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Top Republicans embrace Marjorie Taylor Greene’s violent rhetoric
In a recent campaign video, U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, Republican from Georgia, likened Democrats to destructive feral hogs allowed to range free and destroy the American countryside. But Marjorie had a solution: As the camera followed her, she grabbed a rifle and climbed aboard a waiting helicopter, where she tracked down and shot a […]
Bookman: How much is too much for Herschel Walker’s ‘family-values’ voters?
You can tell Herschel Walker was raised right. After all, only a gentleman would think to send a “Get well” card – hand-signed, from #34! — to the girlfriend whose abortion he had just financed. That’s classy, or as close to classy as you’re going to find in this mess. It is not classy to […]
National politics, career arcs explain why Georgia’s Kemp polls ahead of Abrams
I follow polls. I study polls. I look to polls for insight into how people outside my immediate circle might be thinking about things. But no, I do not trust polls. If you trust something you put faith in it. Trust implies a readiness to make decisions based on what those polls tell you, and […]
Fulton County District Attorney builds 2020 election conspiracy story from bottom to top
I don’t think Georgia is prepared for what’s coming its way. I don’t know how it could be, not with the most important and controversial trial in American history looming in its not-too-distant future. Now, maybe that trial will never happen. After months of investigative work into an alleged criminal conspiracy to interfere with and […]
No guts no glory if Herschel weasels out of Warnock debate
Back in the primary, Herschel Walker wanted nothing to do with a debate against his Republican opponents, but at least he had a lame excuse of an excuse. With polls showing Walker with an insurmountable lead among Republicans, he could shrug off calls for a debate on the grounds that none of his opponents had […]
Bookman: Mark Meadows could come to regret acquiescence to Trump coup attempt
For two hours Tuesday, former Trump White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson calmly, matter-of-factly testified to the commission of high crimes by the former president and by many of those around him. She told her fellow Americans that Trump had been informed on the morning of Jan. 6 that the mob assembled by his command had […]
Bookman: Why wait till next session to pass an outright abortion ban in Georgia?
I have a question for Gov. Brian Kemp: When’s the special session? Last week’s monumental ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade has swung the gates wide open to Georgia’s conservative governing party, giving Republicans permission to enact the anti-abortion legislation that they claim to have always wanted. I have no doubt […]
Bookman: Roe v. Wade’s rights guarantees not settled law after all. They lied.
For almost five decades, Roe v. Wade has been established American law, guaranteeing the constitutional right of choice to all Americans. Even those Supreme Court justices now ready to toss that precedent aside have previously testified under oath during their Senate confirmation hearings that they believed Roe is established law that ought to be respected. […]
Bookman: Private school vouchers provide students a better chance to excel? Prove it
Bit by bit, inch by inch, year by year, Republicans in the Georgia General Assembly and in legislatures across the country have been moving toward passage of full-fledged school-voucher systems that would inevitably undermine public education. This year, at least for the moment, and at least in Georgia, that incremental advance has been stalled. Perhaps […]
‘We the people’ are in dangerous territory
The state of our union is precarious. It is precarious not because of some outside threat — outside threats we can still handle. It is precarious because we have forgotten our way, because we find ourselves increasingly seduced by a perverted, stunted and selfish notion of freedom. It is precarious because some of us have […]
Bookman: Trump continues to threaten violence against those who stand for rule of law
Like his buddy Vladimir Putin, Donald Trump is a thug willing to use violence to achieve what he cannot achieve by legitimate means. He has shown a willingness to do so in the past, and because he himself has paid no price, he is threatening to do so in the future. We know all this, […]
A case for Mike Pence as heroic in the face of the pro-Trump attempted coup
I come to celebrate an American hero. I come to celebrate Mike Pence. That is not, to put it mildly, a widely held opinion. Not yet, at least. The Trumpian right reviles Pence as a traitor, as a Judas whose lack of courage and commitment a year ago cost them the prize that they see […]