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Holiday Reading
FIVE POLITICAL BOOKS THAT MAKE GREAT GIFTS
By Ed Tant news@flagpole.com
feature
Gonzalez Goes to College
ATHENS’ NEW DA IS ONE OF GEORGIA’S 16 BIDEN ELECTORS
By Tyler Wilkins news@flagpole.com
“So many books, so little time,” said musi
cian Frank Zappa. He was right, but the
COVID-19 pandemic has, despite all its
horrors, at least given people more time
to read. The holiday season is at hand,
now that December is here, and books
always make great gifts for Christmas and
Hanukkah. Here are just a few books that I
have read or re-read in the past year. I rec
ommend all of them for holiday reading or
gift giving.
Historian David Pietrusza has written
absorbing and readable volumes about
American politics, sports and crime that
bring the past to life today. His 1920: The
Year of the Six Presidents is a compelling true
story of an election a century ago that still
has relevance to today’s political scene. In
1920, Republican Warren Harding and his
running mate, Calvin Coolidge, won a land
slide election over Democrat James Cox and
a young Franklin Roosevelt, even though
Harding had been dogged by “birtherism”
accusations that he had Black ancestry.
Harding died in office in 1923, and Coolidge
became president. This book is a page-
turner for political junkies that details how
former and future presidents like Teddy
Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, Herbert
Hoover and FDR all had their eyes on the
White House prize prior to the election a
century ago.
Candace Millard’s Destiny of the Republic:
A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder
of a President tells the story of the life and
death of James Garfield, who was shot by
Charles Guiteau, a religious fanatic and
thwarted office-seeker, in 1881. A young,
charismatic and compassionate president,
Garfield died just six months after his
inauguration. Doctors who attended the
wounded leader only made matters worse
by probing his wound with unwashed hands
and unsterilized instruments, and the
president died an agonizing and avoidable
death. Millard’s history shows the truth of
poet John Greenleaf Whittier’s words: “Of
all sad words of tongue or pen, the saddest
are these: ‘It might have been.’”
Jared Cohen’s Accidental Presidents:
Eight Men Who Changed America is a look
at vice presidents who became president
after the chief executive died in office.
John Tyler, Millard Fillmore,
Andrew Johnson, Chester
Arthur, Theodore Roosevelt,
Calvin Coolidge, Harry Truman
and Lyndon Johnson all were
catapulted into the White House
after their bosses died in office
from illness or assassination.
Though some of those men
are little remembered today,
Roosevelt, Truman and Johnson
all left indelible influences
on the history of this nation.
Cohen’s book deserves a promi
nent place on the bookshelves of
every presidential history buff.
Jon Meacham’s His Truth is
Marching On is a biography of
the late congressman and civil
rights activist John Lewis that
should join Meacham’s The Soul
of America on the reading list
of those who are inspired by
history’s radicals and reformers.
Lewis was the youngest man
to speak at the 1963 march
on Washington, when Martin
Luther King gave the famous “I
Have a Dream” oration, and he
was the last surviving speaker at
that memorable gathering at the
Lincoln Memorial. Meacham’s biography is
a fine tribute to Lewis and a fitting compan
ion volume with the civil rights firebrand’s
own autobiography, Walking With the Wind.
Coming up next spring is the 50th anni
versary of the antiwar protests that rocked
Washington in 1971. Journalist Lawrence
Roberts has weighed in with a new look at
the turmoil, Mayday 1971: A White House
at War, a Revolt in the Streets, and the Untold
History of America’s Biggest Mass Arrest.
Though the events described in this vol
ume happened half a century ago during
the Nixon administration, this compelling
volume shows that the political clashes
during the early 1970s are still relevant
today in the waning weeks of the Trump
administration as another unscrupulous
president exhibits Nixonian contempt for
the “law and order” that he claims to sup
port. Longtime peace campaigner David
Dellinger, who spoke at Human Rights
Festivals here in Athens during the 1980s
and ‘90s, is a major character in Mayday
1971, and readers who remember or partic
ipated in the antiwar movement will find
this book to be a must-read.
Happy reading and happy holidays. The
ancient orator Cicero was right when he
said, “A room without books is like a body
without a soul.” ©
T wo weeks after winning the runoff
election for district attorney of the
Western Judicial Circuit, former state Rep.
Deborah Gonzalez will cast one of Georgia’s
16 electoral votes for Joe Biden, wrapping
up the 2020 presidential election.
Gonzalez will travel to the Georgia State
Capitol on Dec. 14, where she’ll cast and
sign her ballot for Biden and his running
mate Kamala Harris. On Jan. 6, Congress
will meet to count the electoral votes from
every state before Inauguration Day on Jan.
20.
Each state’s number of Electoral College
votes is based on its number of seats in the
U.S. House and Senate. The nomination
process varies by state, but in Georgia, the
Democratic, Republican and Libertarian
parties select 16 electors each to represent
their respective
parties. The official
electors are then cho
sen from the party
of the candidate who
wins the state’s pop
ular vote. In a sense,
Georgia citizens who
voted for Biden and
Harris really voted
for Gonzalez and her
15 fellow Democratic
electors.
With public opin
ion mixed on the
role of the Electoral
College in deciding
presidential victo
ries, many states
have adopted laws
to ensure their electors vote in accordance
with the state’s popular vote. Considering
that no such law exists in Georgia, its elec
tors could technically vote for whomever
they wish to hold the presidency. But politi
cal parties have an incentive to choose loyal
electors, making it unusual for an elector to
break with their party.
“It’s quite a vote of confidence that [the
party] believes that I will uphold our dem
ocratic values and that they believe I’m a
true Democrat,” says Gonzalez, who was
tapped by the Democratic Party of Georgia
in mid-February.
Gonzalez says she believes that in other
states Democratic and Republican electors
will remain loyal to their parties’ candi
dates. Even if the electors strongly dislike
their party’s candidate, it may hurt them
politically to vote for someone else, she
says.
After two recounts, Biden won 49.5%
of the vote in Georgia to President
Donald Trump’s 49.3%—the first time
a Democratic presidential candidate has
won Georgia since Bill Clinton in 1992.
Nationally, Biden has 306 electoral votes to
Trump’s 232. Despite not offering substan
tial evidence, Trump’s campaign continues
to take accusations of voter fraud to court.
Any disputes, including state recounts and
court contests, must be resolved by the
“safe harbor” deadline on Dec. 8. Gonzalez
says she won’t entertain a Trump win, as
the people voiced their preference for a new
president in a legitimate election.
Gonzalez says she’s looking forward to
participating in the historic process, but she
generally believes that the national popular
vote should decide presidential elections,
rather than the Electoral College. In two out
of the past six elections, the candidate who
lost the popular vote—George W. Bush in
2000 and Trump in 2016—became presi
dent anyway.
“It’s not a true representation of what
the majority of the people want,” Gonzalez
says. “If we’re talking about democracy and
‘one person equals one vote,’ then I think
we have to rethink these mechanisms for
us to elect our leaders if they’re supposed
to be truly representative of the will of the
people.”
To abolish or significantly reform the
Electoral College, two-thirds of both cham
bers of Congress would need to propose
an amendment to the U.S. Constitution,
with three-fourths of all state legislatures
ratifying it. The states could also petition
Congress to hold a constitutional conven
tion to propose an amendment, but this
process has never occurred.
In its two senatorial runoff elections on
Jan. 5, Georgia voters will ultimately decide
which party controls the U.S. Senate. If
Democrats Rev. Raphael Warnock and Jon
Ossoff defeat their Republican opponents,
Gonzalez says, the shift in party control
could increase the likelihood of a change to
the Electoral College.
Georgia’s 15 other Biden electors are:
2018 gubernatorial candidate Stacey
Abrams; state Sens. Gloria Butler of Stone
Mountain and Steve Henson of Tucker;
Rome Commissioner Wendy Davis; party
activists Bobby Fuse of Americus, Fenika
Miller of Macon and Ben Myers, Rachel
Paule and Sachin Varghese of Atlanta;
Savannah Mayor Van Johnson; state
Reps. Pedro Marin of Duluth, Calvin
Smyre of Columbus and Bob Trammell of
Luthersville; Democratic Party of Georgia
Chairwoman Nikema Williams, who was
recently elected to the late John Lewis’
Atlanta congressional seat; and former
Atlanta City Council member Cathy
Woolard. ©
JON MEACHAM
WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE
Deborah Gonzalez speaks at a rally for Senate candidate Jon Ossoff in October.
6 FLAGPOLE.COM | DECEMBER 9, 2020
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