Wednesday open thread: Georgia on my mind
300,000. As of this writing, that's how many Georgians voted on the first day of early voting.
That is 5% of the total votes cast in 2020.
Now. I'm not highly-paid pundit on the cable news circuit, singing "Dems in disarray" for my supper. But to my untrained eye, this looks like a fucking big deal.
Of course, it could be some tsunami of support hitherto unknown for Donald Trump. Surely that's what Nate Cohn over at the New York Times bases his model on. However, I'm of a mind to say it's not.
This is the first election to be held after the full effect of Dobbs has come to bear. This is the first election after the Supreme Court gave Trump immunity from most of his actions while in office. This is an election in which voters will decide if they want to be ruled by a man who promises to be dictator "on day one". This isn't 2020. This isn't 2016. This is, I would say, unlike anything we've gone through before as a country without there being bullets flying
300,000. Georgians, who handed Democrats the White House in 2020, and maintained control of the Senate, seem to know the assignment. They seem to know that victory goes to those who show up, not those who sit at home and cavil about "the lesser of two evils". They seem to know that freedom, liberty, and democracy are worth the simple act of casting a ballot. Our system doesn't require you to build barricades in order to effect change; it merely requires you to go into a polling station and make your voice heard.
"But SCOTUS is planning to install him!" Chief Justice Roberts and what army?
"But the House won't validate the Electoral College vote!" Well, it's a new House which will accept the slates of electors. We should make sure that Hakeem Jeffries is the Speaker, and not Tiny Mike Johnson.
"But the Senate will be Republican!" Then, again, we'd best be sure that Chuck Schumer is still majority leader come January. (For what it's worth, I think he will be.)
There is every reason to be fearful. I give in to my dark nights of the soul. But we all have it in us to be heroes. A hero is something as simple as someone pushing past that tangible fear, and doing what needs to be done so that your fears are never realized. It means being more than we think we are, for we are all that. We all have that spark of the universe in us which is bigger than we are. We just have to tap into it.
The pollsters and pundits are reporting on an election which doesn't exist. They are making suppositions which are not supported by what's happening on the ground. It's all poll-driven, and polling has consistently missed Democratic strength. The ground has shifted beneath their feet, and they are falling while still holding onto the old reality.
300,000? It's a damned good start.
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