The Patriot Post® · Major Woke Baseball's Atlanta Stunt
Major League Baseball has removed this year’s All-Star Game from Atlanta because the team’s name remains the Braves. Oops! Wrong “woke” sensibility. The real reason MLB punished Atlanta is because of Georgia’s recent passage of a law with some mild provisions to shore up election integrity while expanding voting access beyond what it was prior to 2019. Why the entirety of the Braves 81-game home schedule will still be played in the “Jim Crow State” is anybody’s guess.
Speaking of “Jim Crow,” that’s how President Joe Biden characterized Georgia’s law, and before MLB made its move he said he’d “strongly support” the idea of moving the All-Star Game. “I think today’s professional athletes are acting incredibly responsibly,” Biden also said. “The very people who are victimized the most are the people who are the leaders in these various sports.” You know, those poor victims who earn $10, $20, or even $30-plus million a season to play a game. Biden added, “This is Jim Crow on steroids, what they’re doing in Georgia and 40 other states.”
For his gross dishonesty about the law, even his fan boys at The Washington Post rebuked him with “four Pinocchios.” Yet his lies just cost a city that gave him Georgia’s 16 electoral votes roughly $100 million. Fine repayment.
Consider all the wages lost for workers at the stadium, many of whom are minorities. Or the lost business and wages for the hotels that will no longer have rooms booked or restaurants without meals served. MLB is punishing Biden’s own voters for his lies. Perhaps that’s poetic justice — if anyone notices.
Perhaps that’s also why President Unity is having trouble unifying his own side. Two of the Georgia Democrats who’ve done the most to perpetuate the lies and sic the mob on their own state are now saying, Hey, hold on a minute. Stacey Abrams, the perpetually aggrieved supposed victim of voter suppression who supported a boycott of Georgia until she didn’t, said, “I am disappointed that the MLB is relocating the All-Star game.” She added, “I don’t want to see Georgia families hurt by lost events and jobs.” But then she twisted the knife: “Georgians targeted by voter suppression will be hurt as opportunities go to other states. We should not abandon the victims of GOP malice and lies.”
Jon Ossoff, the inheritance-welfare recipient who won a Georgia Senate seat in January, likewise asserted, “I absolutely oppose and reject any notion of boycotting Georgia.” Yet he too turned his fire on “the disgraceful Voter Suppression bill” and the Republicans who passed it.
But at least Biden’s former boss Barack Obama cheered from the bleachers. “Congratulations to @MLB for taking a stand on behalf of voting rights for all citizens,” Obama said. “There’s no better way for America’s pastime to honor the great Hank Aaron, who always led by example.” Aaron played for the Braves.
Democrats can’t have it both ways, falsely slandering the state of Georgia and then being upset when “woke” businesses follow their lead and enact the equivalent of economic sanctions on the state Democrats just won. Then again, having it both ways is what Democrats do best.
This isn’t about “voter suppression,” of course. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer predictably threw a pitch to host the game in his state — except New York has more restrictive voting laws than Georgia does.
The squeeze play Democrats are really trying is to pass their own election overhaul in Congress. HR 1 and S 1 would make election fraud and chaos permanent, undermining efforts like those in Georgia and elsewhere to establish at least some measure of integrity in American elections. It’s a layup for their bulk-mail balloting fraud. Characterizing any and all efforts at integrity as “suppression” is critical to their race-bait strategy.
Republicans are fighting back, with several of them calling for stripping MLB of its antitrust exemption. That could be an effective tool, but even more so would be for every God-fearing American to turn off pro baseball. MLB has arguably been the least politicized major sport, but millions of fans are tired of political disputes bleeding onto the sports field or court, and we have to make our voices heard by refusing to tune in or show up.
Georgia Governor Brian Kemp blasted the league in a pointed statement. “MLB caved to fear, political opportunism, and liberal lies,” Kemp declared. “Georgians — and all Americans — should fully understand what the MLB’s knee-jerk decision means: cancel culture and woke political activists are coming for every aspect of your life, sports included. If the left doesn’t agree with you, facts and the truth do not matter.”
Senator Marco Rubio had powerful words directed at MLB commissioner Rob Manfred: “Taking the All-Star game out of Georgia is an easy way to signal virtues without significant financial fallout. But speaking out against the Chinese Communist Party would involve a significant loss of revenue and being closed out of a lucrative market. I am under no illusion that Major League Baseball will sacrifice business revenue on behalf of its alleged corporate values. Similarly, I am under no illusion you intend to resign as a member from Augusta National Golf Club. To do so would require a personal sacrifice, as opposed to the woke corporate virtue signaling of moving the All Star Game from Atlanta.”
By the way, given that Joe Biden has finally found his backbone, we look forward to seeing him stand up to the ChiComs by boycotting the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics. The ChiComs don’t exactly have free and fair elections, plus they’re committing genocide against the Uyghurs. Surely that merits some Biden bravery. Or is he too beholden to Beijing to notice those things?
Speaking of China, guess who just made a deal for broadcasting games in the “People’s Republic”? That’s right — Major League Baseball.
Senator Rand Paul aptly summed it up, saying, “Your sports league might be a little too woke if it will freely do business with Communists in China and Cuba, but boycotts a US state that wants people to show an ID to vote.” The same goes for “woke” Georgia-based brands like Coca-Cola and Delta Airlines, the latter of which bills itself as the “most Chinese-friendly” airline. Senator Rubio gives the bottom line: “They’re hypocrites. Complete and total hypocrites.”
(Updated.)