The GA GOP pleads “small government”, but they would pass #HB316, #HB481, #SB131, all examples of big government if I’ve ever seen one.

But this is a difference of regional and cultural values. The “small government” pursued by the GA GOP is only a truth to those who have every reason to strongly support and defend regulation by the state as long as it is directed against urban and suburban dwellers and their local governments. But don’t regulate the interests of rural landowners, oh no!

I have stopped thinking that white rural Republicans vote against their interests. Their interests are largely invested in taking power from urban residents, urban services, urban diversity, urban regulations and urban self-governance in order to preserve the power of rural business, rural segregation academies and Big (Rural) Religion. I believe them.

As long as we’re stuck with them, we’re stuck with the dominance of Big Ag, regional hatred against urban businesses (like the film industry), the Christian right-wing lobby, voter suppression, Confederacism, high rates of black infant and maternal mortality, and every other way of bringing the rest of us down.

After this #CrossoverDay, I’m still open to partitioning the state in half, because the GA GOP has learned nothing from 2018, and their voters are deeply invested in not learning. I believe them, so I want them to go live their values in their own small state, and we can live our values in our own.

#gapol