CARLTON FLETCHER: Texas and Georgia … politics at its worst

“We’re tough and we’re Texan with necks good and red.”

— Elton John

In the name of “doing what’s right” — which should be amended to say “doing what’s right for people who think just like I do” — officials in our country are going crazy.

For example: The secretary of state in Texas unsuccessfully sued to have four states’ election outcomes changed because, well, the dumb-headed egotistical blowhard didn’t like the way the elections went. That was bad enough, that some Texas jerk of a lawmaker decided he could come into Georgia, Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania and tell those states’ people how they should have voted. But what was worse was that a bunch of Washington politicians, including current Georgia Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler, jumped all over that inane quest to meddle in other states’ affairs simply because each has proven to be nothing but yesmen (and women) for Donald Trump.

“Here’s how we can show the Big Man we’re still fighting for him,” Perdue and Loeffler obviously thought. “We’ll support the usurpation of Georgia’s rights as a state by an addle-brained Texas politician, proving once and for all that we really care about the Peach State.”

(Note to Perdue and Loeffler: Are you freaking kidding me? You both are in showdowns for your political lives, and you decide the best way to show the people of Georgia how you’ve “got their backs” is to support the rape of the state’s political system by carpetbaggers who have no legal, moral or ethical right to do so? Yeah, you might have further endeared yourself to Trump and to the radical right — who were going to support you anyway — but for those undecided voters who had not yet made up their minds, you sure showed them how much you respect them as citizens. And, no, except for those who have already declared they’d rather have Trump in office as a dictator than anyone else, this is not a Republican or Democrat issue. This was a commonsense, Georgia bowing to a clown in Texas issue, and both of you blew it.)

Even before the Supreme Court ruled that — duh! — the state of Texas and its idiotic Secretary of State Ken Paxton have no authority or standing in Georgia, Georgia’s house speaker, David Ralston decided it’s time we change the state Constitution to have the State Legislature select the secretary of state in Georgia because, well, dang it, because Georgia’s current secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, wouldn’t throw out the 5 million legal votes in the state and just make Trump the winner in Georgia.

After all, Ralston no doubt reasoned, Trump is a Republican and all of us who matter are Republicans. That old thing about majority rule, that’s just one of those things that was important while Democrats were in charge. Now that we’re in charge, we don’t need any of that majority rule nonsense. We’re important people — look at me, I’m house speaker!! — and we know what’s best for Georgia.

Again, there are Georgians who will slap ole Dave on the back and declare he’s right with God because he wants to get back at Raffensperger for not doing his job and changing the election outcome to a more suitable one. (Hell, and that boy calls himself a Republican?!) But the majority of Georgians — many Republicans, by the way, who happen not to worship at the feet of Donald Trump — find no problem with the way the election was conducted, and after three time-wasting — and costly — recounts in which the results keep coming up the same, they’re ready to move on.

Ralston, like Texas’ Paxton is nothing more than a stuffed-shirt politician to the core, seizing any opportunity to make himself, if nothing else, more appealing to his base. But he’s also proved that he’s part of an old guard whose politics of “win at any cost, even if you have to cheat or change the rules” is obviously on its way out in Georgia. Perhaps when the trash is taken to the curb, people who think that way — on both sides of the aisle — will be taken out with it.

Perhaps the most intelligent comment about Ralston’s and the Texas lamebrain’s efforts was offered by outgoing Democratic Rep. Bob Trammell of Luthersville, who said, “Changing the rules simply because you lose an election is not good policy.”