A  Political   Journal  of  Fact  and  Opinion  

                       Mr. Speaker,  is it not true the gentleman’s 
                       snout is so deep in the trough, all you can 
                       see is his eyes? 
                                                         
                                                                      Said of  an   Atlanta  legislator during
                                                                      debate  on  state funds  for the  City of
                                                                      Atlanta:  by the late Joe Mack Wilson,
                                                                      Representative from Marietta.

The  Downtown  Atlanta  Establishment

It’s  not a formally  chartered organization.   It’s not in the phone book.  It has no e-mail address.   It’s  “members”  probably won’t admit it,  and some of them don’t technically live there.   But the  Downtown Atlanta Establishment does exist.  

It springs from business, legal, civic, and media interests in Atlanta, with a few black and white politicians thrown into the mix (They perhaps should be regarded more as servants than members).     

Its leaders are increasingly non-Georgians, non-southern corporate executives and media personalities.  They are the kind of  people Christopher Lasch talked  about in Revolt of  The  Elites as having nothing in  common  with ordinary Americans, but rather  envision themselves  as part of an “international”  society. 

 Housed  in downtown towers,  banks,  law firms and development offices, this  “global”,  politically “Centrist”  (newspeak for  moderate liberals), and  elitist sodality   has nothing in common with Georgia outside Atlanta, nor ordinary residents within the city for that matter.  Its leaders  hold our heritage,  our history, our wishes, and us in contempt.  Members of this club don’t see  Atlanta as a southern city, and they don’t want Georgia to be a southern state.   God forbid they should live in The South!

 So what’s the establishment’s agenda?   Most of its initiatives are geared to maintaining its own wealth and power, and  especially insuring the continuing fast growth of Atlanta.  It has a number of strategies to achieve its aims, and it stays on target pursuing them.

It’s good  at  sizing up obstacles  and figuring out ways around them, as  shown by  its strategies to overcome the wishes of  the people in the region’s  suburbs, and  its  ability to get facilities to promote Atlanta without Atlanta paying for them.   Details  on  those later.

 The Establishment has any number of outlets for its views and programs,  but the Chamber of Commerce is perhaps the organization it most uses to sell  its program.   Since the establishment  is basically  corporate big-business, and the Chamber is the most prominent advocate of  business, it’s  a natural partnership.  But there is an additional bonus here.  The Atlanta Chamber and the Georgia Chamber are almost synonymous. This combined vehicle  can promote Atlanta’s agenda across the state, through local chambers of commerce.  Combined with Atlanta’s media support, this puts the Downtown Atlanta  Establishment in position to set the program not only for Atlanta, but to implement its vision for the state of Georgia. 

 The establishment knows that most of the people in this state do not identify with downtown Atlanta.  They  don’t  identify with the establishment either, nor  with its agenda.  But the establishment also knows the people of the suburbs and rest of Georgia must rely on Governors and members of the legislature to stand up for them.  And the establishment has lots of money which it uses in campaigns and surely in other ways as well to influence politicians.

 Governor Roy  Barnes, like Zell Miller before  him, was heavily backed by Atlanta’s establishment in 1998, and will get even more support  from it this year.  It’s  where  those millions of dollars in the Barnes campaign came from.    But  the club has plenty of money:  if the Republican nominee  for Governor is someone the establishment can do business with, a few bucks will be thrown his or her way also (but a whole lot fewer than will go to Roy).   There’s  lots of money.

 The people in the suburban counties around downtown Atlanta don’t identify with it, and mistrust its leaders as much as do south Georgia farmers.  Their mostly republican senators and representatives talk about local issues, but when they get to the capitol they mostly vote for the downtown establishment’s  program.  Check where their professional interests lie, and where their campaign funds come from.

The same is true of the mostly democratic senators and representatives from middle and south Georgia.    They talk about the needs  and philosophy of  the people they represent,  but they  mostly vote the ticket of the Atlanta Elites.  There’s enough money to go round. 

Take the  case of Senator  George Hooks, from deep in South Georgia,  Sumter County.  Last year, after the legislative session,  there was a  fund-raiser for him, but not down home  in his district.  The fund raiser was held  in  Downtown Atlanta, at The Commerce Club.  The Commerce club is definitely a corporate Atlanta institution.    And this was a corporate Atlanta  fundraiser.    You see,  Senator Hooks is more than  just a South Georgia Senator.  He’s  Chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee.  That’s where state funds are.

And besides,  Senator Hooks helped  the Establishment  and Roy Barnes change the state flag in 2001.

This series will be continued next issue.   Don’t miss it.

Campaign Georgia 2002,   is owned and published by Randolph Phillips.   Our   U.S. postal address is  P.O. Box  764  Shiloh,  GA  31826.  E-Mail:  rphillips303@charter.net.