Sometimes when something happens it Atlanta, we don’t see a lot of the fallout. However, the left-wing invasion of the state has not left us unaffected. Just look at the letters page in the Paper of Record. From the outrage at Terry Dickson’s simple, commonsensical advice on teaching cashiers math skills to the obsession with sea level rise, we’re seeing the first shots fired in the invasion of the Golden Isles.
Understand these aren’t the local Democrats we grew up with. This area was populated largely by Democrats until the party’s drift in values and priorities made staying a Democrat untenable for many of us. Jimmy Carter helped, too. The youts were taught otherwise, but for all the media rhetoric about the ”Great Recession,” the Carter-caused recession was far worse. Unemployment in the “Great Recession” peaked at 10.6% in January of 2010. In the recession brought on by the “Carter Malaise,” it peaked at 10.8%. (The peak was in 1982, after Carter was gone, but the Recession started in 1980, Carter’s last year in office.) Mortgage rates hit an all-time high of 18.45%. During the “Great Recession,” you could get a mortgage for 3% or less. Inflation was 14.8% in March of 1980. The worst it got during the “Great Recession” was 3.9%. Under Carter, the top marginal tax rate was 70%. During the “Great Recession,” it was 35%. This, combined with a sustained anti-Christian, anti-military, anti-police Democrat message, is the reason the south largely flipped, not racism as they tell you kids in school.
Anyway, the Democrats we grew up with are people that I always think of as people who started off as Democrats with us and tried to find rationales to remain Democrats after the rest of us chose economic and religious freedom. These are people we can still love and communicate with, but we chose to go a different way politically. We share a heritage. This new breed invading the Isles is different. For many of them, your value to them is largely concerned with whether you can fetch them a drink. In large part, they’re vacationers who decide to retire to their vacation getaway and live out a permanent vacation. They literally live here to be served by you simpletons. That’s how they view the area and its natives. Most of them don’t move here to become active citizens in the area, working hard to make the place better for everyone. They want to treat St Simons like it’s one big resort that exists purely to serve them.
I don’t know about you, but when I see these letters in the POR, the ones that strike me as being completely out of step with the values most of us hold, I immediately check out their social media profiles. I am almost never surprised at what I find. People looking for servants, promoting causes that actually affect them not one whit, but allow them to feel both good about themselves and superior to others. Win-win!
This is why you see them whining and complaining about any change to St Simons, whether it’s removing the “quaint” village shops that were initially regarded as “tacky” by the residents of the time or any attempt to build anything new. They want to reimpose the toll on the causeway as a way to “reduce crime” on the island. Hell, if it were that simple, we’d put a toll on Arco!
This weekend the Paper of Record published a letter to the editor that the number one priority for the county commission should be a plan to deal with sea level rise. When I checked the social media platform of the writer, I wasn’t surprised. Supporting elite girls’ schools where people are encouraged to wear their pink “P” hats and a years-long pattern of southern migration from New England to St Simons.
So, sea level rise. More important than jobs, the local economy, tourism, industry, education, taxation, pandemic, and the ever-important infrastructure. Remember sea level rise? In Al Gore’s 2006 film “An Inconvenient Truth,” he stated that the sea level rise could be 20 feet in “the near future.” He accompanied that with an animation of Manhattan underwater. It’s been 14 years since the movie was released. Manhattan IS underwater now, but only financially, due to draconian COVID lockdowns.
The sea level rise from 1993-2019 is estimated at 3.4 inches. The current rate of sea level rise, according to NOAA, is 0.14 inches per year. According to their calculations, the sea could be ten inches higher by the year 2100. Okay, Glynn County, get some red paint, measure 10 inches past the water line, paint a line, and tell people not to build anything on the other side of it. Done! Now, you can spend more of your money on Sheriff’s patrols for the interstate!
The problem is, when you look at it, the invaders are voting. They’re voting in larger percentages than we are, not larger numbers because there aren't enough of them..,yet. Their values are not yours. Your values are those of prosperity and survival. They’ve already achieved their prosperity. That’s why they’re here now, to enjoy the fruits of their labors. In the process of making themselves comfortable, they want to deny you the fruits of your labors and your opportunities to prosper.
My advice to you: speak up, speak out. Defend your values. Don’t let others dictate your life and lifestyle to you just because they amassed a pile of money somewhere else and decided to bring it here. And when there are issues on the ballot, show up and vote. My advice to the invaders: actually have a conversation with people from the area who are working hard to get by. Find out what their values and beliefs are. Actively work within the community to try to make it a better place, and don't be so contemptuous of the people who made this the place you wanted to retire to.