In a season where grievances and fears are hugged tight and nurtured, some of what’s transpired in recent days at the Gold Dome should surprise no realistic observer of an off-the-chain election year.
It explains why the Georgia Legislature showed uncommon speed last week in racing through revised religious liberty legislation.
It’s why lawmakers were intent on passing a “campus carry” gun bill. And why a reasonably comprehensive MARTA expansion bill hit a snag worthy of Spaghetti Junction at rush hour.
In a few days, the Legislature will adjourn, freeing lawmakers to scurry back onto the campaign trail. For better and worse, the result of their labor will fall with a bang onto Gov. Nathan Deal’s desk.
And Deal will find himself tightly lodged between expediency, legacy and leadership. Based on what he signs, vetoes, or simply ignores into law by default, his actions will determine in good part Georgia’s future success and safety, among other things.
History’s placed Deal’s predecessors in similar sweatboxes. Some meritoriously rose to the tasks of the hour, and history regards well their wisdom and courage. Others crumpled to populist-pleasing pressures of the day and pursued actions best left buried in dark corners of The Georgia Archives. Gov. Carl Sanders’ actions against segregation fall in the first category. Gov. Lester Maddox’s ringing of the Gold Dome with state troopers as Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s funeral procession passed by is duly recorded in the latter ledger.
In times like these, there is scant, if any, middle ground. The tasks facing our low-key governor this year require wisdom worthy of Solomon. As recorded in the Old Testament book of I Kings, that great leader humbly beseeched God, asking, “Give therefore thy servant an understanding heart to judge thy people, that I may discern between good and bad … .” Solomon’s answer from on high came a few verses later: “Behold, I have done according to thy words: lo, I have given thee a wise and an understanding heart… .”
That ancient call-and-response seems appropriate, given that much of this year’s legislative rancor has swirled around religious liberty. Count the leaders of many of the state’s largest job-creating industries as among those worried that lawmakers’ attempt to placate opponents of same-sex marriage will lead to costly discrimination against gays, or others.
Given the economic uproar seen in other states that acted on the same cause, their fear has merit.
Now that lawmakers have rushed to further gild a right already ensconced tightly in the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, the matter now rests with Deal.
His decision will chisel much of his legacy in large type, in addition to significantly affecting the Georgian economy, which he and many others have labored tirelessly to enhance.
We believe he will divine the right choice, and make it in due course.
Deal’s mettle will be similarly tested by where he lands on the guns-on-campus bill. He has rightly telegraphed his concerns about the legislation. Now he must weigh the balance of student safety and Second Amendment rights.
The list goes on. SB 367, a criminal justice reform bill, has generated concern that it goes too far in allowing criminal records of nonviolent first offenders to be sealed away from public view. The intent is to make it easier for those convicted of such crimes to later find jobs without a criminal record hindering their employment chances.
Broadly, it’s an admirable goal to minimize the number of nonviolent offenders in the criminal justice system. That civic positive must be balanced, however, with the necessity of keeping the justice system’s records open and transparent. The public’s trust and buy-in demands no less.
This bill likewise pleads for careful weighing by Deal.
We do not envy Georgia’s usually cautious governor his task of choosing a proper and just course on legislation now before him. Yet that is part of what Georgians elected him to do. He should aim to make proud both Solomon and Georgia’s great governors of old.
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