Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp tries to wrap a culture war around new law making it harder to vote

The overall law, Duncan said, “ultimately was a culmination of Democratic and Republican ideas,” which would come as news to the vast majority of Democrats. But there you go—the Republican lieutenant governor of Georgia says that a key part of the law was “the fallout from the 10 weeks of misinformation that flew in from former President Donald Trump,” including specifically that shoveled by Rudy Giuliani.

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, meanwhile, is wholeheartedly embracing the voter suppression law as his best chance to grovel his way back into the good graces of Trump’s base following Trump’s attacks on him for refusing to overturn the results of the 2020 election. Trump isn’t going for it, but some Republicans in the state suggested to The New York Times that it might be working to head off the strongest primary challengers.

Defending voter suppression is familiar ground for Kemp, who as secretary of state got into the governor’s office in part by stalling 53,000 voter registration applications from a disproportionately Black group of people. Now he’s all in on Trump-style bluster about this law, doing dozens of interviews to rail against companies that belatedly spoke out in support of voting rights.

Businesses like Delta Air Lines, Coca-Cola, and Major League Baseball “folded like a wet dishrag to the cancel culture,” he said in one Fox Business appearance. “It is woke in real life, and Americans and Georgians should be scared. I mean, what event are they going to come after next? What value that you have—the way that you live your life—are they coming after next? Are they going to come after your small business?” 

Well, that’s a calm, measured response to statements of opposition by a few companies and the relocation of one baseball game.

Republicans came for the votes of hundreds of thousands of Georgians based in part on what one of their top officials says was misinformation. Their message is that the real thing to fear is public outcry against that voter suppression. One of these things is not like the other.