Back to the drawing board
According to the New York Times, Republicans in Georgia are wondering if their new restrictive voting laws backfired on them. Yes and no. “Yes” because evil intent always comes back to haunt those who have it, and “no” because they put forth a candidate who was virtually impossible to elect. They bet on the fact that Herschel Walker looks Black that Black people would vote for him. Blacks in Georgia know Walker’s story all too well, and his skin color was absolutely no motivating factor to vote for him. Second, they banked on his history as a football star. Only certain people care about that. Sure, plenty of Walker’s supporters loved having photo ops with him, including one on Facebook who took a photo of his mother letting Walker sign the back of the jersey he gave her. Big woo. Far more people in Georgia were more concerned about the best representation, and that is what won the runoff for Senator Warnock.
Even as Republicans scramble to figure out what went wrong (bless their hearts), Business Insider reported that Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger is proposing yet more laws, including lowering the threshold for winning from 50% to 45%. Well, that wouldn’t have changed things, as Senator Warnock led at the end of the general election but did not achieve the 50% threshold. Of course, Raffensperger’s (stupid) plan would have spared us the runoff. It is amazing how Republicans sit and plot how to win, not even realizing that their plots would still fail to guarantee the outcome they want, but that’s how Republicans think (or don’t as the case may be). Their answer is to add even more restrictive laws, which is only going to fire up Democratic voters more than it did this time around. They might be better served by trying to find more qualified candidates who appeal to more than just the Trump base, since they saw how well that went. Brian Kemp hit the trail with Walker at the end, to no avail, even though Kemp is popular outside of the Republican party. He continues to do things that benefit all Georgians, including temporarily eliminating the state gas tax, which caused gas prices to drop by $.10+ in one day. Who’s going to vote against that? He has also signed new laws that go into effect in 2023 that protect consumers, seek to lessen crime, and increased tax credits for contributions to rural hospital, widening his appeal among Georgia voters. He, unfortunately, is still a Republican who will readily sign increasing voter suppression laws once they pass the Republican legislature.
Yes, we won this time around, but we must remain vigil. Republicans are already talking about increasing laws that make it harder to vote, and next time, they won’t find a bumbling idiot to put up against a well-loved Democratic opponent. Their best hope will be that Warnock doesn’t do more to help the people of Georgia, but that seems to be his focus. Republicans may be hard pressed to unseat Warnock if his focus remains clear.
Shirley is a former entertainment writer and has worked in the legal field for over 25 years