What really needs to be replaced are the various columnists employed by the NYT. I have been a reader of the NYT for over fifty years and I find the constant refrain against Republicans and conservatives to be tiresome. How about some real objectivity for a change?
26
@TW Smith- the NYT columnists are objective. Perhaps it's the truth that is tiresome. Sometimes the truth hurts.
24
Cheers for the oppressed who will never find a home in the GOP. Trump is a false prophet.
4
Republicans know that because of the numbers in a lot of places, their main hope is cheating with voter suppression, and in Trump's case, disinformation and lies. This is why vigilance and massive voter turn out is the only answer. Our democracy is in the balance. Georgia will be a bright shining light for the rest of America.
14
Close your eyes. Imagine that the only thing about you that is different is the color of your skin.
Are you still you?
I rest my case.
6
Michelle,Very engaging and eloquent as usual. I admire your optimism, even as I don't share it. The GOP is a fascist institution. I say this as an elderly white male. They will pervert the will of the people by any means, including violence. Expect brownshirts at polling places. One disagreement on terminology. They are NOT white nationalists. They are white Supremacists.
7
Opinion Columnist Goldberg needs to define White. Who is white today? Also why does the author seems to use white as a Slur. It really is a child like approach to a serious issues. I guess white is left up to one imagination as they read along.
16
"You will not replace us!"
Who is 'you?' -- illegal immigrants supposedly allowed access to the American labor market by Jews and liberals. 'You' is a curse directed at both the illegal worker and the bosses who hire them
However, the reality is that a wide range of employers hire illegals because they 1) work for less money; 2) work longer hours; 3) do not even know what overtime is; 4) above all, are docile employees because they are illegal. They do not argue with the boss and are grateful for every hour of pay they get.
Further, it is increasingly clear that Trump and his administration may want to cut down illegal immigration, but they are not doing much to deport illegal workers now in place in the US. Why? Because their political contributors LIKE having access to lower paid, docile and excellent workers. But it is extremely important that those worker STAY ILLEGAL. (Obama deported millions -- over 80,000 from Austin alone.) Trump is giving his base lip service while loudly picking on small children. Real tough guy.
But Trump supporters continue into buy this con and rage on and on about illegal workers. You are being played, people. You will know that politicians are really serious about ending illegal workers' access to jobs when they institute eVerify for contract workers, and in lock prohibitive fines for paying their workers under the table.
Until that time, you are useful idiots and your rage is a joke to the employers of America. You are already replaced.
8
Reminds me of the last days of apartheid in South Africa. Hope she overcomes.
5
I still don't understand why the conflict of interest that Kemp has isn't being addressed??? He needs to recuse himself from one or the other of his vocations. I will not believe it is a fair race the way it is currently set up, if he wins. Better to get rid of that doubt in all of our minds.
6
@RCJCHC It is being addressed but as he's legally - supposedly - following a law recently passed by the legislature. It'll take a court battle to sort it out. That's happening but not before the election. Remember when Republicans said they wanted judges? This is why. It's up to Georgia voters to decide if that's the person they want in their state house.
Clearly, he has no interest in fair or not fair, only in winning. Will Georgia agree?
5
Onward and upward, Stacey Abrams! And by the way, let's see what we can do about Republican voter suppression...
4
Of course...the key there is voting. What we are seeing in the US time and again is white minority apartheid, where roughly 35% of the population is determining the whole path of the country, bolstered by:
1)The Senate being non democratic, there are a lot of states with 2 Senators that have less population then my home county, let alone state.
2)The electoral college, once designed to protect against a demagogue, is non democratic, it is based in the 2 senators (see #1 above) plus reps.
3)Gerrymandering, furthered by right wing legislatures and a judiciary in term put in office by non democratically elected presidents (Bush II, Trump, non plurality), that allows minorities to elect majority legislatures, and reps/senators.
But if people turned out in numbers to vote, not 45%, but 70,80%, the GOP would be dead meat everywhere but the south and some parts of the farm belt (Iowa and wacko Idaho with all the bible thumping farmers). Sadly, though, the young who will be most impacted by this cast of clowns and haters, blacks (who decided to sit out 2016 because Obama wasn't running), either voted in very small numbers or in significantly decreased numbers (with blacks, was about 3 million less in 2016 then 2012), and it led to the Trump mess. It also will take the supposedly good people I hear about, to realize that Trump is not an abheration, but rather is the ultimate conclusion of the divide and conquer GOP, and stop supporting people like Jay Webber,.
3
Voter suppression in Georgia and elsewhere, hate crimes against Blacks and Jews, Trump praising a congressman convicted of assault for the assault.
It's no wonder that the nation is so torn with all the hateful right-wing rhetoric. Now a few Democrats have advocated "hitting back." While i don't think they mean that literally, I think it's the wrong approach.
We need to hit back by voting BLUE and opening our metaphorical doors of government to all, as Ms. Abrams has advocated. We need to process asylum claims in an orderly manner, not with force, not by breaking the asylum laws as Mr. Trump demands.
Until our country recognizes that we are all equal, none of us are.
3
“Georgia is a blue state if everybody votes,”.....But we all know they are not going to vote. Why minorities and people under 30 don't vote in proportional numbers is a mystery, because they have the most to lose.
63
@W.A. Spitzer Sounds like Kemp purges from the voter roles anyone who hasn't voted in a long time, is the wrong color of choice or has bad breath....Perhaps the voter purging is why minorities don't vote???
9
Replacing them is not enough. They are committing crimes against democracy and should be jailed as felons unable to vote as long as they are in jail as felons -- or until we change the laws regarding felons' right to vote. But they should stay in jail for a long time and at least until we are able to restore democracy.
2
White nationalism has been shrinking for generations. This article is nothing but manipulation.
8
There surely is a "dangerous, invading horde" that we have every reason to fear: President Thug and his band of Merry Monstrous Murderers, Officious Over-reaching Officeholders, and Malicious MAGABombers. These Soldiers of Bigotry have a strong sense of righteous purpose, enhanced by every wink, nod, thumbs-up and tweet of their Glorious Leader.
4
@Bruce Rozenblit
The issues are complicated. White male privilege is just one facet. What also exists is racism, misogyny, xenophobia...There is an irrational fear among white men who have never lost a job to an "other" and never been denied admission to a school because of affirmative action. It's called bigotry and it is learned as well as unlearnable.
2
This race-baiting article only establishes that the author is obsessed with judging people by the color of their skin. She makes a blanket, unsupported statement about what she imagines to be reality: “Right now America is tearing itself apart as an embittered white conservative minority clings to power, terrified at being swamped by a new multiracial polyglot majority.”
Whither any basis for that statement, save the author’s troubled imagination?
We’re all Americans. Embrace the Dream, Ms. Goldberg.
18
Some folks live for 100 years, so 242 years is not long ago when Blacks were brought from Africa and made slaves in the land of freedom. Black American slaves were not considered sanctioned beings, rather they were considered property. American Blacks have been the target of White racist groups such as the KKK and the American Nazis. Racism and discrimination continues to be practiced by select American White citizens who do not belong to any hate group yet remain racists.
On February 19, 1942, soon after the beginning of World War II, Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066. The evacuation order commenced the round-up of 120,000 Americans of Japanese heritage to one of 10 internment camps—officially called "relocation centers"—in California, Idaho, Utah, Arizona, Wyoming, Colorado, and Arkansas. Since the perpetrators were Japanese the American-Japanese were racially profiled and sent to internment camps.
In WWII Germans murdered 6 million Jews and were responsible for the deaths of 60 million people (civilians and soldiers) all sides who died during WWII in all countries. However, German Americans were left alone after WWII and were not sent to internment camps.
Consider the Native American Indians who were exterminated (approximately 100,000), the rest were driven up to Canada, and those who remained in America were made to live in Indian reservations.
1
@manoflamancha
To correct you respectfully. Their was german and italian internment camps in the US during WW-2 Our family was victims of President Franklin D. Roosevelt Only the japanese people receive reparation. None was ever offered to german and Italian people.
1
The last couple years has been a roller coaster of emotions but one thing stands out - an engaged electorate. Donald Trump's polarization has brought out opposition that had become complacent. A new wave of women's empowerment is taking hold, a generation brought up to set goals beyond marriage.
White supremacists, by being emboldened, have shown they're still a problem, long thought marginalized. That can only hasten their irrelevance. Not all districts will change but most will change the dynamics for the next round. When Republicans can only win by cheating and rallying an ever shrinking base it's really just a matter of time.
Good vs evil has always been with us. Probably always will. But evil only prevails when good stays silent. Happily this is a very noisy election. And gratefully, almost over. Change will occur; it's up to all of us to see it's for the better.
3
Far more dangerous than white supremacists or white nationalists are white and black progressives. Progressives believe in the "rule of law" (viz., using all the violence deemed necessary by armed, police-power agents to enFPRCE the myriad laws in America), a plethora of government enFORCED regulations of peaceful peoples lives (as in "gun control," a euphemism for people control), and of course plenty of IRS enFORCED taxation to pay for their political policies, priorities and preferences). In other words, progressives advocate and, when in power, legislate forcible control of the nation's people--anything but freedom. They are wedded to ubiquitous, institutionalized violence. And because such violence is so widespread, and because it is axiomatic that violence begets more violence. progressives are far more dangerous to our welfare that white or black supremacists.
7
I know what happens when black people are in charge too. 8 years of sanity, comity and moral behavior. And an end to the worst financial disaster Conservatives could shepherd.
Thank you President and Michelle Obama.
We miss you desperately.
9
I despise Trump as much as anyone else, but I believe the media is manipulating the the narrative in these crimes. The cause in each case seems to be wild-eyed mental illness. Bigotry and hatred, too, but let's not pretend such lunatics represent any faction of the electorate.
Bigots have always existed. Trump didn't train or brainwash them. All he did was give them permission to come out of the cracks. Most of them do not shoot up random strangers. If we want to prevent these tragedies, we need to identify mental illness sooner and begin supporting those who clearly have it. The bigotry problem is much larger and can only be chipped away at through public education. It will never go away.
21
Nice work. Thanks.
2
There is a history of interest groups fouling up voter registration information for the purposes of getting names and propositions on ballots, and voters registered.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2017/06/09/indiana-voter-registration-group-employees-charged-with-falsifying-applications/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.62866393b364
https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/elections/2018/06/22/arizona-elections-allegations-voter-signature-fraud-spreading/724196002/
If it doesn't matter, say so. But at time of tight margins, where elections can be determined by five thousand votes, I say it matters a great deal. So if those who care need to be replaced, I think that says more about those who would do the replacing than us.
"During the primary, he ran an ad boasting that he drives a big truck “just in case I need to round up criminal illegals and take ’em home myself." ~ Oct 29, 2018 Michelle Goldberg article
"He boasted in a campaign ad, “I’ve got a big truck, just in case I need to round up criminal illegals and take them home myself." ~ Aug. 17, 2018 Michelle Goldberg article
So - let me guess - he has a really big truck.
That last sentence was a killer quote.
1
Constant use by liberal journalists of "white" as an epithet - white nationalism, white supremacy, white privilege, etc. -- plays into the hands of the extremists. neo-nazis is what they are. demonizing of whites is a trap that the alt right sets and liberal like Michelle Goldberg fall into. We can't lose ordinary white Americans to the other side.
11
So Ms Goldberg, let's say the board of the NYTimes came to you and said, we know you are a wonderful liberal and "woke" white journalist, but we think its time to turn our opinion pages to people of color. Thanks for working here , but you are no longer needed. And lets say no other newspaper wanted to hire you for the same reason.
Are you going to try to "cling to power " ?
or simply go off willingly to another career ?
13
Well I tell ya .... Ms Abrams seems like a much nicer person than her opponent.
4
How can anyone not see that these nationalist Republicans, such as Kemp, are a cancer on our democracy?
There is only one cure.
VOTE
2
Those rallies you describe are feel good moments, like the pink ear knit hat rallies soon after Trump was elected. A million women bonding and hugging.
Since then, far from diminishing in power, Trumpism has shown the breadth and depth of its appeal.
White, racist Georgia will not allow Blacks or Democrats to triumph. They are smirking in their back rooms, knowing you can hold all the rallies and make all the speeches you want, but they will remain firmly in control, if they have to burn ballots or crosses to do it.
Clap your hands if you want Tinkerbell to live.
Taking over state governments is essential to restore some balance in our political landscape. Democrats do not have a monopoly of morality and good government but the current state of political power has too much control in the hands of the GOP. The sec of state can interfere in elections to favor themselves and with 38 states under their control and all branches of the federal govt under GOP control we are under one party rule. This is too close to a dictatorship and with a SUPREME COURT ready to rule 5 to 4 on ant issue favoring the GOP we are at risk. This is even more dangerous as we have a ruthless president who only wants to rule unquestioned in other words he wants to be our Kim his role model and hero who he claims to love. This situation is dangerous to our democracy as Trump favors dictatorship he does not hide it. Mass shootings and bomb mailings are a reflection of the Trump rhetoric, a booming stock market is not worth a civil war or a dictatorship of the Trump family.
1
My wife was born and raised in Georgia. She has lived in Florida for the last 42 years. She is rooting for you Ms Abrams. But she did vote for Gillum in Florida. I do not know if we are particularly liberal but we are very white. Living in diverse Orlando has changed us. We simply do not fear people who do not look like us.
2
"If everyone eligible to vote does, we'll lose." What does that say about his confidence in the strength of his ideas?
4
There are more Republicans in Georgia than left leaning Democrats.
They are not likely to overlook the flag burning incident.
2
Fine article. Title may be unnecessarily provocative, though.
"I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic, for which it stands, one nation, under God, with liberty and justice FOR ALL."
We need to keep remembering that "FOR ALL" part. It would clear up a lot of problems like racism and voter suppression. This is what we're all supposed to be pledging to, right? I think I learned this for a reason in elementary school (yeah, I know it's a Cold War thing).
3
It's become very clear: We have a white problem in this country. Just imagine, walking out your front door everyday as white person. And imagine being pulled over by the state trooper for....well, speeding. And on top of it when you go into Barneys to buy some clothes, no one follows you around!
The anonymity of all is enough to shake them to their core and take to the streets. Immigrants getting all that attention, keep them out! White people being forced to learn about Shariah law more than the new testament depriving themselves of chicken soup for the soul. The heartlessness of it all!
It used to be that white people were simply unable to jump, or dance. Now, they're facing an existential crisis. Oh! The humanity! (or is it: "Oh! The Hannity!)
1
The voter supression is an attack on our Democratic Republic. Those pushing this believe cheating is the only way to "win". It is in everone's best interest to refuse to vote for these haters.
5
Amen! We can do this!
3
It's terrifying to see so many ignoring mental illness as the cause of so many issues and harm being done to others at the behest of our 'leaders'.
400k Medical patients dead per YEAR in the US.
Mental illness in DOCTORS, LAWYERS and other professionals - ignored to a one.
Infrastructure robbed by local demi-gods who steal taxes and never improve any 'project' they spend millions to billions of our hard earned money on.
And then this person, whomever she is, ignorant, fostering more harm, ignoring at least four who have told people it was ok to harm others, Maxine Waters, Eric Holder, Hillary Clinton and Barak Obama, each told others that our fellow Americans are not to be respected if they disagree.
Keep the blinders on and this won't be a nation much longer.
5
‘He said he is concerned that if everyone eligible to vote in Georgia does so, he will lose this election,” she said. “Let’s prove him right.” ‘
Amen! Let’s prove him right in EVERY state and district in the country.
6
Another note on Abrams that moves the story away from identity politics and into her qualifications, particularly her ability to work with both parties because they respect her expertise:
"Her background in tax law helped her analyze the deep structure of complex bills, landing her on the powerful Ways and Means Committee as a freshman. Even Republicans saw her talent: In 2011, State Representative Allen Peake called her “brilliant.”
“People who underestimate her risk complete embarrassment,” he told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution at the time."
It would be a "complete embarrassment" not to elect someone as qualified as Stacy Abrams is.
Vote Abrams for governor.
10
It is hard to know what to make of the drumbeat in the media even from Nate Cohn and Nate Silver that says Democrats aren't all that energized. They aren't ready to race to the polls. If not, what is wrong with them? If they are what is wrong with the press? Trump has disgraced the GOP. We cannot let him continue to disgrace America.
5
@Daniel A. Greenbaum
Pollsters are looking at a totally different picture this year. There is a very different electorate this year. In Virginia in 2017 the Governors race was a tossup before election day and the Democrat won by 9 points. Democrats were hoping to take 7 seats-they got 15. This in spite of heavy gerrymandering favoring Republicans. Keep the faith!
6
Lord, I hope that the people of Georgia turn out in droves to elect Stacey Abrams. If nothing else comes of this midterm election, let it be that a good person, an honest person, deserving of respect and the honor of the office, is elected in Georgia in 2018. Best to you, Ms. Abrams!
11
I'm on the opposite coast of Georgia, so I only get the national news coverage of that state's governor's race. But so far, it seems the only thing worth mentioning is that it's a contest between a White Man vs. Black Female thus making this race Deeply Profound.
Don't either actually have policy proposals and leadership to offer? Does this really just boil down to skin color and genitalia?
How depressing.
10
@Livonian
You don't find "During the primary, he ran an ad boasting that he drives a big truck 'just in case I need to round up criminal illegals and take ’em home myself.'" worth mentioning?
But you can look up "Stacey Abrams" on Google and find her website, where she talks about issues.
You can look up Brian Kemp and find his website, where he complains about Stacey Abrams.
1
Same old we vs them rhetoricoric.
Read David Brooks column today. He has it right.
8
"Racists in Georgia, like racists all over America, are emboldened. ...
"But the forces of democracy are rising, too."
This is a very glib and dangerous dichotomy. When the racists are in the majority, they ARE the "forces of democracy," They are not the forces of American thought or the forces of inclusion and goodness; those are virtues, whereas democracy is just a tool.
All anyone need know about Brian Kemp is that he has not recused himself from his role as an election official as he runs for office. There is nothing more un-American than this amoral, ethics-free approach to public service. Some acts could be more heinous, but no attitude toward our republican system of government could be more pernicious. Anyone who votes for him just doesn't get what America is about.
15
Thank you for your report Ms. Goldberg. While hope, for me, doesn't "spring eternal", it's heartening to be presented with the difference between a sparkling Stacey Abrams and the very dim light of Brian Kemp. It is outrageous that Mr. Kemp is in the position he is: both the candidate and the one in charge of the election. God save America, whether Jahweh, Jesus or Allah.
3
"Georgia is a blue state if everybody votes."
47 of 50 states are blue if everybody votes, including my home state of Texas. So what? How do you get people to care enough to vote? What has to happen--do people need to be attacked personally in order to vote? (Or maybe not even that will do it.) How do you cure this apathy? Because democracy itself is going down the drain right before our eyes and most of America doesn't care enough to vote.
5
Hope. That unique human emotion which can defy reality. If reports are correct, early voting numbers include a large portion of Republicans. Of course in Georgia, voting is a punching bag for the GOP so predictions are for suckers and the voters may not even have their votes counted. Abrams is brave and determined so yes, let's Hope that she prevails.
Despite the horrors of the past week, white nationalists are feeling supported and emboldened by Trump and the GOP. The excuses and whataboutism slithering from the lips of the Trump administration are disgusting. The power of the presidency means that we will have to endure rallies galore in these final days and Trump will spare no opportunity to keep the fires burning under the hate and fear.
I wish I shared the optimism. I am supposed to feel the pain of the Trump base and yet I can not. I fear them. I can not share their fear of the Other. I can not and will not "understand" their racism.
It's ugly and pathetic and ignorant and harmful.
I know that I should not dismiss my fellow Americans but I am fed up with always having to bend to the racist and hateful GOP voter.
It's time maybe for the majority of Americans to insist that the other side start to understand us. Why do I have to say that as a Democrat that I am NOT evil personified?
2
Let's keep this simple: Trump and the Republicans are destroying America. VOTE!
6
"It's not the people who vote that count, it's the people who count the votes."
Kemp is a perfect example of Republicans manipulating the voting process as the only way to win elections. Kemp's policies are bankrupt and destructive and he is himself a vile liar.
Will he be successful? Not if everyone votes.
5
"Allah is not God, and Mohammad is not his prophet." This is precisely the kind of bilious poison that represents the true invasion of the United States these days. It is of a piece with the "Santa Claus is white" claptrap that pervades the media outlets of the right such as Fox News.
Within the last day or so, we here that President Trump means to deploy 5000 military troops along the southern border to counter the clear and present danger of a ragtag group of destitute men women and children seeking asylum from the lethal violence occurring back home.
This represents roughly one soldier for every refugee. what could possibly go wrong with such a scenario? We shall find out all too soon.
Should America take in all the refugees struggling through Central America willy-nilly? Of course not, but cross-border leaders in compassion and good faith can work together to provide a humane and just resolution for fellow human beings yearning for a decent life free of existential fear.
What America faces at the border is not an impossible situation. It cannot be resolved, however, by racist demagoguery that plays cruelly to the cheapest seats in the house.
6
If they put a lid on the teapot with voter suppression, as they are doing, they can expect it to blow off in their faces. I'm talking bloody, violent. This is in no way a threat--it's just an historical observation. Free people will not put up with white minority rule through gerrymandering and voter suppression. Nor should they.
1
Watching Trump rallies evokes a sickening recollection of the white nationalist rallies in the deep south in the 50s and 60s. By the power of our votes we can overcome. We shall overcome.
2
Like another commenter here, I voted early—and a straight Democratic ticket. My husband, a lifelong Republican who probably never cast a vote for a Democrat in his life until Hillary Clinton, was right beside me, voting a straight Democratic ticket as well. A few days later he drove across town and got us a Stacey Abrams yard sign.
I am convinced my once-and-former-Republican husband is not alone. While the GOP senators and representatives in Washington may stand in solidarity behind their man, those of us in the real world can see—and, unlike them, many of us care mightily—that the current Republican Party bears no resemblance to your father’s Oldsmobile. From the day Ronald Reagan launched his campaign in Philadelphia, MS with a speech on “states’ rights”—which every southerner knows is code for white privilege—the party has moved steadily whiteward and is now finally “out”—by our president’s own words—as the party of white nationalism.
I don’t pretend to believe my husband represents the majority of Republicans. But here, in the city “Too Busy to Hate”—where other Abrams yard signs dot my predominately white and likely largely Republican neighborhood—I am praying he has enough kindred spirits to put Stacey Abrams over the top.
5
Perhaps white men in power cannot be replaced. If one studies the history of our country and western civilization, as a whole almost every political leader, every explorer, every military leader, every accomplished scientist, every great artist, etc. has been a white man. Of course there are exceptions in every area but one has to wonder why this is true. Is it part of nature or of some divine design?
3
Aaron Adams- there is no reason to think that white men are smarter or more talented than other humans. They run things because other ethnic groups, along with all women, have been suppressed for hundreds of years. In spite of that, there are plenty of outstanding individuals in all areas who are not white men, and not just a few of them.
For further proof that white men are not superior beings ( that they might be is an outrageous racist concept) just open a newspaper any day of the week. For example, the current crop of Republican "leaders" are a sorry bunch, Aaron! No superiority there. How anyone can contemplate the Trump presidency and still think white people may be superior is inconceivable to me. Besides, race is a false construct in the first place. We are all the same genetically.
3
@Tom Goslin
It’s not an outrageous concept.
While the white population can’t take credit as a collective for the sailship, steamship, combustion engine, the Jet, the rocket ship, powered flight, anti biotics etc etc etc if a homogenous white society is allowed to do its own thing it creates new possibilities for the rest.
1
@Captain Morgan
How are you going to arrive at this homogeneous white society?
1
I’m a white male. I vote against my economic interest, and have done so for my entire adult life. But if America’s youth, America’s minorities, and America’s women don’t get out and vote their own interests this time, I fear my own interest in defending their rights is going to decline. WE think the country’s interests and our collective future is being destroyed, while the people most effected turn the channel. I only have about 40 years left. If those with more to lose can’t get interested, their days of counting on my vote may well end.
5
@George Daniels - Thank you for speaking. I'm going to respectfully point out that voting for affordable education, health care and a clean and safe environment is in everyone's economic interest.
3
What's even more amazing is that after an election, the people purged from voter rolls will be put back on with some lame excuse that the issue was fully investigated and rights restored. Really?! Rights restored? Just in time for them not to count? And the people who do this expect the rest of us to believe they're telling the truth and that people weren't expunged from the rolls because they might not vote the way they were expected to - oh, not at all. (and the rest of us are supposedly being really mean by suggesting the cheaters were biased)
What should happen is that all those people who were expunged should be allowed to vote in the election they should have been allowed to. If that overturns the election, even 6 months, even a year later, so be it. Everything done by the one who should have lost would be now null and void, all decisions, all laws, all appointments, all confirmations, everything - as though the election had just been conducted. Don't like that? Too bad - don't illegally expunge the lists in the first place. However, the reason this keeps happening is that there are no consequences for cheating. The next election is not a consequence, because there's nothing to stop them from doing it again and again and again. Only by stating if adding in those previously unallowable voters overturns the election and the entire slate is reset completely, utterly, will there be serious enough consequences to matter.
Kemp is doing everything he can to suppress the vote. He is legitimately nervous. However, even if he happens to win, his governorship is already tainted. Kemp has already been sued over his handling of absentee ballots. Riding a wave of corrupt voter suppression and racist intolerance into the governors mansion is not a good way to start your term. Kemp is compromised before day one. Hopefully Georgians will save us all the headache and just elect Stacey Abrams the first time. Otherwise, you're looking at six years of government dysfunction.
Have you seen what a no confidence governorship looks like? It's not pretty. Ask Chris Christie.
1
People need to vote! Not tweet or post or whine or pontificate or argue or boycott, but vote.
There is nothing more important than voting. And we've never needed to protect the rule of law, democracy and basic fairness than right now.
4
It's truly a sad day for our country when a political party has members that blatantly focus on and work hard to undermine the very tenets that made our country great in the first place. The GOP has truly gone off the rails and needs to be swept into the dustbin of history asap.
2
When I read the first half of your comment, I thought you were talking about Democrats!
Perhaps the truth lies somewhere in the middle. Trump didn’t win because Obama was America’s best president and Obama didn’t win because W was America’s worse president.
2
I'm crossing my fingers on this one...as my son said to me, a resident of Georgia, "well, Dad, remember, this is still Georgia."
Not being in Georgia, I do not know if this article accurately reflects the campaign or not. I hope it does not.
This is identity politics at its worst. The entire race is represented as between a black female and a white male; not a single word about policies, political history, or anything substantial. I would never vote for a candidate due to pigmentation, genitalia, stories about overzealous security guards from high school. Tell us about what the candidates have actually done; tell us about what they promise to actually do; tell us about how many promises they have kept or broken; but their race, religion, or color is not, and should never be; the centerpiece of an opinion piece or article.
10
There is something going on here in the heart of old Dixie. We have a feeling that Ms Abrams will win and that we can at least celebrate honesty for honesty's sake and the love of service. Mr Kemp is showing himself incapable of either. There is something going on here. There really is.
2
Thank you. Great article. One thing: Simone Weil writes, “the evil lying in the handle of the sword is transmitted to the point of 5he sword.” Let’s not see white supremacists get what they fear, but shock them with what they could not imagine: an end to discrimination—themselves and all treated with mercy.
1
Abrams is an inspiring candidate, and her victory would go a long way to making a lot of people believe voting matters. It would signal a new era of empowerment and rolling back gerrymandering and one party rule in the South.
1
I fear that by constantly referring to Ms. Abrams as potentially the first African-American female governor in American history her more important attributes are being neglected. What about referring to her as the more intelligent, intellectually honest and qualified candidate? Her gender and race may well be bonuses that could serve a form of poetic justice if she unseats the nimrod racist. But don't make the contest about opposites, with race and gender anchoring each side. The support and endorsements should be the type that gives undecided voters in Georgia - the only ones that get to vote - comfort that voting for Ms. Abrams is in fact a vote for the better candidate on the content of her character and intellect, not her genetic makeup.
4
Michelle, you have become my favorite commentator in the NYT. These insane laws need to be rewritten, voting needs to be made easier, not more difficult. A candidate should not be allowed to oversee his own election, a legislator should not be able to write the laws that regulate his own business. A presidential candidate must be required to produce his tax returns, and a president must divest of all private business. This kleptocracy cannot continue to go on unabated. And that doesn’t even begin to address the brazen lying, personal targeting, and nauseating behavior by candidates and office holders.
162
@Garden Girl
Yes but what do Vlad, Netanyahu and Salman care about USA law?
Slavery and separate and unequal were both legal for the colored aka Negro aka black under USA law.
1
Kleptocracy perhaps describes a past state. But now it is time to start using the "f" word:
1.glorification of the state but as having a universe of obligation that extends only to a particular ethnic or cultural group (even if fictitiously defined)
2.glorification of military might and displays of military power, esp. via parades and rallies
3. political use of violence and an ideology that both justifies and encourages political violence
4. State interests are defined as the interests of "the people" (who are narrowly defined as members of the privileged ethnic/cultural group)
5. Corporate interests and state interests seen as aligned and therefore to purport to promote the interests of the people, policies actually promote corporate interests, especially those aligned with equipping the military
6. Valuing the use of state power and political violence against those not part of the privileged ethnic/cultural group and also against all enemices of the state
7. Use of demagoguery and lies to promote the interests of the state
8. Use of autocratic decrees and assertions that such autocratic decrees are consistent with the constitution and prevailing laws
etc.
4
My family goes back in Georgia over 200 years and lived in Georgia until seven years ago. My hope is that Stacey Abrams wins the governor's race and helps the state move forward.
One quirk in Georgia election law might prevent progressive change. Winners must have 50 percent plus or there is a runoff in December. The Libertarian candidate might pull in four percent and neither majority party candidate receives a majority vote.
The law goes back to the 1966 governor's race when neither candidate received a majority. The law at the time called for the state legislature to elect the governor. Dominated by Democrats, the General Assembly selected segregationist/racist Lester Maddox over moderate Republican Bo Calloway.
Many Georgians were embarrassed by the result of a racist in the governor's mansion and the law was changed to a runoff election. Maddox could not run for re-election in 1970 under Georgia law, because of a one-term limit, and a progressive was elected. The new governor, Jimmy Carter, was elected President in 1976.
Sometimes people in Georgia do something right. I'm still proud that I voted for Jimmy Carter in my first Presidential vote.
214
@Joe Wilson
If Abrams wins, any so-called progress with a Republican legislature will be minimal at best.
What is not widely recognized is that Maddox was a surprisingly good governor who's policies in office were quite liberal by today's standards. As a result, he won a landslide victory for Lt. Governor when Jimmy Carter won the governor's race.
6
@Joe Wilson Thanks for reminding this old Georgian that there is a way out of no way. Carter was followed by another son of south Georgia George Busbee. To this day republican Lamar A. (Sen. TN) would tell you that it was Busbee that set in place the pragmatic progressive policies that led to massive foreign direct investment (in autos alone think Toyota, BMW, Mercedes, VW). The jobs and wealth created narrowed all the gaps in wealth, education attainment, childhood health, etc and eventually resulted in Atlanta hosting the largest peacetime global party perhaps to this day, the 1996 Olympics. E. R. Rudolph was simply the rabid howl of the backlash of the white supremacist, talibangelist tribe. Past is prologue. Vote. No reconciliation without truth..
12
@Joe Wilson
Yes but the Stars and Bars flew over all of the Confederacy and the Lost Cause of Rhett Butler mythology.
2
Voter suppression is the great civil rights issue of our time, perhaps as huge as the school integration and segregation of the 50's. But in those day we had a SCOTUS who would rule against it as well as a president who sees voter suppression as a vehicle for his own power. So the people have an uphill fight to gain their rights which as we speak are eroded and defiled. We have only one choice, to band together against this cabal that would make our government into a fascist mirror of itself.
83
Georgia does attract outside interest. One of the Russians who interfered with elections visited Georgia, and Russians hacked into the state's electoral system. Then just today, a bomb was addressed to CNN in Atlanta from the Florida bomber. Pres. Carter called for Kemp to resign from his campaign today, since he has an obvious conflict of interest -- suppressing the vote at the same time he is the main beneficiary.
We will see. I have often observed that many white people in Georgia don't seem to even see the black people around them. They speak and act as though everyone in the state is a white right-wing Republican. They take it for granted.
We are not. We also are Democrats. Many are minorities.
The Civil War is long over. The Trail of Tears happened many years ago. Jim Crow ended. Civil rights in Georgia fought and won many victories.
James Madison almost two centuries ago wrote to the historical Savannah synagogue about America's "perfect equality of rights which it secures to every religious Sect ... Equal laws protecting equal rights, are found ..... as best calculated to cherish that mutual respect & good will among Citizens of every religious denomination which are necessary to social harmony and most favorable to the advancement of truth."
Equal rights.
Mutual respect.
Social harmony.
Advancement of truth.
What nice ideas.
The GOP should try them sometime.
253
@smb
Thank you for remembering the Trail of Tears.
7
@smb "Equal rights. Mutual respect. Social harmony. Advancement of truth."
You neglected to mention freedom, which is far more important to human welfare than any of the others.
4
“Georgia is a blue state if everybody votes,” - America is a blue country if everybody votes.
Anyone that knows me, (sorry about that) knows that I keep on harping about the same thing, and that is that the United States is a decisively Progressive nation, bordering on Socialist. Every single Progressive policy or idea polls wildly popular (even among republicans) and put together work in harmony. (California being a prime example)
All people have to do is vote in the numbers that are proportional to said policies and how they poll. The country could have a truly Progressive tax system where if you made more, then you pay more taxes into the community that allowed you and gave you the infrastructure to achieve wealth in the first place.
The country could have a Single Payer health care system, and an expansion of medicaid, medicare and Social Security. The country could have the best public education system in the world, and free higher education. (like many other countries do) The country could have the best infrastructure in the world, with public transportation and high speed rail. (again like many other countries do)
THERE COULD BE PEACE, with an end to the continuous wars. (think about that one for a moment)
All that has to happen is for that 100,000,000 (that sit on their duffs any given election) to exercise their Constitutionally guaranteed right and vote.
Vote for themselves and vote for their country and future.
369
@FunkyIrishman: I totally agree! To add: What many people should realize is that voting is not only a right, but also a duty in a democracy.
64
@FunkyIrishman
Socialist giveaways are always popular as long as the bill is fronted somewhere else. Math is a weak point on both the left and the right.
8
@FunkyIrishman
Love the optimism, and wish I could agree whole-heartedly. Unfortunately -- though I vote at every opportunity and encourage others to do so -- I and many people have the gerrymander blues, aided and abetted by the dark money depression, which considerably dims our passion, idealism, and ultimately, the power of our individual and collective voices.
Given the tyranny of the minority these days, and the right wing's constant, shameless exploitation of Constitutional loopholes, not so sure that voting can turn the tide anymore towards that progressive society the majority of us want.
But thank you for the positivity; I'll try to feel it more myself, and will do my best to pass it along to others. Cheers.
23
The status of the divide in America has devolved from deportations and sexual assaults to murder. The argument now is not whether a Supreme Court candidate can get away with assaulting a 15 year old girl, but why politicians and media personalities bare no responsibility for inspiring homicidal hate crimes. Quite a steep slide into the abyss of chaos and fascism.
One of the things that I despise the most about white male privilege, especially the Southern conservative kind, is the lack of courage to fight the good fight. To these people, as evidenced by Kemp's words, cheat anyway way you can to win anyway you can. So much for a Southern Gentleman's sense of honor. But then, that was something that existed only in the movies. How much honor is there in owning people?
This is the tree from which Brian Kemp falls. He believes he has a right to cheat because the cause of white supremacy, or white power as I like to call it, is a divine cause.
We can certainly replace that! Now what can we replace it with? How about liberty and justice for all. Kind of a catchy phrase isn't it? Liberty and justice for all. Someone should write that down and use it a some kind of pledge or something.
558
@Bruce Rozenblit I am always heartened by your intelligent, articulate posts. Thank you, Mr. Rozenblit!
72
@LM I agree. Bruce Rozenblit's posts are insightful, thoughtful, articulate and always hit the mark. I look for them first. Thank you!
38
@Bruce Rozenblit Good point: The WIN, or perceived win, is the most important end; additional example, Senate Majority leader, McConnell, a lowlife standing on high ground. Vote democrat 2018, 2020! Going back to the Tea Party, this is nothing more than white people ( I'm a 70 year old white guy) circling the wagons.
14
Although I hope I'm wrong, I believe this may be the last opportunity to re-shape both the House and Senate and make sure Republicans can't entirely and definitively undermine democracy for the foreseeable future. If they retain control of both State and the Federal government, gerrymandering and new laws and policies making it harder to vote will become the norm. Unfortunately I don't believe the DNC is doing enough to inspire people. While Stacey Abrams, Beto O'Rourke and Alexandria Ocasi- Cortez are doing the hard work of getting people excited and registered to vote, they are the exception not the rule among a party that doesn't seem to know what it is FOR. It knows what it is against (Trump), but it hasn't really clearly formulated what it will do if it gains power. How will it address rising income inequality, stagnant wages, the high cost of healthcare, what will it do about crumbling infrastructure and the need for high-wage jobs? What does the Democratic Party stand FOR in 2018?
2
DJT is telling the truth about one thing- elections are rigged and GA is the classic example of election rigging. Unfortunately DJT is forgot the last part of the sentence which "elections are rigged by Republicans". A Republican become elected to an local or state office and suddenly the Republican office holder is totally focus is on election rigging. Passing laws gerrymandering, disenfranchising with required picture voter ID, closing polling stations and reducing the early voting places and hours. DJT for one instance told the truth when he identified the problem of rigging elections but never identified the solution which is voting blue this November.
9
Hope alone is not going to do it. There is a video with McConnell saying he is going to eliminate ACA, Medicare and Medicade. Why are no Dems using that tape along with "we do NOT support this message"? It would be a powerful ad. With Trump and McConnell stacking the courts, don't expect voter suppression to stop any time soon. We have lost our limited biased courts and now many are extensions of the extreme right, including the Supreme Court.
31
@Paul Raffeld
"Why are no Dems using that tape"?
It's because the Democratic leaders who take corporate donations are Republicans, believe it or not. We can and must replace them. If we don't we will continue to lose everything.
Let's all remember what these entitled oldsters did to us. They sat back and napped while a smaller party, the Republicans, took the Supreme Court, the Presidency, the House, the Senate, 70% of State Governorships, and 63% of state legislators. They also allowed Citizens United, the tax giveaway, and the forever Wars. And they've never investigated the integrity of the voting machines.
Worse than the Republicans are the Democratic voters, including Krugman, who praise this leadership.
Anyone who is okay with this extreme losing record is as programmed as any Trumpster. There'll be no change until the Democrats wake up and replace their losing leadership.
But what will happen is the soft-brained Democratic voters will cheer the thin victory of the House, which will make them complacent, ensuring Trump's victory in 2020. In war you always see a glass half empty, not half full.
Name one thing the Republicans have done that's been good for the country and good for the people?
Yet the loser Democrats have lost everything against them. Why?
If you can break through your programming the only clear-eyed explanation for such an amazing record of loss is that the Democratic Leadership - and the Democratic voters - are Republicans.
2
How is it possible this man can run for office while simultaneously overseeing how the election is run in his state? Isn't this a MAJOR conflict of interest??
Stacey Abrams is truly running against all odds and I really hope she is victorious.
27
@sunzari Georgia has no rule against Running for Gov. while Secretary of State. Only one other person has done this. Most gracefully recuse. Kemp wants to win anyway he can. Since his credentials are either missing or non-existent - have read no favorable reviews of his tenure in the Legislature - I guess he has to do whatever he can, conflict of interest or not.
Pres. Jimmy Carter wrote to him asking him to do the right thing. His answer was to smear President Carter.
There's hope. People are voting early. It took me an hour and a half while standing in line and chatting with like minded citizens to cast my vote for Stacey Abrams and the several other Democrats who are on the ballot - at last.
If Georgia doesn't turn blue, or at the very least, purple, it won't be for lack of trying. We have thousands of volunteers working very hard to make it happen.
5
@sunzari Kansas has same problem with Kris Kobach, Mr. Voter Fraud King. He will win hands down in Kansas because he is in charge of counting the votes. All officials in charge of counting votes & overseeing elections who run for another state office (i.e. governor) should have to resign the first job until after the election. Then they can run again to fill their vacated seat.
2
Thank You, Ms. Goldberg, for continually speaking out forcefully about the positive changes that are coming in response to the radical right hate-anger-fear agenda.
WE THE PEOPLE must join forces with the Socially Conscious Women and men we hire/elect on November 6 and every election in the future to restore/preserve true democracy in OUR United States of America. WE must demand they work for 99.9% of us - not the inherited/stolen wealth Robber Barons who have gotten control of OUR governments.
The Good People of Georgia should file a civil lawsuit against Brian Kemp for abuse of power. He must NOT get away with tampering with voter rights. Every American citizen has the right to vote and OUR votes are the most important step in determining what happens in OUR lives.
Money can only buy votes. Mine is NOT for sale.
19
I'll join with others commenting here that it is outrageous that anyone would be overseeing his/her own election. I'm astounded that there is no law against that happening. Laws should be as close to justice, if not fully reflective of justice, as possible. That one doesn't even come close. We've been fighting Gerrymandering here in PA. I hope Jimmy Carter has said something about it. He's still a model of the best in Georgia.
34
@akhenaten2
Don't forget that Kris Kobach, as current Sec of State in Kansas, is also overseeing his own race for governor. And has just as firmly rejected recusing himself from said oversight.
1
@bleurose I hope Mr. Kobach is also getting the same kind of grief for his actions. IMHO he's getting it the old fashioned way: he earned it!
I hope she wins but voter suppression by the GOP in Georgia and many other states makes it depressingly difficult. And the courts aren't helping.
31
I hope she wins. An African American Governor of Georgia would be a greater high-water mark of the tide of destiny than our first biracial President. I promise not Lincoln, LBJ, Wallace, Nixon, or MLK ever envisioned an African American Governor in Georgia only 153 years after the civil war.
Whether she wins or not, getting this close is another sign that time marches on, and generational change is a constant.
38
Stacey Abrams got this old white guys vote.
- Abrams closed by reminding the crowd of Kemp’s views on democracy. “He said he is concerned that if everyone eligible to vote in Georgia does so, he will lose this election,” she said. “Let’s prove him right.” -
* It's unbelievable that Kemp, as Sec. Of State, is in charge of counting the votes.
Voting is the last hope for democracy. I can only hope he doesn't throw the election.
74
@Blue in Green
Thank you. I will try to vote today. It has reached a moral cliff when President Carter -- whose foundation oversees elections abroad -- is asking the GOP candidate to resign.
4
That's right Michelle, if a person white and male, it is ok to hate and dismiss him.
11
@No Aw, buttercup, that's not what she's saying at all. I'm white and male and don't feel remotely threatened by this article or women like Abrams and Goldberg. They remind me of my wife - smart and strong.
6
Only if they've done something to inspire that hatred. Seems like Kemp and his ilk have done that and more, in addition to dismissing the votes of people who disagree with him.
3
@No - it appears you missed the entire point by willfully ignoring the content and context of the article.
He’s not being dismissed as a white male, but as a regressive candidate trying to suppress non-white voters while being in charge of counting the votes as Secretary of State, which is a clear conflict of interest.
3
Yes! We can!
10
Kemp, that political clown manipulating the voter registrations in Georgia is a true disgrace. He and his neighbor, Florida's DiSantis, will surely be mocked by History as the final legs of Confederate States' intolerance and Evangelical hypocrisy.
50
What are whites so afraid of? When the coalition that is the Democratic Party holds power, we enact legislation that benefits all Americans, like the ACA. Nobody in the Democratic Party is talking or even thinking about rounding up rural whites and putting them in prison camps.
55
@Jon
Like ACA
Like Social Security
Like Medicare
— all Democratic legislation
1
@Jon Actually the ACA left out a whole group of people -- the middle class.
Even Bill Clinton talked in 2016 about how "crazy" it was that people working two and three jobs, busting their tails, could not afford health insurance on the ACA marketplaces and made too much money to receive a subsidy. Democrats created and own that problem. The ACA was passed by Democrats. The Democrats just don't care for the working class and middle class all that money.
2
@Maxie Like Obama Social security COLA to the old sick and disabled Lots of zeros and less the 1% Obama last year. Trump COLA 2 2018 and 2.8 2019 Now who really cares ?
1
Why is he allowed to get away with this? Overseeing the votes of his own election quest. What a scam. Republican politics is just one big, fat, scam. Led by the Scammer-In-Chief whose scams are shifting our democracy into an autocracy. Oh, we'll still call him Mr. President - for now. Maybe after the next 'election' win in 2020 we'll all be forced to say Dear Leader. And, as the N. Koreans have to endure constant radio input into their homes and on their streets of their own Dear Leader (who our future Dear Leader just loves), we will have in our future a non-stop, constant voice of our Dear Leader spewing non-stop, constant lies and nonsense. (And I'm exaggerating, but not far-off. We've lived with this man for three years non-stop; it feels like a lifetime).
Are we truly going to continue to let this man change our country so dramatically as to lose our democracy?
One more week.
18
Bravo. Glad to read a piece with some honest optimism in the midst of the vile events that have been taking place, under the cover of this president's bigotry. Please keep on reporting on the slivers of hope. We need to make them grow.
14
I don't understand how one of the persons who's one of the candidates can also be in charge of securing a free and fair election. If the results of the race are close with Abrams losing expect a protracted lawsuit.
34
Go get 'em Stacy! Your victory is another opportunity to put another nail in the Confederacy mindset and strike a blow for equality and anti-racism.
26
Are enough Americans absolutely sick and tired of being led for so long by impotent grumpy old white men who haven't a clue or care about what the rest of America's needs are? Conservative White Republicans have had their day in the sun and they've managed to do nothing but further line their pockets with this nation's riches while the vast majority of Americans go without. When is America, especially the struggling white working class, going to realize they're being bamboozled by the greedy for power mongers like Trump and his Fascist Republican Regime? They've have sown the seeds of Hate and division. It is so long overdue for the rest of US. decent folks to take back their enormous power and bestow it upon elected officials who actually want to do some good for everyone not just themselves. In a week we shall see if enough of America has gotten this warning. Vote against Trump and all Republicans. They have become America's version of Germany's 1930's Nazi. If they are not removed from office the US. is headed down the same road to perdition. Come next week, let US. act before it it too late.
DD
Manhattan
22
@Dennis D. Excellent analysis! Thank you!
2
Democrats really need to tone down the demographic inevitability triumphalism.
First, because it’s not true.
Whites are now about 75 percent of the country. Contrary to predictions of a minority majority in the near future, whites will remain the majority for decades into the future, if not forever.
And if you think Hispanics are the “heroes” of this demographic fairy tale, remember: a. many consider themselves white and b. they are not automatically Democrats. I point to Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, and half of Miami.
Second, it’s creepy, weird, and counter-productive.
“Whites are the majority now, but someday soon we will be the majority and push them aside!” How is that supposed to do anything but frighten whites- especially the vulnerable working class whites who already feel ignored- and make white identity politics MORE appealing?
Instead, how about we focus on politics that can unite a broad coalition of the 99 percent?
Higher wages, higher taxes on the rich, infrastructure projects, an end to endless foreign wars, strengthened Social Security and Medicare?
I’d vote for anyone who supported that. Even a straight white man!
21
@Objectively Subjective That's the policy stuff that mainstream democrats generally support. It does get lost in the dramatic media coverage given to wedge issues, but Democrats do do more than think about trans rights and open borders all day. It's unfortunate the media does not communicate this at all.
That said, it now seems that working class whites would rather vote to express racial grievance than for what would benefit everyone including themselves. It doesn't appear possible to reason with the "alternative facts" of a large number of them so we're mostly resigned to waiting for their influence to fade. It's not a sure bet and further I don't think anyone prefers it this way.
2
@Objectively Subjective Right now, there are 20+ states that have white death rates higher than white birth rates. It is predicted that whites will be a minority by 2040, if not sooner, and that Hispanics will become the majority population.
2
I was born and raised in Jim Crow era GA, where my white liberal family and I proudly marched for Civil Rights. Kemp reminds me of those days. I can see that racist ugliness in his eyes. It's a hatred combined with lust for power at the expense of others based upon the irrational madness that his whiteness makes him better and entitled.
Thank you Stacy Abrams for having the strength and courage and the sheer audacity of hope to push back and stake your claim. You are the better candidate. Kemp has shown his lack of morals and ethics by stealing, lying and bullying his way to power. Abrams shows us that courage and honesty CAN win and break through the white desperation hanging onto power by a thread. I am so encouraged that perhaps the sacrifices made during the Civil Rights era were not in vain.
37
Yes,electing Kemp as Governor, would be a tragedy, a discriminator intent in deepening fear and hate of 'the other'. At a time we need inclusion of all, by recognizing the richness of our diversity, Kemp is an ugly monster seeking revenge and worsening the awful inequality, and poverty, we have now. What a difference with Stacey Abrams, a true patriot dedicated to serve Georgians; not just the few but all of them.
14
The problem with Michelle Goldberg is that she presents a veneer of love but with an undercurrent of hate. The aggrieved or angry white males are always the problem, and people like her the solution. Is this really a plea for change, or more of the same?
18
I'd like to see Stacey win. White guys have been running the show long enough. Let's see what happens when someone different is calling the shots. Could it really be any worse??
Sincerely,
a middle aged white guy
21
I am still looking forward to the day when "analysis" (i.e., opinion) pieces such as this are no longer printed on pages that should contain only news.
Ms. Goldberg brings all the rhetorical power of cable news to the precise place where it is least appropriate.
7
@Sequel Did it occur to you that what you're reading is the OPINION section ?
25
@Sequel - you will find the news you seek on the other pages of this and other newspapers. Ms. Goldberg's column is clearly marked "Opinion" and under her name it clearly says "Opinion Columnist."
It has ever been this way. Lots of pages of news. One or two pages of opinion.
Where have you been?
3
This is the oPINION section. Clearly labeled as such.
2
And if she wins, Mitch McConnell will do the democratic, non-racist, and inclusive thing. He will do everything in his power to wipe her out of the history books. Because he is a true American hero. Georgians need to show who is boss. VOTE.
5
Newsflash! For the white men who are losing out and fear being replaced: YOU WILL BE!
As a septuagenarian, I know I am to be utterly replaced in the not too distant future and to become food for worms. We all will pass on.
What we really fear is change for our descendants with a loss of white male hegemony. But why, dear reader, should we fear this?
We have survived much greater change in our lifetimes already. We have defeated smallpox and polio is close to extermination. We went from phone booths to the all too ubiquitous cellphones. Cross-country travel is no longer an arduous endeavor, easily done in a few hours by air. Shopping is increasingly done online and cash gathers dust in our wallets.
We will always have challenges (see climate change) but with new people to dream and work in our absence, the Next Big Thing might be the equivalent of the moldboard plow in the 19th century.
Time is the fire in which we burn but the light we give off may show others the path ahead.
13
You and everyone else needs to stop talking about "THEM". The is us. "Us" will solve the divide; not dividing the nation into us and them.
Ease up on the tragic rhetoric of condemning your fellow citizens.
8
@Matt The guy in the White House with the bad hair day is who's dividing Us and the US by condemning our fellow citizens. Trump's politics is based on dividing the nation into "them" and "us". His brand of populism can't survive without lying or constructing a boogie man to scare his followers into voting.
1
@Matt That's easy to say when "us" by default translates to: straight, white and christian. A lot of the rest of us have not felt like a part of "US" for some time time now, and it's gotten even worse since Trump came into office. He ran on demonizing immigrants and Muslims and he has consistently attacked African Americans who dare to denounce police abuse/violence or call him out. Trump, the GOP and their voters drew a pretty clear line on the sand, where "us" is clearly not all of us.
2
"In a week, American voters can do to white nationalists what they fear most. Show them they’re being replaced."
If we're to eliminate this poisonous atmosphere of hate, our goal should be not merely to replace the white nationalists, but to love and educate them and invite them into the public discourse.
3
I read much speculation, a story that can not be verified and a clear lie by the prospective governor about "opening the gates".
I assure everyone, there will be no gates opened. I question the truthfullness of the story the candidate is telling about being told "you don't belong here." I can't say that everything stated was a lie, just as I can't say that there aren't any racists out there. What I can say is that this author and the candidate sound as if they are racist themselves. Actively trying to drive a wedge in between races and religions that have been steadily improving over the last several decades. It is truly disgusting, but I shouldn't be surprised by the intolerant progressives. They are total hipocrits and don't care about anyone but themselves.
5
Most of the hate here is anti white as far I can see.
Abrams is a nice thought but she’s going to lose and lose big next week.
The republicans are going to raise the dead to vote, they don’t lose, it’s the Dems that trip right before the finish line.
3
@Crossing Overhead Not this time! Buckle up buttercup! It's going to be a bumpy ride...one way or another.
2
@Crossing Overhead Kemp allowing votes from dead voters??? Yeah there is voter fraud but it is the republicans doing it. In 2016 several voters voted twice because they were told as republicans their votes would be ignored or changed. The documented cases were republicans voting fraudulently. Not millions of illegals.
2
@Crossing Overhead
From the article:
During the primary, he ran an ad boasting that he drives a big truck “just in case I need to round up criminal illegals and take ’em home myself.”
The "criminal illegals" he is talking about aren't white.
It's a sad state of affairs, when a candidate for governor, in any state, would stand with a white nationalist in an anti-muslim T-shirt. It's clear, that he does not respect the rights of others and his biased use of his position as Secretary of State is daily proof. His attempt to disenfranchise the black and brown citizens of Georgia is un-american and unconscionable. This photograph is no different than the pipe bomber's van plastered with hate.
11
The narrative Kemp and the terrorists in Pittsburgh and KY is that whites outnumber people of color, and therefore blacks/Jews/Hispanics will not replace them. One small problem with that small thinking. It assumes that all whites share their horrid views. We do not. Millions of us will vote against this hate, and together with out rainbow friends we will replace them, at least in our government of, by, and for all the people.
We do not need to wait 20 years for a coming demographic shift. we can do what is right in a few days and again in 2020, and de-base this racist base once and for all.
14
Real Clear Politics has Kemp up 1.5% over Abrams in the polls, but the election a toss-up. One way or another, it’s likely to be a squeaker.
However it turns out in a few days, I interpret Michelle’s apparent bloodlust to “replace them” as extremely irresponsible. It’s the kind of warlike mentality that has all of America increasingly frozen in opposed battlefield stances and willing to tolerate just about any action that serves the interests of “their” side. That’s no way to run a nation. The notion that ANYONE can "win" when 50% less a tiny fraction is unalterably opposed to the policies and worldview of the "winner" is just … blind.
One way or another, Georgia will have a highly competent and formidable governor.
Let’s all hope that it can be accomplished without TOO much blood.
6
@Richard Luettgen I find this to be a reasonable comment but I do wonder where is the same humility when you comment about republican exercise of power when they did not even win the popular vote.
4
@Richard Luettgen
As we already know, if there is blood, it will not be because of Michelle's rhetoric.
Michelle is enthusiastically rooting for our democratic institution to work, and to work in the direction of progress.
How is that irresponsible? How is cheering our democratic institutions "no way to run a nation?"
How, O supporter of your "useful tool," trump?
Kemp openly said he hopes democracy DOESN'T happen.
And Michelle Goldberg is the one you're painting as partisan?
Once again, your sympathies -- and rhetoric in service of them -- are plainly shaped and skewed by your ideology --- even as you dismiss anyone who dares to criticize or correct you as being crassly ideological.
For me, "We can replace them" is the 'battle cry' upon which our country and its democratic institutions were founded, and the very rationale and enthusiasm that makes them worth defending.
Strange that you have a problem with that.
The minority presently in power would of course like everyone else to tone it down and be 'civil,' even as the names of many of those who are enthusiastic for democracy as a means of peaceful transfer of power are scrubbed from the rolls.
How bloodthirsty those who would replace the ones in power are! What "bloodlust!" How gauche!
Meanwhile, could you tell your favorite twittertarian to stop inciting deadly violence? And maybe we don't have to rush over 5,000 troops to the border to defend against a diminishing group of 3,500 people who are weeks away?
4
@Richard Luettgen They will be replaced because there's no way to continue on the way it is! We are in opposing battlefield stances now. We have been forced to be so. It is not a question of "our" side or "their" side. It's a question of the survival of our Democratic Republic. Kemp is a crook. The only way he can win is to CHEAT. If he wins, Georgia will have lost!
1
Good policies help people of all races.
Good policies win votes. Votes win elections.
2
I am a White person. I like other White people, to include my family--particularly my kids--friends etc. Why would I vote to be replaced? Why would I vote alongside someone like Michelle Goldberg who clearly doesn't like White people very much?
13
The thing with "embodied cognition," Ms. Goldberg is identity theft. Let's try to unite the country in our diversity and stick to the idea that a human being is an end good as is education. Not a means for a political end.
I believe in absolutes.
1
The upcoming election in Georgia is all about demographics. Half the state’s population lives in metropolitan Atlanta. And Atlanta’s population is majority black. The rest of the state is mostly white. Per capita income is 33rd in the country. And whites are substantially better off than blacks.
Georgia’s demographics are unusual. Atlanta is, by far, the largest southern urban area in the country and it has the largest black population.
Georgia’s demographics are unique and they. will largely decide the outcome of the election.
2
This column doesn't paint an accurate picture. Stacey Abrams is an intelligent hard working politician with a bright future. But not as Georgia's next Governor. She was always a long shot at best. That may sound harsh but the demographics are against her. This state has been solidly Republican since 2002. The current GOP governor Nathan Deal won his 2014 race 53%-45%. Georgia's electorate is composed mostly of solid Democrats & solid Republicans, with very few persuadable voters. Lets set aside the challenges of a black woman being elected governor anywhere in America, particularly in the South. Lets also set aside the insanity of running a Progressive in a state where the last Democratic contender Jason Carter a liberal lost by 7.9%, receiving 44.9% of the vote. Kemp doesn't need to rig the Georgia election. He's going to win decisively. He always was. The “exact match” program could end tonight it still wouldn't matter. The math is against Abrams. To win she needs white liberals in the state turning out at much higher rates than white conservatives. That hasn't happened in the past 16 years. Mathematically it's impossible. White liberals are on the endangered species list in Georgia. Democrats are panicking because their strategy to win the midterms is coming apart. It's been one blunder after another. messy judicial hearings, calls to impeach,the Heidi Heitkamp apology, Elizabeth Warren DNA tests, Hillary & the caravan. One week to go and the momentum is in Trump's favor.
Jimmy Carter, who supports Ms. Abrams, rightfully called for the Republican nominee for Georgia's governor to resign post haste as Secretary of State, the office that controls Georgia's election and imposed the most effective voter suppression effort in the nation. Mr. Kemp and the Republican power structure laughed it off, gearing themselves for a Trump rally this weekend. Atlanta's media from newspapers to TV news have revealed a purge of registered voters by the Republicans in control, the largest number in U.S. history. Minorities are the victims.
Topping off these anti-democracy practices is the image from Republican Kemp's TV ads showing him pointing a shotgun at a young boy. Not since the days of segregationist governor Lester Maddox passing out axe handles to racists has Georgia been subjected to such overt and potentially dangerous campaigning by public officials.
5
I feel sorry for Kemp's two young daughters in the picture. Then again, I felt the same way about Kavanaugh's girls.
3
I despise the term "white nationalism." The phrase is used to avoid the more accurate word- racism. When Trump proudly proclaims that he is a "nationalist", his core supporters know what he means. Those who studied the history of Western Civilization know that nationalism lead to imperialism, and understand the horrors resulting from nationalism including genocides (i.e. American Indians), colonization leading to the plunder of natural resources and inhumane treatment of residents, two World Wars, etc. Nationalism is an evil political policy. White Nationalism is doubly evil.
2
I imagine the joy and hope you felt attending the rally in Atlanta only to have it shattered as hate came raging back again.
Watching Sarah Sanders today as she asked the press to stop blaming Trump for the tone and temperature of your country sickened me. To predictably pull out the Bernie Sanders/Steve Scalise argument to somehow legitimize Trump's vitriol just further insults the victims.
So, tomorrow, Trump will put on his best impression of sincerity, go to Pittsburgh (using Melania for cover) and pretend to care.
2
I'm sitting here trying to imagine what it would be like to hate strangers because of their skin color, or because they are male, or because they are gay, or worship a certain type of god, or otherwise don't look or act as I do. And I just can't. I don't see how other people foster that kind of hatred in themselves. And I don't see why they would want to, either. It takes so much energy to sustain that kind of negativity. Aren't there better things in life to do, besides waste it hating other people?
Why are so many focused on disliking their fellow human beings? What is it about some people that they just can't live and let live? What is the point of hatred? What does it prove? How does it help our society to thrive?
It really makes no sense to me at all.
3
The majority of American voters, white and black and brown and every other color of the rainbow, is appalled by the radical right turn this country has taken. The problem is that our federal government, now held in a death grip by ‘conservatives,’ does not reflect the will of the majority.
Voter suppression and gerrymandering are part of it; but this also is baked into the Constitution, which gives the 600,000 residents of the state of Wyoming, and Wyoming’s flyspeck of an economy, the same voice in the Senate as 40 million residents of California, with an economy ranked fifth largest in the world.
And it’s baked into the Electoral College, which gives sparsely populated, regressive states in the South and Midwest disproportionate power to select our President.
As a result, this country’s politics now are dominated by a minority of people who would be more comfortable living in the post-Reconstruction era Jim Crow states of the Deep South - and those people aren’t just living in Georgia, Alabama, and the other states south of the Mason-Dixon line. When benighted racists like Steve King and sanctimonious right wing scoundrels like Duncan Hunter have the upper hand, something is rotten in the state of Denmark.
The rot is systemic; and I doubt we have the will, or the ability, to reform the system short of a civil war.
2
All the best to Stacey Abrams. I am not from Georgia, but after viewing a Kemp ad, I know he is wrong for Georgia and wrong for America.
3
Politicians like Kemp stem from a large segment of the white population in the South that, truth be told, never regretted slavery, never regretted the Civil War, refused to believe that they lost, and declined to seek a way inward to expunge these traits from his or her makeup afterward. In other words, he is an unrepentant racist.
That the South, 150 years after they lost their immoral Rebellion, can not evolve toward a race neutral society, implies some deep-seated genetic traits at work. Something intolerant and mean that all whites do not have. These traits have had sticking power, but only in the context of a society in thrall to an old legend which no longer exists. It must come to pass that these traits no longer have evolutionary value, and those who adhere to them, fall further and further behind. We may be at that historic inflection point soon. Finally.
5
Who is "we"?
My paternal black African ancestors were enslaved in Georgia just east of Atlanta. And they were owned by and mated with my white European ancestors. After William T. Sherman came by they were no longer slaves.
But they were separate and unequal. Even after the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments. They made a real and symbolic exodus to new communities away from where they were enslaved.
My college educated paternal grandparents fled Atlanta for the South Side of Chicago in 1930. After the son of a friend was shot to death in front of his mother for sassing a white woman.
Most of my family is still in Georgia. Mainly in Atlanta and environs. But they are also in Augusta and Savannah. They will be voting for Stacey Adams.
4
"an embittered white conservative minority clings to power, terrified at being swamped by a new multiracial polyglot majority"
In the past, the white majority remained majority by redefining white to include a majority. That is how Catholics and Jews got to join the WASPS in being white for political purposes.
Next it will be more, perhaps Asians and some Hispanics will join the majority.
There is one constant out-group of ~15%, African Americans. Even those individuals who get invited inside the tent are tokens, outsiders. Does anyone imagine Kanye became "one of us" in his Oval Office visit?
There has never been a stable "multi-racial polyglot majority." That is the ultimate power of the white majority -- they can let in just enough to hang on.
7
Give people something to vote FOR, and specifically, something that will enhance and better their lives, and they will come out in droves to vote. Bernie Sanders demonstrated that strategy in the 2016 election, when a little known senator from a small New England state made up a 60 point deficit against an opponent, filled stadiums, and won 23 states, only to lose because the Democratic primary was rigged (thank you Donna Brazile for having the courage to reveal this about your DNC). He also polls as THE most popular politician in the country. You want to win? Follow his example: Medicare for all (hugely popular, even with a majority of Republicans), cheaper perceptions drugs by allowing them to be imported from Canada (bipartisan supported, even by Ted Cruz for Pete's sakes, but bill torpedoed by Big Pharm bought Cory Booker), free public college (like it use to be, basically), a living wage-$15 minimum wage, end the wars and reinvest that money back into a green new deal infrastructure program. Five things to run on to win. Vote against something, as appealing as it would be to see Trump and his cronies out, and you just won't generate the enthusiasm. Democrats need to stand for something. Pelosi's strategy of waiting for the ebb and flow of Party change in congress is old school and has been a disaster, causing the Democrats to be wiped out at every level of government. People have caught on. Identity politics will no longer work.
7
@FXQ
Aren’t you a little behind the times?
Even Republicans are now supporting Sanders’ agenda - or, at least, so they say.
1
Lord knows I hope Stacey Abrams wins her governorship race. But if she doesn’t, and if her loss is substantial enough that it would seem to preclude election chicanery, I hope that Michelle Goldberg and other liberal columnists will re-consider their aversion to dissecting our opponents’ best arguments rather than their worst impulses. It’s at least possible that many GOP-voting white Georgians would vote for a Herman Caine for governor; while they hardly deserve applause for that, we should perhaps engage with them on matters of policy as a first choice. Perhaps that approach would win us more converts. We might need them, after all.
3
There has got to be something better than people politics. VOTE ISSUES, ONLY. End the nightmare of popularity contests. People are people-it does NOT work.
2
If Kemp wins, it will be outright theft of the election.
15
Just want to thank Ms. Goldberg (and the few other journalists) who've spent time reporting on Georgia politics this mid-term season. As a lifelong Georgia Democrat I felt completely ignored in the 2016 election, when the state became a real fly-over between North Carolina and Florida. Guess that old saying about having to fly into Atlanta to fly anywhere else is no longer true. I'm glad Georgia is now in the spotlight - I think we have a real chance to break away from the typical Southern State stereotype.
30
I don't know how often a sitting Secretary of State has run for a different state-wide office. But there really ought to be a provision that says he has to recuse himself and have someone else (who, I'm not sure) fill in as acting SOS.
It's an obvious conflict of interest to be counting the votes and certifying the results in your own election. I'm not saying Kemp would cheat (especially with all eyes on him), but the "appearance of impropriety" is always there. If the vote count is especially close or contested (like Florida 2000), it won't be pretty.
172
@Wiener DogFrom his past performance in this post, there's no doubt Kemp will cheat!
11
@Wiener Dog
Kemp's office doesn't count votes. That's done at county level (all 159 of them).
3
@Wiener Dog
I'm saying he will, willingly cheat. Not by stuffing ballot boxes, but by devious and insidious ways.
11
Here's a possible solution to the issue of the Confederate statue at Stone Mountain: leave it there to mark one point in the history of race, but add one of Barak Obama.
27
@Mira
Better yet, erect statues and monuments commemorating the people put in chains in slavery and the people who escaped slavery to join Union forces to fight these Southern patriots who were fighting to keep people in chains and slavery. Start with Stone Mountain. Then build everywhere in the South with a building campaign to match the southern campaign to build monuments in the 1920's to commemorate the Lost Cause. Let people see what the Lost Cause was fighting for & teach that in history & in town centers and capital throughout the South.
3
@Mira Your suggestion offends me. Mr. Obama doesn't even deserve to walk on any hallowed ground where brave men shed their blood, let alone to have his effigy on Stone Mountain!
@Mira It would mean more to Georgians if it were Martin Luther King Jr. with Coretta S. King and perhaps Andy Young and John Lewis at his side.
Even if Democrats don’t take both houses of Congress on Tuesday, a partial antidote to this most poisonous of presidencies can still be dispensed by Georgia and Florida voters.
50
Guess what? Georgia is cool. Seriously, if the vote gets counted properly, Georgia will show its newer truer color. It is blue, which goes very well with red and white.
64
If the vote gets counted correctly ?
2
Here's a suggestion for Democrats hoping to build on Hillary's 2016 impetus in red states and appeal to more white voters:
Refer to qualified candidates like Ms. Abrams as "Ms. Abrams" and not as "the first black female governor in GA state history."
81
@Paul
I very much like your idea, Paul, but not for the reason you have stated. If, in any way you are meaning a strategy of "Shhhhh, don't let anyone know she's black", that's just as bad as what the press IS doing.
But you have highlighted an incongruency in Michele's column, and in those of similar media types. Michele continually tells us that race and gender don't matter, that they are irrelevant when considering a candidate's qualifications, and then the first thing she does is highlight Ms. Abrams race and gender.
Why does she not point out that Mr. Kemp would be the "70th white male governor in GA state history"?
6
@Paul Have white Republican southerners decided that they need to put away the Confederate flags and nolstalgia and reflexive anti-Black rhetoric to appeal to more Black voters?
To ask the question is to answer it.
If Abrams wins she will be the first Black female governor in the history of Georgia. That's a fact. Why should facts be held hostage to white fragility?
5
@Lilo
Republicans don't need a whole lot of black voters to win in most red states.
There are some states Democrats have not won in decades because they cannot appeal to white voters.
The issue is not the "fact" of Ms Abrams gender (which we know from her name) or her race (which we can see).
It is the disrespect SHE receives when reduced to race and gender as a rallying cry to vote for her.
Ms. Goldberg, thanks. I hope you're right. I fear that voter suppression across the country and the deliberate tamerping of easily hacked electronic voting devices (really, have we become so lazy that we can't count paper ballots and must leave the fate of our democracy up to some proprietary software under the command of some faceless corporate functionary?) will greatly skewer the true will of the electorate. Republicans are counting on it. Can we stop them? or is the fix already in?
41
Let me be clear, I'm a liberal and a Democrat. But this opinion piece is not helpful to our cause, and Abrams it's not the ideal candidate for governor of Georgia. The author plays up race and victimhood. Just what we don't need to win over independent voters. Just what Trump and his minions do need to fire up their base. Do we want to p stop Trump andbecome the ruling party again,or do we want to play identity politics, which is a losing game for us. Despite what the author says or implies, whites are the majority in the country and in Georgia Fully 74% of Voters in this country are white, and a significant number of Blacks and Hispanics vote for Republicans or don't vote and won't this time either We can sit on the demographics egg and wait for it to hatch, or we can face the political facts. Across the land more evangelicals vote than either Blacks or Hispanics. At this moment we must broaden our appeal tp middle and working class whites, beginning by nominating White center-left candidates, particularly in the South. Again, right now neither demographics nor identity politics are on our side. Wake up and smell reality.
17
@ron l Let me be clear: I'm certain your concern is genuine. But let me be equally clear that your prescription for electoral change in southern states such as Georgia and South Carolina is not new. Nor has it ever proven effective per electing more progressive leadership for states such as ours---states desperately in need of progressive leadership in order to lift themselves out of the muck in which they have been mired for far too long---forever is, after all, far too long.
I have watched South Carolina Democrats nominate white, left-of-center (barely) candidates for state office for years. And I have watched them go down in flames for that same number of years. It will happen again this year. And there is no reason to be optimistic about 2022.
You're wrong about Stacey Abrams. She is a good, compelling, progressive candidate. As to identity politics, have you not yet figured out that identity politics is and always has been primarily the province of the white power structures that have, in subtle and non-subtle ways, used it to solidify the bloc of white voters they have needed to remain in power---all the while accusing candidates of color of playing identity politics?
I appreciate your apparent concern that "now is not the time." But I can only ask, "If not now, then when?" Or, better, to paraphrase the Old Testament plea spoken so eloquently by Dr. King, "How long, O Lord? How long?"
46
Wait, I'm confused. Is Brian Kemp left of center? Am I missing something?! Is there a clear alternative here? Because if there isn't waking up and smelling reality isn't really the point in this particular race.
3
@ron l: I'm an older white woman in older, white Maine and I LOVE Stacy Abrams. And all the African-American women who will save this country. To put it bluntly. THEY are the backbone of this country.
If I had monetary resources, I would have gone to Georgia just to help and aid African-American women. People should bring folding chairs for the long (unnecessary) lines, water, sandwiches, help them out if they have to miss work to do their constitutional duty (which the R's try to suppress in many and clever ways).
Go Stacy! And thank you, Michelle!!
5
Right on Ms. Goldberg. Imagine for a moment if a black Secretary of State running for governor refused to recuse himself or herself in the event of a recount. There'd be cries of racism - from aggrieved whites - and charges that the candidate faced a conflict of interest. Kemp's actions are brazen and transparent. He should pay a price for his own racist statements and conduct.
36
@Arthur Larkin: Imagine a Lt. Governor of a state, R. owning all the Diebold machines - with no paper back-up. That happened in Ohio in 2004, giving Ohio and the presidency to Bush. Kenneth Blackwell was the guy's name. Our voting rights are not secure in this country.
4
and how we want to be in that numbah, when the saints go marchiin' in . . .
7
Many white men seeking office have no concern for any of the constituency who are perceived as being less than snow white.
At a very childish level this is understandable, but these men purport to be adults which prompts me to ask just who they actually represent?
Clearly it isn't the majority, but then in our gerrymandered, ballot deleted, democracy who needs a majority in order to win?
16
Bigotry stereotyping “white men” is as bad as bigotry stereotyping any other group.
3
When you have to cheat to win, you don't deserve to win.
74
Stacy Abrams offers a ray of hope in Georgia; I pray she prevails over Kemp.
But how do we protect ourselves from a President who appears to be inciting his "fellow nationalists" in their domestic terrorism activities?
We fight racism; we fight ISIS and Islamic terrorism - both with a fair degree of success. But Trump is taking our democracy to a new and dangerous place. The President is the de facto leader of these domestic terrorists much as he tries to put distance between him and them once they act.
Its almost like he said about the payment to Stormy Daniels - I don't know about any payment ... you have to ask Mike Cohen. Except he did authorize the payments.
Its the same here. Implausible denials don't cut it anymore. Time to call out Trump for what he is - the White Nationalist terrorist leader.
Vote.
28
Mark your calendars. Get to the voting booth.
13
@honestDem: I'll make it easier for you. Don't even have to mark your calendars. Go vote today!
1
By the way, I watched that debate. Stacey Abrams kicked that little weasel’s tail up and down the stage. I wish I lived where I could vote for her. I’d be proud to have somebody that smart and knowledgeable and disciplined as my governor.
And before you ask, O Trumpists, why yes, I do in point of fact understand such things better than you. Far better, as it happens. If you’re offended by this, sorry. By all means, prove me wrong, and the best of luck to you.
Go, Governor Abrams!
96
The US population is indeed changing and with it one hopes the politics will follow. However, the system at present allocates political power in such a way that it does not reflect the population. It is biased in favor of great wealth and non-urban areas. Overcoming that bias may take decades given that the judiciary has been steadily subverted by Republican control of Congress. We can expect enormous resistance to any change that reflects the wishes of the majority.
18
I agree. And we won. Then what? Trump will say rigged everything. Our only hope was Mueller and he's too tied to his own party to have made the difference.
2
@Mixilplix Let him spew. While there are crazies who support him, most people who support him are really NOT gun-carrying wackos (I know a bunch of them). We will move on. It's what we do. He will still have the numbers he has, but he will not win re-election if we can convince enough voters to vote.
1
Let’s hear it for from many, one. Now more than ever. And let’s remember Dr. Jerry Rabinowitz, who was, and is, what the hopeful who founded America hoped this country would be, and can be better than still.
14
Do not underestimate the power of power. If outright suppression is what it takes the Republicans will go there. There is nothing inevitable about changing demographics. If the right has the power to do so, it will take whatever steps are necessary to stay in power - and that includes permanent measures to dictate who is allowed to vote. If we do not win in 2018 we may not get a second chance.
28
I hope that our better angels win. I'd like to live in a country where I'm not wondering when the next senseless massacre is going to happen. I'd like to have adults running the government, not demagogues, not a Toddler in Chief, and not people who can't be bothered to listen to their constituents because it's more fun to listen to their rich donors.
But I'm very concerned that this won't happen. No one seems willing to take the GOP and Trump to task for what they are doing to this country. No one in the government seems interested in protecting we, the people. This election is about more than one person. It's about what we want America to be: a democracy or an oligarchy where 99% of us are ignored at every turn.
What we need to do is ask ourselves if we can live in a country where no one group dominates it the way whites did or still want to. If we can't we need to look at why because the future for America isn't white, Protestant, or all male. It's female, male, LGBTQ, multi-racial, varying degrees of religious, and probably noisy but, with luck, in agreement on how to move forward.
38
If Mr. Kemp wins, it will likely be not because he is the most popular, but because he held the power to restrict the rights of many citizens to vote.
141
@dairyfarmersdaughter
what better way to taint he outcome of one;s election than by publically ethically cheating in plain view?
VOTE!
4
@dairyfarmersdaughter Feel as you like about the election in GA, but do not state or even imply that anyone restricted or is restricting anyone else's right to vote. That is a lie - anyone can vote in GA if they have an ID. The exact match law only meant that you needed to bring an ID - and those on the list have received multiple letters from the state; most have responded so the count that keeps being published is wrong. I don't know if Kemp or Abrams will win, not a great option in my opinion. But, he does not hold the power to restrict voters. Period. And for Goldberg and the NYTimes to continue to perpetuate that falsehood is what equates to fake news.
1
It is important to remember that Donald Trump is President because of those who voted for him, and those who didn't vote. The Republicans can maintain power in Congress based on those who vote for them and those who don't vote. None of this would be a thing if there was 100% Democratic voter participation every year.
34
One can hope that Stacy Abrams wins the Georgia Governorship AND support U.S. border security.
I do.
8
@Will,
Stacey Adams clearly supports sanctuary policies for Georgia. It is only fair to assume she would also support a national "open borders" policy as well.
11
@batazoid No it is not fair to assume. Stop with the propaganda. Open borders does not mean letting everyone in, it means following the strict laws in place for accepting immigrants. Gee not a mystery which party you are in. I so hope Stacey Adams wins because she is progressive and will not take big donors' money and will serve the regular folks of Georgia, what a strange idea I know. I do not suppose you were a bit moved by the story she told about being refused admittance to a event in her honor as a valedictorian at the governor's mansion simply because she was not white. I am white and that story stabbed me in the heart.
I cannot wait till whites are replaced by the others. When I think of all the terrible wrongs the white race has done to other races in this country I want to throw up.
And here is the deal, the scared and cowardly white folks are just big babies and afraid that they will get the same cruel treatment that they gave out, when they lose control and they will lose control. Hello to a nation of different shades of brown. But most of the people we, the white race used and tortured will not treat us whites in the same fashion, because the oppressed have empathy and compassion. Hard for racists to understand, but that is what oppression does. Horrible way to learn compassion but you do. Oh see I know it a little I am a woman and old to boot!
5
The author characterizes the Republican as the "candidate of aggrieved whiteness" whom she associates with various murders. The Democrat on the other hand is portrayed as the correct candidate because she is Black.
This is an opinion piece so the author is entitled to have this opinion. But let's not pretend that it's only Trump and his deplorables who form opinions based on race.
17
@Wiener Dog
Stacy Abrams is not correct due to her ethnicity.
She is right because of her policies and views on how humans can treat one another.
38
@Wiener Dog If Abrams was white and progressive, this article would read and resonate the same. Kemp is the one selectively culling out voters hy race.
24
@Wiener Dog
This opinion piece discusses race and the Georgia election because voter suppression in Georgia is being carried out by Republicans because of race.
I'll take any bet that Ms. Goldberg is well aware of Stacey Abrams' many, many outstanding qualifications and experience to serve as the next Governor of the State of Georgia, all of which have nothing to do with her being African American. (perhaps you are not, thus your particular form of reductionism that, it seems to me, is not applicable).
5
It is just so simple. Anyone who can vote, just vote. The numbers vote will change leadership.
24
@ Richard: it’s not ‘irresponsible’ or ‘bloodlust’ to want to replace them.
I live in Charlottesville and when Trump won, we marched with pink hats on DC. All over Facebook those hats are denigrated.
When white supremacist’s marched through my town, they brought torches and were prepared for a fight with guns, homemade weapons and the language of hate.
I marched with a cardboard sign on a paper towel holder reinforced with packaging tape.
What you are doing is what Trump loves: moral equivalency.
Taking them down through the voting process is the most patriotic and satisfying thing I can think of at this time.
228
I'm waiting for Ms. Goldberg to opine on the Senate race in New Jersey. Does she support the corrupt Mr. Menendez? Or would she encourage Democrats in New Jersey to do what Republicans in Alabama did when they were faced with a candidate with serious ethical questions - stay home.
8
@J. Waddell
It is very easy for us NJ voters this year, we can learn from the successful Rep example over years: vote entirely Dem. Hold your nose and vote Dem.
This is not a time to self-inflict wounds. We know that.
Next primaries will determine is Menendez stays there forever. For now, we have to save the country.
Republicans have clearly demonstrated they are not interested in country.
4
@J. Waddell
in this time period I'll take Menendez over ANY Republican
the republican PARTY has shown (see Susan Collins aka "moderate", in reality fraudulent party line hack) to be closed to any idea that doesn't tow the leader's line of racism and hate
it is spineless and amoral
contrast that with the Democratic Party, not afraid to censure their own , or even have them resign (Al Franken)
besides it's a pluralistic party, accepting of anyone who is not closeminded
in a less fraught time, I'd vote for a real moral opponent to Menendez. this is not that time and the republicons are not that party
Menendez witout blinking
2
@J. Waddell
Goldberg already did so in a previous column where she stated she'd vote for her worst enemy over any Republican. She added she' never voted for a single Republican in her life.
1
If Abrams wins, the coalition she has built will mark a political sea change in the South. Same if Gillam wins in Florida. If they lose the coalitions they have formed will keep on working together and getting stronger. Times up! There is no stopping this caravan!
85
@BB Fernandez
Dream on... black folks know better. See Obama, Barack and Trump, Donald.
We have elected an African American man for president, Surely it is long past time to elect an African American woman as governor of Georgia.Ms.Abrams has an impressive list of accomplishments and honors AND she got her law degree from Yale.A white man with her credentials would be a shoo in.She would be an outstanding representative for her state- I hope they are wise enough to elect her.
25
While I hate any limit on free speech, can I ask affluent white leftists to end their “woke” habit of calling for the end of “white supremacy” and attacking their fellow white people (well, at least the conservative ones)? While all “progressives” suffer from a nauseating arrogance, this habit is especially heinous, and does little to endear them to minorities, who can smell a fraud a mile away, and further alienates middle and blue collar whites, who don’t need to be lectured on how racist they are. Such lecturing is especially hypocritical considering how white Gentry Leftists (like Michelle) sneer at white suburbanites while they displace minorities in places like Brooklyn, and then extol “how much the area has improved” as bodegas are replaced by avocado toast merchants.
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@Achilles
That’s probably my favorite non sequiter of the day.
You’re concern form the “great unwashed” is palpable.
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@Achilles
I agree. Smugness is not only irritating, it is dangerously counter-productive.
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@Achilles
Similar scenario regarding once but no longer blue collar Edgewater.
7
Forget about rebuking white nationalism. Having a leader who can promote the interests of Georgia's middle class would be victory enough.
Does the middle class need a safety net?
Does Obamacare do that?
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“ Abrams’s goal is to put together a coalition of African-American and other minority voters and white liberals. The potential is there; Georgia is less than 53 percent non-Hispanic white. “Georgia is a blue state if everybody votes,”
The assumption, of course, being that ‘minority voters’ only vote for one party. And how do ensure that? Stoke resentment and appeal to tribalism. The message being sent? You are not part of a greater ‘America’, you are part of a hyphenated tribe and membership in this tribe is the most important social contract you have.
So much for “e pluribus unum”
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@JB
You have clearly learned at Trump's knee, JB. Blaming Abrams for "stoking resentment and appealing to tribalism"? Seriously? That's Trump's MO in a nutshell. And the notion that a constituency that has been ignored and denigrated should nevertheless vote as if it were part of a "greater 'America'" (by which I assume you mean, vote Republican, and they're not the same thing) is right up there with Trump's advice to black voters in 2016, "What have you got to lose?" I would suggest that a democratic victory would help us create a much greater "greater 'America'" and the only members of the tribe who would be discomfited by it would be the 0.1%. And they can afford it.
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Fear of the vox populi is the mark of governmental incompetence. If so many of our elected public officials are actually fighting for our interests, then it would stand to reason that more of our interests would have been addressed by now.
If your local representatives are telling you that there is no way to pay for your healthcare, or vocational training, or to ensure higher wages, they’re lying. Greed and corruption are the biggest obstacles to more of America’s population having a chance to thrive.
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If she wins, the winning will be the easy part. The hard part will be governing with a Republican-controlled legislature and Republicans controlling Washington. I hope Ms. Goldberg will not forget her if she wins. Brian Kemp and his bros are not going away. There will be a lot of country club good old boys in Georgia and Congress who will be glad to help her fail.
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Hopefully, the voters in Georgia won't vote for a person's skin color but rather the person with the best ideas for the people of the state. Ms. Abrams is a socialist with policies outside the mainstream. The President has restored our faith in the American Dream for all Americans and dispatched the Democrat idea of limited prosperity for all and government dependence. Running down the best economy in a generation is a fools errand, obviously the Democrats have a deep bench.
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What’s wrong with socialism? Social Security, Medicare and unemployment insurance are all forms of socialism.
Let’s see a tax cut that gives the already wealthy more money and the working class crumbs ( crumbs that by the way go away in a few years)that’s capitalism for you.
I‘ll take ‘socialism’ over the GOP/ Trump capitalism any day.
I wish people really knew what socialism is before they use the word.
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@Martin Lennon
A simple reply to the right's accusation of those on the left of advocating socialism. The reply is:
" No we're not advocating socialism. Look up the word in the dictionary dumbo. You will find that the word means 'the means of production are owned by the state.' No one on the left is advocating that."
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I voted on the second day of early balloting.
Straight Democratic Ticket.
Let them eat their Stars and Bars along with their MAGA hats.
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The Anti-Defamation's 2017 data on hate crimes show that 3/4 of them are committed by those on the Right. And those on the Left? A whopping 3%. There is no equivalence here. And all the talk of ethnic cleansing is coming from the Right, with a "president" who thinks they are some very fine people.
Just today Sessions claimed a Federalist Society (hardly a leftist organization) function attendee "attacked" him. What did the attendee say? “Brother Jeff, as a fellow United Methodist I call upon you to repent, to care for those in need..." The man, who had been invited, was then forced to leave the event. Now in my view, gunning down eleven elderly Jewish people in a synagogue looks much more like an attack. And Republicans' response to that? Well, we're back to the "violence on all sides" lies.
As long as Republicans control the discussion, they win. So we must wrest this debate from them. They want to intimidate those of us who are ethnic and religious minorities, the LGBTQ community, and women "who don't know their place". And because they have no good arguments in support of racism, sexism, homophobia, or xenophobia, they must resort to the use of force.
We are in the beginning throes of white, Christian America's last gasp at retaining total control of this nation. Trump voters don't want "dialogue". They don't want to share this great nation with the rest of us. We must wrest this nation free from their control. Why? Because literally, our lives depend on it.
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Voter suppression is the last refuge of political scoundrels without a winning agenda.
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In America, political revolutions take place in the voting booth. Please get out and vote for a better future.
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Nationwide if every eligible Democrat votes they can not lose. If...
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There is a sudden outbreak of violence towards minority groups. The murders in Pennsylvania and Kentucky shows a disturbing trend where White Nationalists are lashing out at perceived threats from Jews and African Americans. The President goes on air and on social media to stoke fears about the approaching caravan of refugees using incendiary rhetoric. There is an absence of true leadership in this country and as a result we are regressing.
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I sure hope Stacey Abrams wins. But I used to live in Atlanta, and I can tell you from experience the white republicans there won't be defeated without a massive fight. Forget about voter suppression - they'll change votes outright. They'll throw away democratic votes. And without an audit trail they'll probably continue to get away with it. The only way an honest election will occur in the state of GA is if the National Guard is in every single polling location, they vote with paper ballots, and they manually count every single vote. If this doesn't happen, you can expect Kemp to win by a small percentage (just enough to not trigger a recount), with massive discrepancies in post vote exit polls.
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@markymark: I have been thinking about what happens if there are 'massive discrepancies in post vote exit polls' and the vote, not just in GA but in every state where there are no paper back-ups.
What will the Democrats do? Roll over and play dead? Or challenge, challenge, challenge?
We know what Trump would do. Hopefully we will see Dems fight back and challenge results if there are large discrepancies.
Rs don't mind cheating to win - because they have no shame. "Anything to win" is what our fake president says. "We won didn't we?" no matter the horrible moral failings it took to get there and no matter how it diminished our country. Winning is everything to them because they know demographics are not on their side and they only have another two decades to solidify power. They now have the Judiciary with all the judges McConnell slammed through after blocking all of Obama's federal bench judges and, of course, Garland.
This is it, people. If there is a chance to save America, it is now and now only - save our democratic republic.
2
@markymark Excuse me, but no one is throwing out votes. They are counted county by county. We did have voter fraud in ATL when Reed was elected - over 700 votes from non-residents, but the city said to move on. He ran against a white woman who was well liked across the isle. But, the Baptist ministers sent out letters across the city to urge black people to vote for a black man vs. a white person; they understand your 'issues' better. Nonsense. Racist to the core. Then we ended up with a crook who enriched himself and his family and friends. I use the words white and black because that is how your thread and the NYTimes has cast this election. And you and they claim to be superior? VOTE for the best person, not the person who's skin color or gender or religion or culture or ethnicity you favor. If she wins, the nation will say those racist southerners are in for it now. If she loses, the nation (or at least the progressives) will say we are racist in GA. Pretty much a lose-lose, or I guess you think a win-lose.
1
The G.O.P. is all in on voter suppression. They barely bother to disguise it.
We can't trust the Supreme Court to push back -- it was John Roberts who led the gutting of the Voting Rights Act writing "Our country has changed, and while any racial discrimination in voting is too much, Congress must ensure that the legislation it passes to remedy that problem speaks to current conditions."
Roberts reading of "current conditions" was ludicrous, Kemp is just one of many examples, but the remedy is clear:
If we want to keep our democracy we need a Congress where the majority party believes in democracy.
"A citizen of America will cross the ocean to fight for democracy, but won't cross the street to vote in a national election."
- Bill Vaughan
"Cross the street" or go to the next town if the G.O.P. has closed your polling place. This battle must be won.
The fight for democracy has come home.
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It's more or less normal is that the GOP is willing to use dubious means, voter suppression. gerrymandering and the like, to win elections. What's disturbing is that we now have a Supreme Court that is even less likely to challenge such measures. The same court that, in less partisan times, elected G.W. Bush as president and gutted Section 4. of the Voting Rights Act because racism in the southern states under its jurisdiction were no longer racist. Balls and strikes, obviously. The pre-Kavanaugh punted on whether race could be considered merely partisan when it came to drawing legislative districts, the newly constituted will most likely not. The second part of the GOP's attempt to subvert democracy has come to fruition.
10
Please include Stacey Abrams' stellar qualifications beyond the fact that she's not a white nationalist:
Abrams was named Legislator of the Year by the Georgia Alliance of Community Hospitals, Public Servant of the Year by the Georgia Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, Champion for Georgia Cities by the Georgia Municipal Association, and Legislator of the Year by the DeKalb County Chamber of Commerce. She also received the Georgia Legislative Service Award from the Association County Commissioners of Georgia, the Democratic Legislator of the Year from the Young Democrats of Georgia and Red Clay Democrats, and an Environmental Leader Award from the Georgia Conservation Voters. For rural bonafides, Abrams won Grand Champion for showing 1000 lb. heifer Bessie at the 2012 Legislative Livestock Showdown at the Georgia National Fair. And because our president lacks the ability to productively represent the United States abroad, governors need to be well-versed in international relations: Abrams is a lifetime member of the Council on Foreign Relations, a Next Generation Fellow of the American Assembly, an American Marshall Memorial Fellow, a Salzburg Seminar – Freeman Fellow on U.S.-East Asian Relations, and a Yukos Fellow for U.S. – Russian Relations. Perhaps just as important, Republicans have praised Abrams for her work reaching across the aisle on key legislation.
Abrams is one of most qualified candidates running for office this year.
And yes, she's NOT a white nationalist.
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To finish, Abrams is one of the most qualified candidates for public office anywhere in the country this year. With her stellar qualifications, this election is not just about who she is not - this election is about who she is!
31
@common sense advocate. I want to add my endorsement to yours. Certainly the election of a black female governor after some seventy white male ones would be a repudiation of white privilege, especially in the age of “I am a nationalist” Trump. But anyone who has listened to Stacey Abrams speak knows she is lightyears more qualified than Brian Kemp.
She is a highly intelligent, even wonky, tax lawyer who knows the intricate details of legislation, a pragmatist who both understands how laws and policies play out in real life and appreciates the bipartisan art of the possible. A few years ago she left on the desks of her fellow state legislators copies of her analysis of a GOP tax bill (which proposed to lower state income tax while raising those on cable service), demonstrating the bill would net higher taxes for some 82 percent of all Georgians. Her effort effectively stymied the proposal, prompting TIME magazine to declare Abrams “can credibly boast of having single handedly stopped the largest tax increase in Georgia history.”
In response to Abrams’ demonstrated intelligence, pragmatism and bipartisanship, Brian Kemp answers debate questions with some variation of “I have three teenage daughters” and drives around Georgia in his pickup truck with his shotgun. I would vote for Stacy Abrams if she were purple. And in fact I already have.
10
@common sense advocate I hope. The most qualified person lost the Presidential election in 2016. I have been in a state of panic since.
7
YES WE CAN !!!!! Women, my Sisters, YOU can do this. YOU must lead the way, fight the good fight, lead us ALL out of the darkness. I only wish I could be there, with you.
VOTE, LET FREEDOM RING. Hallelujah.
15
Kemp is a good old boy who drives a pickup and brandishes shotguns in his ads. He apparently takes Georgia voters to be a bunch of cornballs. Personally, I would prefer a governor with a little more style than that.
45
I'm not a fan of this "them" thing. I feel like as a white person I'm automatically grouped into this them, and that I'm a Nazi if I dont vote straight Democratic.
I'm the end I did mostly vote for Democrats in Colorado, but I did vote for a Republican for state treasurer because he had an actual plan for fixing PERA, which in Colorado is almost insolvent and will ruin our budget if its left to fester. The Democratic candidates plan amounted to "I'm a Democrat so PERA will be fixed" which to me wasnt much of a plan.
So I voted for 1 Republican. Does that make me evil, am I part of "them" now? I didnt vote for the guy for any reason other than he had an actual plan for PERA and the Democrat had essentially no plan besides platitudes.
I will continue to vote a split ticket until a party comes along that represents all my values. Republicans aren't all nazis, and turning Republicans into a "them" that needs to be replaced really turns me off. It makes me afraid of the thing that Democrats are always supposedly afraid of, which is facism.
16
@Jacqueline
Beautifully put and thoughtfully considered, Jacqueline. It reminds me of the days when candidates were more than props for their parties and were actually obliged to present positions that informed voters could choose from. And once those candidates were elected, work with everyone else in whatever political arena they operated in to effect positive change for their constituents (those that voted for them and those that didn't).
I miss those days.
2
@Jacqueline - I'm going to respectfully disagree. I'm so white I'm almost blue and no one seeks to make me feel like I'm inherently wrong just for being white.
At this moment in politics there seem to be few Republicans who aren't aligning themselves with Trump's ignorance, bigotry and destruction. My advice would be to proceed with caution and research each candidate thoroughly.
Best wishes.
6
Let’s hope Georgia leads the way, in turn out and turning back the GOP.
11
Personally, I loathe Trump, and agree that he precipitated both the recent mail bomber and the murders in the Pittsburgh synagogue.
But, please: the worst thing one can do right now is to play into the racist story of the violent white supremacists. Words such as "We Can Replace Them" will drive some people who identify "white" into the arms of the white supremacists.
5
You bet we can replace them, i.e., trump, all republicans who have enabled trump, all those like trump who use hate speech and villianize immigrants, muslims, gays, blacks, Jews. All who vote to take away health care from the poor and middle class, but give huge tax cuts to the rich (who do not need them) at the expense of Social Security & Medicare. We can and will replace all the hatred that has been foisted on the country since the 2016 election.....Vote!!! Get them out! Reclaim decency for the US!
14
Just as here in Texas, Georgians have an historic opportunity. Reject hate. Reject white nationalism. Reject fascism. Embrace love. Embrace education, Embrace logic. Embrace the future. Vote for Democrats.
12
Kemp telling donors of his “concern” about what might happen in Georgia “if everybody uses and exercises their right to vote.”
if you think your vote don't count: then tell this nasty piece of work how much it does and send him home with his tail between his legs whimpering like the entitled white racist he is...
18
Even the most clueless conservatives must realize that they’re fighting a losing battle. What do they think will happen? That brown-skinned people of every ethnic group will be steamrolled by a juggernaut of bitter, insecure white underachievers?
That’s not going to happen. White anger is no basis on which to govern. The entire rainbow of people of color is crucial to the economy. There is no litmus test or line that can be drawn that will divide the world between the worthy and the unworthy. If that were the case, most Republicans who have aided and abetted this president would be on the losing side.
The more Republicans try to disenfranchise their fellow humans, the less humanity they demonstrate. The more they try to alienate others, the more alien they appear. The more they preach hate, the more hated they become.
Rousing the rabble seems to be a winning strategy in the short run, until people start massacring their fellow citizens. If Republican lives were being threatened and bombs were being sent to them in the mail, they would virulently attack their political opposition, and their rhetoric would promise violent retribution.
But when they are the ones driving the demons, they make lame apologies for the horrible damage that they do.
Republicans have had things their way long enough. We can only hope that sensible voters are energized, overwhelm the lying, blustering fake-news contingent, and show them the door.
353
@gemli I hope you're right. My co-worker just passed glumly by my office claiming that Republicans will win 80% of battle states because "people have what they want: bread and circus." According to him, Trump will keep congress in his pocket. I could have wept.
8
@gemli
Right?
And what is President of the United States Mrs. William Jefferson Clinton doing to help turn the trump tide tsunami?
Who Benjamin Netanyahu, Vladimir Putin and Mohammed bin Salman are supporting in 2018 and beyond matters most.
3
@gemli Thank you for a much needed dose of optimism. It's easy to believe, under a Trump regime, that evil can ultimately prevail. It will prevail if we do nothing.
But the power is in our hands. We can build a better world. Optimism, the vision of a better world, is fuel for that endeavor.
5
Midterm elections are basically less momentous than general elections, but the ones this year are extremely important; possibly even more so at the state level than at the national.
State outcomes this year could make a crucial difference in the effort to stem the tides of voter suppression and gerrymandering. Failure will make it all the more difficult to vote out the enemies of democracy next time, especially without a highly principled national judiciary to turn to.
May these elections bring success to Stacey Abrams and other Democrats seeking to win governorships or seats in state legislatures.
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Thank you for this coverage, ms. Goldberg. Here in Georgia we are fighting hard to make sure that people DO have a voice through their vote, though it is hard when the warden is running the system. Driving people to the polls on the first day of Saturday voting in our county was gratifying: standing in cold wind for almost two hours, forming cordial alliances with the people around us in line, even though some of them were clearly going to vote for Kemp, was a reminder of how a civilized society can function.
79
I surely hope you're right. And I'm sure you will be right over time.
Democracy is rising, whether now in the midterms or in the future.
Thanks for a hopeful piece.
33
Great writing, Michelle Goldberg.
Yes: tell white nationalists they can be replaced. Better still, that they will be.
This guy Kemp is one determined and mean cheat. He's so brazen in what he does--doesn't even bother to hide it. Although its kind of hard to hide those 65,000 voter registrations for spaces between initials.
Part if me is just so resigned that Kemp will prevail because he plays so dirty. After a week like this, its just so hard to watch voter suppression in action.
The other part of me just wants to see some good news in this climate of lies, voter suppression, and hate.
So go, Stacey go--you're giving Kemp fits, only another week to go to show him he can't hold back the will of the voters in Georgia.
That's all Georgia voters, not just the ones Kemp is trying to preselect.
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@ChristineMcM
Not all white nationalists are American. Trump is part of the international axis of white supremacist nationalist evil that includes Benjamin Netanyahu and Vladimir Putin. All of them demeaned and disrespected Barack Hussein Obama.
Along with their domestic avatars Jeff Sessions, Mitch McConnell, Paul Ryan ,Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham.
14
@ChristineMc
Pardon but didn’t isn’t white replacemt by minorities just a wack job conspiracy theory? Your comment suggests that white replacement is an aim.
Stacey Abrams has American values.
Brian Kemp has Confederate values.
Vote in historic numbers, Georgians and Americans.
Tell Dixie to stuff it again.
November 6 2018
605
@Socrates Not only did Stacey Abrams burn the flag of Georgia (not mentioned in this piece), she is fiscally irresponsible.
According to a recent NYT opinion piece by none other than Michele Goldberg, Stacey Abrams is more than $200,000 in personal debt, including $54,000 to the IRS. And Ms. Abrams has given $50,000 to her campaign instead of paying off most of her IRS debt. You must be kidding!
Ms. Goldberg's earlier piece tried to portray Ms. Abrams as working-class, whereas in fact she has a law degree from Yale, worked as a tax attorney, and co-founded a financial services firm.
Even now, 19 years after getting her law degree, Ms. Abrams still has an outstanding student loan balance of six figures and a five-figure balance due the IRS. Perhaps she needs to go back to Yale (or even a local community college) for a refresher course on personal finances.
How could anyone believe Ms. Abrams could possibly manage the finances of an entire state? This is not a matter of party or race or gender; it is about someone's blatant and longstanding inability to manage her personal finances responsibly. This is a very bad sign for someone running for governor.
7
I’m in GA and you better believe I’m voting Stacy Abrams.
37
@Socrates
We don't need to fight the Civil War again, Socrates. It was sorta messy.
3