The GOP Has a Mess on Its Hands

Will Republicans give away two Senate seats in Georgia by suppressing their own vote?

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“How do we get out of this?”

That’s the question preoccupying the right these days. The specific “this” varies, but what unites all the concerns is the mess Donald Trump has made.

For Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, the “this” is the embarrassing mess in Georgia, where many gettable Republican voters believe there’s no point in returning to the polls for the Senate runoff next month.

Hence one of the great ironies of 2020: For two years, Democrats falsely claimed Republicans had stolen the governor’s race from Stacey Abrams with “voter suppression.” Now, because of the president’s tantrum, Republicans are poised to give away two Senate seats—and control of the Senate—by actually suppressing their own vote with equally false claims of fraud. Even Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, the Trump loyalist who defeated Abrams, is now said to be in on a conspiracy to hand the state to Joe Biden.

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  1. Avatar photo
    Birch Barlow

    I've lived in GA for almost 40 years. Republicans *always* win these runoffs (which are a relic but that's another story).

    If they should happen to lose the blame is ALL on Trump. What happens for the party and their relationship to him after that would be very interesting.

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    Show Jay Janney the 🚪!

    I hate the bell the cat analogy, as it is short sighted. You don't need to bell the cat, you need to poison the cat (and if you ask where mice get the poison, from the same doggone store selling small bells for cats). You get rid of the enemy by stealth, by being clever, by soaking the road with catnip just before rush hour.

    Belling the cat lets it live. A belled cat can still catch mice--a dead one, not so much.

    I may be a pacifist, but I can still be imaginative.

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    Jake

    I don’t trust a party that site idly by while these lunatics continue spreading lies and cultivating hatred, threats, and eventual violence. Gutless cowards. I will never vote Republican again (which means I’ll likely never vote again). The only way to affect change is for *principled* people to take a principled stand. Even if that means losing power. Or especially.

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    DougAz

    The GOP is riddled with addled sick people. Where on earth does Alabama Republican Representative Mo Brooks come from ? One more plus to the ledger of reasons for why the Republican Party needs to be torn down. Unfortunately, Propoganda works well (ref, Fox News, Hannity, J. Goebbels et al).

    https://thehill.com/homenews/house/528446-mo-brooks-planning-to-challenge-electoral-college-votes

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  5. Jennifer S

    Why have a pic of Mr T here on this? A pic of Mitch or an outline of Georgia would have worked...angry voters shaking their heads. Just wondering when we can finally dump the excessive Mr T everywhere, gawd make it stop. This may be one of the last pics of him with blond (yellow?) hair. At some point it will be less what do Republicans and Americans who want to keep a country do about Trump and more what do we do with all these Qanon, because those people are multiplying everywhere.

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    1. Avatar photo
      Pierre Bezukhov

      No ... it's perfect!

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  6. Avatar photo
    Pierre Bezukhov

    It's a pickle! I like the C.S. Lewis quote. First, stop going in the wrong direction. That and the act of turning around and stepping in the right direction is progress. We often make life too hard. (A scene in "What About Bob?" comes to mind.) We should reflect on why Mitt Romney, the only Republican to do so, attempted to put the bell on the cat. Trump, a public servant, committed an act that by all rights should have been grounds for his dismissal. How do you argue that? You can create a defense as if you're his attorney, and yet we know exactly what Trump's intent was ... he wanted dirt on Biden. He's attempting to blackmail the GOP as he did Zelinksy. I note a new reply just came in ... sorry about stepping on it right now.

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    rlritt

    This made me think of the Al Wilson song The Snake. He begs a woman to let him in and when she does, he bites her. She demands to know why since she was kind and let him. He says because I am snake, and you're crazy to let let me in.

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    Jesse Blankenship

    I think this is an important point and yet another reason for my complete contempt of popular culture. It is shallow, empty, vacuous and devoid of reality or substance...ergo Trump. We have become a society infatuated with bright shiny fools gold. We become like our idols.

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    1. Avatar photo
      Pierre Bezukhov

      War and Peace is on sale for $0.41. Per page, that's quite a deal!

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    Donny from Queens

    I am feeling forced to choose between people attacking our entire system without regard to long term consequences, or people with whom I have sincere disagreements about policy. However, the ones with whom I disagree on policy are not trying to dismantle our institutions. GOP needs to do much, much better. I am particularly displeased with Perdue.

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    1. Nickson

      I feel your pain. This thought helps me: Maintaining the integrity of our federal Republic is perhaps the most important policy goal of all, because everything else can be worked out eventually. But there’s likely no return from actual authoritarianism.

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  10. Frank Pepp

    I'm confused why we should be angry at Stacy Abrams here. I thought the reason we don't need the Voting Rights Act is because making a stink about voter suppression works democratically.

    It looks like that's true. Republicans tried and try to suppress the vote, but it actually generates more turnout among the groups they want to suppress. That can only remain true if people act like Stacy Abrams does. Even voter ID was largely a voter suppression solution in search of a voter fraud problem that was never shown, but always asserted. If she stays silent during voter roll purges and with the closing of polling places, the voter supression succeeds. If she cries foul, she gets enough votes to offset it, if not enough in her case to win. She probably won the state for Biden, however.

    The difference between voter fraud and voter suppression is the latter actually exists on scales that could turn many an election.

    But the Supreme Court has been largely proven correct that democracy can be the remedy. Circular logic requires circular solutions or it falls apart.

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/10/30/did-racially-motivated-voter-suppression-thwart-stacey-abrams/

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      Pat Riot

      Since there is no voter fraud problem *at all*, any politician who brings it up can immediately be assumed to be talking about something else, e.g. voter suppression. That has been the Republican MO for the last 20 years.

      I am curious about the polling numbers coming out of the election since I am starting to wonder if, after working on this for 20 years, the Republicans have managed to suppress their *own* vote because their party's demographics have flipped on them. Wouldn't that be a hoot.

      Regardless, Abrams complained that she *lost the vote* because of Republican voter suppression. She never ever ever disputed the actual election results or brought the system itself into question. The remedy she desired was to *democratically change the laws* for the next election, not have some judge throw out duly cast ballots after the election was held.

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      1. Frank Pepp

        Awesome clarity and a great question there. I'd be curious too on grading the value of the suppression being attempted, and am curious how much of the educated, high informed, high turnout voters they've lost in relation to bitter culture warriors they've won over and created. Thanks Pat.

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