Sponsoring the sweeping package of voting curbs in the Georgia Legislature has cost a Republican lawmaker his regular job.
Barry Fleming has been unopposed in four straight reelections to a state House seat covering a rural stretch between Atlanta and Augusta. And this month he used his chairmanship of the Committee on Election Integrity to win passage of restrictive election legislation that, among many provisions, would limit early voting on weekends in many counties — which could cripple "Souls to the Polls," the venerable get-out-the-vote drive to get Black voters to cast their ballots after church the Sundays before Election Day.
For nine years Fleming's main source of income has been as county attorney for one of the few solidly Democratic and overwhelmingly Black communities in his district, Hancock County. But on Wednesday the county Board of Commissioners responded to a wave of protests by voting 4-0 to ask for his resignation, which he then submitted.
Fleming's bill would also curb the use of drop boxes for mail ballots, add new proof-of-identity requirements when seeking an absentee ballot, advance the deadline for requesting such a ballot, and prohibit groups from giving water, food and blankets to people in line at polling places. The measure, which passed over united Democratic opposition, must now be reconciled with a different bill passed by the GOP-majority Senate, the main feature of which would be to eliminate no-excuse absentee voting across the state.
The twin bills are among the most prominent in a wave of 250 legislative proposals to restrict voting across the country, many of which are advancing in states that (like Georgia) have an all-GOP power structure. Republicans are reacting after a 2020 election that saw record turnout, record use of mail and early voting — and a record amount of baseless skepticism about election integrity fueled by former President Donald Trump's campaign of lies.
Three different counts in Georgia, for example, resulted in virtually identical results and no suspicions of meaningful cheating.
But Fleming said during the debate three weeks ago that his bill would "begin an effort to restore confidence in our election system," He wrote an op-ed likening absentee ballots to the "shady" part of town down by the docks where you could get "shanghaied."
Hancock's population is 71 percent Black, and President Biden carried the county by 44 points as he went on to become the first Democrat since 1992 to take Georgia's electoral votes. Both state's new Democratic senators, Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff, also won lopsidedly in the county in January's runoff contests.
"Hancock County is a great place. There's a great board of commissioners there," Fleming told 11Alive News after he resigned. Asked if he objected to the political rationale for his dismissal, he said: "None whatsoever. They're good people. If I can ever do anything in the future to help them I'll be happy to."
The average county attorney's salary in Georgia last year was $76,500. Members of the state House are paid $17,300 on the assumption they will be in session no more than 100 days.
A golden tray sits on the Resolute Desk as President Donald Trump speaks during an announcement on American nuclear innovation in the Oval Office at the White House on July 24, 2026, in Washington, D.C. Trump is signing multiple executive orders targeting the nuclear energy sector and easing rules for new reactors and nuclear fuel supply chains.
Trump’s hubris rivals the fallen heroes of ancient Greek mythology
In January, the New York Times asked President Donald Trump if there were any limits on his global powers.
“Yeah,” the president responded, “there is one thing. My own morality. My own mind. It’s the only thing that can stop me.”
That was eight months ago, but fortunately Christopher Nolan’s blockbuster adaptation of “The Odyssey” has made ancient Greek literature newly relevant. Before that window closes, I’d like to talk about hubris.
Today, the term mostly means excessive pride or arrogance. That’s part of what the Greeks meant by it too, but the meaning was a bit richer and more specific. Hubris was an insolent or outrageous act that offended the gods, often because the transgressor was claiming abilities or authorities that solely belonged to supreme beings.
Nolan renamed and slightly modified the concept of xenia for the film, calling it “Zeus’ law.” In the director’s telling, mortals should follow the rules laid out by the gods, specifically the requirement to treat strangers with respect lest they be gods in disguise.
In a sense, hubris is the opposite, or at least the rejection, of xenia. The hubris of the suitors, and at times Odysseus himself, invites punishment by the gods and their mortal instruments.
Which brings me back to Donald Trump. His claim that there are no constraints on his personal power to dictate events on the global stage was one of the greatest expressions of hubris ever uttered by a political leader.
Trump’s claim was obviously false when he made it.
He vowed that he could end the Russia-Ukraine war in 24 hours. He’s proved powerless to make that happen. If he had divine powers to work his will, why would he have balked at implementing his tariffs so often that Wall Street adopted the “TACO trade” term for his deals? “TACO” stands for “Trump always chickens out.”
And why would Trump have made so many embarrassing concessions to China — from rescinding tariffs on Chinese goods to allowing them to buy crucial and incredibly valuable computer chips?
But Trump saw his success at capturing Venezuelan strongman Nicolas Maduro as proof of his ability to launch missiles to the same effect as Zeus’ lightning bolts. Trump believed he was the most powerful man who ever lived.
This is no exaggeration. In March, when the Iran invasion seemed successful, Trump gave a document penned by“Presidential Historian David King” to New York Times reporters Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan purporting to prove that Trump was “the most powerful person to have EVER walked this planet.” King was, in fact, a businessman and occasional caddy for legendary golfer Gary Player.
King compared Trump favorably to many of history’s most powerful, and often heinous, figures: Alexander the Great, Attila the Hun, William the Conqueror, Napoleon Bonaparte, Joseph Stalin, Genghis Khan, Mao Tse Tung, Adolf Hitler and Vladimir Lenin. Many of these men thought they were the most powerful person in the world, too. And many were defeated precisely because they believed it.
At least Napoleon and Hitler had a string of truly impressive victories before they learned the folly of hubris. The limits on Trump’s power have been exposed by far less august forces than the combined might of the allies in World War II or the fearsome Russian winter.
Iran is a comparatively middling power. But the regime’s ability to absorb punishment while imposing its will on the Strait of Hormuz has proved to be a greater constraint on Trump’s power than his morality or mind. We should note that, at least rhetorically, his morality has not proved much of a constraint. He has repeatedly promised to destroy Iranian “civilization” if the regime refuses to capitulate.
But they haven’t — and won’t anytime soon — because the regime’s tolerance for pain far outstrips Trump’s. The combined fear of skyrocketing oil prices, outrage of Gulf state potentates, diminishing weapon supplies and domestic unpopularity is doing the work that international law, congressional oversight and the collective opinion of foreign policy experts can’t or won’t do.
If I considered Trump more heroic than reason and facts could allow, I would say his Sisyphean predicament has the whiff of Greek tragedy to it. Trump is vexed by the fact that the Iranians won’t honor deals or ratify his countless premature claims of victory — giving new meaning to his vow that his presidency would make people tired of winning. It’s almost like they’re out-Trumping Trump.
Things might have gone better if he’d heeded that great Greek tragedian Sophocles: “For Zeus utterly abhors the boasts of a proud tongue.”
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Jonah Goldberg is editor-in-chief of The Dispatch and the host of The Remnant podcast. His Twitter handle is @JonahDispatch.