Dougatl5

The Atlanta Way VS. the American Dream - Why Joe Biden should NOT count on Georgia

Democrats across the country are watching Georgia, hoping that my Peach State brethren will deliver for Joe Biden in the upcoming presidential election. In a way, we are all Georgia Democrats now, so I will caution you, prepare to be disappointed.

As Heather Cox Richardson lays out in her new book “Democracy Awakening,” the United States is at a crossroads between the idea of a government of, by, and for the people, or one of, by, and for the wealthy few. (I would argue this has ALWAYS been the tension of our democracy.) We have a choice between a society where we are all equal before the law, are all participants in democracy, and have a right to consent to government and leaders vs. a society built on inequality, where some are inherently better than others and are meant to rule over everyone else and have their own set of rules. This is the argument that we are going to be seeing play out in the upcoming elections for president, governor, and local elections in the coming years. The idea that some are better than others is the root problem for most of the challenges we face. It is also the root failure of Georgia politics.

The American Dream is based on the idea that if you work hard and stay out of trouble, you can get ahead in life. This is based on belief in a system where we all have opportunity and are served by a government that represents ALL our interests. Atlanta has become the prime example of a different choice.

Atlanta politics work in service to the wealthy at the expense of everyone else. Our city leaders love to brag about having “an economy the size of Norway” and the highest concentration of Black wealth, but they don't mention that we have the highest income inequality and the least amount of economic mobility of any major U.S. city. The current outcomes are that a young black man born into poverty in Atlanta has about a 4% chance of earning over $100,000 (in today's dollars) annually in their lifetime. The job of Atlanta leaders is to keep the wealthy happy and the poor in line. After 50 years of Black leadership, things have gotten worse for most people, as “The Atlanta Way™” stands in contrast and opposition to the American dream.

This has been the pattern of Georgia politics since our founding. Georgia was originally a penal colony of people who owed money to King George and was run by patricians from Carolina and other colonies. (Fun fact, my family roots go back to this time period. Apparently, my people owed George money and were sent here.) While the original Governor, James Oglethorpe, opposed slavery, he was quickly run out by folks who had money to make on the blood and backs of others. After the Civil War and reconstruction, the state had one-party rule by “democrats” for over 100 years as white southerners could not bear to vote for people from the party of Lincoln. This was not the Democratic Party as understood for most of the 20th century, but a throwback party of avowed racists such as Richard B. Russell and Lester Maddox, who enforced Jim Crow with state violence.

Things started to shift with the election of Jimmy Carter in the 70’s, but the party in general, has remained a tool of the wealthy for their benefit. “The Atlanta Way™” emerged as a way to ensure that while there may be greater diversity in leadership, the wealthy still call the shots. “The Atlanta Way™” is a system where no matter your race, religion, ethnicity, sexuality, gender, or background, you too can serve the wealthy and screw the poor. We changed the color of the uniforms, but the game stayed the same.

White men started to go for the GOP with Reagan, but our first Republican Governor did not come until we changed the prominence of the confederate battle flag on the state flag. After Barack Obama was elected, the majority of white men in the state legislature left the Democratic party. From 2000 to 2010, the power base completely shifted from a Democrat-controlled state to Democrats being in an extreme minority. Even so, one might think Atlanta was better; after all, it overwhelmingly elects Democrats. Sadly, Atlanta does not run like most people imagine a democratic city would operate.

The past few years have presented a national image that the people of Georgia finally have a voice with the Democratic party as the campaigns of Abrams, Warnock, and Ossoff sought to bring together those who have been left behind. But locally, since 2021, we've learned that old habits die hard, as citizens in and around Atlanta organized to oppose a land grab that would give over 100 acres of planned parkland to a private organization. The current training facility for the Atlanta Police Department is in horrible shape, and no one disagrees about that. But there's more at play than just building a new facility. The story of this boondoggle is the reason why Joe Biden is likely to lose Georgia.

In 2010 the city identified a few hundred acres just outside of its Southeastern border as the site of parkland to be dedicated as green space. This proposed park would help clean the air and clear a brownfield site that drained into waters feeding the South River, the most polluted river on the East Coast. In 2017 the city created a master plan document identifying this parkland as essential to the health of Atlanta to help combat urban air pollution, calling this land one of the “lungs “ of the city, essential for the health of its citizens.

In 2021 the mayor and five of the fifteen City council races were open seats without incumbents. The city had been rocked by the protests of 2020, where the news showed violent protests in Atlanta in response to a police officer killing a man in an altercation. (This was in addition to the George Floyd murder in Minneapolis, look up “Rayshard Brooks Atlanta” for details.) Protesters burned down a Wendy's, took over a small part of Atlanta, and eventually killed a child in vigilante enforcement of a roadblock. The murder of 8-year-old Secoriea Turner shifted the perspective of many city residents from “F the police” to “don’t let the vigilantes kill our kids.” Corporate and civic leaders demanded that the city get things under control and return to the image of a city “too busy to hate”© (even as it is too busy to care for the poor and middle class).

The police foundation struck a deal with the outgoing mayor to build its new training center on the site of over 100 acres of city-owned park land outside of Atlanta, in violation of its master plan and promises to the community. The city will lease the land at a cost of $10 a year to a private entity, the Atlanta Police Foundation, which will then build an almost 100-acre urban policing and safety training center. (For comparison, Los Angeles and New York City both operate with facilities that are under 40 acres each.) According to submitted plans from the police foundation, only 40% of the planned training will be for the City of Atlanta Police Department. The rest of the training will be for law enforcement officers from all over the country and internationally, and the Atlanta Police Foundation will pocket the income from training.

The “Stop Cop City” movement has taken on a life of its own as over 100,000 people (more citizens than voted for any elected city official) signed a petition to let the people vote on whether this project should be built at this site. The reasons for opposition are varied. Some don’t like the militarization of the police, others don’t like the police at all, but one of the more popular reasons for opposition is that the city property is not actually in the city of Atlanta; it is in unincorporated DeKalb County. The mostly poor black neighbors immediately around it are not city residents, so they have no recourse to hold city leaders accountable, as they don't get to vote for city leaders. The Atlanta city government is treating its neighbors in a way it would never want to be treated, despite substantial opposition from area residents.

Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens and the Atlanta Police Foundation have taken an absolutely ham-handed approach to pushing through the project in defiance of the opposition. They have gone so far as to try to prosecute bail fund leaders as participants in racketeering and organized crime, (literally the same bail fund approach used to support Dr. King when he was in the Birmingham Jail) resorted to voter suppression techniques that we complain about the Republicans doing, and law enforcement shot and killed an environmental protester in a botched raid on protesting squatters at the proposed building site.

In response to these abuses and overreach, almost all the groups who make up the ground game for Georgia Democrats are now in opposition to the city on this project. Fair Fight Georgia, the New Georgia Project, Black Voters Matter, and Bernice King, (MLK Jr.'s daughter), among others, have all spoken out against this project and asked for more transparency and accountability. Many of the members of these groups have made it clear they will not work to support a party that so egregiously ignores the will of its people. The result of all this mess is that the largest community under Democratic Party control in Georgia is doing more to destroy confidence in democratic leadership than any effort by the Republicans, and putting the national presidential contest at risk for the personal gains of the local leaders. How we got here is a lesson in how politicians who seek power at the expense of the people lose both and why the people are losing faith in Democrats in Georgia.

The Atlanta Police Foundation is a not-for-profit entity that pays its leader $500,000 a year, and is accountable to no one but its funders. The foundation is funded by corporate and private entities such as Cox Media group, who own the local newspaper, and prominent radio and television stations. These wealthy funders have made it clear that building this facility is a priority for them, as have the major civic groups they fund. What is not being talked about enough is the fact that millions of dollars earned from publicly owned property will be going into private pockets in the Atlanta Police Foundation. I expect this money will then be used to fund political campaigns of politicians who meet the desires of the police foundation and its corporate funders. Effectively this facility will allow the corporate conservatives to pay for the politicians they want, without having their fingerprints all over it. This project will allow the Republican CEOs in the suburbs to determine who's in charge in the city of Atlanta in a way they would never do openly.

A lot of people don't understand why Mayor Andre Dickens is supporting this deal. I personally think it comes down to the 2026 governor's race. Brian Kemp is term-limited and cannot run for re-election. The GA GOP has been taken over by the MAGA movement to the point that Governor Kemp was not even invited to last year's GA GOP convention. Everyone else waiting within the Georgia Republican party is MAGA crazy, and I think the corporate CEOs don't trust them to “take care of business.” It is easy to imagine how they would inform Mayor Dickens that they would support his run for governor if he did this one thing for them.

So, in serving their self-interests, it looks like the Atlanta Democratic leadership is screwing the state and national Democrats. THIS is the Atlanta Way. It doesn’t have to be, but it is what we have until we work to make it better through publicly funded elections. As Jimmy Carter famously noted, we have a system of legalized bribery. Until we change the system to public funding, we have the best government that money can buy, and it is not here to serve the people. As for Joe Biden, he should look elsewhere for success because “The City Too Busy To Hate©” is too busy serving corporate interests to hear the voices of the people or to be of use to anyone other than themselves and their benefactors. The people of Atlanta and Georgia deserve better, but sadly, the party leadership is just not that into them.

Tennessee state senator gives the hopeful message that even if you're homeless you twoo could grow up to be Hi**er...

Rep. Gloria Johnson on Twitter “TN Senator says Hi**er made something of himself after being homeless & you can too. I’m going to have to apologize to the universe for this guy. Hey not a single day passes without TN GOP embarrassing the hell out of our state.😬 https://t....

This is consistent with what they have done in the Crimea and Georgia so far. The ukrainians know this which is why they're unwilling to back down, they have nothing to lose.

U.S. says Russia has a list of Ukrainians to kill or detain after an invasion. A U.S. ambassador cited “credible information” that Russian forces have compiled a list of Ukrainians to be targeted after an invasion.

Could be...

Thank you to all who supported my campaign to serve our community. Obviously this is not the result I was hoping for. Not doing canvassing out of concerns for safety of others did not help. My discomfort in asking for money left us without resources needed to get my message out. I ran an honest campaign, and maintained my integrity, but ultimately, people decided that others were more worthy of their time, energy, support, and votes.

I pray that whoever wins this will serve the community well and focus on accomplishments for the people. I still believe our people deserve a city that works for everyone.To those who tried to help me achieve that, thank you for giving a damn.

Please join us tomorrow night at Kirkyard Public House for our Election Night/ World Series watch party upstairs!

GRAND SLAM!