Some Americans are really into denying things, anything. Trump and his minions deny the 2020 presidential election results. No court in America found that ballots for Trump were changed and given to President Biden. No secretaries of state found any fraudulent activities that would have changed the election. Nevertheless, over 60% of Republicans believe that the election was stolen from Trump. There is absolutely no evidence for that mindset other than Trump said so.

In the midterm elections, Democrats picked up a Senate seat, and after the runoff election in Georgia on December 6, they could have 51 to 49 Republican Senators. However, that should raise a question regarding runoffs in the first place. Georgia and Louisiana are the only states with runoffs in general elections unless one candidate gets more than 50% of the votes. Why did Georgia write that law?

That more than 50% issue was due to Denmark Groover, a Georgia State Representative. He was a very driven legislator. This is Groover trying to stop the clock to avoid an adjournment. He wanted to control things...his way.

Trump would admire Denmark’s stupidity.

A local paper stated, “During a 1964 speech on reapportionment, Rep. Denmark Groover (D-Macon) nearly fell over the state House railing trying to adjust the hands of the clock to keep it from reaching the mandatory hour of adjournment. The clock fell, March 8, 1992.”

Trump would admire Groover’s guts. On another occasion, he lost his re-election in 1958 and blamed it on the “Negro block voting.” Groover was a segregationist. Apparently, blacks didn’t like his mindset and voted for another candidate who defeated him.

Several years later, Groover was elected again. He had an idea to prevent blacks from voting for one candidate from several other white candidates. If blacks backed one particular candidate in an election who got, say, 49% of the vote, the rest of the other candidates would divide up the remaining votes. That was precisely what had happened to him in 1958 when he lost. Groover got a law passed that anyone needed more than 50% of the vote in a Georgia election.

Years later, Groover said, during a 1984 deposition, “If you want to establish if I was racially prejudiced, I was. If you want to establish that some of my political activity was racially motivated, it was.”

Additionally, Georgia has a new law passed in 2021 limiting the number of weeks for a runoff from nine to four weeks. It also included other issues like reducing the number of ballot drop-boxes and a ban on giving food to people waiting in line at polling sites. It also closed polling sites for two holidays. One holiday was Thanksgiving. However, the Saturday after Thanksgiving was the other holiday dedicated to the legacy of Gen. Robert E. Lee. If that is not problematic enough, the state now prohibits voting on the Saturday before the runoff election day.

It is blatantly clear to some old white guy that we live in a world of racism. As for the 30% of the Republican deniers, I can’t believe that they don’t know that they are racists. All Americans need to address racism.

Georgia addressed the issue of racism with Stone Mountain Park near Atlanta.

Stone Mountain carving of Gen. Robert E. Lee, Jefferson Davis, and General Stonewall Jackson

The Civil War for the South was merely a peaceful protest supporting the notion that slavery was simply a means to help slaves to have a better life. It is an exact parallel to the January 6 insurrection, which was a peaceful demonstration. It is time for America to wake up to racism.

There is a better world out there.

The Smithsonian Magazine had this essay about Stone Mountain.