Webmaster's Note:  GHC maintains a strictly NON-partisan stance, however, we understand and empathize with Dr. Swann's sentiments below. We fully understand why many Southerners feel betrayed and ignored by the actions and inactions of both major parties as well as their continued efforts to block ballot access by any third parties. This is a two-part commentary, a link to Part II is at the bottom.

Join the Republican Party? - Commentary by Dr. William H. Swann 

Join the Republican Party?

I’d rather poke a hornet’s nest with a short stick!

To do justice to the theme of this commentary, a good bit of background is required to establish my thesis. Therefore, this commentary is divided into two parts. A link to Part II is at the bottom.

Like a lot of Southern/Georgia folks I became a Republican when the Democrats abandoned the South and all things Southern became very 'politically incorrect.' Most of you will remember this started long before the NAACP and SPLC started making a living off attacking all things Southern or Confederate. I could be wrong about my timing, but it seems to me that the transition from Southern being something most folks admired to being something to ridicule took place when Jimmy Carter was President.

I have to admit that during President Carter’s Democratic Primary and then his first Presidential Election, I worked first as a volunteer and then as a paid worker for the Carter campaign staff. While I now apologize for my efforts to elect President Carter, and I had come to my senses before he ran for re-election, I have to admit that for all his faults and his now infamous hatred of all things Southern and Confederate, President Carter was probably the most moral man to become President in decades. That was part of why he was such a terrible President, he often refused to compromise on issues even others in Democratic Party Leadership thought important, so nothing worthwhile got accomplished for four years.

During the Carter years we Southerners received daily, constant bashing. Part of this was because of the ineptitude of the Carter Staff, and once Burt Lance of Calhoun was gone from the Carter Cabinet, it could be argued there wasn’t anyone left with enough common sense to change a light bulb, much less run a Government.

So making fun of the boobs in the White House became daily fare, and every Southerner’s intelligence was reduced in U.S. and world opinion with every mistake made. Of course that doesn’t tell the whole story; we also have to thank Brother Billy Carter for his actions of being the first brother buffoon. Billy Carter made rube, hick, redneck and hillbilly common words everywhere except the South. We are used to having Family members who might march to the beat of different drummers, or whose ideas are sometime removed from the oven before they are fully cooked (or thought out). We understand, accept, and often laugh with those family members, but we don’t usually laugh at them. We're usually not publicly critical of any of our family members for anything they do that's not too far outside the accepted norm. Blood is thicker than water. We're not all that way, but that is a very common attitude in the South.

The rest of the U.S. (means Yankees, no matter where they are from) seldom has such attitudes about their family members, not in the past, not in the present. They tend to call a spade a spade and a buffoon a buffoon regardless of whether they are family or not. As is the usually and historic case, this is another example of the difference between the Yankees or non-Southerners way of thinking and the way Southerners think.

So it is my opinion that though there had always been a huge gulf between Southerners and Yankees in thoughts, words, and deeds; it was the Carter years which crystallized the stereotypes of Southern People by those who live anywhere else.

As the opinions of those in the rest of the country crystallized about Southerners, the Democratic Party began to sense a pattern. If people around the country were going to associate the Democrats with Southerners, then it was likely that the Democrats could become totally irrelevant. This was helped along in great part by Ronald Reagan’s popularity. The contrast between President Reagan and President Carter couldn’t have been greater. People loved the patriotism that President Reagan wore on his sleeve, and his faults as a person and as a President weren’t nearly as visible as were President Carter’s. The other thing that happened was for the first time since the 1860’s, a Republican President achieved almost the same Solid South Support that the Democrats had enjoyed since that time. Many older Southerners held their noses and voted for a Republican for the first time in their lives in a National Election.

Now at that time it was still possible for the Democrats to regain their Southern Supporters, because Southern voters had voted for the man in President Reagan, not the party. Instead the Democratic brains (extreme oxymoron) at that time made the colossally stupid move of either taking the South for granted or writing it off. They did this by adopting policies that were extremely contrary to the family, religious, and conservative social and monetary beliefs held by most Southerners.

Bill Clinton was a last grasp by the Democrats to regain some Southern traction, and after 8 years of decadence and trashing of the office of the Presidency, every Democrat ran away from President Clinton when his Vice President (Gore) ran for President. [ Carter was busy in his promo tour with Atlanta's Village Idiots.]

It was suggested by some that Democratic Georgia Governor Roy Barnes was being groomed for at least the office of Vice President in 2004 in an attempt to regain some Southern support for the Democratic Party. A funny thing happened on the way to building that Vice Presidential candidate, Governor Barnes was advised that removing the Confederate Battle Flag from the Georgia State Flag would make him a hero to liberals and black voters in particular. There weren’t but a handful of Confederate Heritage supporters in the whole state of Georgia, so it couldn’t hurt Governor Barnes in the State (so he was told, more Democratic Brain power {Oxymoron again}), and it would make him a visionary and hero on the National Stage.

Governor Barnes built the largest Campaign fund in Southern History, over 22 million dollars. He was opposed by an ex-Democrat, with practically no campaign funds at all, and of course that handful of Confederate Heritage activists. It was estimated that there were over 250,000 signs purchased and placed by that handful of Confederate Heritage Activists. Governor Barnes answered by running near constant television ads. In the end history shows that the political, though certainly not physical, lightweight Sonny Perdue beat the overwhelming Democratic incumbent Governor by a substantial margin. In the same election, several Democrats were removed from office and suddenly the State of Georgia was a two-party state. This was helped along by a few Democratic State Senators changing parties.

The key to getting elected and securing the support of the Georgia Heritage Voters was a promise by then Candidate Sonny Perdue that if he were elected he would “guarantee” a vote on the State Flag by the Citizens of Georgia, and that the 1956 Confederate Memorial State Flag would be included in the voting.

The Governor is supposed to be a Baptist Sunday School teacher and I’ve heard it said by others that he was a Deacon. For what it's worth, I’m an ordained Baptist Evangelist and Christian Counselor, and I’m telling everyone who reads this that then Candidate Perdue told me and three other Preachers face to face that we and our Church Members would be able to vote on the 1956 Georgia State Flag if he were elected. There are thousands of other Georgia citizens to whom the Governor made the same promise.

Our Southern Manners---which typically guide us to attempt to find excuses for those we trust and respect---- have expired. Thousands of Georgia voters who know the Candidate made false promises have quit mealy-mouthing around and have made a simple, bold and accurate statement about Governor Perdue:

SONNY LIED!!!

Join The Republican Party? - Part 2
Will be available soon...

Dr. William H. Swann
gunsmythe@oddpost.com