About The times. (Gainesville, Ga.) 1972-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 2, 2020)
12A OPINION Sttnes gainesvilletimes.com Midweek Edition-December 2-3, 2020 Shannon Casas Editor in Chief | 770-718-3417 | scasas@gainesvilletimes.com Submit a letter: letters@gainesvilletimes.com The First Amendment: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. More random thoughts on random topics Here we go again. The University of Georgia has another Rhodes Scholar. According to my abacus, that makes 25. But who’s counting? (Wink! Wink!) Phaidra Buchanan of Tyrone, Georgia, is the lat est. She will begin her studies at Oxford University in England in October and will pursue a Master of Science degree in comparative and international education. Congratulations to her and Glory, Glory to Old Georgia. Speaking of UGA, let me introduce you to the latest Yar- brough-Grady Fel lows selected by the Henry W. Grady Col lege of Journalism and Mass Communi cations: Laura Burr, from Bishop, Geor gia; Sophia Haynes, from Johns Creek; Sarah McRae, from Peachtree Corners and Grant Mitchell from Milton. I won’t take the time to go into how one is chosen to receive these fellowships except to say they are highly competitive and on my best day I would never have qualified for one. These young people are brighter than a new penny and I am hon ored to be a part of the effort. ■ I read that Rod Klain has been named President-elect Joe Biden’s chief of staff. I doubt he remembers me but he was my primary contact during the planning for the 1996 Centennial Olympic Games. At the time, he served in that same role for Vice President A1 Gore, who coordinated the federal government’s efforts. Unlike a lot of people who get close to seats of power and become arrogant satraps, Klain was accessible and easy to deal with. I wish him well. ■ After reading of the despicable death threats — anonymous, of course — made against Georgia’s Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and his family, I got this note from a friend who is a dyed-in-the- wool conservative: “I told folks leading up to the November 3rd election that if we wake up on the morning of November 4th and learn that Joe Biden has been elected our next POTUS, that the sun will continue to rise in the East; the sun will continue to set in the West; that God will still be in control of the universe in which He placed a planet in orbit called Earth.” You know something? He is right. Let’s keep things in perspective. ■ Uh-oh. I think I am in trouble. In doing some research on the family tree, I have discovered two ancestors on my momma’s side who were Confederate soldiers. One was even a prisoner of war. This obviously is not going to sit well with the historic revi sionists, especially when they learn that I graduated from Russell High School in East Point, which was named for William A. Russell, an officer in the — you guessed it — Confederate army. Fortunately, there are no statues erected to me (that I know of) to tear down. Maybe they will confis cate my Dixie Cups. ■ As we steel ourselves to endure another month of hyperbolic ads on behalf of the four candidates vying for Georgia’s two U.S. senatorial seats in the Jan. 5 runoff, of this I am certain: Raphael Warnock, Kelly Loeffler, David Perdue and Jon Ossoff multiplied or divided aren’t in and prob ably never will be in the league with two giants who have represented us in the Sen ate, Sam Nunn and Johnny Isakson. Nunn, a Democrat, and Isakson, a Republican, were statesmen in the finest sense of the word who put their country ahead of parti san politics. I am afraid we won’t see their likes again in the political arena. Not from this crowd, anyway. ■ Finally: The good news for me is that a lot of you read this column. The not- so-good news for me is you tend to read it closely and don’t hesitate to let me know of any boo-boos you find contained therewithin. A couple of weeks ago, Junior E. Lee, the general manager of the Yarbrough Worldwide Media and Pest Control Com pany in Greater Garfield Georgia, cred ited Lee Iacocca with having created the Thunderbird. Wrong. It was the Mustang, as many of you reminded me. I’m not being defensive but please understand that this one is not on me. That comment came directly from Junior. But let’s cut him a lit tle slack. You must remember that Junior E. Lee is not only a highly respected politi cal analyst but he is also a pest control pro fessional. I can only surmise that he may have sucked in a bit too much malathion that day. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it. Dick Yarbrough is a North Georgia resident whose column publishes Wednesdays. Contact him at P.0. Box 725373, Atlanta, GA 31139; online at dickyarbrough.com; or on Facebook. DICK YARBROUGH dick@ dickyarbrough.com Republicans balancing Trump, Trumpism You just have to wonder where Sonny Perdue’s shiny bald head is at these days. It was the secretary of agri culture and his former chief of staff Nick Ayers, you will recall, who came to President Donald Trump before the 2016 Geor gia Republican primary for governor and convinced him to endorse Brian Kemp. “I did that for Sonny Perdue,” Trump would later say. The president was happy enough to take credit for Kemp’s landslide primary victory (which we’ll get to in a min ute), but speaking to Maria Bartiromo over the weekend on Fox News, Trump regret ted his decision with a bitterness that was striking, even for his post-election period. “He’s done absolutely nothing. I’m ashamed that I endorsed him,” Trump said. On Monday the president amplified that sentiment with a Twitter blast which began, “Why won’t Governor @BrianKempGA, the hapless Governor of Georgia, use his emer gency powers, which can be easily done, to overrule his obstinate Secretary of State, and do a match of signatures on envelopes. It will be a ‘goldmine’ of fraud, and we will easily WIN the state...” So Sonny Perdue finds himself in a unique pickle, with his president at odds with his governor and his first cousin, U.S. Sen. David Perdue, caught in the middle, counting on Trump’s support to boost him in his runoff battle with Jon Ossoff. All because he was trying to do someone a favor. But a favor for whom? That question is central to the political situation we have in the state today. Trump claimed that Kemp was 10 points behind Casey Cagle when he endorsed him. I didn’t see that poll, but I did drive across a swath of rural Georgia, and that convinced me that we were in for a major upset in the Republi can primary. If I could see that, Perdue and Ayers surely could. They must have known when they walked into the Oval Office that most of the Trump vote in Georgia was already going to Kemp. They must have known that an endorsement would not only give Kemp an extra boost, but would enhance the president’s reputation as king and kingmaker, with little risk to him. That gets to a deeper truth, which has national significance. Trumpism predates Donald Trump. Before he announced for the presidency it was called the Tea Party movement, and it mirrors what is now called Trumpism, right down to the habitual exaggeration of crowd sizes and the fascina tion with Barack Obama’s birth certificate. There’s a reason Mark Meadows, the Tea Party leader who embraced birtherism, is Trump’s longest surviving chief of staff. Just as the movement came before the man, it will live on past him. In his very measured response to Trump’s taunts, Kemp appears to be aware of this fact. Just as he did when Trump criticized him for easing the coronavirus lockdown too early, and when they clashed over his appoint ment of Kelly Loeffler to the U.S. Senate, Kemp has espoused his continuing loyalty to Trumpism, while avoiding any direct back-and-forth with Trump. So has Loeffler, one of the few grown women in America who says she’s not familiar with the Access Hollywood tape. Not even attorney Sidney Powell’s claim that Loeffler owed her victory over Doug Collins to the same rigged voting machines that denied Trump a victory in Georgia was enough to shake her loyalty to both Trump and Trumpism. Powell was dis avowed by the Trump campaign shortly after she made that claim, and by last weekend Collins and Loeffler were cam paigning together. Meanwhile, David Perdue has been unable to shake questions about his alleged use of insider information to profit from the pandemic. Both Loeffler and Perdue were cleared by the Justice Department, the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Senate Ethics Committee over trades they made following a classified briefing at the beginning of the pandemic. But new questions have been raised about his trades in the Navy contractor BWX Technologies, which goes back to 2018, and a previously undisclosed turnaround trade in the Atlanta firm Cardlytics. Perdue has declined to participate in the Young-Loudermilk Atlanta Press Club debate, which might have been the smart thing to do before these new ques tions were raised. (Full disclosure: I’m a member of the APC debate committee.) But these new disclosures deserve a much more detailed explanation than he’s given, and the debate would give him the oppor tunity to do that. Otherwise Loeffler and Raphael Warnock will square off, and Ossoff will have a stage to himself. With the nationally televised debates and Trump’s campaign visit to Georgia, this is shaping up to be a very interesting weekend. Tom Baxter is a veteran Georgia journalist who writes for The Saporta Report. TOM BAXTER tom@saporta report.com Investing in others is a great way to receive a dividend. JIM POWELL I For The Times LITERS Voters should receive receipts to ensure fair election There is a very simple solution to a fair election. Currently when we vote, we go in to vote and get a copy of our ballot. The bal lot is scanned and then kept. Later the ballot is shredded. Why not simply return the bal lot to the voter? Once the ballot is scanned, the voter should be able to access that vote on the MVP page and just like a restaurant drive-thru you con firm your vote or your order with your voter receipt. If there is a question or your ballot was flipped, you can challenge the vote with your receipt. This particular receipt would be valuable to save for your own records. This would save taxpayer money by not shredding votes. If there is a need to keep the ballots for a recount, then voters should either get a copy or literally a small receipt. The same should apply with absentee bal lots. The difference would be the person with that ballot would have to make their own copy. Lastly, all voters would have to have a valid photo ID, and absentee ballots need proper confirmation. Unless you want to disenfranchise the voter and deny them a receipt and confirmation. Barry Colbaugh Gainesville Leaders should stop fighting, be responsible The president and the elected president serve as parents to the citizens of the USA. The business owners and employees are the children of these leaders and parents. The virus we are now faced with does affect all people and business that help us to live, work, be healthy to overcome things to return us to a normal way of living. My wife and I opened up our homes to teenage girls and the mentally ill to help them to a better way of living now and in the future of their life. I also worked in the juvenile court system for children that were neglected, abused and up for guardian care. When parents can stop fighting over money or pride as well as power and get back to their responsibilities to their chil dren, everyone comes out a winner. All of us people living in this country are hop ing this will happen sooner rather than later. Mordecai Wilson Lula Affordable Care Act is not socialism One of the things that the COVID-19 pandemic is illustrating is the need for national health care, and Georgia is a prime example. For years, much of rural Georgia has been underserved by the medical commu nity. Nine counties, such as Webster, have no doctor. It is unacceptable that 64 coun ties have no pediatrician and 79 have no obstetrician/gynecologist. These are not just examples of being underserved, these are examples of not served at all. Since 2008, nine rural hospitals in Geor gia have closed. Two of them, the Southwest Georgia Regional Medical Center in Cuth- bert and the Northridge Medical Center in Commerce closed this October and COVID pushed them over the cliff. When a community loses its hospital, the financial impact extends far beyond the medical needs of the people. National and international businesses seeking places to locate have checklists of desired services an area must offer. Medical services are on those checklists, so when an area loses its hospitals, or has no doctors, future employ ment is lost. Employers go elsewhere. Why point this out? In this nation, there is a misperception about national health care. Many call national health care socialism or a step to commu nism, and when they do that, they often men tion Obamacare or the Affordable Care Act. This demonstrates a lack of understand ing about socialism. Socialism usually entails the government ownership of the means of production or the ability to provide services. Municipal water systems are a good example. The ACA is a government program but it is not socialism. Obamacare did not change the ownership of hospitals. Doctors and other medical professionals remained in private practice or continued to work at hospitals. Drug companies continued as for-profit businesses, as did medical device manufacturers. For-profit insurance com panies continued to sell policies. None of that is socialism. What the ACA did was regulate commercial medical related enterprises. This is little dif ferent that the regulation of Georgia Power. I’m pointing this out because Georgia has a runoff election in January. The Republican Party is on record as being against the ACA. The administration supported the oral argu ments before the Supreme Court on Nov. 10 of this year to do away with the ACA. If those arguments are successful, over 20 million Americans will lose their medical insurance. Guaranteed coverage for pre-existing conditions will end. Parents will no longer be able to cover their young adult children until age 26. Premium subsidies based upon income will end and Medicaid eligibility expansion would be over, while annual or lifetime caps on coverage could be rein stated and that would increase bankruptcies based upon health care cost. If the Supreme Court strikes down the ACA, more rural hospitals will close, and more people will be medically unserved unless Congress can pass a replacement law that the Supreme Court will accept. The political party that supports national health care is the Democratic Party. Jimmy O’Neill Cleveland Facebook censorship akin to Nazi book burning In 1933, Nazi youth started the book burn ing movement — destroying books by some of the greatest authors of the time. They did this because it did not fit into Hitler’s agenda. They called it “burning propaganda.” Today, social media is repeating history through censorship of opinions and facts. Face- book removes anything that doesn’t “fit” their agenda, mainstream media, the same thing. This is book burning through social media and mainstream news. Shame on them and shame on us for accepting it. Joann David Gainesville (The Srtnes Founded Jan. 26,1947 345 Green St., Gainesville, GA 30501 gainesvilletimes.com General Manager Norman Baggs EDITORIAL BOARD Editor in Chief Shannon Casas
