It’s the greatest non-news event of the year. News outlets are rushing not to cover it. They’re scrambling every which way to avoid it. It’s as if the massive number of early voters in Georgia who are black isn’t really happening, and it’s just another effort at disinformation by Republicans that the media can safely ignore.
But it’s not. The Georgia Secretary of State’s Office has released early voting figures that show 102,056 more black voters have cast early votes in this year’s primary elections than in 2018 — more than three times the number of blacks casting early votes in 2018.
Someone forgot to wake up Jim Crow and remind him he’s supposed to be suppressing the black vote.
PJ Media’s Stephen Kruiser touched on this story in his Morning Briefing, which should get a lot of play in conservative media. Elsewhere? Not so much.
Of course, Democrats will counter by saying, “If that’s true, just think how many blacks would have voted without that voter suppression law!”
As many of us here at PJM has been saying for months, the Democrat’s complaints about the Georgia voting integrity law were ridiculous.
The rule against third parties providing food and drink to voters standing in lines at the polls was merely meant to stop electioneering at polling places (and the law attempts to address long lines, typically a problem of large, Democratic-run jurisdictions). The law limited drop boxes, but they hadn’t existed prior to 2020. It moved from signature match on mail-in ballots to the more reliable driver’s license or state-ID number — not a sea change. And it expanded hours available for early voting.
The Democrats shouted “racism!” from every rooftop, hilltop, and mountaintop in Georgia. Judging by the turnout numbers for blacks, their plan to goose black turnout worked to perfection.
As Rich Lowry points out, no one really believed the law would “suppress” turnout. But it was a useful cudgel to use against Republicans to gin up hysteria in the black community.
Democrats should be congratulated.
Meanwhile, there should be an avalanche of apologies coming from the left for being so wrong, right?
Right?
The progressive commentariat wrote as if the 1950s were upon us once again. Charles Blow of the New York Times was on the case. He wrote columns headlined “Voter Suppression Must Be the Central Issue” and “Voter Suppression Is Grand Larceny.” Like much of the Left, he believed that President Biden was a near-quisling for not fighting the scourge of disenfranchisement on the landing grounds and the beaches — “Mr. President, You’re Just Plain Wrong on Voter Suppression” read another headline. According to Blow, “Biden wants to make history with his agenda, but history is already being made by Republicans with this extraordinary voter suppression push.”
And then there was the man who would be president. Oh, wait. He is president. Joe Biden put the cherry on top of all that hypocrisy with a speech warning of nothing less than democracy’s Armageddon.
And then, at Atlanta University in January, Biden came in with his disgraceful speech condemning the Georgia law. “Every Democrat, independent, and Republican will have to declare where they stand,” he said, adding, “History has never been kind to those who side with voter suppression over voting rights.”
“Do you want to be on the side of Dr. King or George Wallace?” he asked. “The side of John Lewis or Bull Connor? The side of Abraham Lincoln or Jefferson Davis?”
Well, it’s election season in Georgia and Bull Connor and Jeff Davis haven’t shown up.
Neither has history been kind to those who lie about it. But it’s okay because Democrats believe they’re going to write the history of our times anyway and say any damn thing they please about “voter suppression” in Georgia.
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