The Narrative Is In Control

Much has been made of the new voting law in Georgia.

Corporations such as Delta Air Lines and Coca-Cola have condemned the law arguing that it intended to suppress the vote. 

Major league baseball, reportedly under pressure from corporate sponsors such as Coke and Delta, moved this year's All-Star game from Atlanta due to allegedly discriminatory law.

Interestingly, the All-Star game was moved to Denver, Colorado which some have argued has more restrictive voting requirements than Georgia.

The move will have negative economic impacts on Atlanta because the game was estimated to have a $100 million economic impact to the Atlanta area. 

It bears mentioning that 51.8% of Atlanta's population and 31.2% of Georgia's is Black.

Denver's Black population is 8.9% and only 12% of Colorado is Black.

In fact, 7x as many African Americans live in the five major Atlanta metro counties (Fulton, DeKalb, Clayton. Cobb and Gwinnett) as live in the entire state of Colorado. 4x as many Blacks live just in Fulton and DeKalb county as in Colorado as a whole.

In moving the game from an area with a high concentration of African Americans to an area that is predominantly White isn't major league baseball getting involved in a form of economic suppression of Blacks?

What I also found interesting is the difference in how the media portrayed the voting bill that was just passed in Kentucky compared to Georgia.

Recall that the Georgia law is referred to as a racist example of voter suppression. Joe Biden called it "Jim Crow in the 21st Century". That seems to be due to the fact that the new law will require absentee voters to supply voter id with their mail-in ballot in the same manner it has always been required for in-person voting on election day.

Look at how the the new Kentucky law was portrayed in the mainstream media.

All the reports are glowing about the "expanded" voting reforms in that state. It is a popular narrative just as is the fact that Georgia is restricting voting rights.

CNN.

CBS.

Lexington (KY) Herald Leader.

The Herald Leader article reveals this key fact in the body of the story that belies the headline.

Kentucky already has some of the most restrictive voting laws in the country. Even with the expansions included in the bill, the state’s voting laws in many ways remain more restrictive than the provisions contained in a controversial law that was recently signed in Georgia.

Let's compare the laws in each state after the two reform bills have been passed and try to figure out why Kentucky is being praised and Georgia castigated.

Early voting

Georgia- 17 mandatory early voting days throughout the state. 2 optional Sunday early voting days.

Kentucky- 3 days of early voting

Absentee Voting

Georgia- Mail-in voting allowed with no excuse required.

Kentucky- Mail-in absentee ballots only allowed with valid excuse (out of state, disabled, etc.)

Identification Requirement

Georgia- Voter id required for in-person and mail-in voting

Kentucky-Voter id required for in-person and mail-in voting

Ballot Harvesting

Georgia- Not permitted

Kentucky-Not permitted 

It is just one more example of where we are today.

Facts don't matter.

The truth doesn't matter.

The narrative is all that matters.

The sad fact is also that if the narrative is repeated often enough that 95% of the people actually believe it is the truth.

Consider yourself in the 5% who actually know the facts.