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Jody Hice Is Wrong for Athens


Rep. Jody Hice has never been knowledgeable about either national politics or our constitution. He never held public office before his election as U.S. representative and doesn’t represent the values or interests of Clarke County voters.

Maybe that’s why he tweeted, “It is impossible to have limited government in a secular society. The more we kick God out of the public square the more important government becomes in our life.” Sorry, pastor, the Constitution separates church and state. Read it sometime (for the first time) when you aren’t viewing Hannity or listening to Rush.

When the GOP was in control of the House, an argument by GOP insiders could be made for electing Pastor Hice. He was on the powerful House Armed Services Committee. But the GOP lost power, and he was given the boot off the committee by his own party.

In any case, that was not entirely surprising. Hice opposed Kevin McCarthy as House Minority Leader, voted against numerous GOP legislative efforts, and so he was in effect demoted. The word was that he was pandering to the so-called “Freedom Caucus,” a small group of right-wing House fanatics even more to the right than the rest of the already conservative Trump GOP.

Hice will not have opposition in the GOP primary for the District 10 seat. Not surprising given the rightward drift of the Georgia GOP.

So far, there are two candidates who have qualified to run in the Democratic primary: Tabitha Johnson-Green and Andrew Ferguson. Only Ferguson has issued his platform, which is very progressive and includes: Medicare for all; increased taxes on the wealthy and corporations; decriminalization of marijuana and other criminal justice reforms. Granted, not all of these can be rapidly adopted, but at least he’s got a vision.

It’s congressmen like Hice and his Freedom Caucus buddies who prevent reasonable bipartisan legislation from ever seeing the light of day. If you want a continued stalemate, vote for the pastor. If not, vote for whomever runs against him in the November general election


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