Last week Sen. Ed Setzler (R- Acworth) announced he was considering legislation that will allow County Commission races to be non-partisan. This would allow candidates across Georgia to run “undercover” and prevent them from having to publicly state with which party they affiliate. 

It is self-evident how politicians would benefit from this new secrecy, creating more ignorant voters, but would voters and taxpayers benefit from not knowing the ideology of the candidates? 

“You look at Smyrna, Marietta, Acworth as examples, Powder Springs,” said Sen. Setzler. “These are well-run cities that run on consensus. There’s a lot less acrimony, and I think they do a whole lot better delivering services for our citizens than the Cobb County Commission of the last couple years has shown us. And I think Cobb would really benefit from making the change.”

One has to wonder why a self-professed Republican might be scared of candidates identifying with the Republican platform positions. Furthermore, why would we want to allow Democrats to hide their extreme ideology? After all, they are the ones who deny the basic biology of sex and believe it is morally good for minors to be exposed to pornography and permanently destroy their reproductive system with surgery. 

“As Shakespeare has said, ‘A rose by any other name would smell just as sweet’ and a Democrat by any other name would be just as bad,” said Nathaniel Darnell, Cobb RA Chairman. “We often observe that in other non-partisan races, such as judicial races, that low-information voters default to re-electing the incumbent.”

Some politicians like to talk like there is no ideology at play in local government, but this is false and anyone who has attended a Cobb Commission meeting in the last year knows it. 

Please contact Sen. Ed Setzler and let him know you oppose making the Cobb Commission candidates pretend to be bi-partisan.

• Contact Sen. Ed Setzler: ed.setzler@senate.ga.gov

Ideology Matters in Local Government

The “acrimony” in Cobb’s local government that Sen. Setzler is concerned about points to the fact that there is indeed ideology at play in local government. One of the fundamental differences between the political parties is a disagreement about what “services” local government should provide. Should the government give you cradle-to-the-grave, nanny-state socialism? 

In 2022 the Cobb County Commission wanted to provide the “service” of a county-wide trash removal program, a government monopoly to the company lucky enough to get the contract, thereby destroying the free-market competition provided by competing trash service companies. Democrats on the County Commission thought this “service” was a great idea to let the government forcibly take money from taxpayers and coerce them into receiving this “service”, whether they liked the service or not. This would have resulted in yet another monstrous, unaccountable, non-optional, government bureaucracy that is far more slow to respond to the needs of the people than the free market. Thankfully, Cobb RA members organized the community in a “Save My Cobb Trash Collector” campaign and successfully stopped this egregious assault on freedom. 

Should the County Commission fund a “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion” program to indoctrinate citizens with tax dollars? How would you know if a candidate is likely to support a DEI program if they don’t state a party affiliation up front?

Historically, there was sharp controversy about whether the government should give you your daily bread as a government “service” in a communist-style bread line. People who oppose expanding government services do so because government is inefficient, wasteful, and incompetent in almost everything they do, and therefore government services should be limited to those things which only government can do. People who believe this, generally identify as Republican and appreciate the Republican label so they can identify other people who share their views.

Christians often suggest that this principle has its basis in the Bible, God’s moral Law, given in Moses’ day and reiterated in the New Testament, that government authority should be severely limited to only those things that God ordained civil government to do, which is primarily justice.

Numerous passages in the Bible reference the responsibility of civil government to do justice, and Romans 13 makes reference to government bearing “the sword,” a symbol of force used to do justice.

“For he is a minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil.” – Romans 13:4

How about the School Board? There was very sharp controversy surrounding the Cobb School Board last year due to a teacher who was promoting subversive transgenderism to young students without parental consent or notification. The animosity surrounding this issue had everything to do with the polarizing ideology of good versus evil. Many Cobb RA members believed this was harmful and immoral to force radical, sexually deviant concepts on children with taxpayer dollars. The leftist teacher and those who defended her, believed exposing children to LGBTism was virtuous. 

Changing the partisan nature of politics will not in any way erase the ideological divide in our country, it would only mask it under a facade of neutrality. Let us be clear, the thin veil of non-partisan elections (at any level of government) only benefits the RINOs and spineless, deceptive politicians who have no ideology beyond what helps them climb the ladder of their own political ambition. The people they represent have ideological positions, and those voters need to know if the candidate on the ballot shares their positions. 

All law is an imposition of someone’s morality.

People talk as though local government only deals with administrative or “economic issues”, not “moral issues.” But I would submit that economic issues are moral issues. If you don’t believe me, just ask any business owner who has ever been robbed or cheated. Sometimes it is less clear at the local level, but there are still moral principles at play in local government. For instance, imagine your county or city government officials are debating how wide the sidewalk should be. One person argues that for safety reasons, the sidewalk should be five feet wide. This reflects a moral principle of the value and sanctity of human life and private property, and a desire to protect it. This represents someone’s morality.

Meanwhile, another board member argues the sidewalk should be only four feet wide because it will save the taxpayers money by spending less on materials. He also is arguing from a moral principle that, to spend tax dollars wastefully would be to steal from the taxpayer, and the taxpayer has a right to his private property and should not be robbed. Just because the question is somewhat subjective, doesn’t mean that moral principles should not guide the decision.

The morality question is every bit as relevant in local government decisions as in state or national legislative decisions.

Debate is Uncomfortable, but Healthy

Sunlight is the best anti-septic. The occasional heated controversy displayed in partisan political debates isn’t the problem, it is a symptom of the problem, which is ultimately sin in the heart of man, resulting in competing worldviews and a lack of consensus about what is moral and what is immoral. But, as unpleasant as political debate may feel, it is far better than civil war. Our forefathers and many Americans today believe so strongly in their ideology, they are willing to die for it. 

Changing the labels to say “non-partisan” will not diminish the ideological divide in our country. It is truly a beautiful system that allows people to elect their officials, and debate ideas via their representatives in the halls of Congress, or at the County Commissioners meetings. This prevents the underlying ideological clash from manifesting itself in the form of violence in the streets, or warfare on the battlefield.

If we want a peaceful community, and want to see more respectful dialogue about the issues at hand, the last thing we want to do is compound the frustration and intense passions of voters with a sense of betrayal that they were misled about a candidate’s ideology. That is a recipe for disaster.

Voters benefit from the “R” & “D” or third party labels ( when they are accurate) and voters are best served when they are alert and aware of how their government functions, so they can verify if the label accurately describes the ideology of the candidate. Secret party affiliation only benefits the politicians who want everyone to like them, and don’t want to be forced to be consistent to ideological positions.

Please contact Sen. Ed Seztler and let him know you are opposed to letting politicians conceal their ideology by running non-partisan. Please respectfully ask him to reconsider his proposed legislation.

• Email Sen. Ed Setzler: ed.setzler@senate.ga.gov