ATLANTA — Who’s in charge in this country, and who gets to tell you what you can and cannot do?
That’s what’s at the heart of the monumental dispute over Georgia’s new voting law. The Department of Justice filed suit against Georgia Friday, to try to overturn the law.
The suit is just one battle of many over the direction of this country. The rhetoric continues to sharpen, on both sides, with dire warnings that people’s lives and futures—and the nation’s future--depending on which side prevails.
The federal lawsuit against Georgia’s new election law is one more reminder that this is a state, a nation, boiling. And, at times--boiling over.
Georgia's Republican Governor Brian Kemp, defending the provisions of the law, point by point, against the Attorney General’s accusations, warned Friday that the lawsuit is about more than Democrats wanting different election procedures.
"It is about forcing their extreme agenda literally on every state in the country," Kemp said at a news conference in Savannah.
He portrayed a gloomy future if Democrats succeed in overturning the law to help them win elections.
"They are coming for you, next," he said, ominously, repeating a prediction he has made before. “They are coming to force their agenda on you and your community. And they're not afraid to use the full force of the federal government to do this."
Kemp accused the Biden Administration of “weaponizing the Department of Justice to serve their own partisan goals,” and he called the lawsuit “a politically motivated assault on the rule of law and our democracy.”
Two visions of justice and freedom--and the federal government.
"Make no mistake,” said Rep. Nikema Williams, (D) GA-05, on Friday, “wherever you are in this country, the federal government has an obligation to make sure that your civil and constitutional rights are protected."
Congresswoman Williams of Atlanta is the chair of the Democratic Party of Georgia. And she told 11Alive that all the battles for control of the nation's future begin and end at the ballot box, so it is crucial that the courts overturn Georgia's election law.
"We had a multiracial coalition that turned out to vote for our elections in November and January. And in the aftermath of that, our state, our governor, signed a law to make it harder for those people who just turned out in record number to vote. ... We’ve seen a concerted attack on access to the ballot by Republicans in more than just Georgia.”
The 2022 election season is now full speed ahead.
For now, it is possible that the Justice Department may seek an immediate order that would prevent Georgia from enforcing the new law during the months - or years - when the lawsuit will be winding its way through the courts.