In a bit more than 10 hours, the polls will open in Georgia for the highly anticipated GOP primaries. Georgia’s not as antiquated as Pennsylvania, we should have a pretty clear picture of the lay of the land by midnight eastern tomorrow night.
And if I’m some high mucky-muck in the Georgia GOP, I’m scared outta my mind right now. I’m ordering Maalox in tanker trucks. And if it turns out like I think, then the national GOP had better start coming around for some of my Maalox stash. Because Georgia was ground zero for the most spectacular failure of Trump and Trumpism since the day he announced. And history may be about to repeat itself.
A brief history lesson. In 2020 Trump lost the state of Georgia by, come on!, sing along with Murf, 11,780 votes statewide. Traitor Tot went into instant snit mode, personally calling GA Secretary of State Brad Raffensberger and literally begging him to find Trump 11,780 votes to reverse the outcome of the election. He sicced Lindsey Graham and Mark Meadows on them as well to put pressure on, and he berated Governor Brian Kemp for certifying the election.
But he turned right around and did something far worse for Georgia. He made Georgia the crown jewel of his Stop the Steal campaign. Which was bad news for Georgia, since both Georgia Senate races ended up qualifying for a special runoff in early January. And Trump is busy screaming to Georgia voters that there’s No reason to show up to vote in January since the election was stolen!Â
And he just kept it up. His goal was to overturn the results of the 2020 election, and that means that it was fraudulent and stolen from him. Besides, who gives a fuck about a couple of lousy Senate seats, Presidential Immunity from criminal prosecution is on the line here. Trump actually campaigned in Georgia for the Senate races by telling voters to stay home, since the whole thing was rigged. And it worked. Enough GOP voters stayed home to hand the Democrats the US Senate.
What did Snake Plissken say?, The more things change, the more they stay the same. In the Georgia primaries, Trump is right back to his old tricks again. He is backing opponents to Kemp and Raffensberger that are die hard Stop the Steal devotees, and when Trump campaigns, he keeps flogging the same dead horse about the elections being rigged. It appears that in one sense it won’t matter, Governor Kemp is set to cakewalk through the primary tomorrow. The problem for the Georgia GOP is that it won’t end tomorrow night. Raffensberger is leading Trump’s hand picked flunky Jody Hice 31-20%. Which means that Raffensberger and Hice are almost certain to head to a runoff in approximately 6-8 weeks. And that is the worst case scenario for the Georgia GOP.
Because with the kid gloves off, and the field clear, Trump can go all in on Hice. That will likely mean advertising paid for by Trump’s Leadership PAC, and personal appearances to campaign with Hice. And what are they going to campaign on? Stop the Steal! The two of them, especially Trump if Hice appears to lag in the polls, will scream about how voting is useless since the system is rigged! And if Raffensberger wins, you can bet your ass that Trump won’t be back exhorting his base voters to show up and vote in November.
Here’s why this is a disaster for the national GOP as well. It’s not just Hice, and it isn’t just Georgia. Trump has crazed howler monkeys on the primary ballots all over the country. And they’re all going to be campaigning on the same damn thing, Stop the Steal!. After all, that’s the golden ticket for admission to Donnie Trumpka’s Chocolate Factory. And if they win, they’ll all beg Trump to fart his way on down and campaign with them. And what will be the main course at the buffet? Stop the Steal!, and the futility of voting in a rigged election!
Look, we’re now 16 months into the Biden administration. Even Traitor Tot is not delusional enough to believe that there is any real way the election results will be overturned and return him to power. What we’re seeing is stubborn ego and pathetic self indulgence. But it’s going to potentially have real world consequences for the GOP. Because Trump’s base pays attention to Trump, and he’s not on the ballot this year. After the run off elections in Georgia in 2021, results showed that in deep red Trump district after deep red Trump district, GOP voter turnout was off anywhere from 15-25%. And that was enough for Warnock and Ossof to slide by. If I’m in the GOP, I’m terrified that Trump will pull off the same dark miracle all over again. Don’t touch that dial.
Your assumption is that the R base in GA won’t show up. They very well.may. Because Herschel.Walker is running and he is ex-NBA,and is well- known. That might be enough to carry memo and Rafters better tomvictory. They are known quantities. What’s there name is not.
He was a football player. Not a basketball player.