Glenn Jackson's Article

Outside the Box:

A Conservative Voter Paradigm

by Glenn R. Jackson

It is another election year and Party primary time is upon us. Going into this year conservatives need to ask, who do you trust most, Republicans or Democrats, with your vote? If you said neither then you are on the right track. If you answered Republicans, let’s talk.

In Georgia the Democrat controlled House, Senate and Governor’s office took the redistricting opportunity to gerrymander the 13 Georgia Congressional Districts to be the Democrat’s best case. Of course that is the way the game is played and the Republicans did not put up much of a fight.

Georgia’s 4^th Congressional District is a solid Democrat district and is the home of Representative Cynthia McKinney. The layout of the District is a northern third which is white, conservative, and voting Republican, and the southern two-thirds which is black and votes Democratic. The outcome of this election is written in stone.

But wait, Cynthia McKinney has a challenge in the Democratic Primary. The challenger, a former judge, is considered a “moderate” Democrat. Without going into what in the world is a moderate Democrat, suffice to say it is NOT Cynthia McKinney.

Conservatives in the 4^th Congressional District, with NO hope of ever electing one of their own have taken a different approach. Indications are that this group of conservatives made early contact with the more moderate and sane Judge Denise Majette and moved forward with plans to support her candidacy against McKinney. There is hard evidence of their strategy (http://www.goodbyecynthia.com/) to organize conservative voters to utilize the Democratic primary to eliminate Cynthia McKinney from the U.S. House.

There are several important Republican contests, including a hotly contested Governor’s race and three Republicans also running in the 4^th District, so the Georgia GOP is not in favor of this strategy. However, if conservatives are to have an impact on governance in this country they must act independent of the GOP and in accordance with a conservative game plan. Conservatives in Georgia’s 4^th are exactly right to forsake the Republican primary and make a needed change that they alone can influence, by voting Democratic in the primary and dumping McKinney.

If enough conservatives will act in accordance with a conservative game plan and not lock-in to the Republican endorsed strategy, real change can be made.

The dangers for conservatives placing their hopes on the GOP can be illustrated by another Georgia congressional race. Again the Democrat State House in Georgia created as many problems for Republicans as possible, but also remember the Georgia Republican Party acquiesced by a lukewarm contest of the redistricting.

One problem caused by the Georgia redistricting is in the newly redrawn 7^th Congressional District. Bob Barr is the current 7^th district congressman; most of his old district has been redrawn into the new 11^th district. John Linder, the current 11^th district congressman from Georgia has been drawn into the new 7^th Congressional District and his old 11^th has been moved to the opposite side of the state in Bob Barr’s old territory. Are you getting confused? Good, you are getting the big picture. I did mention gerrymandering earlier?

Barr and Linder are squared off against each other for the 7^th Congressional District seat in one of the angriest fights in this election year.

So the result will be Georgia losing one incumbent Congressman. One of the newly redrawn districts will be contested without an incumbent, and is open for the Democrats to pick up a seat in the House. And this result will be due to the Georgia GOP providing ineffectual guidance and acquiescing to Democrat gerrymandering, and because of two dueling congressional egos.

Does this sound like a winning strategy for a conservative agenda? Is this what conservatives expect when they vote Republican, or just what they are forced to go along with?

Of course there is more to this story. John Linder has a highly rated “conservative” voting record, but as David Keene of the ACU says of John Linder, “He’s what conservative activists sometimes refer to as ‘House-broken.’” And as for Bob Barr, he led the charge on the Clinton Impeachment hearings

But I remember Congressman Barr for another reason, as the U.S. Attorney that brought charges and prosecuted a sitting Republican Congressman, and Christian Conservative, during the election year of 1988. Those charges, as well as the trial, cost the U.S. one of its finest elected officials. To read the story of Pat Swindall U.S. Congressman from Georgia’s 4^th District (1984-1988) you can go here: http://www.theism.net/authors/zjordan/docs_files/saint_files/saint.htm

The charges and prosecution of the case during an election year cost Swindall his seat and gave the 4^th District to the Democrats from 1988 until 1992. In 1992 the 4^th District produced its last Republican Congressman, John Linder. That’s right, John Linder was a Republican Congressman from the 4^th, then the 11^th and now is running for the 7^th District.

We have now come full circle with the man responsible for removing a conservative Congressman facing off against the man whose career benefited from that removal.

The conclusion to this story is simple, the pursuit of power is itself all-powerful and respects no other agenda then its own perpetuation. Conservatives, those people at the grassroots who truly believe in this nation and its founding principles must swear allegiance to no man, but to results and to advancing the conservative agenda.

As to Georgia’s 4^th Congressional District, there conservative are mounting a credible campaign to eliminate Liberty’s enemy and strengthen their own clout. They should be supported.

In Georgia’s 7^th District the conservative game plan is different. In the 7^th you will by necessity be forced to plan for the 2004 election year. While one of these men will be elected in 2002, history demonstrates that personal advancement not conservative advancement is all you will get.

In 2004 you will find another man, a better man, to bring “Fire and Brimstone” preaching to the halls of Congress. He is already in place in the 7^th District, and I know his name.

Glenn R. Jackson is Chairman of the American Reformation Project, former State Chairman for Buchanan Reform and former state Chairman of the Georgia Freedom Party. Glenn also served on the Executive Committee of the Reform Party USA. Glenn holds an MA in Philosophy from Georgia State University in Atlanta.