Loyal to Trump or Loyal to Georgia?

The contenders for Ossoff’s seat echo Trump’s agenda—when what Georgia deserves is a voice of its own.

Georgia doesn’t need another lapdog in Washington. But if you listen to the Republicans lining up to unseat Senator Jon Ossoff—Derek Dooley, Mike Collins, Buddy Carter—you’d think the highest qualification for representing Georgia is how loudly you can pledge fealty to Donald Trump.

That should worry all of us. Because Trump’s record isn’t about loyalty to Georgia—it’s about loyalty to Trump. And when you look at the policies he’s pushing, some are straight-up fascism, some are plain-old communism, and all of them are miles away from the values Georgians hold.

Fascism in Red, White, and Blue

It’s no longer rumor. On Monday, President Trump signed an executive order directing the Department of Justice to prosecute those who burn the American flag. The order instructs the Attorney General to “vigorously prosecute” flag desecration under federal, state, and even immigration law—stretching charges from disorderly conduct to property crimes, and even threatening deportation for foreign nationals caught burning the Stars and Stripes.

Trump’s order openly acknowledges that the Supreme Court has ruled flag-burning a form of free speech (Texas v. Johnson), then tries to wedge in loopholes to criminalize it anyway. In his words, desecrating the flag is “the clearest possible expression of opposition to the political union.” In other words—disagreeing with the union itself may now be treated as a crime.

This isn’t patriotism. It’s fascism—an attempt to police thought and dissent with the full force of the federal government.

And Georgia knows better. Our state’s legacy is rooted in independence and suspicion of federal overreach. If Trump wants to trample the Constitution in the name of “Old Glory,” that’s not loyalty to Georgia values.

Communism in a Red Tie

Now it’s official: the Trump administration has taken a 10 percent equity stake in Intel, worth roughly $10 billion. The deal rewrites the terms of the CHIPS and Science Act, diverting grant money into government ownership of private stock.

Trump himself bragged on Truth Social:

“It is my Great Honor to report that the United States of America now fully owns and controls 10% of INTEL, a Great American Company… The United States paid nothing for these Shares, and the Shares are now valued at approximately $11 Billion Dollars.”

That’s not capitalism. That’s the federal government owning and controlling a private company. One day Trump is criminalizing dissent; the next, he’s nationalizing industry. Call it what it is: communism.

Even Republicans are sounding the alarm:

• Senator Thom Tillis said it “starts feeling like a semi–state owned enterprise, à la the Chinese Communist Party.”

• Senator Rand Paul blasted the plan as incompatible with free-market capitalism.

Georgia’s values? Entrepreneurship. Small business. Limited government. The exact opposite of Washington power brokers muscling into boardrooms.

The GOP’s Loyalty Problem

And yet, here’s what we get from the Republican challengers:

• Derek Dooley: With Brian Kemp’s blessing, the former football coach entered the race pitching himself as an outsider. But in his own words, there’s “no daylight” between his positions and Trump’s priorities. He didn’t even bother to vote in 2016 or 2020, only suddenly discovering politics when it became convenient. How do you claim to represent Georgia values if your only anchor is Trump’s playbook?

• Mike Collins: Loves the MAGA brand and clings to the Laken Riley Act as proof of leadership. But Ossoff and Warnock voted for it too in the end—so what makes him different besides the race-baiting? His claim to fame seems to be little more than ‘Pinochet Air’ jokes and amplifying posts from antisemitic accounts.

• Buddy Carter: The seasoned politician in the field. Earlier this year, he ran an ad railing against men in women’s sports—a stance Georgia families overwhelmingly support, and one Ossoff opposed. But instead of following that through with consistent, bold leadership, he’s fallen back on the same “I’m Trump’s guy” card as everyone else. Experience doesn’t equal vision—and Georgians are starving for vision.

This is the trap Georgia Republicans keep walking into: running candidates more eager to prove loyalty to Trump than to the people they claim to want to serve.

The Feminist Hook

Georgia women aren’t better off with Ossoff, who betrayed us by voting against protecting girls’ sports. He’s already proven he doesn’t stand for Georgia values when he brushed off the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act as “overreach,” ignoring the 70% of Georgians who supported it.

Blind fealty to Trump doesn’t strengthen Georgia families. It just keeps us stuck in the same cycle where Democrats hold power because Republicans refuse to give us someone worth rooting for.

Georgia Deserves Better

In the last two Senate races, Georgia Republicans fell into the same trap: serving up candidates more loyal to Trump than to Georgia. And they lost—with Herschel Walker and David Perdue. If the choice is between Ossoff’s empty liberalism and a bench of Republicans ready to excuse Trump’s fascist crackdowns and communist experiments, how exactly are Georgians supposed to win?

Georgia has already seen what happens when candidates mistake fealty to the wrong side of 80/20 issues for service to an entire state: we lose. Until Republicans find a leader who puts Georgia values before Trump’s shadow, Ossoff will keep coasting—not because he deserves it, but because his opponents can’t distinguish who they work for.