We have a very busy week in Cobb County so please see the events below.

I would also like to congratulate our Vice-Chairman of Communications, Nathaniel Darnell on his marriage this past Saturday to Abigail Cochran!

Yours in Freedom,

Jason Shepherd

Chairman, Cobb County Republican Party

Yesterday, on July 5 ^th , a friend of mine on Facebook published a list of injustices that were committed against blacks, mainly pertaining to slavery and government violations of civil rights, for instance, The Fugitive Slave Act, the 3/5 Compromise, the Missouri Compromise, Jim Crow, Plessy v. Ferguson , Dred Scott , lynchings, and numerous other laws and actions.

She concluded with, “ July 4th is a symbol of celebrating independence during the American Revolutionary War. However, Black people did not have independence. We were not free. So there's a little history for you. Use it to educate your children about the truth of our history. I hope this post helps you understand why some people find the monuments aversive and why some people do not want to celebrate the 4th of July. It is very important that we have the complete picture and education is the key.”

She noted more than once, that on July 4, 1776, the Declaration of Independence was signed, but black people were not free.

Her statement was not accurate.

While the vast majority of the black population of the new nation did, indeed, live in bondage, thousands of free blacks lived in the new nation. Many owned property, voted, and fully participated in society and commerce. Some enlisted in the Continental Army to fight for the new nation.

However, even free blacks faced discrimination. They were not alone as did many other groups; Catholics, Jews, Irish, Chinese, Native Americans, and Italians, to name a few, and this new nation whose creed was “All men are created equal,” would need more than the next two centuries to figure out what that meant and to strive towards its achievement.

The 4^th of July is not just the celebration of our nation’s founding, it’s the celebration of our nation’s founding document, the Declaration of Independence .

The core of the document forms the basis on what those who claim we shouldn’t celebrate July 4 consciously or unconsciously are fighting for, the idea articulated by Thomas Jefferson, “we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness…”

The grievance of any person, no matter who they are, that they are being oppressed is based on the fact we now take it for granted that we are all equal because we were created equal. The principle is so ingrained in our national DNA, we inherently believe it, even if we do not understand why or from where it originated.  

However, Jefferson’s original draft did not stop there.  

Today, when you read the “Declaration of Independence” the final version is missing a paragraph that was written by Thomas Jefferson but struck from the document by the delegates of the Southern colonies.

Jefferson wrote, “he [King George III] has waged cruel war against human nature itself, violating its most sacred rights of life & liberty in the persons of a distant people who never offended him, captivating & carrying them into slavery in another hemisphere, or to incur miserable death in their transportation thither. this piratical warfare, the opprobrium of infidel powers, is the warfare of the CHRISTIAN king of Great Britain. determined to keep open a market where MEN should be bought & sold, he has prostituted his negative for suppressing every legislative attempt to prohibit or to restrain this execrable commerce: and that this assemblage of horrors might want no fact of distinguished die, he is now exciting those very people to rise in arms among us, and to purchase that liberty of which he has deprived them, & murdering the people upon whom he also obtruded them; thus paying off former crimes committed against the liberties of one people, with crimes which he urges them to commit against the lives of another.”

Let us not for one second believe the progressive lie that this nation, from its inception, did not struggle with an institution it inherited from the Crown. It was not CAPITALISM that brought slavery to America, but MERCANTILISM, where a mother nation exploited its colonies for economic power. Both Adam Smith’s “ Wealth of Nations ,” which argued for an economy guided by the market and not government, and America’s founding, which had at its creed that a free people should be able to engage in commerce without the heavy hand of government, both occurred in 1776.

It took 90 years to throw off the remains of the mercantile system at the cost of over 600,000 dead in the American Civil War, including the first Republican President whose life ended with a bullet in his head.

Whatever you want to believe the start of the war was about, the end of the war was the end of slavery, and the beginning of another 100-year struggle for equality.

But not us forget for a second, that even in 1776, a 33 year old slave owner had to grapple with the fact that he, himself, was waging “cruel war against human nature itself, violating its most sacred rights of life & liberty in the persons of a distant people who never offended him...”

While Jefferson was never able to emancipate his slaves as he claimed to want to, he reflected both the ideals of the new nation, and its fears. In the end, his fears of bankruptcy and ruin overrode his own beliefs and principles that all were created equal.

However, throughout the next two centuries, there were plenty of people who risked, and often lost everything, including their lives, to end what they continued to see as injustice, usually for no other reason than because they believed in the ideals embodied in the document written by Jefferson and adopted on July 4.  It would have been easier, and safer, to say, “it doesn’t affect me, concern me, and it’s not my business.” However, as the words of America the Beautiful point out, we had heroes who proved in liberating strife, that more than self, their country loved, and mercy more than life.

As Jefferson said, “The Tree of Liberty must constantly be refreshed with the blood of Patriots and Tyrants.”

This included tyrants found even in our own nation. Liberty has always had to struggle against a small, but determined minority who would claim freedom for themselves, but withhold it to others.

Those who will say July 4th is only about the list of injustices that were carried out against blacks, or anyone else, are missing the point of the day. July 4th is about having the courage to end once and for all injustice because July 4th is about ALL being equal. Maybe Americans were not yet ready to believe we were all equal on July 4, 1776, but on that day we, as a new nation, stated that we all are, and started working towards it.

We must still work towards it and teach the next generation what July 4 means, more than cookouts, fireworks, and parades, or risk losing it for every American who will follow.

Yours in Freedom,

Jason Shepherd

Chairman, Cobb County Republican Party

On July 3, 1776, John Adams, a member of the Continental Congress and future President of the now seemingly independent United States of America, wrote to his wife Abigail back in Massachusetts stating,  "The Second Day of July 1776, will be the most memorable Epocha, in the History of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance by solemn Acts of Devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more.You will think me transported with Enthusiasm but I am not. -- I am well aware of the Toil and Blood and Treasure, that it will cost Us to maintain this Declaration, and support and defend these States. -- Yet through all the Gloom I can see the Rays of ravishing Light and Glory. I can see that the End is more than worth all the Means. And that Posterity will tryumph in that Days Transaction, even altho We should rue it, which I trust in God We shall not."

While Adams prophetically described how American Independence Day celebrations would play out for future generations, it was the date that he fell a bit short on.

Today, most Americans do not even know the day we voted ourselves an independent nation was July 2, 1776, when Congress adopted Richard Henry Lee's (VA) independence resolution which had been introduced on June 7 and stated,  "Resolved, That these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States, that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved. That it is expedient forthwith to take the most effectual measures for forming foreign Alliances. That a plan of confederation be prepared and transmitted to the respective Colonies for their consideration and approbation."

It was not July 4.

Adams had seconded the Lee Resolution, and its nearly unanimous adoption (New York abstained from the vote) on July 2 meant the work Adams had labored on to see the colonies strike out on their own, severing ties with the old world and seeking a path of self-determination in the New World, had been accomplished. The colonies were now "free and independent states." There was only the the not inconsequential matter of winning that independence.

But that wasn't the day we would celebrate. The day after Adams wrote his wife, one more piece of business was to be completed, the adoption of the report of the Declaration Committee.

Of course Adams was on that committee. So was Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman of Connecticut, Robert Livingston of New York, and, a 33 year old from Virginia, Thomas Jefferson.

While the five member committee had the task of writing out the reasons that compelled the colonies to separation, the actual work fell on the young Jefferson, who was widely regarded as the best writer among them.

It was the adoption of that committee's report on July 4, 1776, their "Declaration of Independence," that is now celebrated.

The reason gets down to simple politics. July 2 and July 4 were both celebrated in the early Republic, with your day of celebration depending on if you were a Federalist or a Democratic-Republican. When Federalist John Adams became President after the Federalist-leaning George Washington, July 2 was the day of focus.

In the 1800 election, Adams and his Federalist Party suffered massive electoral loses and Thomas Jefferson's Democratic-Republicans came into power, shifting the focus on July 4, the day Jefferson's Declaration was adopted.

This rivalry is even noted in the painting above. If you look closely at the work by John Trumbull, a Democratic-Republican and fan of Jefferson, he painted Jefferson's foot standing on John Adams's as they stand before the newly adopted Declaration.

By 1812, the Federalist Party was all but extinct and July 4 was firmly cemented into American culture as our day of independence. As the 50th anniversary of the passage of the Declaration of Independence approached, Jefferson and Adams had been both invited to attend the celebration in Washington, D.C., Adams was 90 and Jefferson was 83. Both confirmed their attendance, but neither would make it. Both Adams and Jefferson died within hours of each other on July 4, 1826. Adams's last words were of his former rival and, through correspondence in their waning years, his friend, Thomas Jefferson.

"Thomas Jefferson survives."

Thomas Jefferson had not. Jefferson had died a few hours before.

In the end though, maybe it's more fitting we celebrate the document that outlines the "why" and not the procedural mechanism that was the vote for independence two days before.

The Declaration of Independence is so much more than just a list of justifications for separation. It was Jefferson's eloquence that insured that. The words harked back to those of John Locke and other writers of the Enlightenment, but combines their philosophy into a creed, a mission statement for a new nation...not one bound together by ethnicity, religious sect, language, or geography, but one that is bound by a philosophy... we hold these truths to be self-evidence, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, among them are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. - That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among Men driving their just powers from the consent of the governed, - That whenever any form of Government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or abolish it.

For 244 years this July 4 (or 2nd), we have welcomed anyone to the shores of this nation who holds fast to those ideas. If you believe as we do, as our national creed inspires, then you are offered a place at our nation's table, regardless of where you came from. It has helped to make us the wealthiest, the most generous, and most inspiring to opportunity nation in history. We all can imagine our own version of the American Dream, a dream that has as its root the words,  "All men are created equal."

However, as the 50th anniversary celebration neared, John Adams issued a warning to his fellow citizens,

"My best wishes, in the joys, and festivities, and the solemn services of that day on which will be completed the fiftieth year from its birth, of the independence of the United States: a memorable epoch in the annals of the human race, destined in future history to form the brightest or the blackest page, according to the use or the abuse of those political institutions by which they shall, in time to come, be shaped by the human mind."

It's as the story goes, that when Benjamin Franklin was leaving the Constitutional Convention in 1787, a woman stopped him and asked, "Mr. Franklin, what kind of government have you given us?" To which Franklin was said to have replied, "A Republic...if you can keep it."

July 4 reminds us that we must constantly work to keep our Republic. We fight against forces that Adams feared would shape our political institutions away from the ideals of the founding, away from the self-evident truths that the Creator has given, to those shaped, and warped, by the human mind towards a want and lust for human power.

Just as John Adams wrote his wife that long ago July 3, if we do not work to secure the blessings of liberty for our future, then we too should rue it, but with the faithful dedication of my fellow Americans, I trust in God We shall not.

Yours in the 244th year of our Freedom,

Yours in Freedom,

Jason Shepherd

Chairman, Cobb County Republican Party

NOTE: The following appeared as an op-ed in the Marietta Daily Journal on June 24, 2020.

“Voter suppression” was again claimed in Georgia’s 2020 primary election amidst reports of fewer polling locations and faulty voting equipment leading to daunting lines and raising similar allegations as Georgia’s 2018 gubernatorial election. While it is easy to try and point the finger at Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, those responsible for June 9’s voting issues may surprise you.

This finger-pointing occurs against the national meme that Georgians are incapable of holding fair elections. After the 2018 gubernatorial election, one of the most hotly contested elections in recent years, many Democratic leaders, including the former vice president and presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden, claimed that voter suppression gave an improper victory to former Secretary of State and now Gov.

Brian Kemp. Stacey Abrams lost the election by 55,000 votes; no irregularities have been found. Yet the national media still insists that “voter suppression” was the basis.

The media trumpets fake “voter suppression” — it may indeed be an issue in Fulton and DeKalb and a few other counties. Those crying voter suppression in the 2018 election claimed that removing dormant or ineligible voters was voter suppression. But only inactive voter names were removed, such as voters who had moved out of state. But because of the lawsuits and settlements following the 2018 election, all of those ineligible names were ADDED back to the polls for 2020! An additional 1.47 million names were added back to the rolls, and, due to the coronavirus, requests for absentee ballots were sent to all.

Every vote by an ineligible voter reduces the value of the vote by every eligible voter who stands in line or takes the time to make sure his or her vote counts. What is more, it is mandated by the National Voter Registration Act of 1993, passed by the Democratic controlled Congress and signed into law by President Bill Clinton. The 1993 legislation more commonly called “Motor Voter,” requires that states keep voter lists up to date by removing inactive voters from voter lists.

Click here to continue reading on MDJOnline.com.

Yours in Freedom,

Jason Shepherd

Chairman, Cobb County Republican Party

They say ignorance is bliss. It is not…it is dangerous.

Over the weekend it was announced that the New York Museum of Natural History, an institution all but created by former Republican President Theodore Roosevelt, has decided to remove the statue of the former President and benefactor over the outcry from some.

“We have watched as the attention of the world and the country has increasingly turned to statues as powerful and hurtful symbols of systemic racism,” said the museum’s president, Ellen Futter. “Simply put, the time has come to move it.”

This decision comes after a week where statues of St. Junípero Serra, Ulysses S. Grant and Francis Scott Key were torn down in San Francisco.

Grant, of course, led the Union Army that accepted the surrender of General Robert E. Lee, and, as President, fought the newly established KKK in the South.

Apparently, that was not enough since he briefly also owned a slave, which he also freed.

Francis Scott Key, the author of the Star-Spangled Banner , was a lawyer and a slave owner. However, like many people of his time, or people of any time, his views on slavery and race were complicated and not one-dimensional.

He owned slaves but was one of few white lawyers who would go to court representing blacks trying to escape slavery, winning many of those cases. He would also represent slave owners trying to get back their so-called “property.”

He sparked a race riot in Washington, D.C. in 1835 for his aggressive prosecution of one black man, accused of trying to kill his mistress, but also stood firm in the jailhouse door, facing down an angry white lynch mob who wanted to dispense their own justice to the suspect on the nearest tree.

Francis Scott Key, like the rest of us, was complicated and full of contradictions. However, even as a flawed person, he made is mark on our nation and its history, which is why across the continent from his home in Baltimore, his statute stood…until last week.

As former President George W. Bush said in 2016 when he dedicated the National Museum of African American History (a museum he signed the legislation to create), “A great nation does not hide its history, it faces its flaws and corrects them.”

No nation is without flaws. History is a catalogue of suffering, injustice, brutality, and tyranny. The best a nation can do is honor those who, though products of their time, moved civilization forward a couple of inches.

Thomas Jefferson owned slaves. He also authored the Declaration of Independence which contained the formula which 89 years later would end slavery. A nation whose creed is “All men are created equal” cannot forever endure half-free and half-enslaved. His words would go on to inspire others towards freedom, and still do so today.

The mob has also torn down his statue in various places.

“Remembering is powerful. Remembering, forces us to become wiser,” wrote Sophia A. Nelson, and African-American author and journalist.

“We think of the words  Never Forget  and we instantly remember 9-11 or the Holocaust.” She continues. “We connect because we remember. We look. We learn. We discover. And hopefully, with a little faith, self-discovery and humility we grow into better, more loving human beings.”

While statutes of our past pay homage to great things the individual did, they do not hide the lessons they had yet to learn. We do not erect statues of perfect people, but flawed people. They are a reminder that anyone of us, no matter how flawed, can do great things. They help to open our eyes to the mistakes of the past, but also that our mistakes should not define us.

Forgetting our history does not erase the mistakes and misfortunes of the past, it just makes us ignorant to them. We suddenly lose that milestone, that marker where we got a little more civilized, a little wisdom, and more able to appeal to our common humanity, rather than the prejudices and hatreds of the old order. We learned to stop doing wrong, and learned to do what was right.

In a flash of mob violence, it has been erased.

However, as Sophia Nelson reminds us, "We do not learn when we run from our wrongs. We learn when we face them."

In the past, statues have been torn down as a symbol of regime change. Statues of Stalin, Lenin, and Marx fell when so did their inspired Communist governments. We cheered with Iraqis as the statue of Saddam fell when U.S. forces toppled his regime in Iraq. We should also not forget the statues of King George III that fell and were melted down into musket balls to fire at British regulars.

While racism and bigotry should be tossed on the ash heap of history, it is becoming more and more clear that this present violence is not about racism and bigotry, but about erasing America itself.

Attacks against symbols of the Confederacy have now given way to attacks on American history itself. When statues of Abraham Lincoln are defaced, statues of U.S. Grant are torn down, and statues of Theodore Roosevelt are removed, we are now engaged in wiping away our past, with a violent mob now setting us on a new course of history, one where the heroes of old must be erased and replaced, but who the new heroes will be should strike fear into the hearts of all who value freedom.

If the authors of our freedom are made to seem as degranged, cruel, violent, intolerant, racist, misogynist, greedy, and imperialist, then all they created, fought for, struggled against, and built up can be discredited in favor of the new order. They do this not because they know or understand the nature and purpose of the statue, but because they do not see why it was placed there anyway.

It reminds me of Chesterton's Fence. In G.K. Chesterton ’s 1929 book,  The Thing, in the chapter entitled, “The Drift from Domesticity,” Chesterton relates a modern parable regarding a fence:

"In the matter of reforming things, as distinct from deforming them, there is one plain and simple principle; a principle which will probably be called a paradox. There exists in such a case a certain institution or law; let us say, for the sake of simplicity, a fence or gate erected across a road. The more modern type of reformer goes gaily up to it and says, 'I don’t see the use of this; let us clear it away.' To which the more intelligent type of reformer will do well to answer: 'If you don’t see the use of it, I certainly won’t let you clear it away. Go away and think. Then, when you can come back and tell me that you do see the use of it, I may allow you to destroy it.'"

Where elected city governments, mayors, and governors should be playing the part of the "intelligent reformer," too often they are standing weak and powerless, or simply joining the mob of "more modern reformers" who don't see the use of "this," and are simply clearing it away.

Clearing away the past will stemie future generations from being able to learn the lessons of history, leading our civilization into a vicious cycle of ignorance, permanently endangering the future of our culture of freedom, which we have have spent the past 244 years to perfect. The result of which will be a return to fear and tyranny, not Utopia.

That is why I will say, ignorance is not bliss, it is dangerous.

Yours in Freedom,

Jason Shepherd

Chairman, Cobb County Republican Party

Last week Cobb County Commission Chairman Mike Boyce made some unfortunate comments about the Cobb County GOP to the Marietta Daily Journal . I spoke with the Chairman on the day after the election and several times since his comments appeared. Mike Boyce has expressed nothing about admiration and faith in the leadership of our County Party, even as he privately (now publicly) expressed frustration with allied organizations which did not support him.

The Republican voters of Cobb County let their voices be heard as to who our nominees should be. As leaders of the Republican Party, we must respect the mandate placed on us by the voters and support our nominees. The only purpose of the Republican Party is to get our nominees elected once our voters select them.

I freely admit, I did not support Donald Trump in the primary, but the second he became our nominee, I was 110% with Donald Trump, because the voters of my party had spoken, and I chastised those Republicans who thought their opinion was more consequential than the will of those thousands of voters who went out and voted for Donald Trump. I'm still having to fight the few "Never Trumpers" who are still out there because this November, every vote will count.

This November isn't a decision between two Democrats like many in our Cobb GOP like to claim. The consequences of having a Democratic Commission Chair would be catastrophic to our county government. You cannot just look at the policies the Chair can advance, but also the appointment and hiring decisions the Chair has to place and replace county leaders with those who do not share our beliefs. Coupled with a tough election to hold Bob Ott's seat, we need to fight for every position to maintain the good government we have enjoyed as Cobb County residents.

We can see on our televisions and social media the type of leadership that progressive, Democratic government brings. Even if I disagree with the Chairman's tax policy, under his leadership, I'm not worried that anarchists will take over sections of Cobb County and declare those areas "independent zones" like has happened in Seattle. I also don't have to worry about Chairman Boyce wanting to "DEFUND THE POLICE," when he has consistently advocated for more police pay.

What's more, even if we disagree with a policy that one of our Republican elected officials advocates for, we at least are able to have a seat at the table and a more willing ear to listen to our concerns than we would with a Democrat who is likely not to even give a Republican a seat at the table.

If you think a Democratic lead county commission would care about the voices of Republican voters, just look at the contempt we see from Cobb School Board members Davis and Howard towards the Republicans on the Cobb County School Board.

Having a Democratic majority on the Cobb County Commission becomes a real possibility this year, unless we work together and fight for every vote. If you're saying "we can always get it back in four years," then maybe you have noticed elections are getting harder, not easier in Cobb County.

By the end of this or early next week, Chairman Boyce and I will be issuing a joint statement of support to move us forward towards the tough battle ahead. We are fortunate to have a Marine Colonel, who understands the battle we are about to face as our nominee.

If we want to keep the community we so enjoy living in, the community that has made so many people want to move here to enjoy, but who now seem to want to vote to change it into Seattle or Minneapolis, we have to come together behind our nominees.

The voters of Cobb County have made their decision and their voice was clear and unambiguous. It is our duty as Republican leaders to honor their decision...just like we did when they chose Donald Trump.

Yours in Freedom,

Jason Shepherd

Chairman, Cobb County Republican Party

A friend on Facebook recently reminded me there is a thin line between “justice” and “vengeance.”

Over the past two weeks, peaceful protests for justice have descended into little more than violent mobs destroying property, beating, and at times killing, people, and causing mayhem, all in the name of JUSTICE.

That is not justice. It is vengeance.

When innocent people are made to suffer because of the actions of another, it is not a form of justice, but a form of vengeance.

When private property is defaced and destroyed, not because the owners participated in, or were accessories to, or even complacent about the injustice that needs to be corrected, then it is done so as an act of vengeance, not justice.

While many Americans stand appalled at the actions of the police which lead to the death of George Floyd, they too stand appalled at the actions of mobs roaming the streets of American cities seeking vengeance, not justice. 

While many of Americans, of all races, colors, creeds, and political spectrums rightfully condemn the violence, we are seeing more and more from the left statements justifying the violence, to excuse the mob. The justification in grounded in false narratives about “400 years of racism,” an all too often used phrase that even Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey employed to show solidarity with those committing violence.

The left has been so pervasive in their efforts to sow these seeds of racial discord, that their promotion of ideas of “white privilege” and “systematic racism” has resulted in “righteous indignation” exploding into justified anger at society. Even some members of my own church community have excused the rioters on social media, one even posting on Facebook, “ Condemning the riots in the same breath as condemning what happened to George Floyd dilutes the real issue of inequitable racial issues. Imagine being unheard (unseen, disregarded, looked past, ignored, unloved) for a lifetime. What voice do you have? What language do you have? None except acting out loudly, aggressively, and even violently. This language of rioting is a demand to be heard, seen, and regarded.”

Unfortunately, this is not a unique or isolated way of thinking in many church communities. It almost seems as if “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth” is somehow justified, if within the context of “social justice.” More so, if you perceive to have a long-standing grievance against society, then it is even more justified to take any eye or tooth that can be found, even if it is the eye or tooth of a minority business owner who sunk his life-savings into the enterprise and, after struggling to hold on to his dream through COVID-19, is now watching that dream vanish in flames . That is not justice. That is vengeance.

What is more, it is a fabrication.

Zaid Jilani, a freelance journalist and a Pakistani American Muslim, writes recently in a column for The Tablet titled “ We are Individuals, not Victims ,” that he finds the left’s notion that members of ethnic minority groups are simply “virtuous victims, cast adrift on a plank in an ocean of white supremacy over which [they] have no control” as problematic. Jilani notes that under the left’s perception of the world, “basically everything in our lives is determined by the Leviathan of structural racism, a term that is both increasingly vague and ever more expansively used to explain every feature of the social conditions of America.”

Jilani wonders what has happened to the left which, in the 1960’s, demanded that everyone be seen as an individual, not of a race, religion, creed, color, or ethnicity. It was the liberal idea that was so eloquently expressed by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1963 when he stood on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial and said he had a dream that one day, his little children, would be judged, “not by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.”

This past week, in the name of “justice,” the Lincoln Memorial was vandalized .

When we make every law enforcement officer answer for the actions of the four offices in Minneapolis, then we are judging as a group, not looking at the actions of the individuals involved. We know there are bad police officers, just like there are bad lawyers, bad teachers, bad waiters, bad accountants, bad doctors, and bad politicians. In other words, some people are rotten apples and they can be found in every sector of our society. That does not make every other member of their profession bad by association. Rotten apples only spoil the bunch if they are left with the other apples.

But the Minneapolis PD acted swiftly, firing the four officers involved and criminally charging them for George Floyd’s death. That is how justice is upheld. However, the antifa backed looters and rioters are not actually seeking justice…they are seeking vengeance.

Recently, I have seen protestors carrying signs with what the left sees as a solution to the policing problem. Their demand is simple enough: DEFUND THE POLICE.

Isaac Bryan, the director of UCLA's Black Policy Center, explained why to CNN , “Law enforcement in the South began as slave patrol, a team of vigilantes hired to recapture escaped slaves. Then, when slavery was abolished, police enforced Jim Crow laws -- even the most minor infractions.”

A whole Chairman’s Corner could be written on the absurdity of that statement, but CNN does not even question the validity. At this point, a majority of the Minneapolis City Council has agreed to "dismantle" the city's police department.

The idea that there is something wrong with every police department in America and that unarmed blacks are 2.5 to 3.5 times more likely than unarmed whites to be killed by police is how that stereotype is justified. Forbes staff writer Jack Brewster in his column, “ Conservative Commentators Suggest Protests Are Based On A ‘Lie’—Here’s Why That’s Misleading ,” provides the left’s thought process:

“As Philip Bump of the [Washington] Post points out, according to the same statistic category, twice as many unarmed white people (20) were shot and killed by police as black people (10) last year, but whites make up almost five times as much of the population (blacks were also much more likely to be arrested than whites in every year since 2012, for which data are available).”

In May 2019, the same Minneapolis Police Department that touched off the recent protests, settled with the family of Justine Damond Ruszczyk for $20 million in her death by one of their department's officers, who was convicted of her murder. Ruszczyk was white. The cop who shot her is black. In addition to the officer's conviction, the case also led to the resignation of the Chief of Police.

While there is racial stereotyping by police, the statistic that if you are black, you are much more likely to be shot and killed by a police officer is based on the manipulation of that statistic. In 2019, forty-one unarmed people were shot and killed by police nationwide, nine (21.9%) were black. But that nuance is lost on that reporting. Instead, it seems like there is an epidemic of police shooting unarmed black suspects. What that statistic does not look at either is the situation.

In 2017, I was in a store in Buckhead when a naked, unarmed black man broke into the store, using a brick to shatter the glass storefront and proceeded to assault the store’s armed security guard, who was also black, throwing everything in reach, and sometimes coming close to hitting the other employees and customers, who I was trying to move out of harm’s way and towards the exit at the back of the store. The guard used so much pepper spray that I was affected by it, but it did not slow down the assailant. Eventually the guard had to draw his gun and was begging the man not to make him use it.

Most suspects shot and killed by police are armed and the killing of unarmed suspects is extremely rare, about 1% and 63% of those killed by police were in possession of a firearm .   

What no one on the left seems to care about is more police officers died in the line of duty last year than suspects who were killed by police. According to the FBI , forty-eight police officers were killed in 2019. Of these, 40 were white, 7 were black, and 1 was Asian. This is eight less than 2018 when 56 officers were killed. Forty-nine suspects were associated with those forty-eight killings. Of those suspects, twenty-eight were white (40.8%), fifteen (30.6%) were black, and six (12.2%) were other races or the race was not reported. Using the left’s definitions and reasoning, that would also mean a law enforcement officer is 2.5 times more likely to be killed by a black suspect than a white one.

The problem with the manipulation of statics like the left is doing, is that it puts a higher distrust between blacks and law enforcement. People are less likely to act rationally if they are in fear of their lives and law enforcement is more likely to wrongly judge the situation when someone is not acting rationally because they have been constantly reinforced the fallacy that their situation is more likely than average to end in their unjust incarceration, or even their death.

Thus, it becomes a needless, self-fulfilling prophecy, which the left then jumps on to justify the fallacy and create division and demand vengeance in the name of justice.

In Kirsten Weir's article, Policing in Black & White , she highlights one study that notes the problem this can become. "Social media has turned a spotlight on cases of racial discrimination. As the list of black citizens killed by nonblack officers grows, tensions between black communities and police are running high. 'It's a nuanced problem but people continue to take a polarized view,' says Jack Glaser, PhD, a social psychologist at the University of California, Berkeley. 'It's not productive to demonize police.'"

The left’s social failure by their justification of the violence, including the defence of antifa activists who are helping to fuel it, lies in the fact that it is up to society to police itself and dispense justice under the rule of law. A mob is the ultimate expression of democracy. Whatever the majority of the mob wants, it gets, especially in dispensing its own brand of "justice."

However, as a constitutional republic, justice means due process and upholding the rule of law, not the rule of the mob. We must stand in unity on this, or be torn apart as a nation in a wave of vengeance.

The officers on trial will get what they denied George Floyd...justice. When the mob demands vengeance, it is up to society to stand on the right side of that thin line between vengeance and justice and uphold justice.

In doing so, we find, more often than not, that the thin line is, indeed, a thin blue line.

Yours in Freedom,

Jason Shepherd

Chairman, Cobb County Republican Party

It seems in less than a week that America has gone from social distancing to social unrest.

Peaceful protests over the death of George Floyd at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer have sparked the worst wave of civil unrest since the 1960's.

Monuments in Washington, including the Vietnam Memorial, the Lincoln Memorial, and the World War I and World War II Memorials, along with others, have been defaced, spray painted with "Black Lives Matter" and similar slogans, and even a few Communist hammer and sickles. Even the historic St. John's Church across the street from the White House was set ablaze .

The President, and all Americans, need to put the blame squarely on where it needs to be, not on the tens of thousands of all races, creeds, and political persuasions who have come out to peacefully demonstrate for justice for George Floyd and policies which will allow departments to remove bad cops who tarnish not just their badge, but the badges of other LEOs, but those in ANTIFA and the radical left who are inciting the violence to divide the nation.

George Floyd's death had united the nation like few tragedies have. When Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and Al Sharpton are all pretty much on the same page, you know it's an issue that has brought us together.

That is not what the left in our nation wants.

The problem is, those that incite the mobs, and those who join them in their destruction, are hurting those who had nothing to do with George Floyd's death, people who were already suffering from the loss of business that COVID-19 had caused.

Korboi Balla was a firefighter in Minneapolis who saved enough to open a bar. Balla, who is black, had to watch as protestors burned it down. " It hurts, man. It’s not fair, it’s not right. We’ve been working so hard for this place. It’s not just for me, it’s for my family.”

There were small business owners in Atlanta who experienced the same thing Mr. Balla did. As the Democratic Mayor of Atlanta, Keisha Lance Bottoms said in her press conference, "We're better than this."

But what I experienced in east Atlanta on Saturday night celebrating a friend's birthday showed it is only a few that are causing the problems. Under the specter of the 9:00 PM curfew, seated outside (no indoor dining thanks to COVID-19) and on the Beltline as people walked by, we all saw the helicopters hovering in the distance wondering what was happening.

People of all races (and I assume political backgrounds) were united in condemning the violence, and wanted to emphasize that we truly are the "city too busy to hate."

While others on the left try to justify the violence as some sort of weird, cathartic letting out of frustration and defend the ANTIFA rioters.

Biden campaign staffers were ev en donating money to bailout some of the rioters.

It shouldn't be lost on us that these incidents tend to occur in cities governed by Democratic Mayors and Democratic city councils who want to protect the strong public employee unions that finance their campaigns, which make it difficult to fire bad public employees until a crisis occurs. It shouldn't take someone dying to fire a bad cop!

Democratic Presidential candidate Amy Klobuchar has come under fire for failing to prosecute in 2006 the very officer who knelt on George Floyd's neck. While Klobuchar said the case occurred as she was leaving the office due to her election to the U.S. Senate, and her successor took the case to a Grand Jury which said the shooting was justified, there was still a laundry list of abuses by the officer going back years.

Civil Rights Attorney Leo Terrell, a Democrat who is not a fan of President Trump, was a guest on Hannity. However, even he praised President Trump on his handling of the George Floyd injustice and then issued a personal warning to the Democratic Party.

Fast forward to 28:00 to listen to Mr. Terrell’s thoughts on the matter. His admonishment to Democratic activists/leaders is about as real as it gets.

In the end, America will get through this period, like we have so many other periods of civil unrest, because America is not found in the violence of the rioters, or the government officials who abuse their authority, but America is found in moments like this and this.

As President Trump has said, "Healing not hatred, justice not chaos, are the mission at hand.” 

Yours in Freedom,

Jason Shepherd

Chairman, Cobb County Republican Party

ICYMI, while the AJC was obsessing about Sheriff Warren's Annual Corn Boilin', one of his potential challengers running in the Democratic Primary had a campaign implosion thanks to the real journalism over at the Marietta Daily Journal .

James "Jimmy" Herndon, who you may have remembered tried unsuccessfully to have all of his opponents removed from the ballot, served a number of years as a Cobb Sheriff Deputy before he was terminated from the Sheriff's Department.

The MDJ, through an open records request, obtained body cam video of one incident that led to Herndon's suspension, one of three incidents that led to his eventual termination, according to the MDJ.

The body cam video shows Herndon unleashing a profanity-laden tirade while serving an eviction warrant.

If Herndon was little more than an "also-ran", then it may not matter, but Herndon's candidacy has obtained the backing from a number of key Cobb County Democrats.

Below are the endorsements from Cobb School Board Members Dr. Jaha Howard and Charisse Davis.

Despite the new evidence of Herndon's tirade, neither school board member has felt inclined to pull their endorsement.

Caroline Holko, the Democrat running in House District 46 against John Carson felt so strongly about her endorsement of Herndon, that she posted a 16 minute long video justifying it, even in light of the new evidence against Herndon. You can watch it below.

While neither Howard or Davis seem to have felt the need to justify themselves, Howard was quick to change the subject. It's good to know if we had just put the response to the pandemic in his hands, so many lives would have been saved.

So many self-proclaimed "leaders" on the left, like Dr. Jaha Howard, would rather throw shade on those standing on the front lines, and wave the bloody shirt to make political fodder of those who are suffering, all the while blindly standing beside one of their own party's candidates and ignoring their outrageous behavior.

That's exactly the reason politics turns so many people off.

Yours in Freedom,

Jason Shepherd

Chairman, Cobb County Republican Party

After a few starts and stops and two date changes, in-person Early Voting Begins TODAY, Monday, May 18!

Of course you can still request an absentee ballot online by clicking here. 

Several Early Vote Locations will be available for in-person voting. To see the times and locations, click here. Dates and hours do vary by location and Saturday voting is May 30 . 

Due to COVID-19, locations, hours, and equipment may have been reduced to limit possible exposure to the virus and to comply with the social distancing guidelines encouraged by Governor Kemp and our medical professionals.

If you do not vote early or by absentee, you will vote at your normal polling location on Tuesday, June 9.

Yesterday, both myself and my Democratic counterpart were quoted in the Marietta Daily Journal concerning the preparations for the upcoming Primary Elections. How each of us responded says a lot about just how different each party is on our guiding principles and philosophy, especially how the parties view the people.

She articulates fear that people won’t do the right thing, while I am confident common sense will prevail. I talk of hope and optimism, believing voters will use common sense when they vote in person. She’s pessimistic and talks of fear, questioning if the voting machines will be wiped down, will people wear masks, will social distancing occur.

In the end, I trust people to do the right thing and she doesn’t seem to. That’s the difference between individual freedom and government mandates and control.

Finally, she questions why there are not drop boxes at voting locations for people to drop rather than mail their absentee ballots, stating, " It sort of defies logic to me, why they couldn’t have a drop box at an in-person early vote location so that I would not have to stand in line, that I could just walk in and drop that off."

Of course, we've had drop boxes for absentee ballots for the last couple of weeks. You can find the drop box locations here .

Just more Democrats spreading fear and misinformation.

Yours in Freedom,

Jason Shepherd

Chairman, Cobb County Republican Party