There's an old adage that says success has many fathers, but failure is an orphan. Last night's election results in Georgia, however, did indeed have a single clear father, and his name is Donald Trump. Not that he'll admit this fact, even with the proof of a paternity test. But perhaps I'm stretching the metaphor a bit too far, so let's begin again, shall we?

After Georgia's primary, many are today proclaiming that Trump is now a paper tiger within the Republican Party and that it is safe for candidates to buck both him and his toxic Big Lie that the last election was somehow stolen from him (spoiler alert: it wasn't). This may be overstating the case, but it is undeniable that Trumpism suffered a big and humiliating body blow last night.

Trump had a singular focus on Georgia, where he hand-picked candidates for: U.S. senator, governor, lieutenant governor, secretary of state, attorney general, and (why not?) insurance commissioner. Only two out of Trump's six candidates won their GOP primaries (for senator and lieutenant governor), but the big embarrassment was that the ones Trump really wanted to win lost -- badly. They got absolutely spanked, in fact.

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Finally, a truly massive amount of election fraud has been uncovered! You'd think all of the blind adherents to Donald Trump's Big Lie conspiracy theory would be overjoyed, but that's likely not going to be the case. Because -- as has indeed happened repeatedly in the recent past -- the exposed fraud was intended to benefit Republicans. Strange how this all seems more and more like just a massive case of projection, eh?

The fraud at hand didn't involve actual votes or actual ballots, this time. It involved signatures on petitions for candidates. But unlike most of the GOP fraud that has been exposed in the past year or so, this one was a concerted effort and involved tens of thousands of signatures -- not a ballot here and a ballot there, filled out in some recently-dead relative's name, in an attempt to boost Donald Trump's vote. Here is the story, as Salon reports:

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As we continue to wend our way through primary season, we now turn to the two states with the most interesting races to be decided tomorrow: Texas and Georgia. Georgia is more interesting on the Republican side, while there's one Texas race that Democrats will be closely watching.

Georgia

The two big reasons why Georgia is so interesting are that there are multiple races to watch, and Donald Trump cares more about the outcome here than perhaps in any other state in the country (with the possible exception of Liz Cheney's bid for re-election in Wyoming).

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We were reminded of the whole Wonderful Wizard of Oz metaphor early this week, when we saw Mehmet "Dr." Oz at a last-minute Pennsylvania campaign rally, holding up his smartphone to the crowd, as the disembodied voice of the great MAGA Dear Leader bellowed forth bombast and nonsense to the crowd. All it needed was some smoke and fireballs at the sides of the stage, really. It seemed to us (but then we do have a rather warped sense of humor...) that Oz was begging the crowd to please pay lots of attention to the man behind the curtain.

We must admit, we haven't seen the ads that ran in the Keystone State during the Republican primary, but we wouldn't be surprised if at least one of them has just had to go with an L. Frank Baum-inspired metaphor. It's there for the taking, with his last name, right? So why not?

However, it is now Friday, and even though we have no idea who will emerge the victor of the Senate GOP nominating contest, Donald Trump is already teeing up a new round of "I wuz robbed!" on Oz's behalf. We do have to wonder if this blizzard of bovine excrement is going to have any repercussions in the fall, though -- repercussions which could wind up helping the rather-impressive Democratic candidate in the race. Could this be a gigantic blunder in the making? One can only hope....

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Representative Madison Cawthorn lost his primary race this week to a challenger who won mostly just by not being a human Dumpster fire. Someone who is actually sane, in other words. Anyone familiar with Cawthorn's single term in office breathed an immense sigh of relief when the results were announced, and we political wonks finally had a second answer to the question: "What does it take in today's Republican Party to become a complete outcast and pariah?" Or, more simply: "How far is too far to go?" Apparently the new answer to all that (the old answer being: "Obeying your constitutional oath," as Liz Cheney has admirably proven) is now: "Accusing your fellow Republicans of rampant cocaine use and hosting orgies." This is the new GOP standard -- it's fine to spout conspiracy theories and whip up White supremacy and anti-government violence, but for Heaven's sake don't say we're all coke-crazed sex maniacs or anything!

I'm sorry, but it's really hard not to see all of this with irony and sarcasm, since I can actually remember when the Republican Party was supposedly built around "family values" and being holier-than-thou on just about any subject under the sun. Ah... memories....

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The progressive wing of the Democratic Party had a pretty good night in last night's primaries. It wasn't a complete sweep, but there was a lot more positive news than negative, for once. The big-money establishment Democrats were soundly defeated in a number of races, some of them in very blue House districts -- meaning the progressive is almost certain to win in November. Not every race is going to be a cakewalk, but at this point the Democrats' chances look pretty good.

The center-ring race was the Senate primary in Pennsylvania, where John Fetterman soundly defeated centrist Conor Lamb -- by over 30 points. Fetterman just suffered a minor stroke and had a pacemaker installed on the day of the election, but none of that stopped him from chalking up a very impressive victory last night. Fetterman doesn't like the label "progressive," he sees himself as more of a robust fighter for the little guy, but when you compare the two candidates, Fetterman was far more progressive than Lamb. One of Fetterman's signature issues was the legalization of marijuana, for instance. He also supports a $15 minimum wage and getting rid of the legislative filibuster in the Senate so Democrats can actually get some stuff done. Lamb, on the other hand, was backed by Senator Joe Manchin from next-door West Virginia -- which says just about all you need to know about Lamb, really.

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Today is a big primary day, and it could perhaps be the most interesting in this year's election calendar. It's not officially "Super Tuesday," but it might at least be considered "Rather Interesting Tuesday." There are multiple close races to watch, there are both ideological battles and personality contests in both parties, and the punditocracy is going to go into high gear afterwards drawing all sorts of conclusions on a nationwide basis (on races that may in fact only be limited to very local issues, or the strengths and weaknesses of individual candidates). So it's going to be a big night, no matter what happens. But everyone should keep in mind that these are just the primaries -- which means a big win for one faction or another tonight might translate into a big loss for the party in November.

This isn't true everywhere, of course. There are primary races taking place in either deep blue or deep red districts or states that are, for all intents and purposes, the general election. Whichever candidate wins tonight in these places will be almost guaranteed to skate to victory in November. In many of these contests, winning an ideological battle means increasing one faction or the other's clout in the new Congress next year (or the governor's office). But there are plenty of other races where the general election race will actually be competitive, and in those the big question is going to be: "How extreme is too extreme?"

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It now looks like tomorrow's Senate primaries in Pennsylvania might just set up a very interesting race in November's general election. Because it is looking like we might wind up with two very passionate and non-conventional "from the people" nominees, one from the left and one from the right. So we will finally get to see a race in a very purple state (which could easily go either way in November) with a contest between a true MAGA and a real progressive, both willing to get down and dirty fighting for what they believe.

This is causing much consternation in both parties, it bears mentioning. Both the Republican and Democratic "establishment" wings are rooting for much more conventional candidates, ones that they see as far more electable than the wild cards. Right now it appears that this is a losing battle on the Democratic side, and on the Republican side it seems the contest is now between two separate MAGA candidates while the establishment choice seems to be lagging badly in third place.

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Of all the different types of cycle that exist in politics, the one of overreach and backlash is one of the most interesting. We may be about to see one of these cycles happen in very accelerated fashion (since it usually takes years or even a few subsequent elections to fully materialize), although since we're at the beginning of the cycle it is impossible to now know how it will all play out.

This cycle began with the leak of the Supreme Court draft opinion written by Justice Samuel Alito which would entirely overturn Roe v. Wade and send the question of abortion back to the state legislatures to grapple with. Conservatives have had this as a goal for at least four decades, so it was seen by many as the last step on a very long road.

But it's not a last step at all, because it will usher in an entirely new era of each state choosing what laws to accept when it comes to abortion. And like it or not, the whole "laboratories of democracy" theory will play out -- some liberal states will have extremely liberal abortion laws, some conservative states will have Draconian laws against abortion, and other states will choose some sort of middle route. This process has not only already begun, it has actually been going on for a long time, as states anticipated the possible end of the Roe era.

Republicans now have the "dog who caught the car" syndrome, though -- they have achieved their overarching goal and are now left unsure what exactly to do about it or what comes next. All of a sudden all those state-level laws are not just going to be vehicles for political posturing any more, they are going to directly affect women's lives. All of a sudden, things have gotten very real, because the courts will no longer save them from the worst of their own excesses. Their rhetoric is now going to become a new reality, in a matter of weeks.

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What is and what is not acceptable when it comes to public protest? This question has been growing for the past few years, and has come to the forefront with the leaked release of a Supreme Court draft opinion on abortion. So I thought it was worth exploring in general, even though (spoiler alert!) I do not personally have a clear answer or conclusion to that question.

I should state from the start my own biases. In general, I love political protest and even what I like to call "political theater." The People making their voices heard is a time-honored tradition, and getting the media's (and thus the public's) attention is always a tough thing to do. People who have never lived there or experienced it on a day-to-day basis usually don't realize how many protests happen in Washington D.C., since there are dozens (hundreds, even) of protests that happen every year that gain little-to-no coverage and are thus only seen by those who happen to walk by them (to D.C. residents and workers, protests are something to be mostly ignored and avoided, in the same way a native New Yorker dodges their way around the tourists gawking at how high the skyscrapers are). Getting your protest on the news is a true accomplishment for an activist, and creative ways to accomplish this have been the tactics of protesters for decades. But how much is too much? How far is too far?

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