The OLD Philosopher – John M. Miller
Every year in December, Time Magazine names its Person of the Year. I am convinced that person can be named in January, and she is Stacey Abrams of Georgia.
Ms. Abrams was born of parents who both were United Methodist ministers. They inspired her to devote her life to community service. After receiving her law degree, she entered Georgia politics, and was the minority leader in its House of Representatives for six years, from 2011 to 2017.
In 2018 she established Fair Fight Action, an organization dedicated to overturning voter suppression measures by Georgia Republicans. The group also worked hard to register 800,000 new voters in the Peach State.
In 2018 Stacey Abrams ran for governor of Georgia, losing in a very close race to Brian Kemp. Following her narrow defeat, she continued to lead the drive to eradicate voter suppression, and to register even more new voters for the 2020 election. Although she considered running for the 2020 US Senate election, and was urged to do so by many friends and colleagues, she decided to continue her voter registration campaign, thinking it to be more important.
As America and the world came to know, there were two races for the Senate in Georgia last year. Through the outstanding efforts of Ms. Abrams and her team of thousands of volunteers, both of the Democratic candidates, Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff, managed to prevent both Republican candidates from having a majority victory in the November election. Thus it became necessary to hold a run-off election on January 5.
In that election, as we are all aware, both Democratic candidates won by razor-thin margins. Few believed both candidates could win, but by the remarkable organizational skills of Stacey Abrams, Messrs. Warnock and Ossoff were victorious. And, as is also widely known, through Stacey’s stellar efforts, Joe Biden also won the presidential election in Georgia, also by a very close number. Stacey and her many associates proved that pre-election diligence pays off.
It is impossible to predict with any accuracy what will happen politically in the USA from now until the end of the year. But we can be certain of what would have happened had not the most important political operative in Georgia been so astonishingly successful in swinging the Peach State to the Democrats. Donald Trump still would have lost the presidential race, but by a closer number in the Electoral College. Most importantly, however, the US Senate would still have a Republican majority, which means it would still have Mitch McConnell rather than Chuck Shumer as the majority leader, which means President Biden would have an even harder time with his legislative agenda than he has now with an evenly-divided Senate and Kamala Harris as the swing vote in case of ties. With what we have seen since the Capitol Assault, a Republican-controlled Senate would portend even more malfeasance than it long known.
Without those two Georgia Democrats being elected to the Senate, we would be faced with at least two to four years of political rancor and impasse. Joe Biden and Kamala Harris campaigned long and hard in Georgia, as did Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock. But were it not for Stacey Abrams’ herculean efforts of their behalf to get out the vote, Georgia and the entire United States of America would be confronted by a very dark scenario for the next several years.
More than anyone else, Stacey Abrams has changed the face of American politics in a refreshing democratic direction. There will be other people worthy of consideration as Person of the Year in 2021. But in my opinion, Stacey Abrams already deserves the award, and only one month in the new year has passed. Well done, good and faithful servant! - January 29, 2021
John Miller is Pastor of The Chapel Without Walls on Hilton Head Island, SC. More of his writings may be viewed at www.chapelwithoutwalls.org.