Predictions: Georgia turns blue next election? (Atlanta, Columbus: loans, living in, zip code)

[rcsteiner]

Originally Posted by RainyRainyDay

East Cobb seems pretty far from getting even a slight blue tinge. On Wednesday, the day after the election, we admonished our teenager to be low-key and gracious in any political talk at school. We're Democratic supporters but her schoolmates' families are virtually all hyper-Republicans.

...and yet 44% of Cobb County residents voted for Obama.

That shows you how far from the center your neighbors appear to be even in their own county.

This is one reason why I tend to not be too fond of the "East Cobb" area (at least given what I've heard of it and given the attitudes of the few folks that I know personally who live there).

While I think the school system up there is excellent (based on reports here and elsewhere), I don't think my wife and I would fit in with such a conservative crowd.

Is East Cobb where the textbook sticker fiasco was born, by any chance?

The upshot of this was that she came home from school feeling miserable, because she'd listened to a torrent of talk all day about how the president-elect is a terrorist who'll destroy the country.

This from supposedly "intelligent" people...? Wow...

I don't have a problem with different points of view, and in fact I rather like them, but gross misrepresentations such as the view you describe your daughter encountering are intellectually dishonest at best.

[rcsteiner]

Originally Posted by Georgia

Funny comment.
Let's see, Northern Blue States. Losing population due to massive taxation, big government, eroding liberties (unless your a criminal), and property taxes so high that one can barley make the payment much less the mortgage. So, are you stating you want Georgia to take the same path?

Minnesota/Wisconsin/Illinois certainly don't fit your selective interpretation, especially the first one from whence I came.

Now, as a Libertarian. I fail to see any "Blue" state that creates overall wealth and higher living standards for it's citizens. All one has to do is a license plate check driving around Atlanta and see the tags rolling in:
Michigan (Blue) New Jersey (Blue) New York (Blue) Massachusetts (Blue) California (Blue and Physchedelic), and now an increasing number of Illinois (Blue). If the fact that turning left is so Utopian, why are folks running in droves, I gather from your comment you included, coming here? Then, once here why do you want to change it to an identical place from which you fled?

I came here as a direct result of 9/11 (I would have gone anywhere that had comparable work), and many of my former compatriots at NWA are soon to follow as the result of DL's buyout. This is a function of cycles in the aviation industry, though, not the overall economy. The Twin Cities as a whole remains vibrant by almost any measure (one of the few metro areas in the north with consisten population growth), and it still tends to be in the top ten (and often the top three) for most lists regarding overall quality of life, education, etc.

How it is a bad example again? And do you REALLY want to compare Atlanta (and Georgia) to the Twin Cities metro (and Minnesota)...?

Just a little confused ------->

Taking off the filtered lenses might be helpful. There are crapholes in the country which fit both Red and Blue stereotypes. The fact of the matter is that most of the education suburban populations in the US tend towards the Democratic end of the spectrum, not the Republican end. Look at votes by county for almost any state you like, and you'll see similar trends.

[GF72]

Originally Posted by rcsteiner

Is East Cobb where the textbook sticker fiasco was born, by any chance?

Well, the sticker was approved by the Cobb board of education, which has members from everywhere in the county, but they only added the stickers because religious parents complained, and I'm sure that some of those parents were from East Cobb. But at the same time, I know that in Walton High at least (I live in the district and know a lot of the teachers and locals) the stickers were extremely unpopular with teachers and students (parents didn't seem to care too much overall). In fact I know that the students in the AP Biology classes removed the stickers.

At least in Cobb the idea was immediately challenged. Alabama is far worse, they've had a much worse, several-paragraph long anti-evolution sticker on their biology books statewide for years, but it's completely unchallenged, most people don't even know about it outside Alabama. Alabama even rejects textbooks that contain material on evolution.

[aries4118]

Originally Posted by GF72

Well, the sticker was approved by the Cobb board of education, which has members from everywhere in the county, but they only added the stickers because religious parents complained, and I'm sure that some of those parents were from East Cobb. But at the same time, I know that in Walton High at least (I live in the district and know a lot of the teachers and locals) the stickers were extremely unpopular with teachers and students (parents didn't seem to care too much overall). In fact I know that the students in the AP Biology classes removed the stickers.

At least in Cobb the idea was immediately challenged. Alabama is far worse, they've had a much worse, several-paragraph long anti-evolution sticker on their biology books statewide for years, but it's completely unchallenged, most people don't even know about it outside Alabama. Alabama even rejects textbooks that contain material on evolution.

Good Post...

People tend to think East Cobb is so religiously conservative. East Cobb is a fiscally conservative region. When I was in high school, "the God Squad" was not that big.

East Cobb is also northern-transplant central...and has been since the 1970's!

[southgeorgia]

Originally Posted by PeteyNice

I am thinking 2016. The Georgia exit polls were disappointing. Only like 20% of white people voted for Obama.

what difference does it make what color people voted for obama? is it not possible that only 20% of white people agree with his policies, and the other 80% wouldn't have voted for him even if he were white? i get the impression from a lot of comments i've read that a vote against obama is a vote for racism. that's simply not the case. i didn't vote for him because i don't agree with his policies. i hope like hell things work out for the sake of our country, but i'm not very optimistic about it.

[neil0311]

Originally Posted by southgeorgia

what difference does it make what color people voted for obama? is it not possible that only 20% of white people agree with his policies, and the other 80% wouldn't have voted for him even if he were white? i get the impression from a lot of comments i've read that a vote against obama is a vote for racism. that's simply not the case. i didn't vote for him because i don't agree with his policies. i hope like hell things work out for the sake of our country, but i'm not very optimistic about it.

Welll...Someone gets it.

[zhoukoff]

Does anybody care about the issues? Like the constitution, and a limited federal government? Freedom from taxation without representation? Or is it all about your side winning, and using more and more government power to put goodies in your basket?

[jjbradleynyc]

Originally Posted by runningncircles1

Everyone makes it sound like Georgia won McCain by 60% or something. He barely got 52%, only a few pts higher than Obama.

And, it really depends. If Obama does a good job, it's quite possible that we will be blue. However, if we're dissatisfied (economically) then we'll be red. In Georgia, it seems to be more about economics these days than social policy.

But if it were more about economics, Obama should have won Georgia, no?

[Iconographer]

Originally Posted by jjbradleynyc

But if it were more about economics, Obama should have won Georgia, no?

Not if they distrust his approach to fixing it.

[harrat]

Originally Posted by netdragon

It's sad. Georgia is lagging behind Virginia, North Carolina and Florida which are now the first blue Southern states. I really believe Georgia has the potential to be next and prove it isn't still in the stone ages.

By the way, I was surprised that there were some other regions of the state that were blue other than Atlanta. I thought Atlanta was the only progressive part of Georgia. I guess I was wrong. In fact: from Augusta to Columbus there was a ring of blue.

County Results - Election Center 2008 - Elections & Politics from CNN.com

Lol Augusta metro is over half a million people.