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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 […]
Perdue’s candidacy ‘a continuation of the coup attempt and insurrection that Trump launched’
Let’s say it straight: Every Georgia Republican who votes for former Sen. David Perdue in next year’s gubernatorial primary is voting to strangle American democracy and replace it with an arrangement in which elections can be overturned on a whim, just because somebody says so. There is no other rationale for Perdue’s candidacy, no other […]
Bookman: GOP’s Trump-lite Virginia win hard for Georgia Republicans to duplicate
The future of American democracy might have gotten just a wee bit brighter thanks to political news out of Virginia this week. Yes, Democrats got whipped soundly, losing a critical governor’s race in a state that Joe Biden carried by 10 percentage points just a year ago. That’s particularly ominous for Democrats in states such […]
Bookman: Stolen 2020 election myth imposes loyalty test on Republicans
The narrative about a stolen election is completely fabricated. None of it is true. None of it happened. None of it, not in Arizona, not in Georgia, not anywhere, none of it. All “evidence” offered to support that narrative is likewise a mirage; it vanishes completely upon closer inspection. It’s just a fiction, a fiction […]
Bookman: Trump’s moment of truth for Georgia GOP at Perry rally was a warning shot
In a strange way, Donald Trump is the most honest politician I have ever witnessed. He’s also the most dishonest, of course. He’ll lie about almost anything, shamelessly, without regard to truth or even plausibility. But it’s funny: He does not lie, almost cannot lie, about his emotions, about his deepest wants and needs. Even […]
Bookman: Threats against nurses, school boards rage on as mainstream GOP stands by
In a press conference at the state Capitol this week, Georgia’s public health commissioner condemned a campaign of bullying, intimidation and threats directed at health care workers attempting to improve the state’s abysmal vaccination record against COVID- 19. “Many of our line workers are receiving threats, are receiving hostile emails, harassing emails,” Dr. Kathleen Toomey […]
Bookman: Top Trump DOJ official’s letter staked out Georgia as path to a coup
On Dec. 28, a top official in the Trump Department of Justice circulated an extraordinary, potentially history-altering letter to his colleagues, writing that “I see no valid downsides” to issuing the letter and proposing that they “get it out as soon as possible.” In that letter, reported last week by ABC News, Jeffrey Clark falsely […]
Bookman: Trump quits court battle but recklessly urges followers to fight
This week, Donald Trump was finally forced to admit the truth: He lost Georgia fair and square, the multiple lawsuits that he and the Georgia GOP filed to try to throw out the state’s 5 million presidential votes had been based on lies and fantasies, and the entire argument they tried to make had zero […]
Who are the true radical extremists in the Georgia U.S. Senate race?
The Republican argument against Georgia U.S. Senate Democratic candidates Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock is that they are “radical extremists.” And if true, that would be a problem. Our system of government is built upon compromise and moderation, and putting radical extremists in charge of such a government would be self-destructive. Georgia voters understand that […]
Bookman: We could be witnessing the deciding battle of the culture wars
We are living through history, through a tumultuous time in which change accelerates, the once-solid becomes fluid and no one has any real idea of where this thing is headed. Living in chaos, trying to make daily sense of it, has been frightening, exhilarating, and confusing. Someday our grandchildren, reading about this era in their […]
Bookman: Ahmaud Arbery case’s true horror is safe harbor given for modern lynching
Only in recent years has white American culture become willing to stare the horror of lynching in the face, or at least glance at it sideways. It has done so only because time’s passage has made it feel safe to do so, allowing us to pretend that it was perpetrated by people utterly unlike ourselves. […]