Considering that at the time I’m writing this, the midterms were ten days ago, and the State of Georgia has still not officially declared a winner for the governor’s race, I was initially going to wait until the result was made official before writing anything about this. But I’m leaving the country for the next week and change, and I just know I’m not going to want to bother retouching this subject after a long vacation, and frankly the result looks like it’s pretty much in the bag, in spite of the valiant effort put forth by the Democrats, so let’s go ahead and get this shit out of the way.
It’s pretty much a foregone conclusion at this point that Brian Kemp is going to be the new governor of Georgia, much to my dismay. Color me part-mortified that the guy I ridiculed months ago for having a campaign ad where he’s basically holding a shotgun to a teenager is going to be rising to amongst the highest offices in the state, but at the same time, I can’t say that I’m the least bit surprised in this day and age; especially if you stop and think about who’s in charge of the United States at this current juncture.
I have several mixed feelings about the whole clusterfuck that ended up being the governor’s race, but I think the one that bubbles up to the very top of them all is simply put, fuck the Libertarian party. Given the extreme narrow margin of victory that Yosemite Sam had over Stacey Abrams, I have this opinion that the presence of a Libertarian candidate on the ticket basically usurped votes that could have either solidified a Republican win, or swung the entire race in favor of the Democrats. Considering the general ideals of the traditional Libertarian versus the perceived extremes between the Repubs and Dems, I feel like if a gun were to the head of a Libertarian, they’d probably swimg Democratic, and we’d have a completely different story on our hands right now.
I feel that the Libertarian party in this instance were being selfish and incapable of reading the room, and even they had to realize that Babytrump couldn’t possibly be in the best interests of Georgia. And with that in mind, why would they bother to interlope in a critical election that was already expected to be razor thin from the onset, and usurp essential votes that could very well have changed history at this time?
Frankly, the Libertarian party disgusts me currently, and I kind of fucking hate their existence right now. I’m not saying that their votes would have definitively all swung blue, but in a hypothetical, majority blue scenario, they’d not only have led the election to a run-off but probably a Democratic win. And maybe with some modicum of change achieved, maybe they’d have a better chance for notoriety running in a not-red state.
Second, I don’t really believe for a second that Stacey Abrams and team’s relentless pursuit of counting every vote was so much “for the good of democracy” as much as it was them simply wanting to win, but I did appreciate the fact that such a thing was done. In this day and age and political climate, voting means more than it ever did, especially in a world where from enough steps back, it’s really a generational power struggle between the aging next generation and the older generation(s) who don’t want to relinquish their hierarchy in the country just yet. I am most definitely in the camp that believed that Yosemite Sam absolutely should have relinquished the office of Secretary of State while running for governor, and his refusal to do so is basically pure admittance that wanted to be playing with a loaded deck the entire time. For context, the Secretary of State oversees elections, and Kemp was basically in charge of the election in which he was running in; in what world does that seem remotely fair, and why was that even allowed?
Either way, despite the fact that the Abrams camp basically got what they wanted, which was a fervent search for each and every vote in the state, it still doesn’t look like it’s going to be enough. The dream was definitely to see Abrams prevail, even against stacked odds, but that’s why they’re called stacked odds to begin with.
Ultimately, despite the unfortunate result of a buffoon as the next governor of Georgia, I can definitively say that I’m still proud of the Metro Atlanta area in this election. Despite the fact that Georgia is still very much a red state, the only region of the state that actually matters, amazingly swung almost entirely blue, through and through.
Fulton County, despite carrying uber-red white flight Johns Creek, still swung overwhelmingly blue, primarily thanks to the fact that the City of Atlanta is in the county (but it’s painfully obvious where the vast majority of the 25%~ red votes are likely coming from). And the notorious 6th District that was topic of much controversy just years ago, which encapsulates parts of both Cobb and Fulton counties that went red back then, turned blue in 2018, and if there is one consolation prize out of this whole election it’s that Lucy McBath prevailed in her own tight race for the 6th.
But aside from Fulton, all the major Metro counties are turned blue this election. Cobb, Gwinnett and DeKalb all swung blue, and even the outskirt counties that like to try to act like they’re a part of the Metro even contributed, like Clayton county and a surprisingly blue Douglas County. But prime white-flight counties like Fayette and Cherokee can go fuck off.
However, in the end, much like the last presidential election, density doesn’t stack up against saturation. All the cities and population-dense areas in America can go blue as much as they want, but as long as the flyover states, cities and regions of podunk ‘Murica still get to vote too, results like this are unfortunately still going to be inevitable. Ironic, considering cities are what carry entire states in most cases, but those not in them seem to be the ones deciding all of the elections in the last few races now.
