My brother and I have often fantasized about combining western North Carolina (my birthplace and my extended family’s home since the 1820’s), eastern Tennessee, and north Georgia into a new state. What a stronghold of conservatism she would be! We had always thought that Atlanta, the largest metropolitan area in the South, would be the economic hub of our new state, and that we could be a guiding light for America. America needs us now, especially since the Battles of New England and New York have been lost. However, we are deeply concerned about our beloved Atlanta as we witness the antics of District Attorney Fani Willis and Georgia’s failure to remove her.
The Battle of New England was lost over decades, beginning with the decline of the City of Boston, the heart of New England, in the late 20th century. The terminal phase of decline began with the rise of the crime boss James “Whitey” Bulger, facilitated by FBI agent James Connolly, for whom he allegedly was an informer, and probably also by his brother, politician William Bulger, who was President of the Massachusetts Senate (1978-96). Though Whitey and Agent Connolly were ultimately imprisoned, the implosion of New England continued, illustrated most recently by the appointment to the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts by Governor Maura Healey of her ex-lover Gabrielle Wolohojian, and the hosting by Boston Mayor Michelle Wu of an “Electeds of Color Holiday Party” for the City Council where the half of the Council who were white were not invited. Harvard University, the brain of New England if Boston is its heart, is controlled by pro-Palestinian antisemites, and its President has been forced to resign as she and other officials have been exposed as plagiarists. The Puritans and their shining city on a hill are long gone.
The Battle of New York was lost more recently when unrestrained NY State Attorney General Letitia James and Manhattan County District Attorney Alvin Bragg filed politically-motivated indictments of President Trump coordinated by Washington DC. Attorney General James won a verdict in a trial without a jury that will cost President Trump hundreds of millions of dollars and his ability to conduct business in New York for 3 years. DA Bragg passed on the case brought by James, but he will re-litigate the issue of payments made to Stormy Daniels, claiming that they violated campaign finance laws. These historic prosecutions of a former President and current presidential candidate are aimed at intimidating President Trump, future conservative candidates, and all conservative individuals of means. New York is not safe for conservatives.
Enter Atlanta. Rather than declining, she has been growing and succeeding since her destruction by Union troops and General Sherman in 1864 during the first Battle of Atlanta. She recovered economically, though slowly at first, and she has become the largest metropolitan area in the South (excluding Dallas and Houston), home to corporate giants Coca Cola, Home Depot, UPS, Delta Air Lines, and many others. In 2022, according to the St. Louis Fed, her GDP was $526 billion. She has a highly educated workforce, according to the US Census, and 45% of adults in 2014 over the age of 24 had at least a 4-year college degree, compared to 28% in the remainder of the US.
Population changes tell the tale. The Atlanta metro area has grown approximately 1% per year in the last several years, surpassing the populations of Washington, DC, and Philadelphia; she is now the 6th largest metropolitan area in the US. Contrast this with population loss in Massachusetts and in New York. According to the Massachusetts Taxpayer Foundation, the Bay State lost 112,00 net population between April 2020 and July 2022, approximately 0.7%, despite the influx of 66,000 of people from “other countries” during that time period. According to the New York Times, in 2022 New York City lost more than 126,000 residents and in 2023 she lost 78,000, down 6% since 2020. By rights Atlanta should have been allowed to continue to prosper, but instead, probably because her success has raised her profile, she has become an important battleground for progressives and the Deep State in Washington.
The second Battle of Atlanta began with Major League Baseball’s attack on the City when they moved the All-Star Game in 2021. Atlanta, rather than counterattack with sanctions on MLB or worse as John Bell “Sam” Hood would have done if he were in command, Governor Kemp decided only to criticize MLB in a press conference, and he now has allowed fickle MLB to reschedule for 2025. Georgia’s honor has not been restored, and MLB has paid no price–they will be allowed onto Georgia red clay again free to mount another siege of Atlanta, threatening to move the game again if their progressive political goals aren’t satisfied.
And they may not have to look far for their casus belli–the second engagement in the second Battle of Atlanta—rogue Fulton County DA Fani Willis’ politically-motivated war against President Trump. The attack is backed by Federal forces—Fulton County Special Prosecutor Nathan Wade met in Washington, DC, with the White House Counsel at least twice prior to the indictment of President Trump, and Fulton County prosecutor Alex Bernick disclosed that there were communications between the DA’s office and the White House. Will Federal-backed forces win, hijack Georgia’s sovereignty, and put President Trump on trial in the most important criminal case in America’s history? If not, it certainly won’t be a result of a spirited defense of Atlanta by Judge Scott McAfee, whose cowardice allows Willis to remain on the case despite perjury by both her and her paramour Mr. Wade during testimony last month. Even liberal Harvard Emeritus Professor of Law Alan Dershowitz stated that Judge McAfee should find that Willis “committed perjury . . . committed obstruction of justice . . . tampered with witnesses.”
The Battle is underway, and it has reached a critical stage. Tragically the defense of Atlanta echoes that of 160 years ago—limited actions reminiscent of those by General Joseph E. Johnston, though fought less ably and with a fraction of his mettle, which allow the enemy ever closer. Judge McAffee won’t fight. Where is Governor Kemp, who won his first governor’s race with commercials featuring his shotguns and his pickup truck? Is he afraid to fight? Were there pellets in those shotgun shells or only a little powder and a lot of smoke? Will any elected official come to the defense of Atlanta? Or will she surrender again and embarrass on a national stage the conservative citizens who constitute her backbone?
The key difference between the First and Second Battles is that Atlanta today has more than enough strength to win, to send the Federal troops back to DC where they belong. But she wins only if Governor Kemp, the Georgia legislature, and the Supreme Court of Georgia will fight. If Sam Hood had enjoyed even a fraction of Georgia’s current strength, Sherman would have marched defeated back to Tennessee rather than to Savannah. Governor Kemp: please honor the defenders of Atlanta in 1864 and send Fani Willis and her Federal forces packing.
I lost an ancestor at the Battle of Peachtree Creek. Major William Arnold was killed in action…his baby brother was also wounded. Baby brother made his way home to Abbeville, Alabama where family tended to him until he was well enough to lead them back to where his brother’s body might be recovered. When the father of the two saw how well the local townspeople had interred the fallen, the old man felt he could do no more to honor his son than to leave him among his comrades.
Millions of such stories are forgotten in the daily grind. Glad you remembered.
“The Battle of New England was lost over decades, beginning with the decline of the City of Boston, the heart of New England, in the late 20th century.”
I took a hit and run report years ago, and later found the car/driver involved, who I began to interview. The driver, who was Pakistani, first told me she had never been in the area of the crime, then told me she had been there but had been told she could leave by the driver she hit, then blamed the other driver for being at fault, and then told me that she had been scared of the other motorist who hurled ethnic insults. Her kids came out and did almost the exact same thing.. completely abandoning the previous version of events (mom was with them the entire day, never left home) after being proven false, and making up another story. None of the family even momentarily reflected on the fact that they were lying.
What really collapsed the Northern states is a version of ‘Amoral Familialism’, not a matter of left or right politics. Amoral Familialism is the absolute norm across the vast majority of the human populations of the planet – it is the rule, not the exception. What matters is only what benefits you and your own immediate interest, not the greater society or any public good. There is no value to truth or fairness, if it does not benefit you. Amoral Familialism will obviously manifest within all tribal societies, but most people fail to recognize that it also dominates within Urbanized Societies – Large Cities, even without a specific tribal structure.
All of the societies/urban areas that spawned the Republican Party are today basket cases, and you could make a possible argument that in one, or even a few cases, this could be random chance, but not in all of those societies. You really only find exceptions to Amoral Familialism in the Isles and the Dutch Republic, historically. Even in Greater Europe, if you go back to the Childrens Crusade, most of these societies eagerly preyed on these duped children, they did not protect or help them –
“Some were turned back at Metz, others at Piacenza, and others even at Rome. Still others got to Marseilles, but whether they crossed to the Holy Land or what their end was is uncertain.” The author ends the account on a grim note, “One thing is sure: that of the many thousands who rose up, only very few returned.”
When the entire purpose of a place is based upon some economic scheme, it cannot last beyond the lifetime of that economic scheme – in the case of Northern Industrial population centers, it did not. It will result in everyone reverting to Amoral Familialism in rapid onset, as people only view their neighbor as either a usable tool or a menace, which causes total societal collapse, usually into what is known in modern times as a ‘Favela’ society.
As noted during Sherman’s murder of the Georgia Militia at the Battle of Griswoldville – “Many of the wounded and dead were young boys and old men from the Georgia militia, leading one Union officer to remark, “I hope we will never have to shoot at such men again.” These Georgia kids came out to defend their neighbors from a rampaging looter army, and died in the process, while in a society afflicted with Amoral Familialism, no one comes out to defend anyone, anymore, and this is not a recent phenomenon –
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/kitty-genovese-murder-the-real-story-of-the-woman-killed-in-front-of-38-witnesses-in-queens-in-1964-a7118876.html
The reason that the South recovered from the devastation of the post civil war occupation was that the society itself valued one another, minus a carpetbagger or two, and the reason that the victorious North soon collapsed into a frenzy of free-range slavery and later industrial outsourcing was that once you no longer care about your neighbors, they dont care about you either.
Yates, you hit the nail right on the head! So well written was your response, and I agree wholeheartedly. You are obviously, like myself, an educated Southerner who states the truth.