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The ADVANCE, September 7, 2022/Page 6A
Stye Aiiuancg
OPINIONS
“I honor the man who is willing to sink
Half his repute for the freedom to think,
And when he has thought, be his cause strong or weak,
Will risk t’other half for the freedom to speak.”
-James Russell Lowell
editorials
Joe Biden Is the Real
Semi-Fascist
This week, Presi
dent Joe Biden — in
search of a new label
to pin on his political
opponents after the
failure of his “ultra-
MAGA” branding,
which prompted
peals of laughter
rather than shudders
By Ben Shapiro of horror — landed
on a new slur with
which to tar those who don’t support his
agenda: they are, he said, semi-fascists.
Speaking with a crowd of Democratic do
nors in Maryland, Biden reportedly said,
“What we’re seeing now is either the begin
ning or the death knell of an extreme
MAGA philosophy. It’s not just Trump, it’s
the entire philosophy that underpins the
— I’m going to say something — it’s semi
fascism.”
Now, Democratic politicians painting
half of Americans as beneath contempt is
old hat. Former President Barack Obama,
of course, said that Americans who didn’t
support him in 2008 were merely bitter
bigots, clinging to “guns or religion or an
tipathy toward people who aren’t like
them.” Hillary Clinton was more pithy: she
called them a “basket of deplorables.” So,
“semi-fascist” shouldn’t come as much of a
shock.
But that smear is particularly galling
coming from Biden the same week in which
he announced, without any constitutional
authority whatsoever, that he was erasing
some $500 billion in student loan debts —
the single largest executive action in Amer
ican history. Biden justified that action on
the basis of a nonexistent COVID-19
emergency. He has justified similar usurpa
tions on similar grounds: He illegally
tasked his Occupational Safety and Health
Administration with forcing vaccines on
some 80 million people on the basis of a
“public health emergency”; he used his
Centers for Disease Control and Preven
tion to try to propagate an eviction morato
rium on the same basis; he bragged in July
that he will reshape the American economy
on his own if Congress doesn’t act in order
to forestall a supposed “climate change
emergency.”
If we’re talking about semi-fascism, this
stuff qualifies.
The history of fascism, after all, does
not begin with a dictator simply marching
into a nation’s capital and seizing total
power. It more frequently begins with the
destruction of the legislative branch at the
hands of centralization of executive power.
Adolf Hitler didn’t just declare himself dic
tator; dictatorial power preceded him in
the chancellor’s office by several years, dat
ing back to Heinrich Bruning invoking
emergency powers under Article 48 of the
Weimar Constitution in 1930. Benito Mus
solini came to power under constitutional
means in 1922 and didn’t consolidate his
rule until 1925. Fascism, in other words, is
a gradual process. And that process starts
with executive branch actors accreting au
thority they were never given.
Because our political discourse has de
volved into middle-school histrionics —
“Everyone I don’t like is Hitler!” — we fail
to notice the gradual slide into tyranny, ig
noring it on behalf of spectacular headlines
and reactionary rhetoric. Standing up to
that process isn’t semi-fascism; it’s the op
posite.
Ben Shapiro, 38, is a graduate of UCLA and
Harvard Law School, host of "The Ben Shapiro
Show," and Editor-in-Chief of DailyWire.com. He
is a three-time New York Times bestselling
author; his latest book is "The Authoritarian
Moment: How The Left Weaponized America's
Institutions Against Dissent." To find out more
about Ben Shapiro and read features by other
Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit
the Creators Syndicate website at www.
creators.com.
COPYRIGHT 2022 CREATORS.COM
Stacey Abrams:
Fiscally Fit for Georgia?
Georgia Democratic gu
bernatorial candidate Stacy
Abrams was a quick study as
a tax associate at the Suther
land Asbill & Brennan law
firm in Atlanta, where her
practice focused on tax-
exempt organizations. She
obviously used her experi
ence to establish and fund
tax-exempt projects for her
own benefit.
Abrams, who represents
the 89th district Atlanta,
used her experience as a tax
lawyer to create nonproduc
tive, nonprofit organizations
from which she paid herself
a substantial salary and shaft
ed her employees of these
organizations by not paying
unemployment, workman’s
compensation and social
security contributions re
sulting in Georgia tax liens
against her on unpaid unem
ployment contributions.
In 2013, Abrams orches
trated the initiative called
the New Georgia Project,
a subsidiary of another of
Abrams’s projects created in
1998 called Third Sector De
velopment whose main ob
jective was to register minor
ity voters across the state. In
2014 she registered an advo
cacy organization called Vot
er Access Institute, Inc.
According to cam
paign contribution dis
closure reports, Abrams’
tax-exempt organizations
are receiving contributions
from wealthy donors such
as Democratic mega-donor
and California based billion
aire Tom Steyer and liberal
billionaire George Soros. So
ros himself gave her political
action committee, Georgia
Next, Inc., a check for half
a million dollars in 2014 to
help her voter registration
efforts, according to Atlanta
Magazine.
From fundraising mem
os obtained by Atlanta Mag
azine, Abrams asked Democ
racy Alliance, a network of
progressive donors, includ
ing liberal billionaires Soros
and Steyer, to donate up to
$5.9 million for her New
Georgia Project and con
tribute another $4.35 mil
lion for her Voter Access In
stitute.
Although the objective
of these projects was to reg
ister minority voters, there
is no evidence that contrib
uted funds funneled through
Abrams tax exempt organi
zations had any significant
impact on the voting rosters
of either the Republican or
Democratic parties.
Votebuilder, an election
database used by Democrats,
shows that almost 10,000
fewer minorities statewide
were registered to vote in
2014 following the creation
of her New Georgia Project
versus the previous mid
term election in 2010 when
hardly any money was spent
on voter registration. The
state department investigat
ed allegations that the New
Georgia Project submitted
dozens of fraudulent voter
registration applications in
the months leading up to the
2018 vote.
Former Atlanta Mayor
Kasim Reed has also ques
tioned the need for the New
Georgia Project. "I don’t
believe nor did I believe that
the New Georgia Project is
the model [for voter registra
tion]," Reed told the Atlanta
Journal Constitution.
Black Democratic state
Senator David Lucas from
Macon said the New Geor
gia Project did not seek his
input, nor that of other long
time voter registration advo
cates. According to Lucas,
“We were kept in the dark,
period. [We didn’t know]
how much money was
raised, who they paid to go
out to do the work. We liter
ally didn’t know anything.”
Abrams has spoken out
against “wage theft” from
“firms who hire full-time
employees and then clas
sify them as independent
contractors to deprive them
Please see Abrams page 9A
Erk Russell belongs in the
College Football Hall of Fame
Erk Russell
should be in
the College
Football Hall of
Fame. Period.
End of story.
But since I still
have quite a bit
of space to fill
here, let me tell
you why he
should be and
why he is not.
For those of you recently arrived
in our fair state, Erskine “Erk” Russell
was the head coach of the Georgia
Southern Eagles football team in
Statesboro; the man who resuscitated
the program after a 40-year hiatus.
Georgia Southern had fielded a foot
ball team until World War II where
upon it was suspended and lay dor
mant until 1981. That is when Russell
arrived.
Between 1981 and 1989, the Ea
gles won three NCAA Division 1-AA
national championships and finished
second once. In addition, Georgia
Southern became the first 15-0 team
of the 20th century.
Prior to restarting football at GSU,
Erk Russell was the legendary defen
sive coordinator at the University of
Georgia for 17 years, including the
1980 national championship team.
Russell helped popularize the now-fa
miliar phrase, “Junkyard Dawgs.”
“There isn’t anything meaner than
a junkyard dog,” he once said. “They
aren’t good for nothing except for be
ing mean and ornery. That’s what we
want our defense to be.” And they
were. And so was Erk Russell. He was
famous for head-butting his helmeted
players on the sideline to fire them up
and leaving himself with a bloody fore
head.
Many thought Russell would suc
ceed Vince Dooley as head football
when Dooley retired, but the job went
to Ray Goff instead. We all know how
that turned out.
Erk Russell was a master motiva
tor, always looking for ways to inspire
his players. At Georgia Southern, he
renamed a tiny stream that ran through
the practice grounds “Beautiful Eagle
Creek.” He would have players scoop
the supposedly magical waters from
the creek in a jar and pour the contents
onto the opponent’s field at away
games as a motivational tactic.
In the early days of the program,
the team was transported to and from
games in two yellow school buses that
the Bulloch County school system sold
the Georgia Southern Athletic Depart
ment for $ 1 each. Long after the school
could afford charter buses, Russell in
sisted the team stick with the yellow
school buses as a way of staying con
nected to their humble beginnings as a
college football startup. Today, the
players still ride yellow school buses to
home games.
Russell, who died in 2006 at the
age of 80, was inducted into the Geor
gia Sports Hall of Fame in 1987 and
into the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame
in 1991 (He was a four-sport letterman
at Auburn University) and was named
Georgia Coach of the Decade by USA
Today in 1989.
By Dick Yarbrough
So, why isn’t he in the College
Football Hall of Fame? According to
the rules of those who make the selec
tions, he doesn’t qualify. Coaches must
have coached 100 games and had at
least a .600 winning percentage. Erk
Russell coached 106 games and had a
winning percentage of 78.3.
But the rules also state that candi
dates must have been a head coach for
10 years. Therein lies the rub. Russell
coached only eight seasons at Georgia
Southern. And for a mere 730 days,
one of the greatest coaches, motivators
and a miracle workers to ever grace the
game of football is denied his rightful
place in the College Football Hall of
Fame.
Incidentally, one of this year’s in
ductees, Billy Jack Murphy who
coached at Memphis from 1958 to
1971, had a winning percentage of 67%
and never won a national champion
ship.
The roadblock seems to be Steve
Hatchell, CEO of the National Foot
ball Foundation. Erk Russell’s inclu
sion would require a waiver. Georgia
Southern University president Kyle
Marrero and athletic director Jared
Benko sent Hatchell a letter on Aug. 5
formally requesting a waiver on the 10-
year requirement. To date, no response.
Gov. Brian Kemp has contacted
Hatchell, as well. “Georgia is proud
that the College Football Hall of Fame
calls the Peach State home, and we ask
you in the spirit of Coach Russell’s
motto — “Just one more time” — you
honor him with this distinction,” Kemp
wrote. Still no response from Hatchell.
Let’s all be positive and think that
Hatchell and the National Football
Foundation will do the right thing and
grant a most-deserved waiver for Erk
Russell to join the College Football
Hall of Fame. If not, that crowd will
clearly be the loser because Coach Ers
kine “Erk” Russell is and always will be
the epitome of a winner.
You can reach Dick Yarbrough at
dick@dickyarbrough.com; at P.O. Box
725373, Atlanta, Georgia 31139 or on
Facebook at www.facebook.com/
dickyarb.
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