A pretty typical political email

There’s been no lack of pointed analysis on Peach Pundit lately regarding the activities of the Georgia Republican Assembly and certain of its prominent members. I try my best to separate the political from the personal; it is my hope that nothing I’ve written or will write will come off as a personal attack against a particular member of any organization. I’ve known and gotten along well for many years with some of those now in the headlines and I very much do not want to impugn anyone’s motives without firm evidence.

But a new email from the Georgia Republican Assembly PAC hit today, and its political content deserves attention. The subject line is a bold “We’re all targets of their hatred”, and it opens with a page from last Sunday’s AJC, with a red targeting reticle superimposed over pictures of several prominent GRA members and officers.

Unfortunately, the GRA PAC did not provide a public link to the email, but the gist is that true conservatives are under attack by the “Uniparty” composed of Democrats, “RINOs”, the media, the “paid political industry”, and essentially everyone else not a member of the GRA, all of whom are secretly collaborating to prevent the advancement of conservative policies.

These are not new themes from the GRA or its members, particularly the focus on the “paid political industry”, which is rarely left out of a GRA communication. What’s surprising is that the source of the email isn’t the GRA itself, but the GRA PAC – or Political Action Committee. The literal purpose of such an organization is to raise funds to be spent on candidates and campaigns, which is the very definition of “paid political industry”.

There’s nothing particularly suspicious about their fundraising and spending, which are publicly reported. They’ve raised a little money from their most prominent officers and have paid for some mailers, robocalls/texts, and the like. But it’s interesting that the GRA is conducting the very activity it virtually never misses an opportunity to criticize when anyone else does it. And they’re not shy about the fundraising – the email includes no fewer than six donation links, plus one to buy a T-shirt.

As an example of the type of attack that true conservatives supposedly find themselves under, the email mentions the recent case of Nathaniel Darnell, the National Federation of Republican Assemblies officer who was accused of voting from an address he doesn’t live at. The email doesn’t deny this occurred; it argues that his real address was in the same precinct as his registered address, so it doesn’t make any difference. It then goes on to say:

We know that the “real voter fraud” part is untrue, as has been borne out by investigation after investigation and lost court case after lost court case. But why the repeated insistence on pointing out that Darnell is a Republican? Are they trying to make the case that Republicans (or at least GRA members) should be excused from election laws because their motives are pure, and we should only prosecute those who have been found to violate election law if they’re Democrats?

Near the end of the email, we get to the heart of the matter – all the issues that the RINOs and establishment and all the other enemies of the people have been repressing, and that will never get addressed until the true conservatives rise up and take back their party (after sending GRA PAC a generous check, of course):

Except – wait a minute – haven’t we actually been addressing all of those issues? Election integrity reform? We enacted two bills, in 2021 and this year. Saving babies’ lives? The heartbeat bill couldn’t have escaped the GRA’s attention. Shielding gun rights? Kemp signed constitutional carry into law last year. Vaccine mandates? We literally banned them. And wasteful spending? Last year we ran a $5.2 billion surplus and returned a substantial chunk of it to Georgia citizens. Direct deposits are literally hitting taxpayers’ accounts as we speak.

(Admittedly, I can’t cite a new law that better protects our borders, mainly because we do not have any international borders and those in the states that do are controlled by the federal government. Perhaps they want a wall to keep out disgruntled Bama fans, which is fair.)

So the issues we’re supposed to be mad about – those that the “Atlanta Establishment” don’t want advanced – are, in fact, advancing under current Republican leadership. It makes one wonder if perhaps something other than these issues was the real purpose of this email.

It’s not at all unusual for a PAC to send out an email with aggressive imagery, perhaps a defense of impropriety on the part of one of its own supporters, numerous calls for donations, and of course dire (if not particularly true) warnings of what might come if you don’t offer your support. In fact, as referenced in the article title, this kind of email is universal in the paid political industry. It’s only noteworthy because it comes from an organization that so prominently condemns all of these actions when done by those they view as their opponents. Perhaps, like violating election law, it’s okay when they do it.