In-person early voting begins today in Georgia, but not everyone who is eligible to vote will have access to the ballot box. This is because Republican Secretary of State and current candidate for governor, Brian Kemp, has been overseeing a massive plan to suppress the votes of black and brown Georgians over the past few years. Just last week, in fact, a lawsuit against Kemp was filed by several civil rights organizations after placing 53,000 voter registrations “on hold”—80 percent of which belong to people who are black, Latino and Asian-American.
Since this story has become public, Kemp consistently denies any wrongdoing and wants us to believe there’s nothing fishy happening here. Of course, he’s lying. But his fellow Republican and U.S. Senator from Georgia, David Perdue, takes a different approach altogether. Perdue not only refuses to answer questions about this from his constituents, he actually became violent with one of them while campaigning on the Georgia Tech campus this weekend.
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Apparently, Georgia Republicans can’t even be bothered anymore to hide what they are doing. They are out to steal the votes of black and brown people and they’ll deny, argue, shift blame, and even become physically violent with anyone who holds them accountable.
This is not okay. And this should not be seen as acceptable or normal.
The Trump era has changed politics in America forever. Though they want to label the left an “angry mob,” it’s actually the GOP that is resorting to intimidation and brutality to get their way. From abusing protestors at rallies to threatening to kill their political rivals—this is their new modus operandi. It is the Republicans who are the party of incivility. Not only are they systematically disenfranchising people of color from exercising their right to vote, they are also utilizing anger and force to stop people from calling them on it.
Republicans in Georgia, or anywhere else in the country, don’t deserve to hold power and they most certainly shouldn’t be in the governor’s mansion. That’s why it’s critically important that we do everything we can make sure Democrat Stacey Abrams is elected the next governor of Georgia. Georgians deserve better than a bunch of bullies, liars, and racists running the state. And if they continue on this path unchecked, sadly, there will be no turning back. We’ve come too far to let them take Georgia back to 1955.