& EDITORIALS
Declare among the nations, and publish, and set up a standard;
publish, and conceal not; Jeremiah 50:2
A 2018, 2017, 2016 winner:. Editoriar Page exce41ence
2018 wln.r: [~est Heodhne Writing /#~'~bql~
201s, 2017 wirmer:. Best News Photography l~/W6i~l
20111, 20|7 ~ Best Humorous CoFumn - On the Porch~
ON THE PORCH by Will Davis
How to face. the hate?
Being a big-shot member of the media (LOL), I get about 1 O0 emafls
p da .
That's despite spending hours removing myself from various auto-
mated email lists. Still, they come, from the Georgia DOT, from the Red
Cross, the Mary Persons Touchdown Club, co-workers and the Forsyth-
Monroe County Chamber of Commerce. And the political season is
always the worst for email because campaigns flood the in boxes of the
media trying to get out their message
Stacey Abrams' campaign has been one of the most prolific emailers
in recent memory. Of course, most media contacts are friendly report-
ers, part of the liberal campaign, you might sa)~
As I noted here last month, our nearby daily newspaper has spent
the past six months carrying water on the front page for the Abrams
campaign, alleging corruption and voter suppression by her opponent,
secretary of state Brian Kemp. There was no evidence of course, only
shadowy ~ons that often turned out not to be true (see the 600
voters in the 200-voting prednct in Habersham County), as well as sev-
eral lawsuits by liberal groups done in coordination with media outlets
for maximum damage.
Anywa) I didn't block the daily barrage of Abrams emails because ifs
myjob to keep up with the race for govemor. Besides, it would all stop
on Nov. 7. Wouldn't it?
Alas, no it wouldn't, Even after vote totals showed Kemp getting the
50 percent needed to avoid a rtmoff, Abrams continued to pound my
emafl box with her nutty theories about vote suppression. Final~, I
could take it no more
"Just let us know when she concedes71 wrote to ~'~r--:o-- a a ~ ~:
chad Holloman. "It's getting embarrassing'
I figured my response would get
lost in their massive computer email
system which shoots out press rdeases
seenaingly every hour to 1,000 press
members. But it felt good to tell them
what I thought.
Well apparent~, someone was
home, because Michad (I guess it
was Michael) forwarded my response
to reporter Laura Bassett of the very
liberal Hu~gton Post. Bassett, who
apparently appears on MSNBC at
times, emailed me some very objective
questions.
"Do you have any comment on why
trying to get votes counted, consider-
ing the rampant voter suppression in
the race and how dose it was?" asked
Bassett
I responded briefly, and by that afternoon, she had posted a big story
about how those mean racist Georgians were pressuring poor Stacey
to concede, yet she continued to fight with bravery and concem for the
"little guy" and "counling every vote", no matter how many times the
voter had cast a ballot, or how dead the voter had been.
The Huffangton Post even published on its website a screenshot of my
email, including my personal cell phone number and emaiL By Friday
night, my phone was rin .g constantly and my email box was even
more full with the fevered hate of the aMeft.
"I am perplexed at the reason the GOP is pushing so hard for conces-
sion7 wrote Dianne Rose. "Is it because she's an 'uppity' bhck woman
who doesn't know her place? Or is there something even more sinister
than racism and misogyny at play?"
whats embarrassing is the fict that the GOP needs to cheat to
win," wrote David Shell~. "WTF is the matter with you! If you do not
see the systemic voter suppression and have no problem with it then I
wouldn't even let my dog s-- on your newspaper!"
The phone calls were even better. A nice lady called fi'om Los Angeles
and seemed to be leaving a mild toned and actually coherent message.
"Yes, hi this message is for Will Davis. Will, what's getting embarrass-
ing is Georgia suppressing the black vote. That's what's emharrassing7
Then she gained steam into her closing line. "Yes, that's what's embar-
rassing you f------- radst piece of s--!!
Another California man called and had a news tip: He said that I was
seen doing lewd things with Mr. Kemp when calling the dection for
"I would never read your little rag newspaper. You are a disgrace!"
He too accelerated into the end, finding his sweet spot of pure
unadulterated hate, enco~ me to do something that appears to be
anatomically knpossible.
It was a good reminder. Not so much in Monroe County, but in
this nation, a good part of the population, maybe 15-20 percent, is so
steeped in political correctness, and in its hatred for whites, for Republi-
cans, for Cl'uSstims, and for men, that it is truly terrifying to think they
could ever get power.
Then I read this week about a student government representative at
a California college who has been ruthlessly persecuted for saying she
couldn't endorse trans-genderism because she's a Christian. I read of
how she faced the hatred with poise and forgiveness. And I was inspired
to be more like her. Jesus promised us Christians would face persecu-
tion and hatred in this world, just as He did. In these days of leftist hate,
we all should probably should spend a little less time bemoaning the fact
ofit, and spend a little more lime asking for the grace to forgive it.
www. MyMCR.net
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Will Davis, President Robert M. Williams Jr Vice President
Cheryl S. Williams Secretary-Treasurer
Publisher/Editor Business Manager
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News Editor Community Editor
forsyth@mymcr.net news@mymcr.net
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Advertising Manager Creative Director
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Publication No. USPS gg7-840
PEACH STATE POLITICS by Kyle Wingfield
Did a "blue wave" Abrams was reluctant
crash over to concede in the race
America last for governor, though it
week? That was appeared mathemati-
the question on pundits' cally impossible for her
lips as election results were to pull Republican Brian
reported Tuesday night, Kemp below the majority
into early and even mid- threshold needed to avoid
morning a runoff.
Wednesday. Still, a deeper
With the U.S. look reveals
House going deep problems
to Demo- indeed for the
crats, but a Georgia GOP.
larger Senate Abrams ran
majority a different
in store for playbook than
the GOP, it recent top-
seemed like a of-the-ticket
split deci- Democrats
sion. in Georgia.
In Georgia. a.^
the Demo- trying to win
cratic break- the smaller
through electorate that
appeared to be minimal at typically shows up in mid-
first glance. The highest- term contests, she aimed
profile casualty was U.S. to expand the electorate to
Rep. Karen Handel, who the size that usually only
narrowly lost the seat she shows up for presidential
won in last year's national- elections. She just about
ly watched special election, got there.
Another congressman The number of ballots
from Atlanta's suburbs, cast for governor was a
Rob Woodall, was just mere 4.2 percent lower
hanging on, pending a than the number cast
final tally of absentee and in the 2016 presidential
provisional ballots. The election - and a whopping
GOP also lost 13 seats 54 percent higher than
under the Gold Dome.in the 2014 gubernato-
In the statewide races, rial election. That was
however, Democrats did an increase of almost 1.4
not break through. Or at million votes vs. just four
least, not yet: A runoff years ago. Abrams bested
awaits in the races for Hillary Clinton's total by
secretary of state and one more than 32,000 and beat
seat on the Public Ser- the 2014 nominee, Jason
vice Commission. Stacey Carter, by almost 766,000.
Kemp and the GOP
hoped to keep pace just
enough to win, and they
did. Kemp's total was
about 115,000 below
Donald Trump's, but it was
almost 629,000 more than
Nathan Deal's in 2014.
It's where the vote totals
changed, and how, that
should worry Republicans.
As expected, Abrams
cleaned up in the state's
10 most populous coun-
ties, winning an alarming
(for Republicans) eight of
them. She beat Clinton's
total in these counties by
42,000 votes. Kemp, mean-
while, trailed Trumps total
by about 58,000. That's a
- J,1~k'owoa'aco
just in those 10 counties.
We can expect most of
them to continue trending
toward Democrats.
It doesn't get better for
Republicans when we look
at counties that should
have been more favorable
terrain for Kemp. Take the
10 most populous coun-
ties Trump won in 2016.
Kemp fell short of Trump
by more than 24,000 votes
in those counties - where-
as Abrams actually beat
Clinton in those counties,
by over 13,000. That's a
turnaround of 37,000.
Those suburban and
exurban counties held the
line for Kemp a bit better,
percentage-wise, than
the very largest counties.
(There wag an overlap of
just two counties, Chero-
kee and Forsyth.) But he
still lost about 5.3 percent,
which is more than the
4.2 percent overall decline
in Georgia compared to
2016.
You might have expected
a better showing in rural
Georgia, given that Kemp
focused his efforts there.
Consider some of the
larger rural counties, such
as Pickens, Murray and
Gilmer - counties that
gave Trump his biggest
percentage wins in 2016
while also delivering him
at least 10,000 votes. That's
an admittedly arbitrary
metric, but it allows us to
look at parts of Georgia
that are both deep red and
fairly cubstantial in size.
If you take the top 10 of
those counties, Kemp saw
only a 4.7 percent drop-off
from 2016, a loss of about
7,800 votes. What's stag-
gering is that Abrams saw
an even smaller decline:
just 2.7 percent, and a loss
of less than 1,000 votes
compared to Clinton.
Returning to the original
question, it is clear a blue
wave did hit Georgia in
2018. The "red wall" Kemp
touted was just barely high
enough to hold it back.
But given the current
trend, the GOP going
forward will either need a
bigger wall or a lifeboat.
The CEO of the Georgia
Public Policy Foundation,
Kyle Wingfield's column
runs in newspapers around
the state.
JUST THE WAY IT IS by Sloan Oliver
Wl oourO thinks the run-up to
dections is way too
ng? They go on forever
at least the commerdals
and robo-calls seem to. Here are some
of my observations on the 2018 dection.
First, just about every candidate that
Obama campaigned for
lost their dection, and just
about every candidate that
President Trump cam-
paigned for won theirs.
Seems obvious, Repub-
licans should encourage
Obama to campaign for
more candidates.
EXHIBIT A for
why it should be dig
ficult to amend a
state's constitution is
Georgials five amend-
ments approved by the
voters. Amendments
are always worded in
'legalese mumbo-jumbo" that is dif-
ficult to understand, even by hwyers.
For most people, the first time they ever
read the amendment is while standing at
the ballot box. So, most people have no
idea what they're voting for. The result
is amendments passed by voters who
have no idea ofwhat the amendment
says. Plus, none of the five amendments
were needed because what was amended
should have (and could have) been
accomplished by the representatives we
send to Atlanta. This is an idiotic wayto
amend the state constitution. Are you
listening Dale Washburn, Robert Dic ,
Susan Holmes, and John Kennedy?
REGARDING the Georgia govemorb
race, very ironic that Stacey Abrams,
who is ardently anti-gun, had a group of
AK-47 toting Black Panthers supporting
her at a rally. As far as I know, she never
condemned the gun-widding Panthers
as they campaigned for her. Many Deans,
journalists such as Don Lemon (CNN),
and everyone at MSNBC accused Geor-
gia voters of being radsts because they
didn't support Abrams. Thafs correct; the
D&Es say you're a "racisf' if you didn't
vote for Abrams. (The same accusations
are being made against Florida voters
who didn't vote for Andrew Gillum.)
So, I'll admit that rm a racist, at least
according to the Dems. If someone
doesn't agree with their wack7 ideas and
crazy opinions, their only argument is
to call them a racist. I'm disgusted at the
unfounded, self-righteousness of the left.
Who the hell made them the race police?
You're racist ifyou don't support black
Democrats but the same never applies to
the Dems when they dodt support black
Republicans. It's good to be a Democrat
because everyone else is
always the radst, not them.
THE REASON I didn't
vote for Stacey had nothing
to do with her race. I didn't
voter for her because she's a
radical socialist. Also, she's
not very bright. During a
campaign stop at Georgia
Southem, Abrams said,
"people shouldn't have to
rely on agriculture and
hospitality to make a liv-
ing7 Translation - Stacey
has utter contempt for
and despises farmers and
hospitality workers. At
one time, Dems supported farmers and
waitresses. Now, farmers and waitresses
are beneath them. Scary that she almost
became governor while loathing the two
largest industries in Georgia - agriculture
and hospitali
EVER NOTICE that Dems never
accept dection results that don't go
their way? Back in 2000 George Bush
was ahead in Florida by several hun-
dred votes. The Dems kept demanding
recount after recount hoping to find
enough uncounted votes to put Gore
ahead. Final,after six weeks of re-
counts and examining hanging chads,
the Supreme Court told Florida to cease
the nonsense. Bush won Florida by 525
votes, and thus won the dection. Ever
after, the Dems called Bush an illagifi-
mate president. Same thing happened
with A1Franken (D-MN) and his 2008
Senate dection. InitiaUy, he was down by
250 votes. After two months of recounts;
the Dems found around 500 votes.
Fmnken won his senate seat by 225 votes.
The Dems still haven't accepted that
Trump was dected in 2016. Now, guess
what the Dems want to do with Stacey
Abrams in Georgia, Andrew Gilktm in
Florida, and Kyrsten Sinema in Arizona?
That's correc they want endless recounts
until they can find enough Dem voters
in cemeteries and until they know how
many uncounted votes they need in
order to put their candidate in the lead.
Strange they only find uncounted Dem
votes.
IF YOU WANT proofofhowim-
migration affects the country, look
no further than who is being sent to
Congress in districts with large foreign-
born populations. Unlike 120 years ago,
today the immigrants coming to the
United States largely come from parts
of the world that embrace socialism.
They arrive knowing nothing about our
system of government and nothing about
the Constitution. Once they become
dtizens and eligible to vote, a sodalist
candidate sounds very appealing because
that is all they know. The congressional
districts that have been changed by mass
immigration are sending far-left, sodalist
Democrats to Congress. These indude
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (N[Y), Ilhan
Omar (MN), and A ma Pressley (MA).
For example, Ocasio-Cortez's district
(NY- 14) has a foreign-born popula-
tion that is almost 50 percent. These
far-left sodalists believe in complete
open borders, government health care
for all, and abolishing Immigration and
Customs Enforcement. Sounds crazy but
these Democrat sodalists want to destroy
America as we know it.
SPEAKING OF immigration, the
' aravan" of Central American illegals
has been in the news hte . There's not
a single person who doesn't feel for the
illegals. Half the people in the world live
in hellhole countries (accurate descrip-
tion yet Trump got blasted for tdling the
truth) where criminals, gangs, warlords,
corrupt politidans, and evil govern-
ments make life hell for the people and
75 percent of the world's population is
economically disadvantaged. So, what's
the answer? Should we allow anyone who
can get to the United States to just "come
on in"? Dems think we should. We dorft
have the wherewithal to even help all the
dtizens in our country. Even if we could
take in 10,000,000 every year, that's a drop
in the bucket and wouldn't do a thing to
reduce world pover . However, it would
bankrupt us, and it would permanently
change our country. Maybe if all those
people put as much effort into changing
their country as they do to fleeing it, per-
haps they could effect change back home.
Sloan Oliver is a retired Army officer. He
lives in Bolingbroke with his wife Sandnz
Email him at sloanoliver earthlinlenet.
