Under the baobab: Georgia’s senate election will be a new beginning, no matter who wins
Sisters and Brothers, neighbors and strangers, Democrats and Republicans, conservatives and progressives, people of color and those who are melanin challenged, doo-wop devotees and nascent Nubians of Nashville, Laker lads and Celtic citizens, I wish you auld lang syne and Happy New Year! I send you greetings and love on the only holiday nearly everyone on our planet celebrates, admittedly at different times of the day.
We recognize that we are yet governed by the sun and the regular rotation of our earth. We have agreed to make this a time of new beginnings (except for those Saturnalias who got the jump on the rest of us at the winter solstice). We need a new beginning.
Like wise men, we have come to Georgia to witness the birth throes of a new era. Tuesday’s Senatorial election will be a new beginning no matter who wins.
We are not alone on this pilgrimage. Almost every person of political import from both sides of the aisle has visited Georgia during this last week. They have come to support or belittle the four candidates in the two races, to midwife the democratic process in a state that until recently was known for voter suppression. But interestingly enough, our outside presence is irrelevant.
These new beginnings, the political future of our nation, is in the hands of the citizens of Georgia. They will determine which road we take. Two and a half million have already voted either by mail or in early-in-place including 80,000 people who hadn’t voted in the general election. The majority were people of color, most African American. Previously, the most Georgians who turned out for a runoff was 2.1 million voters. It is interesting to note that an African American working mom standing in line at a food distribution center will have a vote, but the president of the United States won’t.
The outcome will not depend on persuading the undecided. Most people here have already made up their mind. Political beds have been made. Come Tuesday, candidates must lie in them. These are interesting times. The Republican President of the United States, Donald Trump, has called for the Republican Governor of Georgia, Brian Kemp, to resign because he did not overturn the results of the presidential election. Trump lost but has not conceded. This absurd premise was predicated on the assumption that this was legally possible. Both federal and state courts have declared that it wasn’t.
The Democrats have so far held it together under the big tent. The challengers, the Rev. Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff, are running on a shared platform, focusing on 1) getting rid of Trumpism and its supporters 2) getting control of the Senate.
Both have to win. A very successful get out the vote campaign was organized by Fair Fight Action (FFA) and its founder Stacey Abrams. She lost a close race to Kemp for governor in 2018. Kemp, Georgia’s Secretary of State at the time, purged 670,000 voters from the voter rolls, which was about 10% of the total electorate. Abrams lost by 55,000 votes. Had she won she would have been the first African American woman ever elected governor in the country.
After tomorrow, then what?
We must find solutions for our major problems: the pandemic, the economy, global warming, racial and gender discrimination, income disparity. In 1965 a typical corporate executive earned 20 times more than a typical worker. By 2018 the ratio was 278:1. Before we can discuss the issues, we must find a way to talk to each other. Our leaders must understand that SOS cannot be the SOP. It cannot begin with an innocuous call for unity. We have drifted too far apart. Social sheltering has led to social isolation. We have come to rely on the media to inform us what our neighbors are thinking and feeling, (as if Fox, MSNBC, CNN, had our well-being as their primary concern). What is required in this time of new beginnings starts with civility and the ability to patiently listen, the compassion to forgive and the capacity to love.