In just a matter of days, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has toppled 303 years of newspaper tradition.
Late Thursday, USA Today –
– made an endorsement in the race for the White House on its editorial page. Or rather, a non-endorsement.
The newspaper didn't endorse Democrat Hillary Clinton, but declared Trump unworthy of the presidency:
From the day he declared his candidacy 15 months ago through this week's first presidential debate, Trump has demonstrated repeatedly that he lacks the temperament, knowledge, steadiness and honesty that America needs from its presidents.
Whether through indifference or ignorance, Trump has betrayed fundamental commitments made by all presidents since the end of World War II. These commitments include unwavering support for NATO allies, steadfast opposition to Russian aggression, and the absolute certainty that the United States will make good on its debts. He has expressed troubling admiration for authoritarian leaders and scant regard for constitutional protections.
One day earlier, the Detroit News broke 143 years of tradition. It has endorsed a Republican for president every year since its founding in 1873. (Three times the newspaper has made no endorsement.) But 2016 is different:
The 2016 nominee offered by the Republican Party rubs hard against the editorial board's values as conservatives and Americans. Donald Trump is unprincipled, unstable and quite possibly dangerous. He can not be president.
The day before that, the Arizona Republic ended a streak that began 126 years ago and endorsed Clinton:
This year is different.
The 2016 Republican candidate is not conservative and he is not qualified.
***
A lengthy New York Times Magazine look at how Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has fractured conservative media opens with last year's RedState Gathering in Atlanta.
That August, WSB Radio provocateur Erick Erickson disinvited Trump after the businessman appeared to cite Megyn Kelly's menstrual cycle in a complaint of his treatment during a debate on Fox News. From the article:
Erickson dug in, writing that Trump was "out of his depth" and lacking in "common decency." But he was drowned out by Trump sympathizers with even bigger audiences than his own, like The Drudge Report and the online outlet Breitbart. It was one of the first salvos in what would open up in the year that followed into a civil war within the conservative media, dividing some of the loudest voices on the right. Days earlier, Erickson had unimpeachable credentials in the conservative movement. But by crossing Trump, he was now, in the eyes of his former allies, "a tool of the establishment."
***
Earlier this week, we told you that whites no longer make up a majority of voters in Gwinnett County. On his Facebook page, Mark Rountree, a Republican strategist, has a discussion of what that means for the GOP in Gwinnett. His analysis includes this paragraph:
Trump will likely still carry Gwinnett and Charlotte Nash will be reelected Chairman. But this will be the last year where inherent party strength carries all Republicans on a countywide basis in Gwinnett.
***
On a similar note, the Atlanta Regional Commission is out with a new report this week that provides a glimpse of the trends that could shape the November election.
The data culled from the Secretary of State's office shows that voter turnout has been dropping in the 23-county metro region since 2004, when it was 79 percent. It was roughly 73.5 percent in 2012.
-- New voter registration is lagging population growth. Overall, at the 23-county region level, the voting-age population age 20+ has increased 25.7 percent from 2004, while voter registration increased faster at 27.5 percent;
-- The share of Hispanic or “other” registered voters is increasing fast, but remains a relatively small part of the total. In 2004, metro Atlanta counted 80,230 registered voters who listed themselves as Hispanic or "other." In 2016, that number is 197,723;
-- Among registered voters, women had higher turnout than men in 2004, 2008 and 2012. In 2012, for instance, voter turnout among women was 76.7 percent, and 72.2 percent among men.
***
We were talking about something else this week when Michael Thurmond – a Democrat likely to become CEO of DeKalb County in January – declared that, while he certainly wouldn't claim credit for inventing Donald Trump, he was among the first to note the conditions that would give rise to Trump's presidential candidacy.
This is from Page 7 of a white paper on unemployment in Georgia that Thurmond penned in 2009, while state labor commissioner:
The psychological impact of unemployment on jobless workers has been the subject of numerous studies. These studies have concluded that the most negative consequence of unemployment is the loss of self-esteem. Although there is some disagreement over the relative importance of gender in the psychological reaction to long-term unemployment, the bulk of available research confirms that jobless men suffer from poorer emotional and psychological health than unemployed women.
According to the Journal of Employment Counseling, a majority of researchers found that the gender of a laid-off worker is a critical factor in the psychological reaction to joblessness. More importantly, several independent studies show that during periods of prolonged unemployment, men report poorer psychological health than laid-off female workers. Researchers also note that jobless men suffered from lower morale, higher stress and fatigue and longer bouts of depression than jobless women.
Although a limited amount of psychological counseling is available to unemployed workers through the state employment and training system, present resources are inadequate. The growing number of jobless Georgians, particularly jobless males, who are more likely to experience poor psychological health, dictates that additional resources be directed to this area. The Georgia Department of Labor must build a stronger, more cooperative relationship with the Georgia Department of Behavioral Health and other mental health providers.
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It's called the "We are not going back" rally.
And state Sens. Vincent Fort and David Lucas are joining with civil rights groups and community activists to hold the event Saturday in Hancock County, the home of one of the most controversial voting policies in the nation.
"We are not going back to the dark days when fear and intimidation was used to scare our people into not going into the polls," the flyer reads.
SPARTA, Ga. — When the deputy sheriff's patrol cruiser pulled up beside him as he walked down Broad Street at sunset last August, Martee Flournoy, a 32-year-old black man, was both confused and rattled. He had reason: In this corner of rural Georgia, African-Americans are arrested at a rate far higher than that of whites.
But the deputy had not come to arrest Mr. Flournoy. Rather, he had come to challenge Mr. Flournoy's right to vote.
The majority-white Hancock County Board of Elections and Registration was systematically questioning the registrations of more than 180 black Sparta citizens — a fifth of the city's registered voters — by dispatching deputies with summonses commanding them to appear in person to prove their residence or lose their voting rights. "When I read that letter, I was kind of nervous," Mr. Flournoy said in an interview. "I didn't know what to do."
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Awkward: Democrat James Williams was disqualified from a bid for a House seat because of a clerical error.
So imagine his surprise when he received a campaign flyer from Republican state Rep. Gerald Greene, the incumbent he was set to challenge.
Greene was one of the more vulnerable GOP lawmakers in the statehouse - until Williams was stricken from the ballot.
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