Name Dropper

w/Lisa Harrison

As political catchphrases go, “drain the swamp” is better than most. It creates an image most all can effortlessly conjure, while providing a succinct objective with punch that few will dispute is worth pursuing. Of course, the devil is in the details, and satan has never been more prevalent than within MAGA’s incessant distortions of the slogan it near fully co-opted. And nowhere is the space between word and deed more yawning than in Georgia

Brian Kemp is the embodiment of mediocrity. From assembly-line good looks – think a Ken doll that breathes and talks – to his career arc, which no stereotype of Dixie white privilege could top, Kemp reached the Governor’s mansion with as little blood and sweat as seems possible. That he beat one of the more gifted, forget black politicians, but all US politicians, with such a vapid resume and oratorical skill speaks tomes about enduring southern racism cum political polarization.

How Kemp got himself elected governor was only about three-quarters as ugly as his stewardship of the state during Covid-19. During the 2018 campaign Georgia’s most famous citizen, former President Carter, implored Kemp to resign from the position of Secretary of State as others had faithfully done in the past. In response, Kemp gave his signature shoulder-shrug and ignored the guidance, shamelessly continuing as both a contestant and overseer of election procedures he helped customize to suppress the vote of thousands of peach state citizens through wholesale purges of registration rolls.

At the end of an election day filled with voter complaints about long lines and numerous irregularities Kemp held a slim lead. His opponent, Stacey Abrams, refused to concede and challenged the process, but Kemp rushed to declare victory. As protesters descended on the state capitol, strident but peaceful in demanding more than 30,000 uncounted provisional votes be tallied, police quickly moved in to make arrests; and they were not particular about who got rousted.

Georgia State Senator Nikema Williams, who merely came down from her office to speak with constituents among the protesters, was arrested, cuffed and herded into a police van. A white colleague and fellow senator, literally doing the exact same thing as Williams, sans darker skin, tried to intervene. “She is a Senator,” he repeatedly implored. To no avail. Williams spent five hours in the Fulton County jail before being released without charge. An apt beginning to MAGA stewardship.

Two years of Kemp’s Trumpist servility later, amid the tumult George Floyd’s murder created, the predictable results were on display last week. As lines to vote in urban neighborhoods snaked off into the visible horizon, Senator Williams received a call from some members of the advocacy group Black Votes Matter, who were monitoring the chaos. Several BVM members were outside a local voting precinct and being told they needed to leave the public area. Williams responded to her constituents plea for assistance and after calls to both the mayor and police chief’s offices, six police officers were directed to leave the activists alone. They remained until sometime after midnight when the last in a criminally interminable line were allowed to cast votes.

Lisa Harrison, a Georgia resident and military veteran, wrote how current national events rendered last week’s trip to her polling station different than past visits:

“It was the first time I’ve seen patrol cars at the polling station. They were prominently displayed flanking the entrance leading into the larger parking area. The officers casually grouped together and chatting. Tuesday was extremely hot and humid, and their decision to station themselves in the hot sun at the entrance and not the shaded areas got my attention. I’d prefer they had chosen otherwise. I’m concerned about the presence of law enforcement at the polling location and how it calls to mind historical voter suppression tactics and the ongoing legacy of Jim Crow and MAGA. My inner dialogue continues and I’m willing to consider my concern may not be warranted…… Later in the evening, a friend mentioned she thought it was odd that the Sheriff’s department was at the polling station when she went to vote earlier in the day. Me too.“

Eminently reasonable, Harrison wasn’t looking for trouble, but took notice of her surroundings. She wasn’t forced to wait hours at her polling place. No doubt such delays would have gravely intensified her reservations. At the long end of middle age, Harrison and her husband need Covid-19 like a tornado, but were more than willing to don masks and intermingle in a state hastily reopened to assure their voices were heard. Would she have waited seven hours to vote? That’s not a scenario anyone within an actual going democratic concern should ever have to ponder. Fact is, any election monitor worth his salt would condemn such a situation as a broken electoral system, part and parcel of a democracy on its deathbed. Brian Kemp can live with that. BC and LH