege to
be a part of the Hall County School
System, Sardis Elementary and
the Chestatee community,” Yar
rington said in a statement. “There
is nowhere else I would have ever
wanted to be, and there is nothing
like being a Bobcat.”
In addition to serving as princi
pal of Sardis Elementary School for
nine years, Yarrington also spent Yarrington
Hunt
faced, and Hunt said
“that was it” for her. She
marched in the Women’s
March in January 2017.
“That was the first
political demonstration
I’ve ever done. It felt quite
empowering,” she said.
Hunt said she has
also been concerned by
Trump’s handling of the
COVID-19 pandemic.
“I firmly believe that we would not have
as many illnesses and deaths as we have if
President Trump had modeled the wearing
of masks and not denigrated science, had
understood that things change when scien
tists learn new information,” Hunt said.
Hunt said she has voted for Republicans
in the past.
“I often feel that people don’t respect my
ideas. People will say all liberals do this, all
liberals do that,” Hunt said. “... Anyone who
says if you’re a Democrat, you believe in
socialism and we’re on our way to commu
nism, that’s not true. I have quite moderate
views.”
Social media and online misinforma
tion has complicated political discussions,
she said, especially with people who do not
seek out reliable news sources.
“How do you draw attention to yourself?
You do that with vivid, attention-getting
headlines. The more bizarre, the bet
ter. Clickbait,” she said. “They get their
news through Facebook and media that is
slanted one direction or the other.”
Hunt said she is also concerned about the
Trump campaign’s criticism of absentee
voting and possible court battles following
the election.
“There’s so much fear being generated
that is uncalled for,” Hunt said. “We’ve
never seen this before.... I think we have a
president who knows he’s in trouble so he’s
coming up with every possible excuse he
can come up with.”
Betsy Robertson of
Gainesville said of Trump,
“I do not think he’s made
America great again. ”
“I’m eager for the coun
try to be back in the hands
of a leader who has some
decorum and some expe
rience,” Robertson said.
Social justice issues, the
environment and the elim
ination of racism are especially important
to her, she said.
“The economy is cyclical, and I don’t
always feel that whoever is in the office of
president of the United States has a direct
impact on that,” she said. “The economy
is affected and influenced by so many
factors.”
She said she has seen the Democratic
Party take more progressive stances on
social justice issues than Republicans,
especially in the past four years. Some
Robertson
Johnston
conservatives have misconceptions about
more left-leaning people’s views on those
issues, Robertson said.
“I think a lot of conservative Christians
don’t understand how deeply some of us
feel about social justice issues based on
our, or my, Christian beliefs,” she said. “It’s
hard for conservatives, especially conser
vative Christians, to square their positions
on certain issues with that of more progres
sive Christians.”
Conversations have become especially
polarized in recent months, Robertson said.
“I don’t advocate for violent protest, and
I don’t advocate for defunding the police,”
she said. “I think that those things get con
flated in people’s minds with the liberal
point of view. I think a lot of folks presume
that I, as a more progressive and left-lean
ing person in my politics, a lot of conser
vatives presume that I don’t support the
police or that lawlessness is OK with me.
It’s clearly not.”
Dave Johnston of
Gainesville said the envi
ronment and health care
access and affordability
are the top issues for him.
“Joe Biden was there
when Obamacare was
launched, and if Obam
acare had left to its own
devices and left alone, it
would be far more suc
cessful than even it is today,” Johnston
said.
He said he had cancer 10 years ago,
when he was self-employed.
“(My family’s health insurance) had
climbed to a premium of $2,400 a month,
and after the Affordable Care Act and I
could shop around and find other cover
age, I was able to drop it down to $1,100 a
month,” he said. “That’s still a lot of money,
but that is a huge difference, and that is
because of the Obama and Biden health
care plan.”
And of Trump’s health care plan, John
ston said “there’s absolutely no plan what
soever, other than to hate the one that’s
there.”
Johnston said he is also disappointed in
Trump’s handling of the COVID-19 pan
demic, especially in comparison to other
nations like South Korea that have seen
lower case and death rates.
“You can’t talk your way out of a pan
demic,” he said.
Johnston encouraged voters to pay atten
tion to all the races on the ballot, not just
the presidential election.
“Believe the hype. It really is a very seri
ous election this year,” he said. “... While
the presidential election is important, so
is the Senate. The Senate has an incred
ible amount of constitutional power that is
way too often overlooked, and we saw what
happened when President Obama had a
Republican Senate, it really hampered his
ability to govern effectively.”
Caroline Kiger of Flowery Branch said
Trump has divided the country and failed
to reach across the political aisle.
“I just can’t bring myself to vote for a
man who is in such a powerful position
and has so little regard for anyone who dis
agrees with him,” she said.
COVID-19, women’s rights, reproductive
health access and racial equality are the
top issues for her, she said.
Abortion and gun control are especially
contentious issues between the two major
parties, she said.
“I don’t think Democrats are pro-abor
tion. That makes it sound like we encour
age people to get abortions when they’re
not necessary,” Kiger said. “And while I do
believe in gun control, I do believe in the
right to own a gun. I just think there needs
to be a little more accountability in who
purchases these guns and what happens
when they use them with bad intentions.”
She said that while she has known some
people who contracted COVID-19 and were
fine, others she has known ended up in
intensive care units of hospitals. She said
she is concerned by some pointing to mild
cases to minimize the pandemic.
“Just because it hasn’t happened to
them, doesn’t mean it’s not happening,”
Kiger said.
She said she is also disappointed by
Trump’s response to COVID-19.
“The president was concerned about
his ratings whenever the task force would
give briefings,” she said. “That’s not the
reason why you give briefings.... The way
he contradicts what the experts say makes
it OK for individuals in the communities to
also contradict what the experts say, and
I think that’s why we keep seeing such a
surge.”
Sardis Elementary principal
to retire after 9 years at school
time as principal of Wauka Mountain Multi
ple Intelligences Academy and as a teacher
at Sardis Elementary, Johnson High School,
Mt. Vernon Exploratory School and Tad-
more Elementary School.
He also had two stints as special education
coordinator at the Hall County School Dis
trict central office.
“They don’t come any finer than Neil Yar
rington,” Hall County Superintendent Will
Schofield said. “For over 20 years he has
given his best to the students, parents and
team members of our school dis
trict, leading with courage and com
passion. There is no way to calculate
the number of lives he has influ
enced in a positive way. We wish
him and his family all the best.”
Schofield said he is working on a
plan to select the next principal of
Sardis Elementary, and details will
be shared in coming weeks.
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