Jay Bookman and I: on Thurmond, Burt, Stacey, Marge & more

Last week, Georgia Recorder columnist Jay Bookman wrote a well-measured op/ed asking why Lieutenant Governor and gubernatorial candidate Burt Jones looks to Florida and Tennessee for ideas on tax & economic policy when Georgia is already superior to them? Answer: to put an even greater tax burden on the working class by eliminating the state income tax. He and I caught up to go over that, the newest entry into the 2026 governors' race, Mike Thurmond, the shape of the field as it stands now, plus Marjorie Taylor Greene's recent "boys' club" frustrations . I shared with him a theory about her that worries me: her 2026 frustrations leading to a 2028 White House run, where MAGA voters may look favorably on her moreso than J.D. Vance and ... well, we know what happened the last time a mouthy idiot stood on the GOP presidential primary dais for the first time.I also wondered if he felt (as I do) that Trump triggering Texas to gerrymander (even more!) could lead to a very-real fracturing of the country the likes of which we haven't seen since the 1860s.