by Robert Fischer
In face of the outrageous news coming out about the senate run-off
in Georgia, I enlisted the help of long time friend, graduate school pal and former colleague to shed some light on politics “Georgia style.” The following is by Nick Wynne former Executive Director of the Florida Historical Society. He and his wife Debra live in Rockledge, Florida.
As a native Georgian and as a former resident in the heart of Telfair County where Gene Talmadge and his cohorts reigned supreme (I even had a summer job picking tomatoes for Miss Mitt, Gene’s spouse), I thought I had seen every kind of election gambit in existence—from having votes from dead people counted (and documented by the Atlanta Journal and Constitution in several lengthy articles) to having an opponent of the local sheriff shot dead days before the upcoming election (some said he had 150 bullet holes, including some in the soles of his feet). I remember our county ordinary (clerk) disappearing while an investigation into irregular voting practices was being conducted by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation only to emerge two weeks later with a tale about being lost on Sugar Creek and having to subsist on wild blueberries. I remember Democrat politicians who set up shop in the back of a flatbed truck to hand out pints of Georgia ‘shine to male voters (and two to five dollars for those who were unconvinced that the right men were running for office) who needed to be reminded of the value of voting and voting “right.” I also remember registering to vote at 18 and having to read and explain a section of the Georgia constitution while a local Black educator with a Morris Brown College degree was also trying to register and faced the same “literacy test.” I had my fresh diploma from Telfair County High School and could offer only offer a simplistic explanation of what I had read while the Black educator offered a lucid and learned essay on the section and its meaning. I was allowed to register, but he was not. I have never forgotten that experience!
I remember all sorts of other major and minor irregularities happening so often in elections that fraudulent and crooked voting became the norm. I remember when voting was considered a sport and the results were preordained. I remember, but I do not remember anything remotely approaching the chaos and convoluted logic of the current senatorial runoffs in the Peach State. Nothing, nada, zip!
As a current resident of the Sunshine State, I see a goodly number of political shysters, snake oil salesmen (and women), and candidates of questionable morals on each election ballot. Florida is the original political snakepit, but even the career of Governor Sidney J. Catts (who told Floridians they only had three friends—Sears Roebuck, the Good Lord, and Sidney J. Catts—and who was arrested after his term was up for being the brains behind a counterfeiting scheme) pales compared to the present fiasco in the Peach State!
Where in the book of “Good Politics” does it ever say win and election by telling your supporters their votes won’t count because the election is rigged? Where in the practice of political savvy is there room for threatening with death leaders of your own political party if they fail to deliver an election that you are boycotting? Where in the land of the “Modern South” is it permissible to launch blatantly racist attacks, to threaten poll workers and officials with death, or to promise retribution at some later date? Where? GEORGIA!
There is a humorous side to the current runoff campaign. The spectacle of watching Georgians in 159 counties get excited about electing two multi-millionaires to the Senate while experiencing declining incomes, COVID outbreaks with little federal aid, and shrinking economies is heartbreaking, but funny. The situation reminds me of a remark attributed to the late governor of Alabama, Big Jim Folsom. When a voter accused him of stealing from the state treasury, Big Jim is reputed to have replied, “Yes, I did, but, hell, I did it for you!” He was reelected! Perdue and Loeffler have made money through insider trading using information from the public “treasury,” but, hell, they did it for you.
Good luck, my friends and relatives still in the Peach State. Good luck in selecting the right candidates, but from where I sit in the Sunshine State, it looks like Yogi Berra was right—“It’s deja vu all over again.”