Nathan Deal came to the Paulding County GOP meeting earlier this month. He was so unimpressive that it’s taken me almost 2 weeks to get around to writing this post about the meeting.
To be fair, Deal was a very nice guy. I spent some time talking with him after the meeting, and he was certainly one of the more pleasant gubernatorial candidates. The problem, though, as I’ve said before, is that Nathan Deal’s campaign for Governor is one based solely on emotion. He got up, bragged about all the wonderful things he’s done in his political career, and then said they qualify him to be Governor. He didn’t mention one issue in his speech.
Water? Nope.
Jobs? Nope.
Illegal Aliens? Nope.
Nothing.
When he finished speaking, there was time for some Q&A. He was asked about schools and how we can make them better with better choices. He said something about making sure we have proper checks in place to make sure private schools and home schoolers are doing a good job before they get any government money, and then he rambled a bit more before taking a seat.
I was curious about his comments, so after the meeting, I approached him and asked him to clarify. He clarified by confirming that he would want to regulate the education given by private schools if parents would receive any tax relief. I let him finish his clarification, and I nodded.
I looked him straight in the eye and said “I have a real problem with that.” He looked puzzled, so I elaborated. I told him that the education of my children is my responsibility. He nodded. I told him that the private school where my children attend should answer to me and my wife – not the state of Georgia – on how well they’re teaching my children.
He told me that he understands that, but that if you’re going to give government money to the private school, you have to make them accountable. I replied very directly that the money isn’t the government’s to give, and that the real solution is to not collect my money in the first place. At this point he was backing up to say things I wanted to hear, so I ended the conversation and thanked him for joining us.
If you’re a Deal supporter, I’d challenge you to really find out what he believes and consider what he has to say. His web site won’t be much help, and even if you hear him speak, you’re not likely to hear much information about current issues. You may have to question him directly. Listen closely to what he says. You might find that he’s a bigger fan of government than our Governor should be.