By Elliott Brack
Editor and Publisher, GwinnettForum
MARCH 5, 2024 | By Friday, Gwinnettians will know those who will be seeking election this year to Congress, the Legislature, county commission, Gwinnett’s School Board and for positions in the courts, as qualifying closes that day for the coming elections.
Thinking about those considering running and you can almost be overwhelmed by the vast number of people who will be on the ballot in Gwinnett seeking your vote. There are 30 legislative seats alone, but you only vote for two, one representative and one senator. Add in those seeking the other offices, and we could see close to 75-100 people seeking your vote from Gwinnett this year, in the primary and General Election.
Then there’s an almost unrelated presidential primary, slated for next Tuesday, March 12, which has nothing to do with the local elections.
After that comes the General Primary on May 21. The primary has become especially important, since those seeking judgeships and people who want to represent us on the School Board will be elected in this May voting. Other positions winning the primary will be candidates for the November 5 General Election.
Of special interest to Gwinnett will be a proposition on the primary ballot of whether the City of Mulberry, in unincorporated northeast Gwinnett, should be established as Gwinnett’s 17th city. If this passes, that area will elect its first leaders in November.
Talking with a reader last week, he told of being in another state with a group of friends sitting around the table. One, a learned gentleman, brought up the question of how you could tell if someone had narcissistic personality disorder. It disturbed that group.
From that, we looked it up, and found on the internet a description from Dr.
Zachary Rosenthal , a clinical psychologist at Duke University Health, on what you can do if you suspect that you or a loved one has the condition.
He says use the acronym “SPECIAL ME” to remember the nine signs of NPD:
- Sense of self-importance
- Preoccupation with power, beauty, or success
- Entitled
- Can only be around people who are important or special
- Interpersonally exploitative for their own gain
- Arrogant
- Lack empathy
- Must be admired
- Envious of others or believe that others are envious of them
If someone consistently displays at least five of the SPECIAL ME traits, they meet the diagnostic criteria for the condition.
We read this in the last week, from historian Heather Cox Richardson, and it surprised and stimulated us:
“How religion and authoritarianism have come together in modern America was on display Thursday, when right-wing activist Jack Posobiec opened the weekend’s conference of the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) outside Washington, D.C., with the words: “Welcome to the end of democracy. We are here to overthrow it completely. We didn’t get all the way there on January 6, but we will endeavor to get rid of it and replace it with this right here.
“He held up a cross necklace and continued: “After we burn that swamp to the ground, we will establish the new American republic on its ashes, and our first order of business will be righteous retribution for those who betrayed America.”
Wow! That’s scary!
- Have a comment? Send to: elliott@brack.net
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