I can feel it coming in the air tonight, oh Lawd. And I’ve been waiting for this moment for all of my life, oh Lawd Phil Collins In the air tonight
Oh Lord. Where to start with this. The GOP, to my mind, stopped being a functional national party in the second term of the George W Bush presidency. That was the last time that they had a coherent governing philosophy, with anything even remotely approaching a valid idea for conservative governance. And now it’s coming back to bite them on the ass.
Because starting with the Moscow Mitch McConnell edict of 2009, the GOP went from a functional party with at least passable governing philosophies, to a party based solely on obstruction, once they lose an election, especially as badly as they lost the 2020 election, they are not in a good place. Because when you lack any governing principle, ideas, or platform, when you start to lose, there isn’t any way to use ideas and ideology to turn people over to your side. The only thing you can do is to stop brown and black people from voting.
And following the debacle of 2020, that was the legislative strategy for Republicans in GOP dominated states.
As we speak, there are more than 250 separate voting rights bills in 40 GOP dominated or controlled states that are on the books to make life easier for the GOP in 2022. But there’s a problem. It isn’t going well fore the GOP.
The shining jewel of these efforts was supposed to be Georgia, where despite Biden winning the state, and two Democrats winning special elections to tip the Senate, the GOP still holds sway. And they came up with some real beauties to stem the tide. After more than a decade of no excuse absentee balloting, as well as restricting Sunday voting to one day a cycle, basically dismantling the Democrats Souls to the Polls advantage with African American churches.
But there’s a small problem with this plan. While the GOP spent their post Trump loss time licking their wounds, and plotting exclusion, following the 2016 debacle, the Democrats motivated and activated. Stacey Abrams and her minions of democracy went out and registered more than 700,000 new voters, who will be exempt from a purge, since they have voted in the latest election. And then, this year, Abrams went for the GOP’s soft spot. Corporate America.
In response to the Georgia legislatures newest assault on voting rights, Abrams, along with Black Voters Matter, went after the GOP’s major supporters. Delta Airlines, Home Depot, Coca-Cola, UPS, and several other major corporations based in Atlanta started hearing from the Democratic activists, reminding these companies of their corporate responsibility in their home states. And they went after the Atlanta Chamber of Commerce, which released a statement professing that they endorse more inclusive policies for enabling voters to cast a ballot, while maintaining voter integrity.
And it worked. Today, the Georgia legislature announced that it was dropping their bills to drop Sunday voting, as well as dropping their bill to bar no excuse absentee mail in balloting. Next in line will be the insane restriction on giving people in lines water and food.
Once again, Georgia activism is leading the way. The GOP has long been a party that depends on large corporate donations in order to survive. If Democratic activist groups start hitting major corporations in any state with threats of public humiliation, much less a good, old fashioned boycott over their stances on voters rights in their home states, that is going to force a response. And they are going to put pressure on GOP legislatures to turn it down a notch, or three.
The GOP is in deep trouble. They are a stagnant party, already a minority party in the country, and their only way out is to restrict voting to make their minority a majority. But the Democrats have adapted and improved, and are now ready to fight the GOP in the arena they least want to fight in, corporate donations. The passage of HR1, the We The People Act would bury many of these GOP state laws. We shall see.
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This is why I want Stacey Abrams as the Chair of the DNC. I’m sure Jaime Harrison is a good person but we’ve heard stuff-all from him since he took over more than a month ago. He would’ve been the best candidate to put up against Tim Scott in next year’s SC senate race because there’s no other African American in that state with as high a profile as his, nor one with as towering a reputation.
If we had Stacey Abrams in the DNC chair, not only would major corporations in Georgia be pressuring a state government to back down, it would be happening in every state that’s cranking up voter suppression laws because Abrams would have had the reach to do it.
It’s quite possible that Abrams is exactly where she wants to be. The battle in Georgia is far from settled and too many of the GQP are still in charge of that state. Let us learn from the mistakes of the past decade and remember that change starts from the bottom up. Flip Georgia the way Dems did Virginia and life will become infinitely easier. Hard to believe such things are not on Abrams’ mind right now.
If Stacey Abrams wanted the job, she would have had it. It’s almost certain she’s focused on Georgia and getting her ducks in a row for her run for governor in 2022, something she would’ve had to neglect to be DNC chair. BTW I heard from Jaime Harrison CONSTANTLY,
Excellent idea, Michelle. Sometimes I wonder who makes some of these decisions in the DNC!
Actually, the Georgia GOP might have had another motive in dropping their plans, especially with regard to the “no excuse” absentee ballot issue: It was the freaking GOP itself which introduced that change more than a decade ago and they were being hoisted on numerous petards over the sheer, blatant hypocrisy of the effort to undo it.
Since the GOP decided to allow “no excuses” to let people vote absentee back then, they probably never foresaw the notion that people who weren’t old, sick white people (a key GOP demographic) might decide to take advantage of absentee ballots at some point in the future. And, legally, the current GOP could NEVER have gotten away with it since dropping the idea would harm the very group that had been the original focus. And the GOP would’ve been forced–in courts–to explain why one group should be given an unfair advantage in voting when other groups who might need absentee ballots would be punished (this would be a big problem for the Party which has been raging over the very idea of “special rights” for some people).
The law of unintended consequences…not even the Supreme Court could get that one repealed!
Best news yet. Kudos to Stacey Abrams!
In my mind, I hear Keith Richards singing “Slipping Away” when I think of what’s left of the Republicans. They dicked around too long, failed to plan ahead and got too set in their ways to change. Now the most obnoxious of the Cold War kids are facing a world that will go on without them.
I kinda like “Hit the Road Jack” asses