It feels like decades ago, but I think it was only 3 years since I was introduced to Forsyth County Georgia Democrats by one of my neighbors, Christa. My son - Varoon, who was 14-year-old at the time, is best friends with Christa’s son Caden. Christa and Kris, Caden’s parents, became our good friends over the years, and we were talking about Trump, Democrats, and Deep Red, indefensible Forsyth County. I made my usual unfounded proclamations that there is “just no hope” for democrats to make inroads here. I am embarrassed now, but I remember using bigoted stereotypes like “rednecks,” “racists,” and even “Idiots” to characterize some of my fellow county citizens. Christa and Kris assured me while we were celebrating Diwali fireworks that most county members just needed to be informed more about how the government works, and they are willing to listen and change. I had my doubts.
I was wrong to characterize fellow citizens as bigoted, but I had some moments over the last decade living in Forsyth County. I was riled up at the moment as I had run-ins with several people whom I thought were “good, reasonable Americans,” whom I assumed were open to listening to my viewpoints. Every time I pursued such a goal, I was told that I was ignorant, and one of my neighbors all but called me a moron and asked me to “shut up” when I got into a discussion about how ACA is good for healthcare. I consider myself a genuinely soft-spoken person, and I only get into political discussions when I assume (albeit incorrectly, at times) that the other party is willing to listen. However, I was running into a lot of disinformation to counter my facts based arguments. Every time I brought up some rationale against Trump, they would counter me with total BS about Hillary or Obama that Faux News was serving up round the clock. When Christa brought up Forsyth County Democrats, I all but laughed and replied something like, “That must be a miserable group of people!” and continued in my unusually condescending ways, “I can’t imagine more than a dozen members in this redneck county.” This was three years ago, and a lot has changed since then, and I am not proud of my crass comments. I strongly believe that none of us are perfect, and we are all products of our own upbringings. Some of these traits we acquired over our lifetime, however, are not permanent. The grassroots democrats of Georgia have helped me change my own preconceived notions.
Christa eventually decided to run for Statehouse 25, and I decided to join her campaign and support her vision. Over the course of this campaign, I was introduced to the Facebook group - Connect the Dots, and this group was extremely progressive on climate change, women’s rights, social justice, and many topics that were near and dear to me. However, this group was so progressive that during the primary debate of 2019, I was in the minority in Biden's support. Most of them wanted radical change, some wanted “The First Woman President,” Some fancied “The first LGBTQ President,” some aspired “The first Hispanic President.” I am a first-generation naturalized Citizen of Indian descent myself. I even received emails requesting my support for “The first Hindu President,” to my surprise. I was a self-identified agnostic by then, and I could care less about which religion the President came from. I understood the excitement around such progressive views and wanted a shift from the outlandish right to the hard left. To make things worse, Biden did not do much service to his record during the primary debates. He constantly floundered when defending his position and did not hold his ground against Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris, and the progressive left in general. He got some support from the centrists on the stage like Delaney and others - but Pete Buttigieg stood the brightest among the centrist left stage as Biden’s backup, at least for my family.
I strongly believed that the only way for a change in America is to move the balance back to the center-left. I was convinced that Biden was the only candidate who had the experience, courage, and discipline to win. I was sure that Biden could not only move the nation out of this constant chaos, but he can also serve as the voice of reason that can help the nation heal after this gut-wrenching Trump presidency. However, this was not sufficient for a few members of my fellow democrats. They wanted more than normalcy. They wanted a radical change. I couldn’t blame them. All of us should have the right to dream big and aim for a transformational change. I decided that I was in the minority in my support for Biden, but that was OK for me. I was happy to see such an active, committed, and passionate group of Democrats in the deep, red, unrelenting south.
There were a lot of disappointed progressives when their pick did not clinch the nomination. Still, I was so impressed that most of us quickly overcame this disappointment and decided to commit themselves to Biden’s victory. We all understood that the stakes were too high. We knew that our healthcare is at risk. We all were sure that women’s rights were on the brink of collapse. We all knew that four more years of Trump would destroy the nation and the planet that we all loved so much. Trump was destroying norms, creating chaos, polluting the environment, colluding with foreign powers, and doing all of this with complete impunity. The Republicans in Congress ignored all his abuses. More importantly - people like Jim Jordan, Ted Cruz, Matt Geitz, and other repugnant excuses for human beings enabled Trump. My fellow democrats knew that our internal differences on who is how far to the left did not matter. We all knew that it was time for us to work together to help Biden win Georgia. We all committed ourselves to Battleground, Georgia.
What I saw in the last year was an incredible amount of grassroots enthusiasm from all levels. We had ordinary citizens like Natalie Buckso, Angelika Kausche, Christa Olenczak, Fani Willis, Charles Ravencraft, Ted Terry, Jason Boskey, and many others who decided to run for the local offices in Georgia. They put their jobs on the line, houses on hold, and I am sure some of them even put their lives on the line to fight for what they believed in.
The enthusiasm in high school students was beyond my wildest imagination. Varoon Kodithala and his high school best friend Damian Galvan started a polititeen and interviewed many local and statehouse candidates. We committed as a family to donate my savings to political causes this year. As an entrepreneur, I joined the Civic Alliance to help every employee vote and support their local counties as poll workers if needed. We joined EdTech for the Biden initiative as the future of our higher education is at risk under Trump. I even decided to start writing every day to educate my friends, family, and coworkers on what’s at stake this election season.
My contributions, donations, writings, and other involvement are not even a small drop when compared to the thousands of hours my fellow democrats spent on campaigning, phone banking, canvassing, postcard writing, rallying, yelling, arguing, convincing, and most importantly - voting. In fact, Stacy Abrams and her pioneering work on Fair Fight is probably why we could all vote without worry about voter suppression and voter protection.
Fair Fight brings awareness to the public on election reform, advocates for election reform at all levels, and engages in other voter education programs and communications.
I saw this passion first hand on a corner sign rally in Forsyth County, Georgia. That rally was the first indication to me that we are about to turn Georgia Blue. If someone claimed that this was even a possibility four years ago, I would have laughed at them. I would have shared anecdotal evidence, facts, stats, and vote counts to convince them that they were out of their minds. But all of this changed for me during the last year. I couldn’t see their smiles because of their masked faces during the rally, but I could see it in each of our eyes. I could see the confidence in our collective dilated pupils. I could see the tiny drops of tears as they spoke fervently against Trump and the carnage he causes to our physical, emotional, and social health, every day! I could see the resolve in how firmly and enthusiastically we waved the signs when the cars booed at us.
I am but a sub-infinitesimal drop in the tidal wave of Georgia Democrats for Biden. I am not as consequential as leaders like Raphael Warnock, John Ossoff, Stay Abrams, and the countless volunteers and unsung heroes. However, every tide needs millions of infinitesimally small water drops like me, working together, in unison with the leaders to drown out the deep, red, south! How else can we explain Forsyth County, Georgia, considered as one of the nation’s most racist enclaves getting Biden past Trump on ballot counts last night in Georgia?
If we can do this in Georgia, we can do this in Florida, North Carolina, Alabama, Texas, and who knows, maybe, one day - deepest of deep red states like South Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana.