AROUND TOWN: Socialism in Smyrna; Ehrhart on the Olympics

This week Gabriel Sanchez, the young socialist who defeated state Rep. Teri Anulewicz, D-Smyrna, in the Democratic primary, held a town hall at the Smyrna Community Center.

Sanchez invited several groups to join him, among them the Cobb Community Care Coalition, a group whose members include Cobb schools activist Jennifer Susko, Democrat Micheal Garza, who is challenging state Rep. John Carson, R-northeast Cobb, and Democrat Andrew Cole, who is challenging Republican Cobb school board member Brad Wheeler in November.

Other groups to speak were Cobb 4 Transit, which is advocating for Cobb Chairwoman Lisa Cupid’s $11 billion transit tax referendum in November, and Quiet the Train, a group raising awareness about the high pitched rail squeal that comes from the CSX freight trains traveling through Smyrna.

Around Town spoke with Sanchez after the town hall to learn more about him. To begin with, he doesn’t shy away from the socialist label.

“I am a Democratic socialist and I believe in the platform that the Democratic socialists are pushing forward and that’s what I fight for,” he said.

Sanchez's parents moved here from Colombia in the 1990s. Sanchez, 27, was born in Marietta and is a member of the Walton High School Class of 2015. He studied film at Georgia State. His father, who is also in real estate, recently opened Walk-On’s Sports Bistreaux franchise in west Cobb, where Sanchez is a waiter. His extended family owns Mexico Lindo Restaurant in Mableton.

Sanchez said he's returned multiple times to visit Colombia where his dad's family lives. He described having a background like his, saying, "For me, it's a lot because on the one hand when I’m here, I’m treated as a Colombian, but when I’m in Colombia, I’m treated as American, because I wasn't born there, right? And so it's a weird kind of dichotomy of identities.

Given the various strains of socialism, Around Town asked Sanchez where he stood on the issues. Does he favor the abolition of capitalism?

“Well let’s just see what happens when we let capitalism go run amok in this country. We have people living paycheck to paycheck, a majority of Americans. We have people who don’t have access to health care. Here in Georgia we have one of the worst health care systems in the country and our maternal mortality rate is the worst. And it’s three times worse for Black women than white women. Our education system is completely crumbling, because we have these right-wing movements to privatize our education system. And this is all because we have deregulated our industries and allowed capitalism to run amok. The reason I ran and am running now is because I believe everyone deserves housing, healthcare and an economy that works for all of us, and that should be a basic right for every single person. We have to make sure we contend with that, and our current economic system is not providing that. We have seen in the last 50 years since the Reagan era that we’ve been deregulating, doing more and more deregulation even through Clinton, even through Obama, and that hasn't worked. And so we need something different, and that's why I’m here to make the change for that.”

Another plank of the socialist movement, as we understand it, is to shrink what Eisenhower called the military industrial complex. Which raises the question of where Sanchez comes down on the topic of Lockheed’s Marietta plant. His predecessor, Anulewicz, was a champion of Lockheed. Will he be?

“I mean, I represent people, not corporations, right? Corporations don’t vote, people do," Sanchez said. "The workers in Lockheed, that’s what I’m concerned about more so than Lockheed itself. And so I will always listen to the people who we're talking to within the company, because I always want to have open conversations with anyone regardless of where we are on the issues, and I’m open to talking with people at Lockheed as well, but I do think that if we want to create a government that works for everyone and a Georgia that works for everyone, we need to invest in our people instead of bombing Black and brown children in other countries, and so we need to focus our priorities on investing in our people here at home.”

A principal reason residents support Lockheed here in Cobb County is the quality jobs the company provides. Such talk is bound to make people think he would put those jobs in jeopardy, no?

“Well, I think it’s on Lockheed, because I think if you’re a corporation that depends on tax breaks to make a profit then you’re probably not doing things correctly in the first place,” Sanchez said. “I think if you’re going to be creating things, you shouldn't be using socialism for the rich and then capitalism for the poor, and so I believe in workers' rights, and there’s a strong union there at Lockheed that I will support, however, we got to make sure we also balance that with what we’re doing with our budget and making sure that while workers still get paid well and still have all the union benefits they deserve, we’re not giving away so much money to a company that doesn’t need it.”

Gov. Brian Kemp instructed the state treasurer to buy $10 million in bonds from Israel to support its defense efforts against the militant Hamas regime following the October 7, 2023, terrorist attack on Israel. Does Sanchez, like his party, have an anti-Zionist stance, viewing Israel as an imperialist, apartheid state?

"Look, at the end of the day I do agree that Israel is an apartheid state, an imperial state because just like South Africa was before, just like we were with segregation, and we still have many of those legacies today, that is the same thing that’s happening in Israel against the Palestinians. It’s an apartheid state and any objective look at it is, and the ICJ (International Court of Justice) has also agreed as well, so I don’t think that is an opinion. I think that’s just simply stating a fact, and what we have to do is if we’re going to supposedly be the bearers of human rights in the world, then we have to prove it by even holding our allies accountable, and that means ending the genocide that’s happening in Gaza, having a permanent ceasefire and, you know, doing an arms embargo."

Sanchez received 2,253 votes or 56.8 percent of the vote to Anulewicz’s 1,713 in the Democratic primary. He now faces Republican Diane Jackson in November. How does he think he's different from Jackson?

"Well, honestly it is a little difficult to say, because there doesn’t seem to be a clear platform coming from her. However, what I can tell you is that based on what she supports, she supports corporations over people. She supports banning abortion and making sure that women do not have their reproductive freedom. She supports getting rid of the backbone of support from the government that helps people when they are in need. And so we need to make sure we have a government that works for us and dismantling the government is not the way to do that. The way to do that is to create a government that actually represents working people and isn’t bought off by the corporations. And so instead of having someone who represents the people at the top, we’re going to have have someone who represents working people."

OLYMPIC BACKLASH: Wednesday's Around Town column took a look at the backlash from Christian conservatives angered by what they considered to be a parade of drag queens mocking “The Last Supper,” Leonardo da Vinci's painting of the Last Supper of Jesus and the 12 Apostles. Locals like Teri Anulewicz pushed back on that outrage, saying she wasn't in the least offended.

“Maybe the real issue these pearl-clutching Christians have isn’t actually with a depiction of the DaVinci painting at all, maybe the real issue is that they actually just don’t like gay people," she said.

State Rep. Ginny Ehrhart, R-west Cobb, writes in to take issue with Anulewicz' argument.

Ehrhart writes: I once heard a family relative use the expression, 'Quit reaching around your elbow to scratch your nose.' I was a teenager at the time and likely rolled my eyes when I heard it. It’s funny how you remember those old expressions when you see their meaning on full display. Case in point, the way Rep. Anulewicz twisted herself into a pretzel this week attempting to explain why transactivists in Paris reenacting a demented Last Supper were not actually reenacting the Last Supper.

Let’s be clear about the facts – the real ones, not the back-pedaling scrubbed version that transactivists and Rep. Anulewicz are trying to sell you. The name of the drag show, prior to the controversy and published across media outlets, was ‘La Cène Sur Un Scène Sur La Seine.” If you remember your high school French you’ll know this translates to “The Last Supper on a Stage on the Seine.” French-language news outlets, including the newspaper, Le Soir, readily used this title in the weeks leading up to the Olympics.

The drag show’s artistic director himself, Thomas Jolly, publicly acknowledged the title. That is, until outrage ensued. So, let’s put the denials to rest and believe the creator’s and promoter’s original public statements - the ones they made before realizing they’d ticked off most the civilized world.

So why are so many progressives like Anulewicz deflecting and defending this religiously offensive drag show? As any good socialist will tell you, religion is not sacred. Mockery of family values, ethical standards, and deeply held spiritual convictions is the norm and often expected from our socialist friends. Don’t get me started on my contention that socialism is, in fact, a religion. Socialists simply substitute government for God. “Government knows best, government rules all, listen to your government.”

But I digress.

Not that I would support this, but I’m curious why there was no reenactment of some sacred scene featuring Mohammed in drag? I suspect we all know the reason. Most artists won’t mock Islam because there’s a small segment of followers who support jihad and would enact retribution. Christians are an easier target because they don’t slaughter unbelievers who mock them. It’s a hard reality that artists and the media know to be true but don’t like to admit. I can’t help but wonder if those drag queens would be willing to mock a less tolerant religion. I doubt it. You see, fear is a powerful silencer. When Anulewicz praises a citizen she found online for being “cool with” religious mockery, you have to wonder, would she tell a Muslim to be “cool with” mockery of their prophet? My money says no.

Speaking of mockery, I got a call from a Smyrna friend wondering why her soon-to-be-gone representative, Anulewicz, referred to her and her fellow church members as “pearl-clutching Christians.” I reminded her that it’s a derogatory phrase that self-righteous people often use to demean those with a stronger faith. It’s a very judgy thing to say but makes them feel better about their own level of devotion to their faith. Speaking as a politician, it’s also an incredibly stupid thing to say. Having been raised in the youth group at Smyrna First Baptist Church, I know that area and I know of what I speak. The second rule of politics? Don’t insult your constituents or their faith. The first rule? Know what district you live in.