With Democrats in twilight, a new political game emerges

By EmmaZahn on Wed, 12/08/2010 - 5:24pm |

For all practical purposes, Georgia has had a one party state government most of my life. The first half or so, the Democratic Party dominated. That began to change around the time of Reagan. It was not that Republican candidates defeated Democrats in an election. Like those in this story, politicians who won office as Democrats just up and swtiched to Republican after election. It tends to happen in bunches and usually when there is some quid pro quo involved. As far as I know, no politician has suffered or been punished for swtiching. In fact, just the opposite.

This is an excellent case study in state politics by an equally excellent and experience political reporter. Real politics.

URL:

http://blogs.ajc.com/political-insider-jim-galloway/2010/12/04/with-democrats-in-twilight-a-new-political-game-emerges/?cxntfid=blogs_political_insider_jim_galloway

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Doesn't Georgia have a state constitutional requirement to balance its budget each year? If so, what does it mean in that context to say one is a "fiscal conservative"? Or is that just code in this case for saying "I'm not a social conservative" and/or/but "I, too, hate Obama and the Democrats in Washington"?

by AmericanDreamer on Thu, 12/09/2010 - 9:46am

I think that people who label themselves fiscal conservatives mean that they favor, as a rule, lower taxes and lower spending. One can still have a balanced budget with increased spending if you also increase taxes. Some (arguably the majority of) soi disant fiscal conservatives make exceptions to their rule when military spending and new road building are being considered. (Georgia might not have a very good education system, but their roads are really nice!)

by Atheist (not verified) on Thu, 12/09/2010 - 11:14am

Fiscal conservatives always put business interests before social concerns. They are all about using government for power and profit first and mostly could care less about the hot button social issues beyond their utility in getting elected. Same as in Washington except a little more bare about it since they have little political opposition are not often spotlighted in the media.

by EmmaZahn on Thu, 12/09/2010 - 1:38pm

Thanks for the elaboration. Reason I asked was alluded to in unverified anon atheist's (sorry--had to get that in, I just like writing it so much :<)) comment noting that fiscal conservative can mean paying for more services with more taxes (as it has of late in the county I live in in northern Virginia) as well as low taxes/low services. And Howard Dean, whose candidacy I did not support, ran as a pay-as-you-go, fiscally conservative (by which he meant that he supported balanced budgets generally speaking, but I don't think he was perceived as being conservative on social concerns) Dem in '04.

by AmericanDreamer on Thu, 12/09/2010 - 2:12pm

Thanks for recommending the piece and your commentary regarding the writer and the background.

by artappraiser on Thu, 12/09/2010 - 10:53am

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