The U.S., a Representative Republic NOT a Democracy!

Radio Commentary, 90.7, 91.7 New Life FM, January 13, 2017 – By Sue Ella Deadwyler

In the last few years, a movement has surfaced to change the way we elect our president and vice president. For several years, proponents of that movement have introduced bills in Georgia to change the Electoral College and install a strategy they’re calling the “national popular vote”.

It surfaced again in Georgia last year when Representative Earl Ehrhart introduced H.B. 929 and Senator David Shafer introduced the same language in S.B. 376. Both bills were entitled the “Agreement Among the States to Elect the President by National Popular Vote,” and both bills died in committee. However, they may be introduced again this year.

The goal of the national popular vote is to install majority rule for presidential and vice presidential elections. If that happens, the most densely populated areas in the country would single-handedly elect the president and vice president. They keep saying that’s the democratic way, but the United States is NOT a democracy. Continue reading →

Swearing-in on Day One

Radio Commentary, 90.7, 91.7 New Life FM, January 6, 2017 – By Sue Ella Deadwyler

When 10 o’clock comes around Monday morning, 56 senators and 180 representatives in the Georgia General Assembly will become official law-makers after they’re sworn in. After a little searching, I learned that oaths of office can be quite different, depending on the office the official will occupy.

Before the governor-elect can take office, members of the House and Senate gather in a joint session to witness him swear to faithfully execute the office of governor and defend the constitutions of Georgia and the United States. Immediately after the governor’s oath, the lieutenant governor is sworn in. Both are elected at the same time to serve four-year terms, simultaneously.

Governor Deal’s son, Hall County Superior Court Judge Jason Deal, administered the oath of office to his dad in 2011 at his first inauguration as governor, and he did it again in 2015 when his dad won a second term. Also, in 2015, Judge Deal administered the oath of office to seven other state-wide officials, including the lieutenant governor. Continue reading →

What’s New for 2017?

Not only was January 1, 2017 a new day, it was the first day of a brand new year that was escorted in with bells and whistles and world-wide celebrations. The new 2017 calendar reminds us that a new year has come and gone 2,016 times since the birth of Jesus Christ.

So, what’s new for 2017? Nobody knows the future, but if it goes according to the state constitution, the Georgia General Assembly will convene on January 9th to begin a new 40-day session on the second Monday in January. That’s when the new crop of senators and representatives will take the oath of office to start their new two-year terms.

Twenty-eight new legislators will become part of the 180-member House of Representatives. Fourteen new legislators are Democrats and 14 are Republicans, so the make-up of the House will be 61 Democrats and 119 Republicans, meaning Republicans are one seat short of a two-thirds majority in the House. But that’s nothing new for the House.

The 56-member Senate has five new members, 18 Democrats and 38 Republicans, which is a two-thirds majority for Republicans.

New bills and resolutions will pour in during the session, but eager legislators began pre-filing new bills and re-cycling old ones on November 15, giving us a taste of what’s coming in the New Year. The new, H.B. 10 and H.B. 11 re-open the debate about guns; and H.B. 3 adds new language to an old law against wearing a mask or hood in public.

H.B. 16 will be the umpteenth time they’ve tried to give three behaviors – gender, sexual orientation, and gender identity – new civil rights status, but the new emphasis on trans-gender could create a new problem for Georgia parents. While trans-male or trans-female identities may be outwardly assumed by different clothes or mannerisms, and a permanent outward transition may be acquired by medication or surgery, the DNA won’t become new. Biological male or female DNA remains the same.

New “trans” surgery: Surgical transition of male-to-female or female-to-male could create a new problem in Georgia, because Georgia’s Family Planning Act authorizes minors to consent to unlimited reproductive healthcare – including surgery – without parental consent. That Act could provide the foundation for a situation in Georgia similar to the case in Minnesota, where the mother of a teen-age son went to court to stop the surgical removal of her son’s genitalia.

She is suing her child’s school district and the county board of health because her 17-year-old son has been receiving (without parental consent or even knowledge) hormonal treatments to change his secondary sex characteristics to those of a woman. The suit refers to “life-changing surgery.”

Such facts should prompt Georgia legislators to restore parental authority the state took away in the 1960s, when the Family Planning Act passed the General Assembly, decades before anyone saw “trans” coming. If parental authority is restored, 2017 will be a much happier New Year!

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