“If the Democrats didn’t have double standards they’d have no standards at all” is an adage we’re hearing more and more in recent years as the media tilts ever-more leftward and Democrats can say whatever they want and no one will call them out on it.
In 2018, the Georgia governor’s race was bitter, divisive, nasty, and in the end, very very close. Republican Steve Kemp eventually prevailed, beating historic candidate Stacey Abrams by just 60,000 votes after nearly 4 million were cast.
It was a clear win for Kemp, who bested Abrams by almost two percent. But Stacey Abrams whined about “voter suppression” and the media picked up on it. It should be noted that Abrams took steps that were suspiciously similar to other, more recent election challenges.
Those steps were detailed in an op-ed by Georgia’s secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, in the Wall Street Journal.
Establishing a playbook that President Trump is following to the letter now, Ms. Abrams refused to concede, announced that she would launch major litigation against Georgia’s election system, and began collecting hundreds of millions of dollars from donors convinced the election had been stolen from her.
Abrams’ loss was big enough that there was no automatic recount. But that didn’t stop her from denying any similarity to election challenges by Donald Trump.
“First and foremost, he’s never listened to what I said,” Abrams said of Raffensperger’s argument. “I said that the election was stolen from Georgia voters because, under the previous secretary of state, Brian Kemp, millions of voters were…1.4 million voters were purged from the rolls, thousands of voters were denied the right to vote because of [voter registration processes].”
Abrams went on to reject any comparison between herself and the president, who she argued was working to disqualify voters from having their voices heard. Her own efforts, she argued, were centered around voter registration efforts in Georgia and fighting against Republican efforts to purge voter rolls.
An investigation by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution found “no evidence … of systematic malfeasance – or of enough tainted votes to force a runoff election.”
The voter “purge” was simple housecleaning of the voter rolls. Since registrations do not indicate the race of the voter, charges of “voter suppression” were absurd. But that’s all Abrams had—plus her allies on the far left and in the media to push the ludicrous narrative that the election had been “stolen.”
“There is absolutely nothing commensurate between what I have done and what Donald Trump is trying to do,” said Abrams. “My mission has been very clear since I was 17. And that is expanding access to the right to vote for those who are entitled to vote in our country, and especially in the state of Georgia. What Donald Trump is arguing is that he only wants to count the votes that he likes. He wants to restrict access to the right to vote and restrict who gets to be heard in our country. That is not at all what I’m pushing for.”
Breaking news: Anyone in Georgia over the age of 18 and isn’t a felon and is a legal resident has “access to the right to vote” and is “entitled to vote.” Anyone — regardless of their race or sex or gender.
Her opinion of what Trump is trying to do in overturning the election is her own. In truth, her efforts in 2018 mirror those of the president, save the recount, which she wasn’t entitled to. But because she was claiming that invisible voters weren’t allowed to vote, there was “suppression.” Trump is claiming invisible voters actually voted.
Not much difference at all.
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