Jay Bookman, Georgia Recorder

Writing in the “Never Trump” outlet The Bulwark, columnist Jonathan V. Last says the transformation of Georgia’s own Marjorie Taylor Greene represents “the best hope for liberalism in America.”

That’s probably not something you ever thought you would read.

By “liberalism,” Last makes clear, “we do not mean Democratic policy preferences. I do not expect MTG to change her views on the Second Amendment, climate change, abortion, the costs/benefits of immigration, the role of America in geopolitics, or any other issue.” ...

In politics, as in war, victory often depends on your choice of battlefield.

Here in Georgia, U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff has chosen health care and the economy as the grounds on which he will defend his Senate seat in next year’s election. His Republican opponents have chosen loyalty to Donald Trump and, I guess, “wokeness.”

Good luck with that. ...

The lines that separate truth from falsehood, reality from fantasy, have become so smeared in recent years that democracy itself becomes difficult. Edgar Allen Poe, and later the Temptations, gave us the motto for our times:

“Believe half of what you see, and none of what you hear.”

But which half to believe? We’re now witnessing the introduction of high-quality, AI-driven deep-fake videos into Georgia politics, which makes it even harder to tell. ...

Maybe what happened in Tuesday’s election was an anomaly. You could certainly make that case, as many Georgia Republicans have tried to do.

It was, after all, an odd-year election, with relatively low turnout, for two low-profile statewide races. So even if the resulting margins were spectacular – Democrats won two seats on the five-member Public Service Commission, both by 25 percentage points – maybe it was just an anomaly.

Joe Biden’s 2020 victory in the red state of Georgia was another such anomaly, so rare and unusual that to this day, Donald Trump refuses to accept that it happened....

With Brian Kemp leaving the governor’s office after next year’s election, Georgia Democrats have an opportunity to make history.

All they need now is a candidate.

The alleged frontrunner for the 2026 nomination is Keisha Lance Bottoms. According to a poll of Democratic primary voters commissioned by her own campaign last month, Bottoms “pulls more support than all other named candidates combined,” drawing 38 percent of likely primary voters....