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Bookman: Trump’s arm-twisting might have worked under new election rules
Almost five months later, Donald Trump’s dictatorial refusal to accept defeat still looms large over the country, particularly here in Georgia. It continues to alter election law, election outcomes, the arc of political careers and even the course of American history. Admittedly, some of those consequences have been positive. In January, after witnessing Trump’s attempt […]
Bookman: Recalling Zell while Geoff Duncan risks ‘doing the right thing’
“Republicans don’t need election reform to win. We need leadership,” Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan told Chuck Todd on NBC’s “Meet the Press” over the weekend. “I think there’s millions of Republicans waking up around the country that are realizing that Donald Trump’s divisive tone and strategy is unwinnable in forward-looking elections. We need real leadership, […]
Bookman: Voter fraud lie forces frenzy of voter suppression bills
A lie is a fickle creature. Once told, a lie marches free into the world, with its own agenda, out of control of those who created it. And as Georgia Republicans are discovering, a lie that is big enough and powerful enough can even turn on its masters, forcing those who created it to now […]
Bookman: Georgia GOP ensnared by hostility to health care safety net
Georgia Republicans are caught in a trap, trying to adjust to a rapidly changing state while also trying to placate a party base that has no interest in change, and that is often aggressively opposed to it. Put another way, they have to change, yet they can’t change, and nowhere is that dilemma more daunting […]
Bookman: Extremism the new norm as GOP aims to purge moderates
It is extremist to claim, in the complete absence of evidence, that the election was stolen. It is extremist to demand that millions of legal, valid ballots be tossed out by the courts, by state legislators, by Congress or the vice president. It is extremist to claim that those who upheld the election, who abided […]
Bookman: Georgia GOP lawmakers are aligned with ‘Stop the Steal’ mob
Unlike the thugs who attacked the U.S. Capitol in frustration at losing an election, Georgia’s Republican legislators are not resorting to violence. However, if their methods differ, their motivations and their goals are all too familiar. Instead of violence, our state legislators are using the mechanisms of our democracy to try to undermine that democracy, […]
Bookman: Too few GOP leaders put the lie to voter fraud until D.C. riot
“Tell the truth.” From the moment that we become capable of uttering and comprehending a simple sentence, we are taught to tell the truth. Our parents taught us to tell the truth; our teachers taught us to tell the truth; our religious leaders taught us to tell the truth. Tell the truth, because it’s the […]
Bookman: It was always going to end this way
“I can tell you I have the support of the police, the support of the military, the support of the Bikers for Trump,” Donald Trump bragged back in March of 2019. “I have the tough people, but they don’t play it tough — until they go to a certain point, and then it would be […]
Bookman: How inept can Georgia’s election riggers be?
How can you claim to have evidence of voter fraud that is so extensive and convincing that it justifies the unthinkable, the overturning of an American presidential election, and yet have no evidence of voter fraud sufficient to justify a single arrest, a single prosecution or even the issuing of a single subpoena for documents […]
Bookman: Georgia senators in runoff sow distrust of state election system
The state of Texas has filed a disrespectful, insulting and legally ludicrous lawsuit against the state of Georgia, telling the U.S. Supreme Court that we’re too corrupt and incompetent to be trusted to run our own elections. So … that’s crazy, right? It’s even more insane that our two U.S. senators, Kelly Loeffler and David […]
Bookman: Who is the true radical extremist in Georgia U.S. Senate race?
The Republican argument against Senate 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 danger, as they […]
Bookman: Georgia senators carry out hit angry mob boss Trump orders up
It was a mob hit, pure and simple. An angry mob boss, Donald Trump, ordered the hit; two of his henchmen, Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue, carried it out. Without warning, without cause and without apparent guilt, the two U.S. senators stabbed Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger in the back this week and left […]