CARLTON FLETCHER: State leaders hasten the inevitable swing of the political pendulum

“England swings like a pendulum do.”

— Roger Miller

Getting involved in political conversations can be testy, and I try to avoid them usually. (Plus, I offer frequent evidence of my lack of political knowledge.)

But I had a most interesting conversation recently with a gentleman who knows politics from the inside out. I won’t say who it was simply because I did not imply that our conversation was “on the record,” but suffice it to say it’s a gentleman whose political bona fides are impeccable.

I mentioned to him that I felt Georgia’s Republican leadership — and their fall-in-line underlings — were simply passing legislation that, while needless in the overall scheme of things, helped shore up their base voters during this election year. (I might note here that, while Republicans in the state House and Senate do indeed fall in line at voting time, daring not go against the “wisdom” of their leaders, Democrats in the state do the same thing, voting for or against legislation pretty much straight down the party line.)

This gentleman, though, told me something that not only made sense, it should have been apparent, given recent political history in the Peach State.

He said, “The Republicans are doing everything they can to hold on to the power they have now because they’re afraid that in maybe three or four election cycles, the state is going to flip the other way and become a majority Democratic state.”

Those of us without the foresight to see much beyond the here and now, who are not adept at the political long game, see only a state legislature that has skirted with federal sanctions by gerrymandering districts to maintain GOP control for the foreseeable future, even changing its own rules to OK local redistricting changes that were not sought by local delegations, although that generally is the criteria. Their reason? To give unfair advantages to political allies in danger of losing their seats.

But politics — on the state and national levels — is pendulous, reflecting the reactions of a populous that is not content to remain mute when a status quo benefits only a select group of people, or others (like groups receiving large pay raises just in time for the primaries) who get in on the good only by association. When the pendulum stretches as far as it can one way, there is almost always a “correction” in response to the actions of the group in power. That’s what happened when Georgia, long a certified, died-in-the-wool Democratic stronghold, reacted to what its population thought was too much liberalism and switched over to become a reliably red state.

But, as my political expert pointed out, there is fear now that the pendulum has swung so far in the opposite direction, and the momentum has now started to shift in the opposite direction. You want evidence? Georgians help elect Democrats Joe Biden, Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff over their conservative opponents.

There is a way for the current crop of Georgia Republicans to stop the pendulum shifting ever more steadily to the Democratic side, and that is by making sound decisions based on the needs of the majority of people in the state. Everyone tries to turn every political issue into a race issue — or, at the very least, a conservative vs. liberal issue — but the truth is that all Georgians and all Americans want the same things. And they are going to vote for people who deliver those things, no matter what letter is beside their name.

Sure there are the outliers — the nutcases who attend white supremacist rallies and claim laser-shooting alien Jews are trying to take over the country or who say we should just take all the taxpayer money that’s collected from working people and give it to people who are poor because they refuse to work — but, thankfully, that ilk is limited because, well, only people just like them think that way, and there aren’t many people like them … thank God.

No, the Republicans could stop the pendulum swing toward a Democratic takeover simply by passing legislation that benefitted a majority of Georgians — Georgians of all races, genders or ethnic backgrounds — and not passing outlandish legislation that benefits only themselves and people who look and think like they do, with no discrepancies allowed.

As the pendulum continues to move in the opposite direction, you want to take odds on that happening?