Newspaper Page Text
PAGE 4A
November 16, 2016
2016 winner: Editorial Page excellence
2016 winner: Sports Photography excellence
2016 winner: News Photography excellence
2016 winner: Front Page excellence
^Reporter
Opinion
Declare among the nations,
and publish, and set up a standard;
publish, and conceal not;
Jeremiah 50:2
On the Porch
A Republic, if
you can keep it
C ongratulations, Monroe County! You had
your best election turnout ever in 2016.
The election superintendent’s office says
79.5 percent voted in the Nov. 8 election,
besting the 2008 turnout rate of 78 per
cent. Well done.
Many commentators have suggested the election
shows that America’s red counties are getting red
der and blue counties are getting bluer. That would
seem to be true of Monroe County, which gave
Donald Trump 70 percent of its votes, perhaps the
highest percentage ever for a Republican nominee
for president here. Four years ago, Romney got only
68 percent of the vote. See precinct results on page
ID.
Everywhere I went last Wednesday, people seemed
to be in a better mood, at least here in Rural Red
Georgia. The last eight years have been hard
on families and businesses.
Hopefully Trump will keep his
promise to change the policies
that made it so.
That’s where you come in. See,
a lot of Trump supporters insist
on calling him Mr. Trump. And
now, President Trump. But let’s
be clear: We hired him to work
for us. America is supposed to
be different than most of the
world, where rulers lord it over
their people. Our government is supposed to report
to us.
And so Donald (I like to call him Donald, because
he’s a mere mortal like me) will be coming to us in
four years asking to keep his job. He’s told a lot of
people “You’re Fired!” over the years. I hope we don’t
have to do the same.
The American people have learned the past eight
years that we can’t count on anyone in government.
The Congress, the Supreme Court and the President
will do what is politically expedient. The Supreme
Court re-wrote Obamacare so they could deem
it legal. The Congress funded abortion provider
Planned Parenthood even though most oppose feder
al funding for abortion. The President used the IRS
and DOJ as weapons against political adversaries.
Trump has said this election is about the people
taking back control of their government. True. But
we cannot trust Trump to be that control. We must
do it ourselves. Trump is already backing off prom
ises to repeal Obamacare and build a wall.
Our Constitution gives us the way to control our
government. Our hired hand, our Congressman, is
the one we should contact to give him our wishes.
His name is Austin Scott.
All eyes should now be on the Republican Congress
to see if they’ll indeed implement the promised con
servative vision of rolling back an onerous federal
government. This is about liberating the American
people to rebuild our economy and putting the fed
eral government back on a diet.
Yet, there’s already talk that the Republican
majority will consider bringing back earmarks, the
pet spending projects which helps Congress bribe
members to supporting bills.
The last time the Republican Party held the White
House, the House and the Senate, they governed like
Democrats. They created a new Medicare entitle
ment, they expanded the federal role in education
through No Child Left Behind, and they ramped up
spending to accumulate the massive debt-load we
carry today. These are not Republican ideals.
The only way the Republican government will do
what we need them to do is if the American people
force them. Otherwise, they will do what THEY
want: Spend and regulate more, just like Democrats.
So put this number in your cell phone: (202) 225-
6531. It goes to Congressman Scott’s office. An
unwatched employee will usually go to seed. Stay on
him. Tell him what you want. The nation’s future
hangs in the balance. We can’t afford to get this
wrong again.
www.mymcr.net
is published every week by
The Monroe County Reporter Inc.
Will Davis, president
Robert M. Williams Jr., vice president
Cheryl S. Williams, secretary-treasurer
01
Will Davis
Publisher/Editor
publisher@mymcr.net
JRSTA
•y:
rf k
it
Richard Dumas
News Editor
forsyth@mymcr.net
m
II
Carolyn Martel
Advertising
Manager
ads@mymcr.net
u
: F
Trellis Grant
Business Manager
business@mymcr.net
Diane Glidewell
Community Editor
news@mymor.net
Sheila Benoit
Graphics Designer
graphics@mymcr.net
50 N. Jackson St., Forsyth, GA 31029
Periodicals Postage Paid at
Forsyth, Ga 31029
POSTMASTER: Send address changes to:
THE MONROE COUNTY REPORTER
P.O. Box 795, Forsyth, GA 31029
Official Organ of Monroe County and the City of Forsyth
Phone: 478-994-2358 • FAX 478-994-2359
SUBSCRIPTION RATE: In County - $35 Out of County - $48
Single copy - $ 1
Deadlines noon on Friday prior to issue. Comments featured on opin
ion pages are the creations of the writers, they do not necessarily
reflect the opinions of The Reporter management.
Publication No. USPS 997-840)
On Georgia Politics
Yes, Ga. is getting bluer
BY KYLE WINGFIELD
Kyle. Wingfield@ajc.com
On an otherwise banner night,
Georgia Republicans had one
cause for alarm: Cobb County
turned blue.
Georgia Republicans have long
fretted about Gwinnett
County’s Democratic
drift. Cobb was thought
to be safe for longer,
because the same
demographic trends
are happening more
slowly there. Instead,
both bastions
of conservatism
flipped. The GOP
must address this
abrupt change to
keep Georgia red.
Let’s start with a caveat: There
are reasons to suspect Cobb’s turn
toward Hillary Clinton was chiefly
about the shortcomings of Donald
Trump, especially as seen by sub
urban white women. Most other
Republicans on Cobb ballots won,
including hometown U.S. Sen.
Johnny Isakson.
But Clinton’s competitiveness
there is also a result of a some
what stronger Democratic effort
in Georgia. Arguably, that’s part
of the reason she lost the White
House: Her bid to expand the map
diverted some resources from the
“blue wall” states she wound up
losing. Not a ton of resources, but
then again as I write, it appears
she lost Michigan, Pennsylvania
and Wisconsin by fewer than
110,000 votes combined.
Maybe a future Democrat
decides the Clinton campaign
made a mistake, and re-focuses on
the Midwest. Maybe not.
Trump’s margin was
smaller here than in pur
ple Ohio. Florida, Georgia
and North Carolina were
all close, and together
they offer 14 more elec
toral votes than Trump’s
Midwestern trio. Heck,
they would almost
make up for losing
Ohio, too. As the elec
torate changes and
Republicans embrace
populism, it’s conceiv
able Democrats will try to win in
the Sun Belt, not the Rust Belt.
The populist part is particularly
pertinent. It’s no secret Trump
broke through the blue wall by
courting working-class whites who
have watched technology and, to
a lesser extent, trade take away
their jobs. But guess where else
their jobs have gone? Here.
Cobb and Gwinnett aren’t the
only places in Georgia where
Clinton did better than Barack
Obama did four years ago. By my
count, there are 17 such coun
ties. They’re not just among the
state’s most populous. They’re also
among its most prosperous: 14 of
them ranked among the state’s top
25 for median household income.
While Georgians like our popu
lism as much as the next state, we
aren’t the losers from global trade.
We still make things and grow
things, but we ship and truck and
fly even more things. If the GOP
under Trump turns away from the
policies that helped spark our rel
atively rapid growth, that might
turn off Georgians — especially in
Atlanta’s relatively wealthy sub
urbs.
What happens nationally isn’t
within the Georgia GO P’s control.
Here’s what is: Addressing metro
Atlanta’s problems.
Traffic comes to mind, and leg
islators are not just funding more
road construction but edging ever
closer to transit. Education is
another big one. The Opportunity
School District failed, but metro
Atlanta still has dozens of chroni
cally failing schools. What’s Plan
B? (I have some ideas, but that’s
another column.)
Of course, the “other Georgia”
faces challenges, too: stagnant
economic growth, struggling hos
pitals and, in some parts, equally
bad schools. To keep Georgia red,
Republicans will need to address
both sets of problems. Soon.
Kyle Wingfield writes for The
Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the
Monroe County Reporter and other
newspapers. Reach him and read
more at www.bit.ly/KyleWingfield.
Trump
continued from front
get some stuff done and get rid of
this politically correct crap.”
Ambrose said he likes that
Trump is a businessman without a
history in politics.
“He makes a lot of money,”
Ambrose said. “He’s got a lot of
advisers helping him. And I think
if he puts that same amount of
advisers, and good ones, in place,
we’ll be able to get this country
turned around.”
But not all Trump supporters
were as ardently behind their
candidate as Ambrose. South
Monroe County resident John
Ricketson, who identifies him
self as a Republican, said he too
voted for Trump, but only because
Trump was the lesser of two evils.
Ricketson said he ultimately voted
for Trump because of concern
over the next president’s potential
appointments to the U.S. Supreme
Court, which already has one
vacancy with the February 2016
death of longtime conservative jus
tice Antonin Scalia.
“The Supreme Court appoint
ments were what scared me,”
Ricketson said. “Because I could
just see our Constitution being
slowly eroded. There’s a way to
change the Constitution, but not
the way Hillary was going to
change it. She was going to change
it with activist judges and things
like that. I think the Constitution
is a living document. You can
change it, but you do it through
legislation and the states approv
ing it. That’s my basic thrust of
it. You kind of hold your nose and
vote.”
Out-going Monroe County
commission chairman Mike
Bilderback, another Republican
who supported Trump, echoed
Ricketson’s desire for conservative
justices to be added to the bench.
“I’m hoping he’s (Trump) going to
nominate strict constructionists to
the bench,” Bilderback said. “Out
of everything that was on the line,
that was the thing I was most con
cerned with.”
Forsyth political activist Jimmy
Owens said he voted for Hillary
Clinton and was surprised by
Tuesday’s result. However, Owens,
who has written several letters to
the Reporter urging minorities to
vote in local elections, said he was
not shocked by the low minority
turnout nationally.
Owens, who is black, said if
more minorities would get out and
vote the relatively narrow state
wide margin in Georgia between
Trump, who got 51.3 percent, and
Clinton, who got 45.6 percent, is
evidence that Georgia could go
blue in a future presidential elec
tion. While it’s less likely, he said
it’s not inconceivable that the
same thing could eventually hap
pen in Monroe County as well.
Owens said his support for
Clinton mainly stemmed from his
desire for Obama’s presidential
legacy to remain intact. Despite
his disappointment at Trump’s
being elected, he said he will stand
behind the newly-elected chief.
“There ain’t nothing we can do
about it,” Owens said. “The people
have spoken. We’ve got to give him
a chance.”
Owens said he expects Trump,
now that he’s been elected, to back
down from some of the divisive
rhetoric that characterized his
campaign. Owens said campaigns
frequently are messy, and he
has full confidence that Trump’s
attitude will change because the
American electorate will hold his
actions accountable.
Ricketson said like Owens he
was stunned by Tuesday’s election
outcome.
Ricketson said, “I stayed up until
3 a.m. I stayed there watching
that, and I thought: ‘This can’t be
happening. This cannot be hap
pening.’”
Ricketson said he knew the
national polls were narrowing as
Election Day approached, but he
noted that races getting closer
nearer to the election is a frequent
phenomenon.
“Everybody was wrong,”
Ricketson said of media polls. “All
the news organizations are back
ing up. Did you see what the New
York Times came out with yester
day? R: was that they were re-ded-
icating themselves to more honest
and truthful journalism because
they had strayed. They sent 28
reporters out trying to dig up any
thing they could. And those are
supposed to be some of the best
investigative reporters around.”
Ambrose, on the other hand, said
he never trusted the media polling
and thought Trump was going to
win all along.
“I thought the media was lying
about those polls,” Ambrose said.
“Because anybody you talk to,
nobody was going to vote for
Hillary. I wasn’t surprised at all.”
Bilderback said he thinks
Trump’s bringing to light alleged
liberal biases existing in the
national media was possibly the
best thing to come out of the 2016
election.
“I was surprised that he was
willing to take on the media like
he did,” Bilderback said. “That
was unprecedented in politics on
that level. To actually call them
out and then to have the proof
in the videotape. As you go back
and look and you analyze it, you
see the headlines and how they
were trying to steer, not report,
but steer. This is hard news. This
wasn’t the opinion page in the
New York Times. This was the
hard reporting, and they’re using
their headlines and the contact in
the articles to steer belief about
political season. It’s been good. I
think it’s going to be good for jour
nalism altogether. I think it’s sort
of like the stock market journalists
and the media in general need to
reset, go back and say, ‘We’re sup
posed to be reporting the news.’
And I hope they get back to that.
You know I consider the media to
be one of the branches of govern
ment. I mean if it wasn’t for our
freedom of the press, this country
would be a lot different. If we
didn’t have open records, you’ve
got to think government could
operate like the Mafia. So I mean
it’s highly important. I know the
recipients of all that from Trump
didn’t like it, but I think it’s going
to be good overall for coverage of
politics in the future.”
Just as in their differing levels
of affection for Trump’s candidacy,
Trump supporters Ambrose and
Ricketson had different issues
they want Trump to tackle when
he first takes office.
Ambrose said he wants Trump
to eradicate some of the executive
orders Obama has made in his
term and also wants Trump to
focus on his long-standing claim
to build a wall separating the U.S.
and Mexico.
Ambrose said, “I want him to get
rid of these illegal immigrants that
are convicts and work on these
sanctuary cities. Cut their funds
off to them. If they’re not going to
abide with the federal government
in immigration, then we don’t
need to be funding them.”
Ricketson’s first desire for the
Trump administration is a much
simpler one to tackle.
“I would tell him to leave the
Twitter account alone,” Ricketson
said. “Stop tweeting. He doesn’t
need to do that. He needs to think
about what he’s saying, concen
trate on the top three or four jobs
at hand, which would be No. 1, the
Supreme Court. Let’s nominate
somebody for the Supreme Court.
Also, get the right type of people in
his cabinet and listen to them.”
As for Clinton’s future, Ambrose
said he wants Trump to follow
through with his second debate
claim that he would put her in jail
for her alleged illegal handling
of classified e-mails on a private
server and alleged misdeeds by
her family foundation.
He said, “I think when she gets
indicted, which she will, you’ll see
her wearing an orange jumpsuit.”
And while Ricketson may not
have as favorable a take on Trump
as Ambrose does, he agreed with
the District 2 commissioner on
one thing: “I’m just glad to see the
Clintons ride off into the sunset.”