After a campaign misstep this week, I want to think out loud in a rambling blog post that will be read by few but hopefully the process will be beneficial to those of us in the political arena committed to actual forming a more perfect union. To make this medicine goes down easier, we should add a little sugar in the form of related musical lyrics.
Background: Georgia’s primary elections were interesting on both sides. The Republicans selected football great Herschel Walker for U.S Senate over the much more qualified current agriculture commissioner Gary Black evidently with the logic that his name and maybe blackness will attract enough Black voters to win in November. They would have gotten more Black votes in November from folks who would think that Gary “Black” is a bro like his opponent Senator Raphael Warnock.
In that famous Romeo and Juliet soliloquy, Shakespeare had heart-broken Juliet say “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” No sweetheart, you just can’t marry this guy from the Montague clan and no Black folks won’t vote for politically baffled Herschel Walker because could tote the pigskin back in the day.
My misstep was thinking that the legislative ag experience of State Rep. Winfred Dukes would get him into a runoff for Georgia Agriculture Commissioner. Correction, other people made that misstep while I wanted to increase name id so we could have one non-Atlanta candidate on the Democrat statewide ballot.
What’s in a name: With secondary consideration to experience, biographies, and everything else, evidently some voters just select candidates whose name sounds like someone from their community. I do the same thing when cheering for Rickie Fowler in golf tournaments because he must be a bro, right?
To be fair, voters can pick candidates anyway they want and I once thought there is no way Barack Hussein Obama could become a U.S. senator. In the primary, the lt. governor and agriculture commissioner races might have involved the name game. Since Shakespeare wrote about roses, we must rock with cut flower grower/urban farmer Nakita Hemingway for ag commissioner. She could help the Dem ticket by bringing voters’ attention to the fact that Democrats would let them grow legal marijuana.
The lt. governor runoff pits Charlie Bailey against Kwanza Hall. We think some voters selected Kwanza because of his name. However, the runoff will give Georgians the opportunity to look deeper into both candidates and use this position and other runoff contests to balance the Democrat ticket.
Holds No Currency: When Paul Simon went solo, he put together a band of South African musicians and some Black folks were in their feelings. The brilliant Graceland album and the single “You Can Call Me Al” comes to mind because of the lyric “He holds no currency.” Let’s be honest, in politics and everything else, money talks and bull— walks. Money is the mother’s milk of politics and heaven knows the ag commissioner results would have been different if my friends and I held some currency in south Georgia. The current mother of grassroots politics in America and a money raising machine is Georgia governor candidate Stacey Abrams. She is smarter than us; She has a plan; we should trust her process and maybe we can so win so Senator Warnock can remain in the Senate majority and Vice President sista Harris can get President Joe Biden to cancel student loans. I told you I was rambling. No one can win elections without holding currency.
Clearly, the Democrat plan is to have a statewide ticket that looks and feels like our diverse state while Republicans have a bunch of angry White guys and one angry Black guy (Ricki Fowler can come to the cookout in his orange Puma gear before Trump supporting Herschel Walker can but the GOP doesn’t know that.) Black voters can pick a bunch of Black candidates who don’t bring range into the big tent or big umbrella. When Jason Carter (Jimmy Carter’s kin) ran for governor and Michelle Nunn (Sam Nunn’s kin) ran for U.S. Senate, I think most if not all of the other statewide candidates were Black women. We didn’t win anything that year.
Dream of the Blue Turtles: We love the police—law enforcement and the band. When Sting went solo like Paul Simon, he put together an amazing group of Black musicians (Branford Marsalis on soprano sax) and Black folks again lost their minds. Dadgum it, Black folks, calm down and trust the process. That CD was fire and I dusted it off recently to hear the haunting nuclear war song “Russians.” Sting sang “what might save us—me and you- is if the Russians love their children too.”
If we love our American children as much as Sting loves British kids, we will let Abrams get us some Blue Turtle victories in November with her dream ballot and issues like minimum wage, healthcare coverage, choice, improving schools, gun control etc. The ticket must include more than urban voters in Atlanta. Some of the down-ballot candidates add range for the Dems into suburban and rural areas. Since we can’t have a rural farmer for Ag Commissioner, I’m taking a hard look at lieutenant governor candidate Charlie Bailey because he is from rural Georgia and can connect with country voters.
The Plot Thickens: Kwanza Hall is a former congressman and member of the Atlanta City Council but Charlie Bailey has support from some trusted names in the Black political community. The plot thickens in the secretary of state race because Dee Dawkins-Haigler is friends with countless people across the state but Stacey Abrams recently endorsed state legislator Bee Nguyen who has friends as well.
On that Sting album, the hot single was “If You Love Someone Set Them Free.” I’m a Moderate Democrat who appreciates what Ms. Abrams has done to energize Progressive voters. She helped give us two U.S. senators from Georgia and a presidential win for the state. Shall we set Ms. Abrams free to work her brilliant magic one more again. I think we should study the runoff candidates in detail and select folks who can win in November.
Project Logic Ga 
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