Speaking of the Poor State of American Democracy

Look no further than the Georgia GOP primary for governor.

Via Axios: Trump-backed Perdue says he wouldn’t have certified Georgia 2020 results.

Georgia gubernatorial candidate David Perdue wouldn’t have signed the certification of the state’s 2020 election results if he had been governor at the time, the former Senate Republican told Axios.

“Not with the information that was available at the time and not with the information that has come out now. They had plenty of time to investigate this. And I wouldn’t have signed it until those things had been investigated, and that’s all we were asking for,” he said.

It is patently unhealthy for a candidate to be running on such notions. Worse, it is terrible sign for the health of our democracy that so many GOP candidates are incentivized to run on the notion that the 2020 election was fradulent in some way.

This message is clear here as well:

It is fairly remarkable (but not surprising) to hear him direclty attack Kemp and Raffensperger because they followed the law and the evidence during the 2020 election.

Intra-party fights under normal circumstances can interesting to observe, but when the cleavage point is how authoritiarian and dishonest the party wants to be, that is something I would prefer not to witness.

And to add to all of this, GPB reports: David Perdue files election lawsuit with recycled, already-disproven claims of fraud.

In a Friday filing, the former U.S. senator and a Georgia voter claim that thousands of “unlawfully marked” absentee ballots were counted in Fulton County’s presidential election, despite three separate counts of the results and no evidence of so-called “counterfeit” ballots included in the vote totals.

He is using false claims to further his political chair, plain and simple. And the sad fact is that he may well be able to ride those falsities to the nomination and the governor’s office.

FILED UNDER: 2022 Election, Democracy, US Politics, , , ,
Steven L. Taylor
About Steven L. Taylor
Steven L. Taylor is a Professor of Political Science and a College of Arts and Sciences Dean. His main areas of expertise include parties, elections, and the institutional design of democracies. His most recent book is the co-authored A Different Democracy: American Government in a 31-Country Perspective. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Texas and his BA from the University of California, Irvine. He has been blogging since 2003 (originally at the now defunct Poliblog). Follow Steven on Twitter

Comments

  1. SC_Birdflyte says:

    Perdue is seriously deficient in the brains department. In his unsuccessful run for re-election last year, he said he didn’t want to get into politics (he owns a nice roost on the Georgia coast and is wealthy), but he felt that the condition of the country in 2014 required his presence. As contrasted to 2020, eh?

  2. Michael Cain says:

    Found a lawyer to put their name on this, did he? Audacious is the word that comes to mind. Asking for a specific judge, who oversaw a similar case over the past year that didn’t find anything. And I love the repeated assertion that if the defendants have nothing to hide, of course they would welcome going to the time and public expense to let anyone who asks come in and paw through the ballots and other election materials.

    With any luck, whichever judge gets the case will remind the lawyer that as a member of the bar and officer of the court, they have an obligation to do some basic homework to ensure they are not bringing frivolous cases, fine them, and toss them out.

  3. OzarkHillbilly says:

    It is fitting that you illustrate this post on anti constitutional policies with a flag of treason.

    1
  4. Just nutha ignint cracker says:

    Make no mistake, Abrams will smile, lie and cheat to transform Georgia into her radical vision of a state.

    My radical vision of a state is much better anyway!