Rich McCormick’s (other) Family Values
Rich McCormick’s (Other) Family Values
I too, have been through the difficulty of divorce, and under normal circumstances I would reserve my comments to wish all the best for Dr. McCormick and his family during what will be the hard moments to come in this process. Unfortunately, these are not normal circumstances. As my opponent in the 2022 Congressional race, Representative McCormick ran a platform centered around his belief in family values.
Rich McCormick’s Family Values Then
The theme was so central to his campaign that he actively organized a rally against members of the LBGTQ+ community, with his wife prominently at his side, to show support for what he claims are traditional family values. It was an event complete with ice cream, guest speakers, and an emphasis on the importance of following the rules of society. Dr. McCormick was able to stake his claim as a man of morality and decency, while staving off the imagined evils of those who would tear down the American institution of the nuclear family bonded in their love, faith, and tradition.
Based on the explanations coming from various sources, including Representative McCormick’s own campaign, it seems that Dr. and Dr. McCormick have “been separated for some time,” although not yet officially divorced; Rich McCormick filed for divorce on May 3. This revelation casts into doubt any previous support for a family values platform.
If the couple was separated then Dr. McCormick at the time of his campaign’s family values rally, he was presenting a false depiction of his personal life. If the separation occurred after his election to Washington D.C., then the Representative succumbed to the privileges and powers of his new office, rapidly descending into the immoral political swamp of the Capitol that he purports to fight against on our behalf.
Rich McCormick’s Values Now
In addition to clearly demonstrating his moral flexibility, in this moment Dr. McCormick serves yet another reminder that our Representative has a long history of reinterpreting the rules in his favor. From allegedly laying hands on a fellow Congressperson to doing pull-ups over the floor of the Capitol rotunda, Rich McCormick has clearly shown he does not feel the need to follow the same rules as the rest of us — and now he is showing us that he does not even feel the need to live by his own rules.
The problem lies in the fact that Mr. McCormick is continuing to run for Congress on the concept of his personal morality. He claims the Bible as his favorite book. His speeches and endorsements are filled with language about rebuilding the church. His proposed legislation and policies are centered around enforcing his idea of family as the only acceptable way to live. Representative McCormick has endorsed policies to strip women of their medical and personal rights, to deny LBGTQ+ citizens equal protection under the law, and to remove books from public schools and libraries if they don’t fit with his worldview.
This overwhelming sense of moral hypocrisy has come to consume many in the current Republican Party including Representative McCormick. With absolutely no sense of chutzpah or self-awareness the GOP continues to ride their high horse of “we’re better than you”, and as our elected leaders they clearly believe that we should do as we are told and not as we are shown by their example.
Time For Representation for All
Thankfully, this has all occurred during an election year, when we the people can make a different choice and send new leadership to Washington. Leadership that listens to all our voices, recognizes that every family has value, and that all our citizens are worthy of representation — not just those that share the same religious or personal beliefs as the people who represent them in elected offices.
I ran against Rich McCormick in 2022 and I am running against him again in 2024 because I believe that our region of north Georgia is the best example of everything that makes us, as a people and a nation, among the greatest on Earth.
The newly drawn 7th District includes all of Forsyth, Dawson, and Lumpkin counties. There are also portions of Cherokee, Fulton, and Hall counties thrown into the mix. As a district, it is tied together by the 400-highway corridor — the fastest growing region in the state. The district is rapidly becoming one of the most ethnically diverse regions of Georgia, with fast growing communities of Indian Americans, Asian Americans, and Hispanic Americans, as well as one of the most religiously diverse regions as well with an increase in Hindi, Muslim, and Jewish congregations throughout the area.
Hear my ideas for representation of Georgia’s 7th District
Representation for What Matters
CD 7 is a district that is in desperate need of a Representative that is capable of recognizing that his or her job is not to force feed us his view of the world (especially when that view is one that he no longer abides by himself), but to take our voices and our ideas to the highest halls of power in the hopes of solving or, at least, easing, some of our day-to-day concerns such as:
- The atrocious nature of the jails and prisons in Fulton County
- The almost crippling lack of mail service in North Georgia
- The backlog of cases preventing adequate veteran care throughout the district
- The lack of infrastructure support that is clogging our overwhelmed highway system
- Unreliable future services such as wi-fi and broadband
And a host of other problems that impact those of us that live here in North Georgia, outside of the affluent and close-to-everything John’s Creek.
We need a Representative that believes in the struggles of family, regardless of what that family looks like. One who will advocate for every member of the family, whether it is the young woman faced with a heart-wrenching life choice, or a young person wrestling with their sense of place in a large, confusing world. Our representative should be a person who not only understands these concerns, but actively seeks to provide support and solutions.
For all of us.
