When Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, a Republican, signed an election overhaul law last year, President Joe Biden and his media allies quickly jumped to the most hyperbolic rhetoric.
To media amplification, Biden declared the arrival of “Jim Crow in the 21st century.” Biden added that his Department of Justice would be investigating the law. For anyone who needs a quick refresher, Jim Crow was the name given to a caste system of southern voting suppression along racial lines. This included executions, as well as lynchings. It was evil.
Georgia’s new Democratic senator, Raphael Warnock, invoked the Jim Crow label as well, as did several “voting rights” groups in Georgia and at the federal level. Under pressure from media outlets, which are using the playbook of demanding that athletes and corporations speak out against laws they don’t agree with, Major League Baseball moved its All-Star Game from Atlanta to Coors Field in Colorado.
At MSNBC, Jessica Levinson wrote that “Georgia’s new voting laws are restrictive, harmful and racist. They also should have been avoidable.” MSNBC host Joy Reid, always the sane voice of reason on these topics, tweeted that “Jim Crow is alive and well in Georgia. Somebody call Jim Eagle.”
But here’s a question: If Jim Crow has been reenacted, as President Biden and his party have declared, why is there record turnout for early voting in Georgia?
On the first day of early primary voting, Georgia saw record turnout. According to local ABC News affiliate WTVM, “Officials say more than 27,000 voters cast their ballots early, in-person Monday.” That’s three times the number of people that voted on the first day of the 2018 primary election and nearly double the number for the June 2020 primary, the office added. According to Gabriel Sterling, “Early in person [voting] has seen 97,168 GOP, 69,136 Dem & 1,284 nonpartisan votes. Mailed Absentee has seen 6,107 GOP, 6,696 Dem & 229 nonpartisan.”
Neither media personalities like Joy Reid nor this White House will recant their rhetoric around Jim Crow. They are hoping to avoid accountability. A year later, all of these absurd Jim Crow claims have been memory-holed. Activist groups led by people like Stacey Abrams want you to forget about their claims, much like how Net Neutrality was going to lead to thousands of deaths.
At what point does the hyperbole stop helping their cause? At what point do we stop paying attention?
Stephen L. Miller has written for National Review, the New York Post, and Fox News and hosts the Versus Media podcast. He can be found on Twitter @redsteeze.
