Picture it: An uncomfortably close reelection race this fall for Gov. Nathan Deal. Out-of-state Democratic donors start to sense that there’s a chance to topple the GOP in that reddest of red states – Georgia. They open their wallets.
With this cash on hand plus in-state money, we have….voila: Carter, with his kind, boyish face, appearing on TV screens all over Georgia. Shaking his head sadly, he tells viewers that the state’s Republican rulers have gone too far this time, and have become ‘extremists.’ They have gone and passed a law that turns our streets and public buildings into the Wild West; guns and more guns everywhere.
Like a lot of political ads, this hypothetical one may exaggerate to make a point. But its intended audience would be all ears. A healthy majority of the legions of independent and undecided women voters in Georgia do not want much of anything to do with an expansion, any expansion, of gun rights. And it will do no good to counter with an ad, for example, warning that allowing convicted felons to ‘stand their ground’ is going to save X number of lives. (That provision of the bill was still in it when we last checked.) Guns is an intuitive issue, and women’s intuition in Georgia is decidedly anti-gun.
The voters the Republicans would be trying to persuade won’t be listening. And the voters who side with them already are going to vote GOP in November anyway.
And don’t forget that any sign this fall of Jason Carter and Michelle Nunn having a shot at victory would likely bring plenty of worshipful national media, here to make Jimmy Carter’s grandson a star. And you get one guess as to who is more amenable to persuasion by the celebrity brand of identity politics – women.
For just a taste of what could come, look up ‘gun rights’ and ‘Georgia’ on the Web. Count how many articles and op-eds you see that are sympathetic to House Bill 875. It won’t take long.
The Senate is supposed to be the check on the gung-ho populism of the House. We’re about to find out if that’s true this year. HB 875 deserves to be shot down if Republican elected officials don’t want to cause themselves unnecessary trouble in November.
