That's from March 25, 2023, but I'm reading it this morning because that quote was re-quoted in "As Kemp Bows Out of Senate Race, Is It MTG Time?" (NY Magazine). Sample text: "If nothing else, a Greene candidacy will make the Georgia Senate contest one of the most entertaining of the midterm cycle, ensuring that Ossoff’s low-key demeanor doesn’t sedate the electorate."
It sounds like the idea is that MTG is so exciting, people will be newly energized to vote for boring. I'm giving this my "I'm for Boring" tag not because I'm for Ossoff — it's not my state and I haven't followed him — but because I would like politics and government to back way off. Could we just have competence, professionalism, expertise, integrity, hard work, and good judgment? Long experience says no, but I like to keep a tag on the subject if only to mark that it exists as a subject.
While California may not know this, in the South a tailgate with friends & family is the only way to prepare for a big game. When Georgia hosts the 2025 #NationalChampionship , we'll make sure fans are able to tailgate! Even if it's at the state Capitol!!https://t.co/IHw22tZE6U
"... by pointing to declining wages and the state’s high maternal mortality rates. Days later, she called her comments 'inelegant' but her sentiment true."
ADDED: To what extent is "Bless her heart" an insult? That's a question I considered 10 years ago, when Mitt Romney said it about Obama.
AND: Southern Living says: "Southerners know that the meaning of the phrase depends on the tone in which it's spoken, and a slight change in inflection or volume can make all the difference...."
"... against the state’s incumbent governor, Brian Kemp.... Mr. Trump has vowed to orchestrate Mr. Kemp’s defeat as payback for the governor’s refusal to help overturn the former president’s November election loss in the state.... Mr. Perdue’s decision to try to knock out a fellow Georgia Republican in 2022 is... sure to ignite an ugly — and costly — intraparty war before a general election in which the Republican nominee will likely face Stacey Abrams, the Democratic superstar whose national fame will allow her to amass a huge campaign war chest.... The former senator has told people he was uncertain about running but decided to run because he’s gravely worried about her prospects for victory over an incumbent who has been weakened by Mr. Trump’s unrelenting attacks."
"And barbershops, these are great people, but you know what? Maybe you wait a little bit longer until you get into a phase two. So, do I agree with him? No, but I respect him and I will let him make his decision. Would I do that? No. I’d keep them a little longer. I want to protect people’s lives, but I’m going to let him make his decision. But I told him I totally disagree. Okay?"
Said Trump, at yesterday's Task Force press briefing, expressing his disagreement with the Governor of Georgia. I enjoyed "I love these people... Bikers for Trump, a lot of tattoos. I love them, I love these people."
Trump's disagreement with the Governor is cagey. It combines reaching out — with love — to the people who want to be free — free to seek bodily adornment — with respect for federalism:
I told the governor of Georgia, Brian Kemp, that I disagree strongly with his decision to open certain facilities, which are in violation of the phase one guidelines for the incredible people of Georgia. They’re incredible people. I love those people. They’re great. They’ve been strong, resolute. But at the same time, he must do what he thinks is right. I want him to do what he thinks is right, but I disagree with him on what he’s doing, but I want to let the governors do. Now if I see something totally egregious, totally out of line, I’ll do.
Interesting usage of "do" — let the governors do... I'll do.... It saves a lot of time going into the governmental details. And he's eager to get back to his paean to the people — the Trump people:
But I think spas, and beauty salons, and tattoo parlors, and barber shops in phase one, we’re going to have phase two very soon, is just too soon. I think it’s too soon. And I love the people. I love those people that use all of those things. The spas, and the beauty parlors, and barber shops, tattoo parlors, I love them. But they can wait a little bit longer, just a little bit, not much, because safety has to predominate. We have to have that. So I told the governor very simply that I disagree with this decision, but he has to do what he thinks is right.
We have to do safety first, but if the Governor sees things a different way, then he has to do what he thinks is right. Trump is letting the Governor make the call... or is he? I think he wants the Governor to go first, to start to do whatever he thinks is right, but as the Governor thinks about what is right, he now knows Trump thinks it's wrong, and maybe Trump will step in somehow if he makes the wrong choice.
Later, Trump is asked about his conversation with Governor Kemp:
What did he say to you when you said you strongly disagreed with him? And for gym owners and tattoo parlor artists and barbers in Atlanta and Georgia generally, would you to advise them to listen to you and not to their governor?
The question doesn't completely make sense. Business owners can listen to their Governor and hear that they are free to open, but that does not require them to open. Just as Trump is leaving the decision whether to remove the restrictions to the Governor, the Governor deciding to remove the restrictions would only be leaving the decision to the individual, and the individual can think for himself, and that thinking can take into account what he's heard from the President.
But that's how I — a law professor — think about federalism and levels of decisionmaking. What Trump said was:
Look, I’d like them to listen to their governors, all of their governors. I have the right to do if I wanted to clamp it down, but I have respect for our governors.
There's that distinctive "do" again. The right to do. He's saying he has the power to override the Governor's decision, but he wants the Governors to go first and maybe they'll get it right. He puts some pressure on the Governor to get it right:
They know what they’re doing. I think… And as you know, Brian Kemp, governor of Georgia, I worked very hard for his election. He beat their superstar. He beat the superstar of their party. I think you could say I helped a lot. Michelle Obama, Barack Obama, Oprah Winfrey, they all went in. They campaigned for him very hard, and he lost.
He lost? The "superstar" in question was Stacey Abrams.
[Kemp] also was way down in the primary and ended up winning the primary after I came out and endorsed him. So, a lot of good things and there’s a lot of good feeling between myself and Brian Kemp. I like him a lot. I happen to disagree with him only in time and timing.
Then he turns away from Kemp and toward the people. The quote I put at the top of this post appears at this point in the transcript. And think about what that means to Kemp. Trump just got done saying You got elected because I came down there and connected with the people. And then suddenly he's directly connecting with the people, showing how he does it. I know these people. I love them.
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