Did you enjoy a day or two away from political Twitter? Me neither.
So let’s move on to Georgia, where voters in greater Atlanta and then the rest of Georgia are going to be hearing the voice of Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) quite a bit in the next few weeks.
All together now, here is that Schumer quote from a celebratory street party in New York City: “Now we take Georgia, then we change America!”
Because of its unique election rules requiring a 50% win in key contests, Georgia currently has two open U.S. Senate seats — which means that Schumer and his colleagues can control the next U.S. Senate (with the tie-breaking vote of soon-to-be Vice President Kamala Harris) by taking both of them. Thus, Georgia is suddenly on everyone’s mind.
That includes folks at the New York Times political desk, who are asking the obvious question: What is causing Georgia to move from the forces of darkness to the world of love and light? Trust me, that’s pretty much the tone of this analysis feature that is not labeled an analysis feature. The overture is spot-on perfect, from a New York-centric point of view:
MARIETTA, Ga. — It took a lifetime for Angie Jones to become a Democrat.
As a young woman, she was the proud daughter of a conservative family active in Republican politics. Ten years ago, after a friend’s son came out as gay, Ms. Jones became an independent, though one who watched Fox News. After the 2016 election, Ms. Jones, a stay-at-home mother in Johns Creek, a pristine wealthy suburb north of Atlanta, became frustrated with her conservative friends defending President Trump through scandal after scandal.
And this year, she voted for Joseph R. Biden Jr., after spending months phone banking, canvassing and organizing for Democratic candidates with a group of suburban women across Atlanta.
“I feel like the Republican Party left me,” said Ms. Jones, 54. “It very much created an existential crisis for me.”
I have family in Georgia and I’ve paid close attention to politics there since the mid-1970s (and almost moved there, from Illinois, in the early 1980s). The bottom line: Georgia may be turning into Illinois, a rural state dominated by a super-city and its suburbs (and the corporations and media therein).
Now, there is a crucial question missing from that Times overture, a question that millions of Georgians — Black and White — would spot instantly. The anecdote doesn’t tell us (a) where this woman goes to church, (b) where her conservative family went to church in the past or (c) where she is now refusing to go to church. If she has changed churches, that would be crucial.
You see, in Georgia it’s almost impossible to talk about anything without discussing race and religion or maybe it’s the other way around.
Thus, it’s absolutely AMAZING that this Times story doesn’t contain any material about religious, moral and cultural issues. In particular, because of an interesting fact in this summary paragraph:
… Two Democratic candidates, the Rev. Dr. Raphael G. Warnock and Jon Ossoff, forced runoff elections on Jan. 5 that should decide control of the Senate, and the fate of much of Mr. Biden’s agenda. With the November election barely over, the nation’s political focus will now turn to Georgia as much as the presidential transition in Washington, as both parties pour money and resources into what may be an epic political battle, in a state that was considered safely Republican just a decade ago.
OK, I’ll ask. Where does the African-American Baptist minister stand on today’s crucial moral and social issues? In particular, is he in favor of gutting the Bill Clinton-era national Religious Freedom Restoration Act and sending that battle back to the U.S. Supreme Court?
Well, he emerged as a public figure in the North and he is pro-abortion rights and pro-gay marriage. Here’s an essay he wrote for The Advocate on gay rights clashes with the First Amendment. How do active members of Black megachurches in Atlanta feel about all of that?
There is, however, more to this Georgia drama than the usual greater Atlanta vs. Georgia tensions. Here is the hip Times summary:
The population surged to 10.6 million in 2019 from 7.9 million in 2000, and the foreign-born population now exceeds 10 percent of the state’s total. Atlanta has gone from corporate bland to youthful dynamic, with its indoor food markets, destination dining scene and rich entertainment culture, including a hip-hop scene that drives trends worldwide. In 2004, 70 percent of voters were white, according to exit polls. This year, white voters made up 60 percent. …
A new generation of Democratic candidates has left behind the fiscal and social conservatism of its forefathers to embrace a rising demographic coalition of Black voters, college-educated suburban women and a more politically engaged younger generation.
In other words, this appears to be another case of the Democrats managing to hold together a coalition of Black churches and the coalition of nones, atheists and agnostics.
This brings me to some fascinating tweets from political scientist Ryan Burge, a frequent contributor here at GetReligion. Again let me say, journalists — religion specialists and political-beat pros who GET IT — simply have to follow him on Twitter.
These early exit-poll numbers pretty much speak for themselves, revealing familiar patterns.
The key: Rising numbers of religiously unaffiliated people of all kinds. Meanwhile, it does appear that Joe Biden — no surprise here — peeled away some voters in the mainline middle.
Is all of this a big part of the drama in Georgia?
Read the Times analysis closely with those religious factors in mind. Then notice, of course, which voices are missing from the Times worldview.
Stay tuned.