“Oh, oh
Georgia
Georgia
No peace, no peace I find,”
Is one stanza from this old chestnut, and it resonates with startling clarity today in this southern state where so much is at stake for the Democratic Party there and elsewhere.
The GOP is pulling out all stops to intercept and reverse the setbacks that proved so decisive in the election returns in 2020.
Ever since losing Congress, the Republican Party has been moving relentlessly across the nation with voter suppression tactics, be it gerrymandering or imposing new restrictions on absentee voting.
Last week in Georgia, Republicans signed into law a nearly 100-page voting law that will severely limit access for voters in areas where Democrats are in power. It even becomes a crime, a misdemeanor, to offer food or water to voters waiting in the long lines.
Other steps taken to make it difficult for voters is less time to request absentee ballots; new ID requirements for absentee ballots; and it is illegal for election officials to mail out absentee ballot applications to all voters.
The list of new restrictions go on for pages, including measures to curtail voter fraud, which is practically nonexistent but a reason for many of the changes.
These newly imposed rules and regulations in Georgia are just a sample of the GOP aim to flip the script they encountered in the last election, and the only defense is a well-informed electorate to counter the moves.
There is a bit of good news from the peach state; Trump’s choice for governor may not defeat Brian Kemp, and that will be yet another test of the former president’s influence on a number of primaries.
Yes, Georgia is on our minds and it’s more than a sweet song that resonates but the very status of the political arc as we move toward the crucial midterm elections, and we need to find more than peace!