A report of a meeting of local Georgia Democrats discussing our future. -- The meeting was in Savannah, but it could have been anywhere in Ga.

Georgia is overflowing with folks coming here from other regions of the country, folks who have the skills and education to fill the job requirements of the new industrial age.

We welcome these new Georgia citizens to our great state, and want them to be good Democrats. But if you come, don't be a carpetbagger.

I don't know Karen Arms. She has a couple of things to say in the below story, things about folks that I am working to get back into our fold, not permamently exclude.

Karen Arms' ancestors may have come to Savannah with Oglethorpe, I don't know. But as noted, she sounds like a carpetbagger to me. If she is not, I apologize to her, and just note that this is not the message I think we want to be putting out.
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Other than, and maybe but I hope not including the negative comments about abandoning rural voters, the meeting in Savannah reported by Larry Peterson of the Savannah Morning News could have occurred anywhere in our state. The story:

How can Democrats regain the inside track? Local Democrats meet to mull over what - if anything - they should do to regain the loyalty of rural voters, especially whites. Talking the same language wouldn't hurt, most agreed.

Should they try to lure white rural voters with NASCAR-themed events? How about talking at Wednesday night church dinners?

Or should they write off Mayberry and try to squeeze more votes out of the cities? Why not boycott sponsors of right-wing radio talk shows?

Local Democrats bounced around those ideas and others as they gathered Monday night to sift the ruins of their Nov. 2 defeats across Georgia.

Republicans completed their takeover of the General Assembly, won a U.S. Senate seat and rolled up a big statewide margin for President Bush.

Chatham County Democratic chairman Rex Templeton Jr. noted that his party did just fine locally, taking over the county commission and snapping up other offices.

But outside Savannah and other urban centers, Templeton said, trouble lurks.

"As a party, we have lost the rural voters, especially the rural white guys. ... You'll see a guy who's got a pickup in front of his house, makes $8 an hour and is behind on his payments. He's got a Bush-Cheney sign in his yard."

In 2002, the racially loaded state flag issue alienated rural Georgia voters from the party. This year it was gay marriage, abortion and public display of the Ten Commandments.

Speaker after speaker at Monday's gathering, sponsored by the Coastal Democrats club, blamed the Republicans for exploiting such issues.
A couple also cited what they said was the ignorance and backwardness of the voters, especially those GOP-leaning "red" counties.

Democrat-dominated "blue counties" represent most of the country's "money and brains," said Karen Arms.

But others said pointing fingers won't win back the 20 percent of voters who told exit pollsters Nov. 2 that moral values were their top concern. Most voted for Bush.

"If we throw out 20 percent of the voters before we get started, we can't win," said Chatham County Vice Chairman Joe Steffen.

Several people said Democrats must rediscover how to talk to people in their own language.

And they need to do it in ways that don't leave people feeling "lectured to or looked down upon," said Jim Morekis, editor of a weekly newspaper.
There was disagreement over whether Democrats should speak in religious terms.

Some noted that the Bible says greed is evil and that people should help the poor and the sick - all major Democratic beliefs.

Steffen said Democrats should engage evangelicals in serious conversations, not just bandy about a few religious terms.

"If we just rephrase our arguments to sound religious, we'll sound like a middle-aged white man trying to rap," he said.

But State Rep. Tom Bordeaux, D-Savannah, warned against trying to "out-Christian the Christians."

Bordeaux said it would be hypocritical for the Democrats to do after criticizing the GOP for playing the religion card.

He said the party should try to refocus people on "bread and butter issues" such as jobs.

Others, citing the principle of separation of church and state, said they felt uncomfortable mixing religion and politics.

[Karen] Arms went even farther, saying Democrats should "kiss off" the rural vote.

"We should forget about framing the message to rural people," she said. "We should frame the argument in urban terms."

Coastal Democrats president Jack Barnes called for a boycott of advertisers who sponsor local conservative radio shows.

"They are so phenomenally out to lunch that I think it should be an issue in this town," Barnes said.

But after the meeting, Barnes said he "was just trying to rile people up."

He also wants to keep local Democratic activists riled up about discussing ways to regain the inside track in Georgia politics.

"We need to do this a lot as a party," Barnes said as the meeting concluded. "This conversation will continue."