With Georgia On My Mind As I Write

Meeting like-minded folks through my blog has been a great pleasure. As most of you know, I live in Georgia, in a very conservative region. Yes, there are liberals here, but we are greatly out numbered. Conservative religion is a dominant force here, as is conservative politics. It isn't hard to find to some of the older southerners still pining for the days when Jim Crow was the accepted way of life.

Georgia is solid Republican country. In the past ten presidential elections the state has voted Democratic only three times. Two of those was when Georgia governor Jimmy Carter was running. Georgia voted for him even in 1980 when Reagan ran a strong campaign based on the sagging economy. In 1992 Georgia went with the southern Democrat Bill Clinton. By '96 the sustained conservative attack against Clinton took its toll and the state fell back into the Republican column, where she has remained.

I've no doubt Georgia will vote for a Republican for president in 2012, no matter who they nominate. This was once a solidly Democratic State (back before the realignment), but conservatism is considered as typically southern as grits or cornbread soaked in buttermilk.

Georgia is a beautiful state, visually speaking, with its tall pines, majestic mountains, and it acres and acres of verdant farmland. Her people, for the most part, are warm and friendly - especially if you are a fellow southerner. I came across the Tennessee border to make my home here some sixteen years ago. No big adjustment there. Being a southerner is all I know. And yet I've come to feel increasingly out of sync with my neighbors.

And that, I suppose, is what cyber friends are for. Bless each of you!