Posted on 08/31/2002 9:14:01 AM PDT by FreedomPoster
Tip O'Neill once said that all politics is local. Denise Majette's defeat of Cynthia McKinney is a true case in point.
While McKinney's father, state Rep. Billy McKinney (D-Atlanta) and other anti-Semites would like to blame "the J-E-W-S" for the loss, Cynthia McKinney has no one to blame but herself.
No amount of creative scapegoating can erase the simple fact that the voters of the 4th Congressional District chose Majette because McKinney did not represent us effectively. McKinney chose to divide us --- not to unite us. Nor can anything change the fact that many of McKinney's traditional supporters chose to vote against her.
As a long-time resident of the 4th Congressional District, I can say definitely that it was the entire community --- Muslims, Christians, Jews and members of numerous other religions in our wonderfully diverse 4th Congressional District --- who rejected McKinney's brand of divisive racial politics. It is highly ironic that members of anti-Israel groups, like the Palestinian Media Watch, who were the first to contribute hundreds of thousands of dollars to McKinney's campaign, are now themselves complaining about outside influence.
Contrary to the allegations in a Thursday opinion column by the Rev. Timothy McDonald, McKinney was not defeated by the "extreme wing of the Jewish community" and others. McKinney was defeated by almost 60 percent of the voters of the 4th Congressional District because she was divisive and ineffective.
While her district evolved, McKinney did not. Her consistent embrace of radical positions and radical personalities moved her further and further away from the more mainstream views of her constituents, a point that our very own Atlanta Journal-Constitution has made repeatedly.
As the Washington Post editorialized recently, "In the final analysis, it wasn't the actions of people outside their districts that did in Bob Barr and Cynthia McKinney. These members of Congress did the talking, their districts heard them, and voters simply decided they didn't want to hear anymore . . . At the end of the day, their bases of support, fed up, left them."
Having lost touch with the people she was elected to represent, McKinney was fired, and fired with just cause.
With McKinney accusing President Bush of allowing the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks to take place and gleefully accepting campaign contributions from people associated with al-Qaida, Hamas and other terrorist sympathizers, Majette did not need outside help. She had all the support she needed from the voters of our 4th Congressional District.
Money does not decide elections. Voters do. This is true for McKinney, Barr, U.S. Rep. Earl Hilliard in Alabama and every other election around the country.
The true wealth of the United States of America and the citizens of our 4th Congressional District is our diversity. We are black, white and brown, and many other beautiful colors. We are Muslims, Christians, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists and many, many other religions.
Majette united this district --- McKinney has divided us for 10 long years. American men and women are fighting and dying now, as they have throughout American history, so that all of us have the precious right to elect our leaders.
In exercising our voting privileges, the voters of Georgia's 4th Congressional District have spoken clearly that they want Majette, who will unite us. Working together, we can accomplish anything. We are Americans.
Money does not decide elections. Voters do.
Brian Wertheim is an attorney in Decatur and a resident of the 4th Congressional District who worked as a volunteer in the Majette campaign.
BTW, I doubt many Muslims voted for Majette. There aren't that many in the District, despite the amount of money that came in for McKinney from outside the District from guys with names like "Ali Harat Al-Muhammed."
Brian (and you, Guillermo and others) did District 4 a major service by making us aware of what we needed to do. Very little has made me feel a part of the community since moving here from FL 4 years ago, until this. Now, I feel like I was a part of something that made a difference.
God Bless you, Brian and all the other conservative "warriors."
I was very gracious as I wished her well in her future endeavors, hahahahahahaha.
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