Squealer

At Dogwood Books in Rome, Georgia, I’m talking with the owner about the state of the race to replace Marjorie Taylor Greene, her resignation prompting a special election that drew two dozen candidates, the vast majority Republicans. The run-off, on April 7, pits Democrat Shawn Harris, who has lost before, and Republican Clay Fuller. Harris topped the preliminary ballot, but again, there were 20 Republicans, and the district is the reddest in Georgia.

I tell Kenneth, the owner, that someone told me Greene was “a nice girl.” He says yes. “Have you ever met her?” I confess I have not. “She’s nothing like her TV persona. She’s quiet.” He adds, “She’s not from here. She’s from Atlanta. She lives on the other side of Rome, but “I think she’ll be gone soon.” Greene, a political outsider at the time, energized to run for office by her support for Donald Trump, originally intended to run in her Atlanta based district, but moved when the incumbent in the 14th retired, and surprised the field by winning.

I tell him that a couple of Trump voters in the district have indicated they might vote for Harris, who is a cattle rancher and retired Brigadier General, finding him more “relatable” than the Republican. “Well, I think he cleaned himself up from a cowboy in his first race to a businessman for this one.” Harris’ first campaign did prominently feature him in a cowboy hat, and money from blue places poured in with the hope the cowboy would come to the rescue of the what were they thinking people of the 14th district in Georgia. Kenneth, who tells me he’s a conservative, didn’t vote for Fuller this time around, he preferred someone he went to high school with, but Fuller will win. Driving around the district, the manicured lawns and well tended intersections remain littered with signs for the various losing candidates, but Republican voters have coalesced behind Fuller.

I’ve stopped in Rome, with drive throughs of other county seats in the district; Dalton, LaFayette and Summerville, to check on the race, after having lunch with Amanda and Don Willoughby, who were kind enough to be interviewed for my book.

At Jordan’s BBQ in Cleveland, Tennessee Amanda tells me to get the hot slaw with my pulled pork, a local dish. Coleslaw with a bite. I do. Amanda gets the coleslaw. She graduated high school with Jordan’s owner. It makes me remember she was also related to the owner of the Old Fort Restaurant, where we met for the interview for the book, but I might be mistaken. Amanda is pretty much related in some way, by blood or friendship, to everyone in Cleveland, Tennessee. She tells me the owner is a devout Baptist and Trump backer, who has taken to displaying the Israeli flag in full support of the excursion in Iran.

Don keeps me up to date on the political leanings of his Texas Hold ‘em buddies who meet monthly in Greene’s district, in Lafayette. La-Fay-it, they warn, so I don’t appear a foreigner. Fortunately my white Hyundai Palisade has Georgia plates. He gave me the intel about the two who might vote for Harris. The group hasn’t changed their mind on their votes for Trump, though, despite, well everything that has happened. Most are retired and they “look at their 401k.” Maybe Harris is a hedge on their Trump bet?

Back in Rome I ask Kenneth about Senator Jon Ossoff’s chances at re-election. He says a good Republican should be able to beat him. “I like Governor Kemp. But his decision to put in Kelly Loeffler was a mistake.” When the incumbent senator resigned for health reasons in 2020 Kemp appointed Loeffler to the seat, over objections of conservatives who had a preferred candidate. She went on to lose to now Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock. The confusion is understandable, Ossoff being elected the same day as Warnock, who defeated Senator David Perdue.

I had hoped I could return to Massachusetts bearing tidings of great joy of a Democratic upset in Greene’s district, but I didn’t see much to encourage such a prediction. Democrats are energized, we are told, and I would place a bet that Harris will ‘overperform’ and the powers that be in Washington will declare victory of a sort and use it to pump our email for more money.

The weather turns a bit warmer when I get back to Marietta and my base camp in Cobb County while writing the book, the Hilton Atlanta Marietta Hotel and Conference Center, across the street from the Confederate Cemetery and next door to the Gone With the Wind Museum. I picked it years ago because Marietta is the Cobb County seat, the swingiest of swing districts in the state. It’s split between Republican Barry Loudermilk’s 11th and Democrat Lucy McBath’s 6th.

Greene may be gone, but Robert Pitchersky is at his station behind the bar, managing the hotel restaurant. He was also kind enough to interview for the book and I handed him his copy, the second of the two I brought, the first one safely delivered in Tennessee. The Willoughby’s vote Democratic. Robert considers himself a libertarian, fan of Robert Kennedy Jr, and voted for Trump. When we last talked, for the book, in April 2025 he said what Trump had done, even that early “seems like a lot” but he felt to truly shake things up you had to pretty much flood the zone with activity, in hopes that some of it would change the entrenched political culture.

He’s genuinely excited to get the book and I ask if he wants me to open it to his chapter, as it has no index. He does and dives in, repeating OK, OK as he reads his words from a year ago. I misspelled his name, his last, not first, but otherwise quote him correctly. He still thinks what Trump is doing is a lot, but he’s happy with Health and Human Services Secretary Kennedy.

Nancy, who’s up from Orlando to spend time with her mother who is in assisted living asks if it’s signed, and Robert hands it back to me to autograph. She’s a Republican and Christian, though her daughter is so much more religious she’s not sure where it came from, and named their child, Nancy’s first grandchild, Micah. Nancy and her husband Bill own an HVAC business in Orlando and they’ve recently moved to the coast in preparation for retirement in five or so years. Their thirty year old son is a “young thirty” and they hope some more seasoning will prepare him to take it over.

She’s a Republican but in 2016 didn’t know why the party spent so much time talking about abortion, and she wished they backed off. Come election time her husband urged her to vote for Trump. They were small business owners. She did. When he won, she cried.

I ask what her husband thinks now. She says he’s happy with what Trump has done, but that he might get us into World War III.

Back at Dogwood Books I picked up a copy of George Orwell’s Animal Farm from a stack next to the register. I had never read it. The two most referenced books in politics not read must be Orwell’s 1984 and Alexis de Tocqueville’s Democracy in America, but Animal Farm offered lessons for today for me, at least.

The animals take over the farm and the pigs, being the most intelligent of the animals, take charge. Napoleon emerges as the leader through, well, you can guess, or remember from reading it in middle or high school. We know Napoleons. Then there is Squealer, doing the King’s bidding, smoothing the way, remaking facts, to enrich and by doing so insuring not having his throat ripped out.

My first trip to Rome, Marjorie Taylor Greene stood steadfast behind her Napoleon, or out in front in his defense when needed. Squealer. Or was she really Boxer, loyal to Napoleon and hardworking and betrayed in the end?

No matter. Our Napoleon, who might start World War III, has lots of Squealers.

I wait till nine AM to leave the Hilton to avoid the morning rush hour. There is a fire truck parked in the vast hotel lot when I walk to my Hyundai.

You have to look closely to believe in signs.