Nathan Deal makes a forceful, biblical case against Georgia’s ‘religious liberty’ bill (Atlanta: retiring, companies)

[Atlwarrior]

Originally Posted by paris-on-ponce

I think CNN is a big part of this, yes. I also think it's because Hollywood has such a vested interest in GA.

We're the top story on Hollywood Reporter this morning too:

Entertainment/Hollywood News - Hollywood Reporter

The title is a little misleading, it was a lot of factors and not just Hollywood influence. It was a lot corporate push back, showing that when all Metro Atlanta sectors come together the state must listen. I hope transit supporters learn from this ordeal.

[paris-on-ponce]

Originally Posted by Atlwarrior

The title is a little misleading, it was a lot of factors and not just Hollywood influence. It was a lot corporate push back, showing that when all Metro Atlanta sectors come together the state must listen. I hope transit supporters learn from this ordeal.

I agree. But Hollywood wouldn't be Hollywood if they didn't write themselves in as the heroes of every story. Remember 2012's ARGO? Where Hollywood saves the American embassy hostages in Iran?

[primaltech]

EDIT: Oops wrong thread, sorry.

[Born 2 Roll]

Originally Posted by jero23

That would be a zero sum game for them considering both GA and NC are battling to be more regressive. This foolishness will likely come back to next year thanks to these determined asshats in that make up the majority of the Georgia General Assembly.

It is probably a good assumption to assume that this bill will probably be back next year.

Though I don't know how far any type of action on religious liberty would get next year because 2017 is not an election year.

One can probably assume that any type of serious action on religious liberty legislation would come during the 2018 session of the Georgia General Assembly because 2018 is an election year when not only are all legislative and congressional seats up for a vote but also all statewide offices (Governor, Lt. Governor, Attorney General, etc), except the U.S. Senate, are up for a vote.

I would assume that they would hold off on passing any serious religious liberty legislation until 2018 when they could get the most mileage out of the issue with the Republican base.

Word also has it that leading religious liberty legislative proponent, conservative activist and Georgia state Senator Josh McKoon, is thinking about running either for Congress or Georgia Attorney General or possibly even governor in 2018.

So with McKoon eyeing higher office, one should expect that he is going to keep pushing really hard on this issue until some type of really strong religious liberty legislation is eventually enacted into state law.

Even though Governor Deal announced today that he will veto this religious liberty bill, this issue does not seem like it is not going away anytime soon and will likely be front-and-center in Georgia politics for at least the next two years.

Lt. Governor Casey Cagle, who is one of the frontrunners in the 2018 Georgia Governor's race is signaling that he plans to make religious liberty a strong part of his campaign platform moving forward.

[Pemgin]

Governor McKoon?

*shudders*

[-thomass]

Originally Posted by Born 2 Roll

It is probably a good assumption to assume that this bill will probably be back next year.

Though I don't know how far any type of action on religious liberty would get next year because 2017 is not an election year.

One can probably assume that any type of serious action on religious liberty legislation would come during the 2018 session of the Georgia General Assembly because 2018 is an election year when not only are all legislative and congressional seats up for a vote but also all statewide offices (Governor, Lt. Governor, Attorney General, etc), except the U.S. Senate, are up for a vote.

I would assume that they would hold off on passing any serious religious liberty legislation until 2018 when they could get the most mileage out of the issue with the Republican base.

Word also has it that leading religious liberty legislative proponent, conservative activist and Georgia state Senator Josh McKoon, is thinking about running either for Congress or Georgia Attorney General or possibly even governor in 2018.

So with McKoon eyeing higher office, one should expect that he is going to keep pushing really hard on this issue until some type of really strong religious liberty legislation is eventually enacted into state law.

Even though Governor Deal announced today that he will vetoed this religious liberty bill, this issue does not seem like it is not going away anytime soon and will likely be front-and-center in Georgia politics for at least the next two years.

Lt. Governor Casey Cagle, who is one of the frontrunners in the 2018 Georgia Governor's race is signaling that he plans to make religious liberty a strong part of his campaign platform moving forward.

I would hope that GA voters would be smart enough to not put these people in power.

[Born 2 Roll]

Originally Posted by Atlwarrior

Hopefully this will wake voters up to not only vote for presidential candidate, but also have record turnouts for local legislators, and remove these clowns.

In the state legislative races there most likely will not be much of a backlash against this type of legislation.

If anything, the legislators who supported this are going to campaign on how they supported this bill and how Governor Deal should have signed it into law.

This is because the legislative and congressional districts are gerrymandered so that the Republican Party has about a 67% supermajority of the seats in both houses of the Georgia Legislature and about a 71% supermajority of Congressional seats (...the GOP's majority in state politics is actually around 55%).

The legislative and congressional districts themselves are also drawn (or gerrymandered) where the GOP has at least about 60-40 advantage (or about a +20) in the overwhelming majority of the voting districts that they control.

Most of the GOP legislators (GOP House members) who voted against this bill seemed to represent closer-in Metro Atlanta legislative districts where the GOP advantage is lower than a +15 (lower than about a 57-43 GOP advantage) where there may be more moderate and even progressive voters.

So, if anything, virtually all of the legislators who voted for this bill to advance to Governor Deal's desk will be rewarded for their support of the bill and will be strongly encouraged by their voters to comeback and push for even stronger religious liberty legislation in the future.

[Born 2 Roll]

Originally Posted by -thomass

I would hope that GA voters would be smart enough to not put these people in power.

The Democratic Party just is not very strong (not strong enough to win a statewide race or a majority of legislative seats) right now and the Republican electoral process that most often determines the winners of major elections in this state these days is dominated by deeply socially and culturally conservative interests....So they all have a good chance of winning elections for higher office.

Current 2018 frontrunner for governor, sitting Lt. Governor Casey Cagle, is a very popular political figure who has been the leading statewide vote-getter in each of the 3 statewide elections for Lt. Governor that he has run in and won.

Leading religious liberty advocate, conservative activist and state Senator Josh McKoon has the support of grassroots conservative activists which are a dominant voting bloc in this state.

They have to be taken very seriously as contenders for higher office.

And in this state, the only challengers that they might face will most likely be even more conservative than they are.

Deep red state politics....gotta love it!

[chuckshere]

Originally Posted by Born 2 Roll

Deep red state politics....gotta love it!

I remember when Republicans ran as pro business candidates. Now it looks like they're hell bent on nuking the state's economy. Hopefully, there's someone out there somewhere who's reasonable and can step up and run for governor. Maybe someone from business?

[-thomass]

Originally Posted by Born 2 Roll

The Democratic Party just is not very strong (not strong enough to win a statewide race or a majority of legislative seats) right now and the Republican electoral process that most often determines the winners of major elections in this state these days is dominated by deeply socially and culturally conservative interests....So they all have a good chance of winning elections for higher office.

Current 2018 frontrunner for governor, sitting Lt. Governor Casey Cagle, is a very popular political figure who has been the leading statewide vote-getter in each of the 3 statewide elections for Lt. Governor that he has run in and won.

Leading religious liberty advocate, conservative activist and state Senator Josh McKoon has the support of grassroots conservative activists which are a dominant voting bloc in this state.

They have to be taken very seriously as contenders for higher office.

And in this state, the only challengers that they might face will most likely be even more conservative than they are.

Deep red state politics....gotta love it!

Agree, but I don't know if these religious conservatives will survive state-wide elections in 2018 if they plan on pushing even crazier religious freedom bills. I mean McKoon seems to really really ... not like gay people. I don't think he would even be able to win the primary, nevermide the general election. When you **** off huge companies like coke, delta, the whole ga movie industry and you put actual jobs on the line here in Atlanta, then I'd hope that people would vote for common sense. Jason carter lost by 8 points in 2014. 2018 should be even closer. I don't know if cagle or mckoon could win against carter if they push for this bill or a more extreme version of it.