Less than 72 hours after announcing the 2021 MLB All-Star Game would not be played in Atlanta in protest of Georgia's voter suppression law, MLB announced the game will be played at Coors Field in Denver, home of the Colorado Rockies.
There had been sentiment to move the game to Milwaukee so as to keep with its theme of honoring the late Hank Aaron. But commerce prevailed over sentiment. With that said, the other day I cited Coors Field as among the possible venues given that it had not hosted the All-Star Game since 1998. So I can't really object to MLB's decision too strenuously.
Of course, conservatives tried to make the case that Colorado has more restrictive voting laws than Georgia but White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki swatted that down flat. Colorado has universal mail-in balloting, the bete-noire of the MAGA crowd. Moreover, the Colorado legislature does not have the authority to fire local election officials, install their own and overturn election results.
This won't stop Republicans from milking this for the next three months. What else have they got? They're not interested in stimulus bills, vaccine distribution or infrastructure projects. They operate on grievance, not governance. In which case, Georgia Republican Governor Brian Kemp will go for whole milk. Whether it will be enough to get back into the good graces of Donald Trump remains to be seen.
Kemp can blame President Biden and Stacey Abrams all he wants. This decision was driven by the MLBPA. The players were not going to play this game in Atlanta regardless of what Biden, Abrams or anyone else said. Like Trump, Kemp isn't going to let facts get in the way of his argument. He is fighting for his political survival and he is swinging for the fences. Kemp could hit high fly ball but I suspect will die on the warning track.
After the game is played on July 13th what card is Kemp going to play? The middle of summer is still a long way from a Republican primary let alone next year's gubernatorial election.
On the other hand, if Georgia's election law is still on the books, the Republican controlled legislature can see to it that Kemp wins even if Abrams defeats him at the ballot box.
The whole reason this bill was initiated in the first place is because Georgia election officials couldn't legally Trump the winner. Republicans are going to make sure they are never in that position again come hell or high water.
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