Georgia is the Empire state of the South and our next governor will help define the next version of the New South. A region that is busy hating and a fighting family can’t strive in the global economy. During the turbulent Civil Rights era, Atlanta was known as the city too busy to hate.
As a moderate Democrat, hate isn’t an everyday part of my life; the same can be said for most of my Republican and Democrat friends. But, politics and elections have been poisoned by marketing. I recently introduced a smart friend to Dr. Frank Luntz, game changer. Dr. Luntz got in the lab for Newt Gingrich and cooked up the 10 points in the Contract With America in the early 90s. With control groups and testing, he discovered the hot button issues Newt use to move millions of Bill Clinton supporters from the Blue Team to the Red Team.
So, a Phd from Madison Avenue used marketing to move Main Street America for Wall Street. The 10 points were brilliantly selected. The issues made rural blood boil but fostered division for political gain.
Yesterday over the phone, I told the dean of grassroots politics in South Georgia that the Dems need to light a fuse with Stacey Abrams, Stacey Evans or Stacy Adams. Can Stacy Abrams add new voters in record numbers and get them to vote the whole ballot for years? Can Stacey Evans marry core Democrat issues with working class voters’ kitchen table concerns? As the Bible says, iron sharpens iron. A healthy primary between these two smart women could be like Hillary and Obama.
Who or what is Stacy Adams? If you asked that question, you don’t know the sensible center of the South. Stacy Adams is a brand of kidskin men dress shoes. When men dress as gentlemen for church on Sunday and relaxing on Saturday, this was their shoe. Rep. Tim Ryan of Ohio says Democrats need voters who shower after work as well as those who shower before work. I love his thinking.
I never wore those hard bottom Stacies because the comfort of Bass Weejuns and Rockports better served me. However, my daddy swore by his classic Black lace-ups for decades. Morris Day and the Time floated across the floor in Purple Rain in Stacy Adams.
As kids, we learned community commitment and Black honor in Nether’s Barber Shop in Sylvester, Georgia. Men with steel in their backs would walk in with laundry pressed khakis, tucked-in golf shirts and polished Stacy Adams…smelling of Aqua Velva and confidence. These men worked hard during the week—making someone else rich. On our side of the railroad tracks, they were respected and we listened to every word of knowledge and wisdom. Some men would wear Stacies with new overalls and of course, the shoes were popular with White southerners as well.
The kids today kill me with these soccer flip flops and socks…girls in house shoes at Walmart. They are called “house” shoes for a reason. I don’t understand how a young person owns three pairs of $200 Jordans, no car and wear God knows what to grandad’s funeral…oh, they rather walk than drive a $1000 car and wear Walmart sneakers. In that coffin, grandad is wearing Stacy Adams and those grandkids would be much better if they had put down those phones and controllers listened to him. Can you imagine kids fishing with Pa Pa….getting mud on their J’s.
For Stacey Evans and Stacey Abrams, getting key rural voters energized starts with their supporters having a comfort level in beauty and barber shops from Toccoa to Thomasville. The old native American quote says never criticize a man until you’ve walked a mile in his moccasins… or Stacy Adams, Timberlands, Jordans, Georgia Work Boots, flip flops etc. The GOP, using Dr. Frank Luntz marketing techniques, would have you think that all Democrats are urban thugs seeking a free ride or latte-sipping liberals. The grassroots guru told me yesterday that Georgia actually has more people who identify as Democrats than Republicans. However, Republicans vote every election without fail. Nationally, the Democrats won’t win if we can’t get those helped by our policies to the polls.
Project Logic Ga 
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