Constitutional Law, Politics

A Masters’ Mulligan? Biden Says Georgia Is Now A Jim Crow State But It Is Still OK For Golf

It appears that President Joe Biden did not repeatedly “misspeak” as suggested on CNN.  Yesterday, Biden not only did not correct his false claims about the Georgia election law but doubled down that the law is a “Jim Crow law.” Indeed, he has repeatedly said it is worse, “Jim Crow on steroids.” That is why yesterday’s press conference (with only three questions) moved from the inaccurate to the incoherent. Biden is now saying that Georgia is a Jim Crow state with laws worse than the segregationist laws following the Civil War. However, he is saying that it is ok to play the Masters in the state (and for CBS to carry the Masters) after supporting a boycott of baseball. In deciding whether to do business in what Biden calls a “Jim Crow” state, Biden declared  “That’s up to the Masters.”

The press has not had any apparent inclination or (in the case of Fox News) an opportunity to ask Biden for a full answer on why the Georgia law is worse than the Jim Crow laws.  As previously discussed, states like Colorado have voter identification provisions and many of the same provisions as Georgia.  States like New York and Delaware have some harsher provisions. One would think that, given Biden’s widely discredited comments on the change in voting hours, the media would press Biden on an answer.  That however is only true if the media wanted such an answer.

Jim Crow laws were a “cradle to grave system of racial segregation.” The State of Afro-American History: Past, Present and Future 60 (Darline Clark Hine ed., 1986). Those laws embodied separate textbooks, separate schools, separate seating, separate access, and a wide array of limitations that treated African Americans to second-class citizens. That certainly included barriers on voting.

To say that the Georgia law is worse than a Jim Crow law is a chilling conclusion from a sitting president and worthy of explanation. The two prior examples given by President Biden have been discredited concerning voting hours and availability of water for those waiting in line. Moreover, other “blue” states have the same provisions and a vast majority of Americans support voter identification law, including a majority of Democrats.

In Colorado, the provisions are largely the same. The big difference is that Colorado sends out absentee ballots automatically where Georgia (like other states) has citizens request the ballots.  That certainly can make a difference in voting turnout for absentee voters but it would not seem to justify one state being called progressive state and a Jim Crow state.

In his press conference, Biden took a different position on the golf tournament than the baseball All-Star game.  Instead of supporting the boycott for golf, he said that it was up to corporations. He stated “[i]t is reassuring to see that for-profit operations and businesses are speaking up about how these new Jim Crow laws that are just antithetical to who we are.”  However, he chastised states like Georgia for not yielding to the demands on voting and warned them to “smarten up.”

The real loss from this protective press cocoon is the opportunity to have a discussion on race and voting. Rather than repeatedly throwing around the label of Jim Crow, Biden could explain why he believes Georgia is beyond any reasonable (if different) approach in comparison to other states like Delaware, New York or Colorado.  Indeed, no one appears eager to have that debate in the media. The coverage is as shallow as a soundbite.  The Georgia law is now a Jim Crow law by pure repetition rather than any explanation in the coverage. Given the horrible history of Jim Crow, such a claim warrants explanation — not simply use as a handy slogan or political attack.

One obvious question is why there is a difference between baseball and golf when it comes to anti-racism boycotts.  If Georgia is back to being a Jim Crow state and a baseball boycott is warranted, why does Biden given the Masters a mulligan?

 

89 thoughts on “A Masters’ Mulligan? Biden Says Georgia Is Now A Jim Crow State But It Is Still OK For Golf”

  1. Jonathan: Comparing Georgia and Colorado’s voting laws is like comparing apples and oranges. Georgia’s new election law is an overt attempt at voter suppression–a new form of “Jim Crow” laws to keep Black voters from exercising their constitutional right to vote. That’s because the Black vote made the difference, particularly in Fulton county that is exactly the county where Trump demanded that Secretary of State Raffensperger flip 11,000 votes. What you don’t mention is that Georgia’s new law makes election subversion easier. It strips the Secretary of State of authority over elections and gives that power to a new State Elections Board whose members are appointed by the Republican controlled state legislature. The Board can remove any county election official making it easier to overturn vote it does not like. Trump likes the new law because it now allows what he could not do in last year’s election. In comparison Colorado’s election laws are much more convenient for voters. While Georgia and Colorado both have voter ID laws, as do most states, any voter can cast a provisional ballot. In Georgia registration is cut-off 28 days before election day while in Colorado you can register to vote even on election day. Personally, I would rather vote anytime in Colorado than have to register to vote in Georgia–especially if I were Black. The whole idea behind Georgia’s new law is to suppress the Black vote and to compare it to Colorado’s laws is ludicrous!

    1. Yet just like differing state laws, apples and oranges may be compared. Not so sure why everyone is so angry. The law applies to all Georgians. I do not see the problem in verification nor requiring a request for an absentee ballot. How is it suppression? Is your contention that certain groups of people are too lazy to go out and vote and because they are lazy they should be catered too?

    2. @dennis

      You still haven’t discussed why Ga is not a suitable location for the MLB all star game but is for the Master’s. Perhaps as a follower of wokeness, you can discern such mysteries. Many of us need to know.

      antonio

      1. Think ahead on this….what happens if Atlanta winds up in the World Series….will they not play in Atlanta and go somewhere else?

        The MLB and its Commissioner have trod upon their collective Pee Pee’s with their own Spikes I am thinking!

        They should have stayed out of politics and stuck to America’s favorite pastime…..Baseball!

    3. “Georgia’s new election law is an overt attempt at voter suppression–a new form of “Jim Crow” laws to keep Black voters from exercising their constitutional right to vote.”

      Simple question- How? What do Black voters have to do to exercise their right to vote that Whites don’t? Doesn’t the law apply to all people not just a particular race?

      1. Showing photo ID is voter suppression?? According to Rasmussen, 75% of the American people support such ID requirements; guess they are “white supremacists” also. I am Hispanic and don’t mind one iota showing a photo ID which I need for voting and any other activity in life. I was a victim of identity theft once and from one of your precious illegals. If you had a Hispanic name and had to worry more about such things you might not be so keen on them.

        Tell me one developed 1st world country that allows voting without such ID.

        Still doesn’t answer the question of why GA is bad for the MLB All Star game and ok for the Master’s. This is over my head but as a member of the Church of Wokeness, I know you can answer this.

        Won’t hold my breath for answers to any of this, you’ll just call me a “racist”.

        antonio

      2. Stand in line for several hours. Have less polling places per capita. Under this law Sunday voting has been targeted because of a practice of Black people voting on Sundays after church. Just to name a few.

  2. “Jim Crow on steroids” means that paid partisan operatives can’t give you free shit while you’re standing in line to vote.

    Keep up the good work of *unifying* the country President Biden.

    1. Biden is, and always has been, the racist who ‘bragged for decades that his mentor was a segragationist” and who supported segragationists. Joe Biden is a racist through and through and over the decades his true thoughts slipped out of his mouth. “Put y’all back in chainz” is the real Joe Biden.

        1. “White “liberals” are the biggest racists of them all.”

          Not sure they are “racist” whatever that means but they strip minorities of agency, individual thought and responsibility. If I get “flack” for my beliefs it is almost never from another Hispanic but from a white liberal and they seem to take it personally when they discover you don’t need their help.

          They talk a good game but don’t like to get their hands dirty. Talk about diversity but live in an upper middle class area. Want to force integration but are able to avoid it in their personal life and for their kids. It is called “virtue signaling”, not to be confused with true virtue.

          I truly and fully despise such people and feel no empathy when one of their precious “pets” turns and bites them.

          antonio

          1. Are voter ID laws racist and suppress the black vote? Satirist Ami Horowtiz goes to UC Berkeley and Harlem to find out

  4. Glad you posted this article, Jon. It’s so much more horrifying than the fact the Trump campaign fraudulently drained the bank accounts of so many of his supporters last fall.

    EB

      1. Posted something about it yesterday, I’ll see if I can dig it up again.

        EB

        1. When the NYTimes reports on Trump they generally engage in lies and deceit so one has to give this a bit of time to sort out the details and what ever lies by commission or omission the NYTimes included in their report.

          However we have had plenty of time to note how the threat of cancelling or violence has caused many a company to have donated to the Democrats. That of course is something the NYTimes doesn’t wish to speak about.

          SM.

            2. Just trying to do a public service for trumpers since there are so many here. It might explain some mysterious occurences in your bank accounts.

              EB

        2. Got it. Thank you for the link. I was in marketing for most of my career and I find these types of “sneaky auto-rewnal games” detestable. The biggest problem I have with them is that they harm the broader reputation of a profession I was proud to part of. Yet admittedly, they are far too common. As the NY Times piece put it: “Marketers have long used ruses like prechecked boxes to steer American consumers into unwanted purchases, like magazine subscriptions.” While such practices may not be against the law, they are deceptive and in my view unethical.

          Where I’m unclear, is your original post seems to sarcastically suggest Professor Turley should be writing about this Trump (or Republican) transgression rather than what Biden is doing. Does that mean that you are OK with what President Biden is saying about the GA law? It’s hard to see how Biden’s gross misrepresentations and outright falsehoods about this law aren’t both highly deceptive and unethical. Beyond that, rather than being the healer and uniter he claims to want to be, he is only harming and further dividing our country. These types kind of deceptive, word-twisting communication games are far too common on both sides. We should expect more from our leaders!

          BTW – can you name a single thing Biden has done to unite this country. Is there a single conservative issue he has given any degree of validity?

          1. The Covid rescue plan, financially speaking, and the massive step up in vaccination has certainly brought the country together in a functional way. I know there are people who from an idealogical perspective will disagree with whatever he does on the issue, but his change of focus away from denial of the pandemic is a welcome change.

            Not sure what you mean “a single conservative issue” because I think the people identifying as conservative today have strayed far from the original roots of conservatism…, but I’ll take a shot at one. Biden dropped the $15/hr minimum wage from the rescue plan due to pressure from Joe Manchin and Kristen Sinema — that fits under the heading of recognizing a conservative issue. In fact, I’d go as far as saying that bipartisanship, going forward, will largely be negotiated with Manchin. The republican party per se has stepped away from being conservative into something entirely other than it was even just a short time ago in its supplication to donald trump. True bipartisanship will take place in negotiations between Manchin and the more left dems. And between dems on the federal level with mayors on the city level.

            EB

            1. The vaccine rollout has been widely praised as a success even by conservatives. I’m inclined to believe that the rollout would have been just as successful under Trump. (We were already doing a million a day plus when Biden took over.) But, you’re right, it wouldn’t have brought the country together because Dems would have found some kind of fault. They found fault with everything he did. In my view, the vaccine would have been an easy way for Biden to do some uniting by giving Trump some credit. But time after time in public comments, he couldn’t go there.

              “…his change of focus away from denial of the pandemic is a welcome change.”
              Conservatives didn’t see Trump as denying the pandemic but rather that he correctly made decisions based on the overall health and well-fare of the public. This was especially true once it became evident that states imposing draconian lockdowns weren’t seeing any greater success in slowing the virus than states not implementing such restrictions.

              “Biden dropped the $15/hr minimum wage from the rescue plan…”
              The real reason Biden dropped the $15 minimum wage was that if it had been included the bill wouldn’t have met the Byrd Rule, meaning it wouldn’t have qualified for reconciliation and couldn’t have been passed in the Senate with a simple majority.

              “The republican party per se has stepped away from being conservative into something entirely other than it was even just a short time ago…”
              Not sure what you’re referring to with this observation, but the only change brought about by Trump that I’m seeing is that the Republican Party has become more populist, worker-oriented and less corporate focused. Less government, small central government and more individual freedom remain and have always been the core principles of Conservative Republicans, including Trump. They are also the principles that our country was founded on, and in my view they are the principles that underlie our country’s success and differentiate us from the rest of the world.

              “True bipartisanship will take place in negotiations between Manchin and the more left dems.”
              ??? By definition this is not bipartisanship. Bipartisan means working with both parties. This is Dems negotiating with dems.

        3. You quote the NYT as as source of anything? Next thing we know you will be quoting Wiki and CNN.

  5. Geez, Turley is a law professor. But it seems he can’t distinguish what hyperbolic rhetoric is in politics, oh wait he does. Trump did it all the time. Turley called, exaggerating or just Trump being Trump.

    All this BS outrage over calling the law “Jim crow on steroids” still doesn’t change the fundamental fact that it is all based on a lie by the very man who engages in the kind of rhetoric Turley seems to be offended by. Turley is just becoming a bitter hypocrite.

    Especially after being proven wrong about Biden lying about the law.

    1. Give me one example of a Trump exaggeration that is on the same level as Biden call this law a Jim Crow law. Jim Crow laws explicitly excluded and segregated blacks. There is nothing in GA election law that applies only to one race or another.

      1. Forget expecting an answer. Svelaz is an empty suitcase filled with hot air. Seldom can he prove any left wing or Turley hating arguments he makes.

      2. You’d have to specific about the day and the hour on that one, Carpslaw. So much to choose from.

            1. I asked for an example the same level as Biden’s lie calling the GA Law a Jim Crow law. There’s a big difference between getting something wrong and saying something that is patently and demonstrably false. Your article is a list of things Trump supposedly got wrong about the virus, but everyone got plenty wrong, including all the experts. The first thing on the list in your article is his comparing it to the flu early in the pandemic. Many, including Fauci and Biden made the same comparison. Oddly enough the mortality rate is settling out to be very close to the flu.

              I’m looking for an example of a Trump lie (not a mistake or error) that is as obviously not true as Biden calling the GA law Jim Crow. Jim Crow laws explicitly segregated and prevented Black people from doing certain things based solely on their race. The GA election law applies to all people in GA, all races.There is nothing about race in the law!

    2. Svelaz, How does this “rhetoric” help the country? He’s going down the same path as Obama. Throwing out these bombs (remember Ferguson) that cause division. Unless you like rioting, that’s not good.

  6. The Church of Wokeness has issued another edict which must be obeyed on pain of excommunication. But as a deplorable, I am a bit perplexed because this edict appears arbitrary and inconsistent. In a Judaeo-Christian context, I would attribute this to the theological mystery expressed as “His ways are higher than our ways” but I am certain that in the Church of Wokeness, “god” is not referred to as a masculine pronoun but probably in the one of the newly discovered 74 genders which have been found to exist.

    SO, I am imploring any follower of Wokeness (who are also my moral bettors), to explain why Georgia is not suitable location to host to MLB All-Star game but can do so regarding the Master’s tournament.

    Perhaps there is some Woke scripture that can explain such discrepancy? Maybe St. Ta Nehisi Coates or St. George of Floyd wrote on such matters?

    antonio

    1. You’re on the right track Antonio. If it appears arbitrary and inconsistent, then think algebraically. Solve for X. X is obviously not about systemic racism, or Jim Crow, or actual justice. It’s not about the rule of law or equal rights. It’s not about snacks in a polling place, or people challenged to get an ID. It’s not about baseball or golf or airlines or soda pop. This is a mathematical word problem. All of those words are intended to distract from solving X. X is raw power. Republicans want it for a worldview that preserves our form of government, capitalism and traditional western values. Democrats want it for a worldview that will destroy all of that. We are being pushed to that 1858 house divided moment and this will get hot real soon.

  7. “Jim Crow on steroids.”

    A politician with a decades-long history of plagiarism becomes president — and continues his pathological dishonesty.

    Americans need to take a man’s character more seriously.

  8. Remember the good ole days when a sitting president simply (falsely) said the police acted stupidly? If this Jim Crow rhetoric isn’t making any sense, well it will once it bears fruit. Why do you think BLM hasn’t had any “mostly” peaceful protests in Georgia over this alleged Jim Crow on steroids voting act? That’s right, they’ve got bigger fish to fry and he’s on trial in Minneapolis. Biden and his administration are merely chumming the waters. Biden said: This is Jim Crow on steroids, what they’re doing in Georgia and 40 other states. Biden and congressional democrats know they will never be able to federalize elections. No, they will employ mobocracy to achieve their goals. If Chauvin is convicted, there will be even more rioting, as they will feel emboldened to get more. If he’s acquitted or a hung jury, there will be widespread rioting and guess what 41 states will be the targets? Democrats are willing to burn this country to the ground if these states don’t get in line with their H.R.1 ideals. And all Biden is doing at this point is dog-whistling to the mob that they will be needed if the states don’t comply.

      1. Anonymous the Stupid you in particular have been proven hypocritical and slanderous. That is why you have difficulty seeing it in your friends.

  10. See Hunter Thompson’s characterization of Hubert Humphrey to best describe Joe. For those not so inclined, here it is:“Hubert Humphrey is a treacherous, gutless old ward-heeler who should be put in a ****** bottle and sent out with the Japanese current.” (Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail ’72)

  11. The difference is that there are many black baseball players and many white golfers. Race favoritism at its hypocritical best.

    1. So are all the white sponsors who criticized Georgia voting law going to pull their sponsorship off the shirts of the golfers? Golf is the lesser of 2 monetary considerations. Who watches golf?

  12. Let’s see, how many black or minority owners are there in MLB? So white MLB moves from predominately black Atlanta where reportedly 8,000 motel rooms had been reserved for the all star week and moves the game to predominately white Colorado that has similar voting regulations?

  13. Biden must be counting on people who will only hear “Jim Crow law” and Georgia strung together and not look any deeper. He must be hoping a good chunk of the population is just a bunch of parrots. If that’s the case, so much for the bald eagle being a symbol of the US.

    1. I think many are relying on one source for information – the Brennan Center for Justice, which characterizes voting law changes without any context.

  14. Pingback: A Master’s Mulligan? Biden Says Georgia Is Now A Jim Crow State But It Is Still Be Ok For Golf – Shadow Truth

  15. I think the MLB decision will end up being a bridge too far in the cancel nightmare we are currently sleeping through.

    It is easy for a Coke or Delta to make a statement of support or disapproval and then just go on selling their product or service but when MLB actually moved the game and thereby hurting actual people in was eye-opening for many. MLB took the game away from a 54% Black community and put it in to a 9% Black community. They took it from a more working class are to a more white color area, an area that has many of the same “Jim Crow” restrictions on voting???? This will not end well.

    One last point on the issue and it is that Football is like Google or Twitter, you may like to boycott it but it is an ingrained way of life for many millions, Baseball is a sport that is in a deep decline, a sport that is not appointment viewing, a sport that has 162 games per team and a sport that is too long, too boring and too esoteric for many of the younger crowd. We do not need baseball, we are not stuck at home on a cold Sunday, we do not only have 16 chances to see our team.

    I write the above as a white male over the age of 65 and as someone that has been a huge Red Sox fan since the Impossible Dream year of 1967. I am done with the game and I will probably not be back. I dropped the NBA package I have had for years due to the incredible heavy handed politics the league was throwing at me, and I have been a Celtic’s fan since about 1969. I will still watch the Bruins, but that is also becoming tenuous. The Patriots have kept their politics out of the public and Tom Brady has as well and I continue to love the Patriots and now root for Tampa Bay.

    KEEP POLITICS OUT OF SPORTS.

    1. “KEEP POLITICS OUT OF SPORTS.”

      That is a simple and proper request. We attend sporting events to relax and have fun, to get together with friends and family. The game itself isn’t very important. Leftists wish to intrude in every part of our lives whether it be schooling, worship, education and now work and sports. They wish to control everyone’s lives. That is not healthy for a republic that is based on the individual rather than the group where an oligarchy is in charge of all decisions.

    2. I too am over 65 and a life long Cleveland Indians fan. When MLB announced they were moving the All Star game because of the lies our President is telling about the GA election law I canceled my auto-renewing MLB subscription, unsubscribed for all MLB email lists and deleted all MLB apps from all my digital devices. I will not listen to, watch or attend another MLB game as long as the league sees it necessary to choose sides in our political discourse. For MLB does not exist.

      I may be taking similar steps with the NFL as it is being reported that they are being pressured to move the Super Bowl from AZ should that state pass an election law currently being consider by their legislature.

  16. Jen Pshocky says the law is based on a “lie”, but it is OK if the Master’s stays in Augusta. Or something.

    What a clown show the Byedon administration is.

    It would be hilarious if it were not so scary and potentially harmful.

  17. Turkey: “The press has not had any apparent inclination or (in the case of Fox News) an opportunity to ask Biden for a full answer on why the Georgia law is worse than the Jim Crow laws.”

    Why would Biden submit to being interviewed by Fox News which is being sued for lying about the election being stolen by massive voter fraud? A lie which you refuse to address in any of your blog posts. I completely agree with your criticism of Biden, but you are a hypocrite and an embarrassment to your profession. Which probably explains why I have not witnessed any academics or notable lawyers who post to this blog by name.

    1. I did not intend to refer to Turley as “Turkey.” Damn spellcheck.

    2. When given the opportunity, Fox asks fair questions and does so respectfully. The other media doesn’t even try to pretend to be anything other than sycophants and allies of the administration. THAT’s what’s embarrassing.

    3. Being sued does not mean they lied. Could you give me a clear example of FOX News lying about the election results. I’d also like to hear your views on all the misinformation and unsubstantiated claims of Russian collusion propagated by the other networks for years after the 2016 election. From what I can see there is far greater evidence of voter fraud in 2020 that Trump colluding with Russia in 2016.

  18. Stacey Abrams is the one who gave that line to President Biden and encouraged its use. “It’s worse than Jim Crow I tell ya, worse than Jim Crow! The Republicans are gonna put y’all BACK in chainz!” Oh Joe. Here we go again.

    1. Before her political career, Stacey Abrams wrote supermarket romance novels. She’s a hot mess and the media spin her as some political savant or something. She still insists she’s the rightful governor of Georgia! She’s just an agitator, much like Obama. Same schtick.

  19. Come on man….

    Mr Turkey you’re a lying dog faced pony soldier. sarcasm

    What’s funny Democrats fail to realize Jim Crow laws were enacted by Democrats. The KKK was an arm of the Democrat party. That being said we should learn from history not erase it.

    Some how in a Woke mind MLB is different than Golf???

    Why would hurt the people you claim to represent? To the tune of $100 million. You hurt small and black businesses.

  20. And there we see the Dem playbook – lie, divide, and create doubt about our country.

    They hope to gain from anger and chaos.

      1. JS

        Don’t flaunt your shame with such pride.

        Your glib (or amoral) statement provides cover for those damaging the country.

        1. Monument, I don’t flatter myself in having the ability to “provide cover to those damaging the country,” whatever that even means.

    2. They ( Democrat’s) are doing the work of the Russians, Chinese, Iranians.

      1. Deb, you left out the North Koreans, Syrians, Palestinians, and, of course, the French.

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