- When you look at the state of Georgia
as the world economy changed and shifted,
I don't think our government really reacted
in the way that it should have, in terms of preparing
the citizens to be able to be equipped to be successful.
So I'm very concerned about rural America.
- [Joshua] In 2016, President Trump won the Republican
dominated state of Georgia with about 51% of the vote.
In 2020 the state is seen as competitive
in part due to a rise in black voter participation.
While only 8% of black voters cast their ballot
for President Trump in 2016,
he's re-election campaign is betting
that a small boost in several battleground states
like Georgia, could also help keep him in office.
- Blacks for Trump.
Black voices for Trump.
(crowd cheering)
- As Trump tries to increase his appeal
with African Americans, and the attention
on black voters in the Deep South increases,
we drove south from Atlanta,
about an hour and a half to Fort Valley.
Where we sat down with eight black voters
from across middle Georgia.
The group was split between Democrats and Republicans,
unlike the broader black electorate
which overwhelmingly votes Democratic.
We did this to better understand what voters
from both parties are concerned about
heading into the 2020 Election.
Raise your hand if you voted for Barack Obama in 2008.
Keep your hand up if you voted for him again in 2012.
We lost Jon.
And raise your hand if you voted for Donald Trump in 2016.
Jon, I wanna start with you.
You were for Obama in 2008,
I know you supported Donald Trump in 2016.
Can you talk a little bit about
what appealed to you about President Trump?
- When I started looking at the Democratic Party
and the Republican Party, it kinda seemed
like our government lost touch with the people.
And so I felt like many, that hey,
we needed a bull in a china shop.
And I didn't elect President Trump
or support President Trump because he had couth,
because he had etiquette.
No I wanted a gangsta
in the dag gone White House, to just wreck shop.
- I wanted to talk about political correctness
or identity politics, in the country.
- I'm very concerned about that in this society.
Because we are being catered to based on,
our so-called identity.
And we're not anymore talking about
what Martin Luther King talked about.
Character, we're not talking about that anymore.
It's skin, it's religion.
The least important thing about a person
as far as I'm concerned, is what they look like.
Or what they claim to be.
- Veronica, you were shaking your head
when she was talking about political correctness.
Do you think our PC culture as they call it,
has gone too far?
- In some ways I do.
I think that it creates a lack of opportunity
for us to really get to know each other.
I really believe civility is taking a hit.
And so how can we sit amongst ourselves,
as we're doing here, and we may disagree with policy.
Or we may disagree with what other people are saying,
but you don't have to label folks as a bad person
because you don't agree with with how they view the world.
- I'm black, so it's automatically assumed
that I am a Democrat.
It's automatically assumed that I'm gonna vote
on a lot of things.
But when I tell people that I'm a pro-black conservative,
they get cross eyed.
- Who has heard President Trump say,
"Black people should support me
"because what do they have to lose otherwise"?
Did other people-- - yeah, I've heard that.
- You've heard that.
- Yep, I've heard it.
- What did you all think of that?
- I think it's the truth.
- I actually agree with him.
- What do we have to lose?
- Yeah, what do we?
- Yeah, what do we have to lose?
- We didn't get anything before.
- I would disagree.
We can't do revision as history.
We have to make sure that we recognize
the unique journey that we,
as African Americans have traveled in the United States.
And that's been a very difficult journey.
I was born in 1969, Civil Tights Act in 1964,
Voting Rights Act in 65.
So when we say, well we don't have anything to lose,
we have a lot to lose.
- I wanted to ask about voter suppression here in Georgia.
That there's some Democrats prominently,
who are claiming that there's voter suppression
going on in the state.
And there are Republicans who push back
on that pretty forcefully.
Can we do the show of hands again,
of who thinks that there is systematic
voter suppression in the state of Georgia?
- They sent all these letters out in the black community,
to discourage them from voting and all kind of other things.
- Linda, you're shaking your head.
(laughter)
- Is she drinking the Kool-Aid?
- No, no, drinking Kool-Aid man,
you need to wise up and get in the 21st century.
I mean, you're thinking and I've seen people like that.
I know you had a bad experiences coming back from Nam.
There was discrimination, I realize all of that.
- There's still discrimination.
- I've been discriminated against--
- Discrimination didn't stop.
- But you're just thinking,
white people, they wanna keep the black man down.
You know, voter suppression--
- And you don't believe that? - No I don't.
I mean, I'm free to go and vote.
- People who say that, institutionally the government here
is racist and that is why you have voter suppression.
I think that's where the racism came from.
- Yeah, my point is that there is
no voter suppression as such.
This smaller community--
- There's no voter suppression?
- Correct.
The people don't show up to vote.
That machine that tells you
that they have not shown up to vote,
you think that machine knows the color of the person?
- I believe that we should have a holiday
for people to be able to vote.
- I was just gonna ask--
- Because a lot of people aren't voting
because they can't get off work to vote.
And then, in some rural communities,
there may be some long geographic distances
that you have to travel in order to be able to vote.
- I wanna bring Jon in, because you guys agreed on that.
Is that something that you would support
if presidential candidate tossed it out?
A national voting day?
- I would support that, because I stood on top of a Humvee
in another country for people to vote.
I do believe that in our country,
we should be able to create an atmosphere
where voting is easy for legal Americans.
Every legal American should have the right to vote.
And if that means having a holiday,
for people to make it easy.
So that way we can take away the excuses of nobody
having been able to vote. - Being able to vote, yeah.
- Then let's do it.
- You supported Donald Trump in 2016,
but you didn't get to vote for him.
- Right.
- Could you kinda talk about what happened
and what solutions you think might have helped you.
- Our voting and how we vote is very difficult.
I moved from Columbus to Milledgeville
and I wanted to vote for Donald Trump.
I wasn't suppressed, it just was too convoluted.
- That's what advocates like Veronica here would say.
Is just that those types of red tape
disproportionately affects black people.
- I didn't feel like there was some like agenda
because hey you're black and we wanna like slow your vote.
I just felt like the whole system...
What happened to me could happen to anybody.
Regardless of being black or white.
Or Asian or Hispanic.
- Do you feel like the candidates are talking enough
about voter suppression?
- No.
- For those of you who believe that it's happening.
- I don't think they're talking enough about it.
- If it doesn't affect you, you don't bring it up.
And that's where it is.
If it doesn't affect your people, you don't bring it up.
- And that gets us a little bit
to the lack of diversity in the field right now.
For the Democrats here,
we started out with a very diverse field,
and now we've seen some very prominent minorities
drop out of the Democratic races.
How disappointing is that for you?
- I'm disappointed.
But those that are in, I'm for.
- Who plans to vote for Joe Biden in the Democratic primary?
Okay, that's three.
Who else do you guys like, that are planning
to vote in the Democratic primary?
- I'm definitely considering Bernie Sanders.
(chuckling)
- I'm sorry.
- I'm concerned with how it will get done.
But we'll never know if we never try.
I'm concerned with being a college student,
who's also independent.
That I may not be able to afford health care.
But I'm trying to also get a four year degree.
Now, who's gonna see about me?
- I wanna go to Howard and just talk about,
you put your hand up kinda slow for Joe Biden.
Are you completely sold on him
or are you weighing other people?
- No, I'm a registered Democrat
and Joe Biden would be my choice.
But that doesn't mean
that's who I wanna vote for for president in the election.
- And so can you kind of walk us through,
if it's Joe Biden versus Donald Trump
in the general election.
What your decision making process would be?
- As it stands now, Trump looks attractive.
I've made it clear, I don't like Trump.
But I'm looking for what's best for the country.
When it comes to trade, for a minute there,
trade was looking pretty dim.
But now it's starting to look a little brighter
because he put demands down.
And I consider that to be one of the things
that I appreciate him for.
- You support Joe Biden?
- Yes I support Joe Biden
because I associate with electability with Joe Biden.
- Would anybody consider Elizabeth Warren?
- I will vote for any Democrat that wins a nomination.
The best person I think in my heart, is Elizabeth Warren.
But I don't think she could win.
- [Joshua] Why?
- Because America hasn't reached a stage
of voting for women.
- True.
- Is that true? - I hope I'm wrong.
- Why do you both say that?
I'm just curious.
- The older generation are the main ones still voting
and if you look back in history,
it's like they don't really think
a woman should be in charge.
- We go back into identity politics again.
I don't care whether they're a man or woman,
we're looking for someone who can do the actual job.
- Who would vote for a woman?
- I would. - Everyone.
- Now keep your hand up if you think
a woman could win the White House.
Why did you put you hand up like you would vote for a woman
but you think she couldn't win.
- Because lately we've seen that here in the history.
If you wanna use Hilary Clinton for example.
- She actually won. - Yeah, she had more votes.
- She was a former First Lady.
I voted for Hilary Clinton just because
she had a lifetime in politics.
Not just some person who jumped out of somewhere
and just said okay, I wanna run for president.
- Who do you think can bring people out?
- I think that a lot of people will think,
on the Democratic side like Mr. Dennard,
that whoever is a Democrat they're gonna go out
and support that person.
Because they are voting against Trump.
And then on the other side,
they will go out and vote against the Democrat, right?
So I'm not seeing as much allegiance to a candidate per se,
but against a candidate.
- What are some reforms to the criminal justice system
you'd like to see happen?
- I would like to see all people
who have been locked up for minor drug offenses--
- I was just thinking that.
- To make sure that that is wiped.
I think that we need to look at how we've locked up
a lot of people for something that we now don't see
as a criminal offense.
I just think that we criminalize too many things.
- Does anyone disagree with that stance?
- I disagree, because I work in a forensic facility
with people who have criminal backgrounds.
And I am not in favor of people
just having their records expunged
for so called minor offenses.
Marijuana, selling marijuana.
It's in the schools and everything.
That's not a minor offense.
Drugs are drugs.
I know there's the big push on about legalizing it,
I'm not for that.
And I see a lot of people who get out of prison,
they go right back in.
They get out, they commit crimes.
Recidivism rate is, I mean it's high.
- And there's a reason for that.
- And I just wanna add, what harm is marijuana doing?
- A lot.
- Veronica, can you kind of talk about some struggles
you wish politicians would address?
That you feel like they're not addressing right now.
- I would start with K through 12 education.
And the fact that I think that we're not funding
public education in the way that it needs to be funded.
I don't think that the autonomy is there
for local decision making,
so that these schools can be unique.
They can prepare our students for a global economy.
And I think we have a very antiquated approach
to higher education right now.
We have some wonderful public institutions in Georgia
and I would love to see them
receive more funding than they have.
If we're really serious about pulling everybody along
so that we all can be successful,
then that starts with how we prepare people
to launch into this world.
- I think that for too long, no matter which president,
no matter which party is in office,
education gets a lot of buzz.
It gets a lot of talk,
but progress is not really made in it.
- And how do you judge progress when you say that?
- I judge progress on, well for me personally,
just things that I see right around me locally.
I see education as having failed for decades now.
I agree with Veronica with saying that,
education really deserves more autonomy.
Personally, I would love to see
the Department of Education dissolved.
One of the things that I dislike about the Democratic Party
is why is there always the fight about charter schools?
Or school choice?
Since you pay taxes, why can't you have the option
of sending your child to another school?
And that is always fought.
- I think that some Democrats would argue
that the more students you pull out of failing schools,
when you do a headcount to figure out
how much money per head is gonna go to the school,
the school will get even worse.
Do any of you agree with that?
Or I assume maybe Linda you disagree with that.
- If a school is failing,
why would you wanna leave your child there?
It should fail, it should be closed.
- I come from one of those failing school systems
and I'm a product of it.
I believe I turned out all right.
I learned how to create my own opportunities.
But even now, I still believe I have to give back.
Because coming from those communities,
you know how it feels to go without.
You know how it feels when people are never call it,
pulling your card, or calling your name.
So I feel like, that's how we move forward as a nation.
We can't just care about where we are,
we have to see about everybody.
As America, we are a democratic nation.
So I feel like, if one part of the nation is failing,
then we're failing as a whole.
(gentle music)