The Department of Justice is suing Georgia over its election reform bill. Ironically, it does so after Stacey Abrams embraced much of the legislation. Joe Manchin clearly used Georgia’s provisions as a model for his compromise plan in the Senate. Stacey Abrams endorsed the voter purges, photo ID for voting, the early voting scheme Georgia uses, and Georgia’s absentee ballot plan — all of those are in Manchin’s plan.
The reality is DOJ is suing because the For the People Act is dead. First, there’d be no need to sue if that law passed. But, and most importantly, the DOJ would not need to sue if Biden had aggressively pushed HR. 1.
The Biden team knew HR.1 was not going to pass and spent no political capital on pushing it. Progressives are now furious and the DOJ will be used to show Biden cares. The entirety of the lawsuit is political. The press will give it some credibility. But the DOJ did not have to sue. Stacey Abrams already is as did multiple outside progressive groups who will now be overshadowed. Hilariously, DOJ lawyers will be more likely to steer a conservative legal path and many of the progressives’ most outlandish claims will now fall by the wayside, depriving them of outrage donations.
The ramification is clear — Abrams will be sidelined as the DOJ takes over the case and the press coverage focuses on Merrick Garland. Brian Kemp and Chris Carr, Georgia’s Governor and Attorney General, will get maximum spotlight on the defense side. That helps both of them with the Republican base and will probably help their national fundraising.
This is a win for Biden because it shows the progressives that he cares. It is a bigger win for Brian Kemp who now gets to head into re-election telling Trump voters that he is fighting Biden for Georgia and its election integrity. Abrams, however, gets sidelined having already now ceded she will embrace photo ID and voter purges, two things she has long claimed were instruments of voter suppression.
Joe Manchin looks good in the eyes of West Virginians (and many others), Stacey Abrams has marginalized and discredited herself in the eyes of the progressives, and the progressives (and VP Kammy) look like the spoiled neo-totalitarians they are - and conservatives did none of this; instead, they just sat on the sidelines and let Joe Biden do their hatchet work for them, probably without Biden even realizing what he did. Even better: AG Garland gives us even more reason to justify the Republicans' decision not to confirm him to SCOTUS. Perfect!
Erick, thanks for your insight. Telling everyone I know to vote for Kemp. Hoping maybe Sonny Perdue will run for Senate now that Board of Regents named an acting chancellor. Seems like he could win the Senate seat.