Call me a purist, but I feel like our Georgia Democrats are very conservative when it comes to small-d democratic participation. 

We talk about turnout and services for the poor, but do we take our state constitution seriously? Do we take the impact of the state constitution upon our lives seriously? 

Why are our elected Dems so cold to “Western-style” ballot initiatives? Why do we act like the fever which has ailed our state will suddenly break when we elect the Abrams slate to office?

When we take the governor’s mansion, I hope that the team we send to both the mansion and the Gold Dome take the need to amend our constitution and empower the democratic vote seriously. 

We cannot allow the Abrams slate to be Obama 2008, when the Dems won a majority of governorships and Congressional seats but was not sustained by 2010 and were cratered in a succession of elections which became more of a measure of Obama’s personality than of Democrats’ political will. 

We cannot be a flash in the pan, a blip in this state’s political history. Do it all, do it big, and fuck the haters. Otherwise, every #BlueWave promise we’ve made – Medicaid expansion, HOPE 2.0, gun law reform, redistricting reform – will have all been in vain by the next gubernatorial election in 2022. 

But then again, I have the creeping suspicion that I’m losing my mind with anxiety as I stay in this state. I’m openly glad and anxious that we are this close to winning, but I’m privately mad as hell that our Georgia Dems are so conservative in their political imagination.

Every time I see The Young Turks’ “Rebel HQ” (formerly known as “TYT Politics”) covering another Trump Rally, it dawns on me more and more that Trump supporters get as much free coverage as he does, in 2018, even by “progressive” broadcasters. 

Where are the progressive rallies? Where are the brief questions to progressive rally goers waiting in line to hear Stacey or Andrew or Beto speak?

While Trump supporters already have Fox News and Right Side Broadcasting to cover their rallies, progressives have…what? The UpTake? They’re based entirely in Minnesota, although they do a good job of covering 

Not even The Young Turks has done anywhere near a good job of covering progressive rallies. 

You’re so busy keeping an eye out for train wrecks and domestic terror that you don’t look out for hope and progress. Tired of it.

I voted Yes on 1, No on 2, Yes on 3, No on 4 and No on 5. 

I reiterate my gripe that so many states have the chance of improving their state for the better through citizen ballot initiatives, while we don’t. 

We’re out here in GA trying to get a blue wave flowing to the polls, and progressives are fighting to elect a firewall against the specter of a triumphant federal fascist apocalypse, while conservative states with tepid blue ponds like MO and AR are about to raise the minimum wage, expand Medicaid and restore voting rights to ex-cons against their conservative legislatures’ and governors’ wishes. 

Think about it: Conservative voters are voting for progressive-minted ballot initiatives AND conservative legislators/governors/congresscritters.

That’s been a joke to me for the last four years. But maybe it shouldn’t be, because during T3 training through the ASDC last year, I remember a former Democratic governor who spoke on the conference call talking about how voters don’t vote for candidates for their stances on issues, but do so based on their values. 

So maybe voters are voting on their values with the candidates, but they’re voting on their issues with the ballot questions.

My hot take: Open primaries, contrary to the advocates of independent participation in party primaries, have not helped the Democratic Party in Southern state legislatures at all. Most of the open primary states are states which have been deep red since the 2000s. 

If anything, I’d argue that open primaries help conservative voters more than progressive voters. I wonder if open primaries accommodate voters who own their own homes more than they help those who live in rentals, which should be the opposite of the open primary’s proponents’ arguments that it accommodates more working people than do closed primaries or caucuses.

I see this while canvassing in this state. VoteBuilder is often inaccurate in pinpointing strong or likely Democrats. I’ve been kindly turned away sometimes by Trump supporters who haven’t voted Democrat since the 1970s. But not knowing who is a Democrat outside of voter rolls provided to the DPG by the SOS office is frustrating, as I’m trying not to talk to Trump voters who don’t give a shit about what I stand for anyway. 

But this is because Georgia is an open primary state with nonpartisan voter registration. In other words, an existentially-shitty state to be a Democrat, and a great state for the “nonpartisan”, “independent”, “unaffiliated” fraud who votes Republican all day, everyday.