Well, I did it; I voted in the Republican Primary.
It felt a bit strange, but it helped that I did not have to say the word “Republican” out loud. I checked the ballot I desired from a computer screen, and the poll worker did not even see what I chose. (Last time, I voted absentee, so these machines were new to me.) Now that it is done, though, I am asking myself, “Was it worth it?” MTG won by a sizeable majority. According to the Rome News Tribune, she won by so many votes that if every Democrat in the district had done what I did, she would still have won.
Kemp also won and that was good, in terms of embarrassing Trump, although if Kemp had been forced into a run-off with Purdue that would have been better, in terms of the general election. Should I have voted for Purdue? Would not have mattered much anyway, the margins were too great.
I will start getting Republican mail, perhaps even a questionnaire. That could be fun. I could answer all the questions like a Democrat! What if all the Democrats who voted in the Republican Primary and subsequently receive Republican questionnaires fill them out like Democrats? Just a thought.
Before the election, I was planning to launch a movement I was going to name “G-dogs”, which would stand for “Georgia Democrats Opposed to Gerrymandering.” The idea was to invite all such folks to use this acronym to try influencing Republican political behavior by threatening them with the vote in future primaries. Now I am not so sure. We don’t have a lot of clout in this district. I can’t imagine the Republicans will be scared. They have been working on this for decades. Voting in the other party’s primary may make you feel good, but it won’t change the situation. Only a change in state government can do that.
The general election is the most important issue. For me, Walker’s victory is the most disturbing. Will the Democratic vote among African Americans be diluted because a young, handsome, wealthy, and famous athlete who is Black is running for Senator? I hope not.
Walker himself will be running against Biden, not Warnock. That has often been a formula that works. Also, that way he is less likely to make mistakes or reveal what he stands for, if he stands for anything. It will be up to Warnock, in their debates, to force him to say something and make mistakes.
One other disturbing figure I noted. There were a lot more Republican votes cast than Democratic ones in the all the major races. Some of them were Democrats like me but not enough to overcome the vote differential. Did lots of Democrats simply not turn out to vote in the mid-term because there was not much riding on the outcome? Or are the Republican voter suppression tactics working? Perhaps African Americans are disillusioned with the party and just tuning all this out? I don’t know, but if the numbers from this election are a sign of what to expect in the general election, the prospects for Democrats in Georgia are not good.
The Democratic electorate in our district did do well without out my help. Flowers does not have much of a chance, but of the others, he is perhaps the most likely to energize our African American base. He is worth supporting and working for.
We certainly have our work cut out for us.