The Devil Went Down to Georgia
“The devil went down to Georgia, he was looking for a soul to steal.
He was in a bind ‘cos he was way behind: he was willin’ to make a deal.” ~~ Charlie Daniels
Deal Versus Barnes, Georgia Gubernatorial Race 2010
It used to be that Republicans were considered the “adults”. Not so much anymore. This is the year when counterfeit conservatives jumped the meretricious shark and the Democrats appear to be the only responsible adult in the room.
Of course the Republicans are still desperately clinging to their contrived, hollow, cheapened image as the only adult in the room with their smug, entitled style of talking down to everyone else, but then they have always been slow to adapt. Coming out of the mouths of busted frat boys and swinging C Streeters, the now expected Republican mud-slinging smells more like a final tattered, tarnished death ooze than any kind of meaningful slander.
To get more stories like this, subscribe to our newsletter The Daily.
The sheer shrillness of their demagogic vilification jingles should be fair warning to all thinking people.
A perfect example of the tatty, mangy grunge of insincerity and graft permanently adhered to the former glory of the Republican brand is the Georgia gubernatorial race. This race pits two reasonably qualified people (although Republican Deal was voted 4th most corrupt representative of congress by CREW) against each other, taking it out of the very unreal realm of pure comedic final binge of unadulterated and naturally unregulated debauchery into which the GOP has stumbled courtesy of the Satan worshiping witch in Delaware and the social security killing rapists can be lemonade babies Tea Partier in Nevada.
The money behind the Tea Party shot itself in the foot by failure to vet their faux populist puppet candidates (a syndrome which should have brought down the GOP for their 2008 failure to vet the pit bull). But big time crazy is obvious. What’s rushing by unnoticed, however, is the huge shift in values of the parties as exemplified by the Georgia race. The battle for our souls, if you will.
On one hand, we have Georgia Republican Nathan Deal, who is so fiscally irresponsible that he owes more than $2 million to creditors, CBS affiliate WDEF reports. That’s kind of hard to pull off when you earn $150,000.00 a year as Deal did in the House of Representatives (a job he fled last March), not to mention the millions of dollars he’s made in no bid contracts for his company. And not only that, but Deal’s been irrevocably tarnished by rumors of impropriety :
“Before Deal resigned from Congress, the House ethics committee investigated charges he used his congressional staff to pressure the state to continue a program that benefited a company he partially owned. …”It is undisputed that as a ‘public servant,’ Representative Deal took active steps to preserve a purely state program, one that had generated financial benefit for Representative Deal and his business partner.”
As Crew reflected: “Rep. Deal’s abuse of his position and taxpayer resources to maintain a personally lucrative business deal does not reflect creditably on the House.” I should say not. Nor does it reflect well on his self-proclaimed “fiscal conservative” values. The man has even refused to release his tax records.
Deal is an overly self-indulgent man; an example of the kind of fiscal gluttony that got us into the trouble we’re in. This man is no fiscal conservative with his own money or anyone else’s. In fact, he apparently views the tax payers as feudal serfs whose money should support Deal’s own business dealings. Fiscally drunken Deal is the devil, trying to swindle his way out of trouble and into our pocketbooks courtesy of a title in front of his name. This man is a spoiled child in temperament and deed, who expects others to do his work for him. He doesn’t stand for much other than his own benefit.
Running against Deal is the Democrat, Roy Barnes. Deal has been running an orgy of negative ads against Barnes, mostly accusing Barnes of being rich because he earned money the old fashioned way by working for it and saving it. Apparently, this is now a slanderous accusation among Republicans who instead favor candidates like Christine O’Donnell who hasn’t had a job for many, many years and consider your campaign contributions to be life-style enhancers. Here’s Deal’s website on Barnes:
“Roy Barnes sued his way into being a multi-millionaire.” (Translation: he is a lawyer). Deal then throws a bunch of spurious stones, accusing Barnes of getting rich via: “Illegal Voters,” “Jackpot Jury Payouts,” and “Suing Georgia”. This, of course, refers to Barnes’ work to protect the voting rights of the poor, a trial lawyer who took on consumer credit companies and insurance firms (oh, evil man standing up for the people), But that’s not the only way Barnes got rich. It turns out, Barnes is a fiscally responsible adult who saved and invested his money. This is also a bad thing now, apparently.
Atlanta Journal Constitution reports:
“The AJC examined more than 1,500 pages of Barnes’ tax returns, financial disclosure statements and other records. The documents suggest Barnes has accumulated his wealth not only through his legal work, but also through shrewd investing and no small amount of good timing… He has made millions on investments in the stock market, particularly in the banking sector that he sought to tightly regulate as governor, and has acquired dozens of rental properties, both residential and commercial, that further boost his income and his net worth.
In the process, he has faced massive tax liabilities. Barnes paid $7.7 million in federal and state income taxes from 1984 through 2009 — far more than the $4.4 million in total earnings that Deal, a former congressman, reported during the same period. Barnes’ taxes would have been higher if not for $2.7 million in charitable contributions since 1984, all of which he has claimed as deductions, his tax returns show. Since he left the governor’s office in 2003, he has given more than $850,000 to his church, First United Methodist in Marietta. He has made other six-figure donations to such charities as the Cobb County YMCA and the Georgia Ballet.”
I bolded the part where Barnes sought to regulate a sector he was making money in, as you won’t see this normally. It can be fun to find integrity.
Barnes represents the values candidate. He is the fiscally responsible adult, the one giving back to his community, the one paying his taxes, saving his money, and walking his talk regarding his faith and charity while Deal is running a negative campaign of manipulated slander and contrived smear, devoid of any platform or discernible values.
Deal has an excess of smear and fear to offer the voters in Georgia, but not one idea. Not one positive value. All of the mud slinging is meant to get the voter distracted by the shiny object; do not look into the Republican’s background, where malfeasance and chicanery dance with the devil on your dime. One thing you won’t find in the Republican background is any semblance of ethical, moral or fiscal constraint, or for that matter, meaningful charitable contributions.
This from the party who keep telling us we don’t need to tax the rich because the charities will take care of the poor. Just who is the executive in the modern day Republican world? They seem a Rome on the decline, immersed in all manner of repugnant forms of self-gratification at the expense of the empire and her people, whom they are starving and depriving of any gratification, self or otherwise.
Deal is the “Christian” in this race, seeing as “Christian” is synonymous with “Republican” in the south. Does he act like a Christian? Nathan Deal’s scandal-ridden graft and his disastrous personal finances vividly elucidate the modern day GOP.
Which candidate is the fiscal conservative? Which one is the morally and ethically straight-laced values candidate? Which one walks his faith talk with his wallet and his deeds? Which candidate is the constrained, moderate candidate? Which candidate is the adult?
Wake up, Georgia. The Devil is coming to Georgia and he wants to make a deal.
Listen to Sarah on the PoliticusUSA Pod on The Daily newsletter podcast here.
Sarah has been credentialed to cover President Barack Obama, then VP Joe Biden, 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, and exclusively interviewed Speaker Nancy Pelosi multiple times and exclusively covered her first home appearance after the first impeachment of then President Donald Trump.
Sarah is two-time Telly award winning video producer and a member of the Society of Professional Journalists.
Connect with Sarah on Post, Mastodon @PoliticusSarah@Journa.Host, & Twitter.
