Democracy is Dying in Georgia, One Slow Prison Death at a Time

In this Saturday special, Alex starts by laughing about how the NBA All-Star Game is going to be held in Salt Lake City. Usually, the game brings in people wanting to party for the weekend, Utah may be a hard sell for a party weekend. Next, Alex admits he was wrong — the Chinese balloon was shot down after the Biden Administration waited for it to fly over the Atlantic Ocean. He notes that politicians must look for answers but also must be patient and be sure to not escalate the situation. Finally, Alex discusses why democracy is dying in Georgia. Its former president, and a reformist for democracy, is currently dying in a Georgian prison on trumped-up charges. In an Atlantic article, Anne Applebaum notes that these forms of death were common in the Soviet Union, “The slow prison death was a Soviet specialty: not a murder, not an assassination, just a well-monitored, carefully controlled, long, drawn-out decline. Most of the people who died in Soviet prison camps were not executed; they were merely starved until their heart stopped beating.” Alex goes into why Georgia is on the brink.