That ship of the Republican Party has SAILED. Are you kidding? I do not understand why people still try to resurrect it. It is not happening for the foreseeable future. If Larry Hogan is the nominee in 2024, I owe you a lot of money.
Kim, that's precisely why people think he's moderate, because he didn't cave to trump on the 2020 election. And that's it. You're right. As a Georgia citizen, I know: Kemp is NO moderate.
He didnтАЩt agree to overrule the results of the Georgia elections but he didnтАЩt condemn Trump either. In fact, he publicly agreed to support Trump if he was the nominee. WeтАЩve come to believe that not agreeing to do something egregiously illegal or immoral because Trump asked you to is a sign of courage. Maybe because so many of his minions failed in that respect (eg Cohen, Manafort, Flynn, Guliani, Eastman, etc )тАжbut objectively, itтАЩs a fairly low bar.
Also, Kemp doesn't seem to be overtly racist like say DeSantis (or Trump). However, he has to do that: GA is 38 percent AA and if they get pissed and turnout to vote, then the GOP will lose.
Kemp had done what pretty much every successful GOP elected official has done since the late 1990's: run for the White North Georgia redneck vote in the primary, and then move center in the general, and then govern at the behest of the Atlanta Metro Corporate elite. They have no choice. The Atlanta Metro is too large and too economically important to mess with. If you step too far out of line you will end up like David Purdue, Herschel Walker and Kelly Loeffler (aka "Buckhead Barbie"). Those guys all lost because they lost the Atlanta Metro by so much that even overwhelming support from rural North Georgia was not enough to overcome it.
I donтАЩt think actively suppressing the vote is moving to the center.
And the idea is that if most people in the state vote for somebody, that person wins. The GOP doesnтАЩt have job security, no matter what they think ought to happen to keep the AAs in line.
I said he moved to the center as a symbol. He is no centrist by any means, but he does attempt to play one on TV, and sometimes that is all you need to do.
Also, I have to disagree with you on the voter suppression stuff. The reason Dems don't get more Black votes is because Black voters are increasingly becoming irritated with them. The fact is, the Black vote was down throughout the country, not just in GA and not just in the South. If it were merely due to laws passed by Republicans, then explain Detroit, Milwaukee, Philly, Richmond (in 2021), NYC, etc?
Clearly, there is something going on here. The Dems would be wise to figure it out.
You only have to listen to interviews with Raffensberger and Sterling to understand that voter suppression was the point. Or compare the number of polling places in Atlanta to those in Buckhead, for example.
Voting was pretty high in the last election. I live in Atlanta and am also Black and can tell you that I had no problem voting early. People who voted on election day had even fewer issues. This is an overblown issue and is used to cover up some serious problems with a key component of the Democratic base.
I mean, CA has all mail voting and turnout among Black and Latino voters was down. Where is the voter suppression? Dems are just using this as an excuse to avoid dealing with the real issues that are causing this malaise.
The way it works is this: first, these voters stop voting for you, then after a few elections, they start voting for the other guys.
Dems better get their heads out of their rears and figure out what is going on.
Ok. YouтАЩre black and in Atlanta. What are the тАЬreal issues?тАЭ
IтАЩm in OH, where suppression is real and verifiable. IтАЩve worked the polls my entire adult life and the ID rules have tightened to the extent that anyone on a small, fixed income, who does not drive, would be hard-pressed to obtain the accepted form. The goal is to increase provisional voting. As IтАЩm a paper ballot judge I can tell you that provisional ballots slow down the flow of a polling place and are more likely to be rejected.
We are also limited to one ballot box per county. Franklin County, where Columbus is located, is huge. This was a new law in 2020, when Trump was running for re-election. A coincidence? I donтАЩt think so. Ohio is the most gerrymandered state in the country (we voted this year with maps declared unconstitutional *five times* by our state Supreme Court) and we have a GOP supermajority in our General Assembly. Both houses.
IтАЩm glad you and your friends had no difficulty voting but anecdotes arenтАЩt evidence.
Umm, actually this is not an anecdote, since I am directly affected by the very laws you seem to insinuate are causing all the problems. I am giving you a first hand, on the ground assessment based on my own experience. Its also backed up by data. I too have worked polls (as has my wife), and have seen it first hand. Now, if you want to say that people don't want to come out to vote because they don't want to deal with any hassles caused by the new laws, then fine. But my question would be, what is the hassle of showing an ID to vote? In GA, state IDs are free, and unlike most states (looking at you VA), our DMVs are very efficient and can get you in and out in like 15 minutes. If the only way people will vote is if they are able to do it from their house, then we will have problems (although I am sure some people would just find some other excuse for not voting).
Also, I am sorry that you live in OH and have to deal with this. I agree that based on what you have described, you have a problem. I also agree that the GOP in OH has been radicalized. I am not sure what to tell you. If I were you, I would move, but that is just me.
The drop box issue only becomes an issue in situations with mail in ballots. Not sure of the rules in OH, but in GA, mail in ballots had historically not been a big part of the voting process and only became so during the 2020 elections, due to COVID. However, the GOP state leg did not get rid of mail in voting, but did restrict it. While I would have mail in voting if I had the power to wave a magic wand and make it so, the state assembly decided otherwise. Note CT, NY, DE, PA, MA, MI, and VA do not have mail in voting at all, while GA, UT, AK, and WI all allow no-excuse vote by mail. So not sure its a Dem v GOP issue.
Also, I think you should be asking yourself what is going on in OH? I mean, Obama and Clinton won the state twice, and it had an evenly divided state SC just last year. Yet in the last election, the GOP won every statewide race, even after all the political BS the GOP pulled. Why? I don't believe its voter suppression. It's just that your friends and neighbors have become meth-addicted a-holes who blame all of their problems on others. The states politics have been radicalized because the states voters have been radicalized. Tim Ryan was on Bill Maher this past weekend and said straight up that the Dem brand is toxic in too many places in the state. Why? Again, I have my thoughts on this; racial resentment, social instability, anger over these two, changing demos, and lack of government action to solve problems, are to me the main ones, but you live there and may have a better view of what is going on.
Finally, I don't know what the reasons are for why Black and Latino turnout has dropped since 2018. I am also not paid to figure that out. I already have a day job. Those who we give money to are the ones who are supposed to figure it out. What I do know is that sending Obama out a week before the election is not enough. Obama is extremely popular among most Dems, but there is some lingering resentment toward him among a certain segment of Black voters, especially Black men. I think that is part of the problem.
His decision to reopen was widely supported, across racial, ethnic and even party lines. Most people understood that we could not stay locked up in our houses for 6 months. Just was not feasible.
The reopening had strict requirements and was not forced; many stores still chose not to reopen and those that did had stringent mask requirements. Again, I live here and experienced it firsthand; going out in Atlanta during that time was like living in Beijing or some other Asian Metropolis: everyone was wearing masks.
The other thing he did well was distributing the vaccine. He set up gigantic vaccine distribution centers where people could go and get their shots, no charge. Same for testing as well.
While I am no fan of his and did not vote for him, I think he was reelected precisely because of his response to the pandemic. He also is not an a-hole like DeSantis, which at the very least makes him less unlikable. Its just that GA is more Democratic than FL, mainly due to Black voters. So the GOP will never win in GA by the margins they do in FL.
Not being from the area I can't speak to the local support, but I will point out that he executive-ordered a prohibition against local mask mandates.
Also one point on the vaccine distribution- it was free of charge all over the country, though if he had a good distribution network then that is a credit to him.
Looks like statistically this is backfiring on them. African Americans lag behind whites in vaccine use by a few points, but when you put a political lens on it, they'd be well ahead of white Republicans.
And vaccine use or non-use is a very likely cause of the higher excess mortality rates being seen in Republicans.
Completely agree! Plus he also supported the 6 week anti-abortion тАЬheartbeat billтАЭ so with Kemp as president we might get suppression of voting (read: black) rights and a bonus suppression of womenтАЩs rights in one package!
Jim Geraghty had a column in the WaPo yesterday on how Sununu should not run for president and continue to govern NH and everyone should just coalesce around New Savior Ron. IтАЩm thinking the backup plan is to just jump back on the Trump Train when DeSantis turns into Fred Thompson.
Yeah, hard pass on Nikki Haley as the nominee.
I would definitely support Asa Hutchinson and probably Brian Kemp. And of course, I'd support Larry Hogan.
Hogan said he'll support trump, if he gets the R nomination. So I'm not sure how he's any better.
Shoot. Another one bites the dust.
I respect Hutchinson and Hogan. Not many Republicans I do anymore.
I do not support any of those people, except in the VERY narrow context of GoP PoS against other GoP PoS.
Registered Republican since 1980 which, I guess, these days makes me a RINO
That ship of the Republican Party has SAILED. Are you kidding? I do not understand why people still try to resurrect it. It is not happening for the foreseeable future. If Larry Hogan is the nominee in 2024, I owe you a lot of money.
Brian Kemp has the same autocratic tendencies as DeSantis. His policies are identical. He devoted himself to suppressing the vote in GA.
I have no idea why people think heтАЩs a moderate, except perhaps because he didnтАЩt fold to Trump.
Kim, that's precisely why people think he's moderate, because he didn't cave to trump on the 2020 election. And that's it. You're right. As a Georgia citizen, I know: Kemp is NO moderate.
He didnтАЩt agree to overrule the results of the Georgia elections but he didnтАЩt condemn Trump either. In fact, he publicly agreed to support Trump if he was the nominee. WeтАЩve come to believe that not agreeing to do something egregiously illegal or immoral because Trump asked you to is a sign of courage. Maybe because so many of his minions failed in that respect (eg Cohen, Manafort, Flynn, Guliani, Eastman, etc )тАжbut objectively, itтАЩs a fairly low bar.
Yep, and he, Raffensberger, and Sterling all voted for Trump.
Pretty much it.
Also, Kemp doesn't seem to be overtly racist like say DeSantis (or Trump). However, he has to do that: GA is 38 percent AA and if they get pissed and turnout to vote, then the GOP will lose.
Kemp had done what pretty much every successful GOP elected official has done since the late 1990's: run for the White North Georgia redneck vote in the primary, and then move center in the general, and then govern at the behest of the Atlanta Metro Corporate elite. They have no choice. The Atlanta Metro is too large and too economically important to mess with. If you step too far out of line you will end up like David Purdue, Herschel Walker and Kelly Loeffler (aka "Buckhead Barbie"). Those guys all lost because they lost the Atlanta Metro by so much that even overwhelming support from rural North Georgia was not enough to overcome it.
I donтАЩt think actively suppressing the vote is moving to the center.
And the idea is that if most people in the state vote for somebody, that person wins. The GOP doesnтАЩt have job security, no matter what they think ought to happen to keep the AAs in line.
I said he moved to the center as a symbol. He is no centrist by any means, but he does attempt to play one on TV, and sometimes that is all you need to do.
Also, I have to disagree with you on the voter suppression stuff. The reason Dems don't get more Black votes is because Black voters are increasingly becoming irritated with them. The fact is, the Black vote was down throughout the country, not just in GA and not just in the South. If it were merely due to laws passed by Republicans, then explain Detroit, Milwaukee, Philly, Richmond (in 2021), NYC, etc?
Clearly, there is something going on here. The Dems would be wise to figure it out.
You only have to listen to interviews with Raffensberger and Sterling to understand that voter suppression was the point. Or compare the number of polling places in Atlanta to those in Buckhead, for example.
Voting was pretty high in the last election. I live in Atlanta and am also Black and can tell you that I had no problem voting early. People who voted on election day had even fewer issues. This is an overblown issue and is used to cover up some serious problems with a key component of the Democratic base.
I mean, CA has all mail voting and turnout among Black and Latino voters was down. Where is the voter suppression? Dems are just using this as an excuse to avoid dealing with the real issues that are causing this malaise.
The way it works is this: first, these voters stop voting for you, then after a few elections, they start voting for the other guys.
Dems better get their heads out of their rears and figure out what is going on.
Ok. YouтАЩre black and in Atlanta. What are the тАЬreal issues?тАЭ
IтАЩm in OH, where suppression is real and verifiable. IтАЩve worked the polls my entire adult life and the ID rules have tightened to the extent that anyone on a small, fixed income, who does not drive, would be hard-pressed to obtain the accepted form. The goal is to increase provisional voting. As IтАЩm a paper ballot judge I can tell you that provisional ballots slow down the flow of a polling place and are more likely to be rejected.
We are also limited to one ballot box per county. Franklin County, where Columbus is located, is huge. This was a new law in 2020, when Trump was running for re-election. A coincidence? I donтАЩt think so. Ohio is the most gerrymandered state in the country (we voted this year with maps declared unconstitutional *five times* by our state Supreme Court) and we have a GOP supermajority in our General Assembly. Both houses.
IтАЩm glad you and your friends had no difficulty voting but anecdotes arenтАЩt evidence.
Umm, actually this is not an anecdote, since I am directly affected by the very laws you seem to insinuate are causing all the problems. I am giving you a first hand, on the ground assessment based on my own experience. Its also backed up by data. I too have worked polls (as has my wife), and have seen it first hand. Now, if you want to say that people don't want to come out to vote because they don't want to deal with any hassles caused by the new laws, then fine. But my question would be, what is the hassle of showing an ID to vote? In GA, state IDs are free, and unlike most states (looking at you VA), our DMVs are very efficient and can get you in and out in like 15 minutes. If the only way people will vote is if they are able to do it from their house, then we will have problems (although I am sure some people would just find some other excuse for not voting).
Also, I am sorry that you live in OH and have to deal with this. I agree that based on what you have described, you have a problem. I also agree that the GOP in OH has been radicalized. I am not sure what to tell you. If I were you, I would move, but that is just me.
The drop box issue only becomes an issue in situations with mail in ballots. Not sure of the rules in OH, but in GA, mail in ballots had historically not been a big part of the voting process and only became so during the 2020 elections, due to COVID. However, the GOP state leg did not get rid of mail in voting, but did restrict it. While I would have mail in voting if I had the power to wave a magic wand and make it so, the state assembly decided otherwise. Note CT, NY, DE, PA, MA, MI, and VA do not have mail in voting at all, while GA, UT, AK, and WI all allow no-excuse vote by mail. So not sure its a Dem v GOP issue.
Also, I think you should be asking yourself what is going on in OH? I mean, Obama and Clinton won the state twice, and it had an evenly divided state SC just last year. Yet in the last election, the GOP won every statewide race, even after all the political BS the GOP pulled. Why? I don't believe its voter suppression. It's just that your friends and neighbors have become meth-addicted a-holes who blame all of their problems on others. The states politics have been radicalized because the states voters have been radicalized. Tim Ryan was on Bill Maher this past weekend and said straight up that the Dem brand is toxic in too many places in the state. Why? Again, I have my thoughts on this; racial resentment, social instability, anger over these two, changing demos, and lack of government action to solve problems, are to me the main ones, but you live there and may have a better view of what is going on.
Finally, I don't know what the reasons are for why Black and Latino turnout has dropped since 2018. I am also not paid to figure that out. I already have a day job. Those who we give money to are the ones who are supposed to figure it out. What I do know is that sending Obama out a week before the election is not enough. Obama is extremely popular among most Dems, but there is some lingering resentment toward him among a certain segment of Black voters, especially Black men. I think that is part of the problem.
An anecdote is a story unsupported by empirical evidence.
IтАЩd rather stay in OH to do battle, thanks. And I told you whatтАЩs going on in Ohio, except itтАЩs not meth, itтАЩs fentanyl and heroin.
You seem convinced that voter тАЬintegrityтАЭ laws are not designed to suppress, so I fold. IтАЩm a lawyer and I know what laws do.
Have a nice day, seriously. IтАЩm out.
He also was the first GOP governor to go full on team virus, so much so that Trump rebuked him for recklessness.
His decision to reopen was widely supported, across racial, ethnic and even party lines. Most people understood that we could not stay locked up in our houses for 6 months. Just was not feasible.
The reopening had strict requirements and was not forced; many stores still chose not to reopen and those that did had stringent mask requirements. Again, I live here and experienced it firsthand; going out in Atlanta during that time was like living in Beijing or some other Asian Metropolis: everyone was wearing masks.
The other thing he did well was distributing the vaccine. He set up gigantic vaccine distribution centers where people could go and get their shots, no charge. Same for testing as well.
While I am no fan of his and did not vote for him, I think he was reelected precisely because of his response to the pandemic. He also is not an a-hole like DeSantis, which at the very least makes him less unlikable. Its just that GA is more Democratic than FL, mainly due to Black voters. So the GOP will never win in GA by the margins they do in FL.
Not being from the area I can't speak to the local support, but I will point out that he executive-ordered a prohibition against local mask mandates.
Also one point on the vaccine distribution- it was free of charge all over the country, though if he had a good distribution network then that is a credit to him.
Looks like statistically this is backfiring on them. African Americans lag behind whites in vaccine use by a few points, but when you put a political lens on it, they'd be well ahead of white Republicans.
And vaccine use or non-use is a very likely cause of the higher excess mortality rates being seen in Republicans.
Completely agree! Plus he also supported the 6 week anti-abortion тАЬheartbeat billтАЭ so with Kemp as president we might get suppression of voting (read: black) rights and a bonus suppression of womenтАЩs rights in one package!
Without knowing who the Dem nominee is?
We know who the Democratic nominee is.
No we don't. That's a silly thing to say.
Jim Geraghty had a column in the WaPo yesterday on how Sununu should not run for president and continue to govern NH and everyone should just coalesce around New Savior Ron. IтАЩm thinking the backup plan is to just jump back on the Trump Train when DeSantis turns into Fred Thompson.