The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
New Rebel flag divide: pride vs. favorability
It played a role in the most divisive period in this nation’s history, and it flies at places such as Cemetery Ridge, Cold Harbor and Antietam.
People are still divided over it.
A poll asked Southern adults: “Do you think the Confederate battle flag is more a symbol of racial conflict or Southern pride?”
Among white respondents to the Winthrop University poll, 55 percent opted for pride, while 64 percent of African-Americans saw it differently.
Admittedly, that’s not too surprising.
But there’s more to the poll of 969 adults (not necessarily voters) in Georgia, Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia.
It also asked whether respondents view the flag, once part of Georgia’s own flag and then the subject of a great debate that helped topple a governor, as favorable or unfavorable?
That produced a kink in the data.
Black adults were fairly consistent, with 73 percent giving the flag an unfavorable rating.
But among white respondents — including the 55 percent who answered the first question by calling it a symbol of pride — only 44 percent saw it as favorable. An additional 38 percent gave it a thumbs down, while 19 percent fell into the categories of don’t know, not sure or refused to answer.
That’s an odd piece of math, leaving an 11-point divide.
■ Barr barks about ban: Former Georgia U.S. Rep. Bob Barr was one of the few to publicly criticize action the Trump administration took this week to ban bump stocks.
Barr actually got ahead of the curve, writing a column before the ban was announced.
In it, he raised questions about how the change came about.
“ATF (and the Department of Justice, in which ATF is a component) decided to accomplish the goal of outlawing bump stocks not by defining them as a new device to be restricted (which would be subject to challenge as usurping Congress’ power),” Barr wrote, “but by simply ‘clarifying’ the definition of a ‘machine gun’ in existing law to include a ‘bump stock.’
“Thus, by regulatory sleight-of-hand, a bump stock becomes not an accessory to a machine gun but an actual ‘machine gun.’
“Think about it: A piece of composite plastic, with no moving parts and incapable by itself of firing any projectile, is now, pursuant to ATF’s machinations, a machine gun; and notwithstanding that just a few years ago, that same ATF expressly had deemed such devices lawful.”
Few Americans knew much about bump stocks — which allow semiautomatic weapons to fire like automatic weapons — until October 2017, when a gunman stationed himself in his hotel room and opened fire on a crowd attending a country music concert in Las Vegas. He killed 58 people and injured hundreds more.
Barr is a former member of the governing board of the National Rifle Association, which did not criticize the move with the same zeal as the former congressman. It offered one mild objection to the ban, saying it was “disappointed” that the policy did not spare gun owners who already own bump stocks.
It couldn’t do much more because the ban closely follows the NRA’s own recommendations in a statement following the Las Vegas attack:
“Despite the fact that the Obama administration approved the sale of bump fire stocks on at least two occasions, the National Rifle Association is calling on the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (BATFE) to immediately review whether these devices comply with federal law.
“The NRA believes that devices designed to allow semi-automatic rifles to function like fully-automatic rifles should be subject to additional regulations.”
■ A vote for Unterman: State Sen. Freddie Powell Sims is considered one of the more reliable liberal votes in the chamber.
But the Albany-area Democrat is also apparently a fan of Republican state Sen. Renee Unterman, especially for her work as chairwoman of the Senate Health and Human Services Committee.
“I’m not on the Senate Health and Human Services Committee,” Sims said, “but I know this: When I call Renee Unterman, she’s there to help me. And that’s what a chairperson should do.”
Right now, it’s a question how long Unterman may fill that role.
She was a strong supporter of Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle in this year’s fight for the GOP nomination in the governor’s race. The one that Brian Kemp won before he successfully battled Democrat Stacey Abrams to win residence in the Governor’s Mansion.
Unterman figured in one of the uglier scenes in that intraparty battle, when Kemp spokesman Ryan Mahoney called her “mentally unstable” before getting nasty.
“We also hope,” Mahoney added, “that Sen. Unterman will seek immediate medical attention before she hurts herself or someone else.”
Kemp and Unterman later said they had settled their dispute. But that patch job may not be enough to keep Unterman in the big chair when the Health and Human Services Committee meets.
The past election didn’t just make Kemp the next governor, it also reshaped leadership in the Senate. Geoff Duncan, a former state House member, beat a longtime member of Senate leadership, David Shafer, in the race for lieutenant governor, meaning he will head the chamber as its president.
That shift in power will likely set off a number of other changes. One could involve moving state Sen. Ben Watson, a Savannah physician, to the top position in what has been Unterman’s committee.
That concerns Sims, who talked about Unterman’s many visits to southwest Georgia to learn more about opioid abuse, the state’s troubling infant mortality rate and the difficulties facing rural hospitals.
“This is what a chairperson should do. You’re working to make sure that the needs of Georgians are met,” Sims said. “The election is over, and Georgians expect us to have someone in that position, like Renee, who understands what the health needs are.”
■ Help for farmers hit by tariffs: Soybean growers are the biggest beneficiaries now that U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue has announced an additional $5 billion in payments to farmers who have faced setbacks in President Donald Trump’s trade wars.
Also eligible for the funds are cotton farmers and producers of other commodities such as corn and wheat who have been hurt by Chinese retaliatory tariffs.
“While there have been positive movements on the trade front, American farmers are continuing to experience losses due to unjustified trade retaliation by foreign nations,” said Perdue, the former governor of Georgia. “This assistance will help with short-term cash flow issues as we move into the new year.”
Perdue’s announcement came several months after the Trump administration approved an initial $6.3 billion round of trade assistance.
Farm groups have said the money is not enough to offset their losses in trade fights with China and the European Union, and an environmental group released a report that showed some of the earlier payments went to city dwellers rather than rural farmers.
■ Not even an honor to be nominated: Democratic U.S. Rep. John Lewis of Atlanta does not want to see a repeat of two years ago, when then-U.S. Rep. Krysten Sinema of Arizona voted for the civil rights leader, instead of the party’s leader in the House, Nancy Pelosi, in a vote to choose the speaker.
This year, Lewis is firmly in the Pelosi camp, and he wants no division within the ranks of the Democratic Party now that it’s ready to take control of the House in January.
“Dividing our caucus on this vote for Speaker serves no strategic purpose at this time, except to signal disarray,” Lewis wrote in a letter to Democratic colleagues, first published in Politico. “That is why I must view a vote for me as Speaker as a vote for the Republican nominee . ... We must unite against this possibility at all costs.”
Pelosi recently made a deal with some House Democrats who had pressed for a change in leadership. She agreed to only serve as speaker a maximum of four years. That helped her flip seven of the 16 Democrats who had vowed to oppose her during a Jan. 3 floor vote.
Lewis has been working in the hallways to get Democrats behind Pelosi. He’s done a fine job with his fellow Georgians. All five Democrats in Georgia’s congressional delegation are confirmed Pelosi supporters.
State selection: Brad Raffensperger, Georgia’s incoming secretary of state, didn’t have to look far to find a No. 2 for his office.
His campaign manager, Jordan Fuchs, will become the deputy secretary of state.
Fuchs is a vice president of Landmark Communications. His resume also includes time in the office of U.S. Rep. Rob Woodall, R-Lawrenceville.