As we prepare to enter the election season, we are reminded that the local mayoral race is non-partisan. This means that the ballot will not identify the party affiliation of the candidates. This does not mean that the candidates will not receive support from a party and one may assume that candidates support party platforms.
One mayoral candidate, Nick Ferrante is a member of an odd sounding forum, Democratic Underground. Democratic Underground <https://www.democraticunderground.com> is an online community for members of the United States Democratic Party.
Its membership is restricted by policy to those who are supportive of the Democratic Party and Democratic candidates for political office.
By terms of service, members are not to talk negatively about any Democratic candidate or Democratic policy. All discussions are to remain civil … unless you are bashing Republicans. In short, this is a site for Democrat activism.
Given the current policies of the Democratic Party, members of this forum are not allowed to oppose Critical Race Theory indoctrination in school or government.
Members may not oppose trans females (males) competing with girls or sharing locker rooms or “affirmative therapy” for gender confused children including puberty blockers and even gender reassignment surgery with or without parental consent. No speaking against on-demand abortions throughout the third trimester.
Members may not oppose “re-imagining” policing or banning bail. Members must support ending policies of the Trump administration resulting in the explosion of illegal immigration at our southern border and our once again caring what OPEC has to say.
Members may not oppose the Democrats’ renewed push to disempower local government control of zoning that ultimately will require increased high density and low income housing or eschew all Federal funds — in the guise of saving the planet.
And of course, members must support federalization of election laws and may not oppose the Federal lawsuit filed against the Georgia Voter Integrity law.
Does Nick support all of these policies? If you vote Democrat, you are supporting these policies whether you personally do or not.
Nick’s own Democratic Underground page says, “He will work to revitalize our village centers by emphasizing the importance and allowance for businesses to thrive together rather than singularly. More than anything, Nick believes that we do this together or not at all.”
Maybe I’m overly critical but doing anything “together or not at all” and allowance for businesses “thriving together rather than singularly” sounds authoritarian and communal i.e., Communist. I’m not claiming that this man is a Communist, just that the quacking sounds like a duck.
By now we know that the Democratic Party is loaded with authoritarians who specialize in gas lighting and language manipulation to gain political power. They love to talk of togetherness as long as that means agreeing with their stance.
A manipulation example: to ingratiate himself to PTC conservatives, the candidate and his supporters commission happy sounding yard signs and t-shirts highlighting our “magic bubble” and the Peachtree City “dream.”
No mention that these are in fact political ads, kind of an underground thing. Nick may be a nice guy and a good family man, I don’t know him. But, he is clearly a dyed in the wool Democrat and that matters.
Nick also has a mayoral candidate website. The candidate makes it clear that we should join in with the Atlanta regional authority — a move staunchly opposed by many of us — in other words, surrender our local governance to our failing giant neighbor to the north in the name of “togetherness.”
One goal is making village centers (?) into arts and entertainment venues by allowing walk-about drinking and longer hours plus “mood lighting,” whatever that means. Ideas like this are pitched by Nick as ways to raise revenue and (somehow) to conserve the magic of PTC.
Our city was designed primarily for recreation, not as a party destination. The closest PTC has to a center is the City Hall complex and Drake Field, which underwent significant upgrading with the Fleisch administration.
The desirability (magic) of the city has always been the forested nature, lakes, cart paths, parks, schools, low crime, and the distance from Atlanta. That all remains and only needs protecting, not transformation.
This just in! While constructing the new six-story, 100 unit apartment high-rise on the site where K-Mart once stood, a crane operator accidentally popped the PTC bubble. Witnesses said that you could see the magic shooting out of the hole like glittering confetti.
Alan Felts
Peachtree City, Ga.
Nick,
Would love to see more tangibles on your web site including:
Personal experience and qualifications
Solid platform talking points(not just adding fees to golf carts and lots of community art)
Best of luck in your endeavor
Well said Alan!
To ptcitizen, I agree bad decisions and leadership has existed. I would contend that is the result of bad people, a rather ubiquitous p problem, and nothing to do with Republican principles. I remember many more of my fellow republicans protesting those decisions that I ever saw democrats, but that is anecdotal.
We need to come together and save our city from developing for the greedy who want density not quality. We need job producing clean industry not retail and certainly no more residential! We need to watch the flow of money from Pace /Lynch trying to convert industrial into residential and mixed use, and some of that in the path of our jewel asset – the airport, Falcon Field.
We need to fire a school board the put a school we didn’t need in a place it wouldn’t work to benefit people who don’t care about us.
A Democrat or Republican could do a good job but a Democrat that holds true to the Democrat platform and ideals could not and a a weak Republican or a corrupt Republican or Democrat will not.
We should chat. 🙂
Well said Mr. Felts. Free competition is what makes this country great, not some crazy commie psychobabble.
BTW, who is “PTCitizen” and why hide behind a pseudonym?
Probably either Nick, or one of his radical “friends”.
Very well then. I’m voting Democrat this year. Do you know what Republicans have done for us this past decade? Let me help you:
– Every time a citizen complains about the traffic along 54/74, then same bunch of Republicans shrug their shoulders and say “oh, the STATE has control over that, we have nothing to do with that.” Well now that the State has come down and decided to do the bare minimum to address yesterday’s traffic concerns, you’ve got sitting council members patting themselves on the back for having solved the problem. I have been waiting for 10 years for someone to come forward and say “Let’s lobby the State, work through our State Representatives and Senators, and let’s collaborate on solving this problem.” If the first candidate to actually say those words happens to be a Democrat? I’ll take it.
– When citizens started criticizing government (exercising the sacrosanct constitutionally protected right to free speech), the Republicans put a motion forth to use taxpayer funds to allow the City to sue private citizens for slander. That the mere idea of doing so actually made it onto an agenda is an egregious violation of the small government conservative principles that Republicans claim they stand for. Ironically, it was Nick Ferrante who at that meeting read from the Declaration of Independence, and reminded everyone that the core function of elected officials was to provide We the People with representation before government. As I recall, that drew applause from both Democrats and Republicans in the room.
– It was Republicans who thought it would be a good idea to demolish a founding neighborhood in the heart of Peachtree City so that Great Wolf Lodge could build a tourist trap water park that nobody wanted and which would bring in very little tax revenue, but a whole lot of traffic and crime. (Kim Learnard gets a pass on this one – the FOIA’d emails published here in the Citizen proved she vocally opposed this spectacle very early on, and she sacrificed some political capital to make GWL go away.)
– It was Republicans who were advocating to demolish two historic Peachtree City Churches in order to plant a glorified strip mall in some perverse vision of a “city center”. Nick’s articulated vision of public-private partnerships will bring us back to Joel Cowan’s original vision of village-centered retail and entertainment centers. In fact, Nick’s vision is at its core a Conservative one that seeks to return this town to the people-centered planned community concepts it started with.
We need to do better for this town than the same bunch of toxic backbiting self-interested politicians we’ve had for far too long. And we need to move beyond this identitarian allegiance to corporate party branding whereby we fool ourselves into believing that voting for one party over another is really accomplishing anything. We need to focus instead on those within our community who are willing to step up and work towards the things we all believe in together – our faith, our families, our community, and serving those ends together. So forgive me, but I’d rather vote for a Democrat who actually believes in these things then a Republican who proves by their actions that they don’t.
PTCitizen, councilman Madden is a devout democrat. Learnard is a Democrat. The others have never claimed to be Republican. RINO at best. I am a conservative Independent who opposes this Council. The Dems here campaigned for Biden. Check donhaddix dot com and review my record.
This might be hard for you to hear, but… you’re not a conservative. You’re a curmudgeon and a cynic. And you’re not an independent. You’re just politically homeless.
Your ideas are the same failed ideas which have driven the livability of this town further downward. People want a return to the neighborhood retail centers filled with locally owned and staffed businesses that keep the jobs and money in this community. Think Gilroys over Home Depot. People want a return to local parks with amenities like playgrounds, pools, and gathering spots that politicians like you have worked so hard to kill off. You cite paid-for polling numbers and claim otherwise, but you only demonstrate that you have no real connectivity to the heart and soul of this community. That is why you cannot articulate any ideas that would promote a sense of community and belonging here. Peachtree City is special and unique precisely because we’re not the same concrete suburban purgatories that have paved over Atlanta’s northern suburbs.
On top of everything else, nearly every post you have ever made on this site has been to undermine and attack your political opponents. These are not honest disagreements, but just petty political sniping with no solution for residents on the other side of the conversation. People are tired of career politicians who tear others down only to make themselves seem larger. They want community leaders who bring forth ideas that promote the kind of connectedness that we have lost. That’s the real conservatism people are looking for.
Frankly, if Republicans wonder why Georgia is turning to a deeper purple every year, maybe they should turn off talk radio and go talk to their neighbor. Ferrante is articulating a vision, and having a conversation with neighbors. So called conservatives are just yelling at people to get off their lawn.
Also I have physical evidence, his own Twitter feed, he has accepted enforcement of the “downturn Democrats, and openly accepted donations from the Democratic party
You’re excited about your discovery, still?
I am a conservative Independent. Learnard has supported Democrats. Imker a power hungry tax and spend Rino and Ernst a fence sitter. One declared for council a democrat and another more conservative.
Do your homework.
“A manipulation example: to ingratiate himself to PTC conservatives, the candidate and his supporters commission happy sounding yard signs and t-shirts highlighting our “magic bubble” and the Peachtree City “
Mr. Felts,
This also reads so desperate and downright dorky. Your misguided attempt to attribute maliciousness to those slogans and signs only serves to further divorce anyone who agrees with their message.
Guess what?
That’s the majority of this city.
So sling all the mud you want.
Cry wolf all you’d like.
Steal my signs and continue to call code enforcement.
Pretend that political parties matter when it comes getting local government done right.
I don’t care.
Because it all means the same thing.
You know I’m winning.
#ThisBubbleIsMagic
#ThisLetterIsNot
I’m still trying to figure out the logic in how a simple catch phrase is all it would take for so-called “PTC Conservatives” to vote for a guy who might *gasp* be aligned with the Democrat party (which about 40% of our neighbors are). That’s just superstitious thinking at best.
Frankly, we’re going to have to work together as neighbors to solve a lot of problems. And if someone’s biggest hang-up in overcoming adversity is that someone might not belong to their same tribe, then that person likely isn’t going to be part of the solution to any problem.