Well, that was stressful. So stressful, in fact, that I’ve been basically unable to write for days. But, hey, it was all worth it because Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are highly preferable to Donald Trump and Mike Pence. There’s a lot of credit to go around for this victory, and plenty to unpack about what the results of the House, Senate and state/local races mean for the country going forward. But, for now, I just want to exhale a bit for the first time in four years.
It won’t last long because, as a nation, we’ll be white-knuckling it all the way to Inauguration Day, as our current president is seriously sick in the head and facing a future behind bars. There will also be two special Senate elections in Georgia in early January that will determine whether Mitch McConnell has veto power or not over Biden’s cabinet picks, judicial nominees, and legislative agenda.
I’ve spent most of my time analytically, looking at what happened in Pennsylvania, and I’ll have a piece on that up later today, hopefully. I think you’ll be interested in the results. They should create a bit of a roadmap for the Democrats going forward.
In the meantime, just celebrate. Even a hamstrung Biden administration will be able to do a lot, and particularly on the COVID-19 crisis. We all need to look on the bright side and bring some can-do positive energy to getting this country back to sanity.
I wish I could share your optimism, re: going forward. But without the Senate, there is nothing he can accomplish on the Covid front – it requires massive resources to do it right – and McConnell won’t go along with it.
The most important thing happened…Trump will not be POTUS after January 20.
Biden just got the most votes ever, he beat Trump by over 4 million votes (this will go up, 5?), Georgia flipped, Arizona flipped and has TWO democratic Senators, and McConnels majority has been cut by half (at least).
Just the Arizona flip, with two new senators in two years (thank you McSally) is HUGE. Now add Georgia, and Abrams absolutely amazing work there, and this was a massive win for the Democratic Party. Only Biden could have done those two things.
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The continuation of Moscow Mitch is a blight on society. Maybe we need a better way of selecting candidates for office. Our form of constitutional government makes it somewhat imperative to hold congress especially when we have the presidency. Might we have beaten Mitch with a stronger candidate, perhaps one like Buttigieg, or could we find none there?
We’ve relied on you to help us get through this. Thanks for helping us get to a place we can all exhale.
Word.
I also want to say thank you so much Martin. Your analysis has been so valuable to me personally these last 4 years. Knowing that I could come here to get an objective view of what was going on, even if I didn’t like it, has been huge.
A lot is being made of the share of minority votes for Trump increasing. I can understand the shock, but I would like to know if these increases are in line with any increase in support that an incumbent enjoys. George W. Bush increased his share of the vote in 2004, as one would expect an incumbent to do. Trump did not generally increase his support, but apparently his support among minorities went up. This is interpreted as minorities rejecting “wokeness” or whatever. Might be true. Bu might it not also only be a matter of an incumbent doing better with certain voter segments?
Male minority misogyny? Charismatic Christian shit thinking? Whatever its cause, loss of minority share appears a real thing.
It is time to take a breath and get our bearings–once again. But we have to prevent this thing from ever happening again. Next time we may not be so lucky. I know some people may want to follow Obama’s lead and not look for any payback. That is a consideration but if one is deemed to abuse his power amid an avalanche of hate encased in lie upon lie and lack of evidence that is abuse and may cross the line to criminal. I am reminded how there was this meme he liked to kick in as in “lock her up”. For real? Sure, it is for real and we can’t allow that.
For sure Biden understands how the government works, far more than DJT was able to. Biden is most comfortable as a centrist. A republican senate gives him a hedge. If his more to the left legislative colleagues can’t push through their plans, he can blame the republicans. If he comes up with popular plans and the republicans block them, he lets the republicans take the heat.
We’ve had four years of governmental inertia because the man at the top was only interested in getting richer and more powerful, and he made up the rest as he went along. I am pleased that Biden and Harris have already met with their shadow Covid team; that’s a crisis that has been begging for a rational response, and positive moves to control Covid can set the tone for the rest of Biden’s term.
If DJT did not possess the many personality disorders that he does, he would right now ASAP disappear himself into irrelevancy. As long as he attracts public attention, he makes himself all the more tempting a target for any number of state AG’s and other prosecutors and investigators. As it is, the more he is on TV, the more he angers the many of us who voted against him that he is still walking the streets.
I expect him and the fambly to campaign for something or other, as that’s an easy way to collect donations. (PS lordy lordy where did that billion dollar war chest disappear to?) But I don’t expect he will get any more backing from the repub establishment. They have figured out that the DJT game is always tilted in the T’s favor, and everybody else loses. ETTD as Rick Wilson says.
You gotta’ figure old Fred Trump has been turning over in the grave….
I’m finding it a little incredible that there is so little talk now, as far as I have read, of any comeuppance to be visited on Trump enablers, in particular those who worked with foreign agents to undermine the security of the rest of us. Time will tell. And we have to be on the watch for the next gen repubs who have DJT’s goals, but not all of his self-defeating psych issues.
Thank you Martin for your many writings that keep me moored. Best of all, I almost always agree with you!
I certainly agree with looking on the bright side, because it would be pretty easy to dismiss this historic accomplishment as one contemplates the coming legislative paralysis and wholesale Repub counterattack on Biden trying to hold the criminals of the Trump regime accountable (assuming that he and his AG will even want to do so.) It is essential to the future of the nation that this historic lawbreaking regime face the music, and thus equally essential to the RICO Repub party to resist that with every fiber of its being. The lack of a decisive repudiation of their enabling behavior will only embolden Gravedigger McConnell.
The nationwide conservative disinformation machine is now blatting out the “We Wuz Robbed!” lies 24/7 to the cretinous and deluded 66 million who thought that there was no need for a change from all the Trump winning. That was the real reason for Donito Trumpolini’s performance Thurs night–they needed the digital and audio packets of cheated Dear Leader to bombard the morons with the shit via ReichsRadio and Facebook. Cruz, Graham, McCarthy, Cotton et al are out undermining the foundation of the democracy right now, as the pusillanimous TV networks defer to Daddy Trump and refuse to call the race til the last provisional in Pittsburgh is tallied.
Will the networks agree to “call” the race today? Tomorrow? Monday? Tuesday? Who the hell knows.
A good enough win, let’s celebrate and then get back to work at flipping GA senate seats. The race in AK is also not over although a long shot. Cunningham’s travails looking much worse in retrospect, it was a real letdown. He just needed to outperform Biden by 1% and he’d have gotten over the line. Ah well. Without trump at the top of the ticket I’m hopeful that with Abrams and Warnock we’ll get good turnout in the specials.