Communists Ruin Baseball for Republican True Believers
If you’re a sports fan and also a Republican, tough times are here.
Football, basketball, soccer, and now baseball are, according to party leaders, all travelling the woke road to communist hell. About the only safe sport left for these folks is watching Republicans eat their own, and that’s really hard to bet on or repackage into a fantasy league.
The latest insult to GOP sports fans came as Major League Baseball relocated the All-Star game from Atlanta to Denver in the wake of Georgia’s regressive legislation concerning voting.
Based on the foundational falsehood of voter fraud in the 2020 election, voters in the Peach state now must jump through hoops to cast an absentee ballot, election officials can more easily overturn results they don’t like, and there are assorted “reforms,” none of which were actually needed.
And then there’s this “let them eat cake” moment, broadcast on Newsmax:
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R) on Wednesday pushed back on criticism of the state’s controversial new voting law that in part prohibits nonelection workers from providing food and water to voters standing in line, arguing that people can “order Grubhub or Uber Eats.”
The former occupant of the White House has called for a boycott of Major League Baseball, along with the Republican National Committee and several GOP members of Congress.
“Baseball is already losing tremendous numbers of fans,” Trump said in a statement, “and now they leave Atlanta with their All-Star Game because they are afraid of the radical left Democrats.
“… Boycott baseball and all of the woke companies that are interfering with free and fair elections. Are you listening Coke, Delta and all?”
Of course, we all know Trump is addicted to Coke/Diet Coke and lacks any semblance of will power, as was proven not long afterward via a photograph.
https://twitter.com/leahmcelrath/status/1379178230721224705?s=20
This wouldn’t be a Certified Republican Outrage® without Fox News spinning out some false equivalence, namely the claim that Georgia’s voting laws were similar to Colorado’s.
My new favorite face in the White House, Press Secretary Jen Psaki, was ready to smack this bs down when the story was used as the basis for a “concerned” reporter’s question:
https://youtu.be/Z2uJtv0LoG8
Georgia Congresscritter Marjorie Taylor Greene saw baseball’s actions as a kumbaya moment for Republicans:
https://twitter.com/mtgreenee/status/1378349402004332549?s=20
The Republican National Committee is apparently getting their facts from The Onion:
https://twitter.com/GOP/status/1379521801504616448?s=20
South Carolina Congressman Jeff Duncan announced his office was in the process of drafting legislation to remove Major League Baseball's federal antitrust exception," adding that entities opposing GOP election legislation "deserve increased scrutiny under the law."
Bring it on says Cory Doctorow, in an essay pointing out the fallacy of consumer boycotts in an era where monopolies dominate the landscape:
Keep your eyes on the prize: smashing corporate power. Far more exciting than the MLB boycott of Georgia is the Republican response: GOP hardliners want to take away baseball's antitrust exemption.
If this happens, it will be the absolute best possible outcome – because it represents the shattering of the coalition that makes antimajoritarian politics possible. If the right starts siding with bigots and AGAINST companies, they'll cut their own supply lines.
The voter suppression, gerrymandering and bigotry that the GOP relies on is expensive. It can't exist without corporate power. The reason it exists in the first place is corporate power.
Reinvigorating antitrust as an act of performative culture-war bullshit is the political equivalent of pointing a gun at your own dick to own the libs and then blowing your actual dick off.
And, speaking of fascism...
Republican Congressman Dan Crenshaw of Texas won the award for “projection” via an appearance on Fox News:
https://twitter.com/TPMLiveWire/status/1380139997110632450?s=20
Baseball is hardly alone in taking a stand in support of voting rights and against Republicans' voter-suppression tactics. By one count, roughly 200 prominent American businesses have announced opposition to GOP anti-voting tactics -- in Georgia, Texas, and elsewhere.
***
There is no bottom as far as I can tell...
https://twitter.com/Timodc/status/1379815282579972097?s=20
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