Dalton Daily Citizen

Monday, May 2, 2016

Georgia conservatives lose again under Gold Dome

D.A. King

“Shall the Constitution of Georgia be amended so as to provide that English is the official language of the State of Georgia?” Proposed statewide ballot question for the November election contained in SR675 sponsored by Republican Senator Josh McKoon.

As a late note on the end of the 2015-2016 General Assembly, here are more examples of Gold Dome reality for people who don’t know how their government really works – and some observations.
Despite a December Rosetta Stone Communications poll showing a whopping 76% bipartisan public approval rate for amending the state constitution to make English the official language of government, Georgia voters will not be allowed to answer the above ballot question in November.

Unless there is a badly needed Executive Order from Governor Deal changing current policy at DDS, Georgia will continue to give the illegal aliens, foreign diplomats and Mercedes Benz executives here on a legal visas the exact same drivers license.

A committee-gutted version McKoon’s SB6 would have created a new, vertically-oriented ‘driving card’ for the illegal aliens with Obama’s deferred action on deportation amnesty and would have clearly displayed their illegal status. That would have made it more difficult for illegal victims of borders to board airliners, rent vehicles, enter federal buildings and register to vote.

After the renewed reminder on where Gov. Deal and corporate Georgia (apologies for the repetition) stand on religious liberty legislation, readers should take an interest in why and how SR675 and SB6 were defeated in a Republican-ruled state.

Both bills finally passed the GOP state senate. All thirty-nine senate Republicans voted to let voters decide on the official English Resolution. Only one GOP senator voted against the bill improving the security on illegal alien’s drivers licenses. That was restaurant-owner Senator Tommie Williams of South Georgia. Williams had concerns about his sous chef, who is an illegal alien.

Nevertheless, both bills are as dead as Poncho Villa. They were killed in the Republican-majority Georgia House controlled by Speaker David Ralston because of Ralston’s personal animosity for the bill’s sponsor and on orders from the Georgia Chamber of Commerce.

The triumphant, corporate-funded illegal alien lobby is still rejoicing. “The failure of the anti-immigrant measures was a step forward in the search for equal rights for everyone in Georgia,” beamed Adelina Nicholls, executive director of the anti-borders Georgia Latino Alliance for Human Rights.

Got that? Allowing American voters to decide on English as the constitutional official language of government and noting on their drivers licenses that illegal aliens are illegal is “anti-immigrant.” Nichols gleeful remark should be regarded as an answer to the question “how un-American are they?”

We note here that even when the Democrats controlled the state Capitol, illegal aliens could not legally obtain a drivers license. We also note that when the open borders organizers speak of “equal rights for everyone”, they are aiming directly at the end of immigration enforcement and winning voting rights for illegal aliens. 

Many Republican county and district conventions last year saw passage of resolutions supporting a ballot question on constitutional official English and ending the practice of rewarding any illegals with any Georgia drivers license. The drivers license resolution also passed at the Republican state convention. This was due to the courageous work of commonsense, grassroots conservative activists in Georgia’s Republican Party but was ignored by Speaker Ralston.

For Georgia conservatives, the failure of SR675 and SB6 in the GOP-controlled legislature should serve as obvious indicators of badly needed change. As a no-brainer security measure, Governor Deal can and should use his own executive power to modify the drivers licenses his administration is giving to illegal aliens. HERE

King is president of the Georgia-based Dustin Inman Society and an independent voter. Twitter @DAKDIS