So let’s be honest with ourselves.
How successful were Democrats in the recent elections?
If you saw the election as being all about whether the damage being done by Donald Trump could be stopped, you’ll probably think things went really well.
And from that standpoint, they did. Quite a bit of what Trump did by using executive orders can be undone almost immediately after Joe Biden takes office. But unless Democrats win both Georgia runoffs in January, Republicans will still control the Senate and Mitch McConnell can refuse to bring anything to the floor.
A brief note: Democrats winning the two Senate seats will be more difficult than drawing to an inside straight. Figure one chance in 10 to take one seat and one chance in 20 to win both. Even if they do, that just makes the Senate 50-50 with Kamala Harris breaking ties.
Barring that, the situation is more complicated even than peeling off two or three votes to pass bills. As majority leader, McConnell won’t even have to bring bills to the floor.
Biden might be able to work with McConnell on some issues, but don’t look for anything like the $15 minimum wage to have any chance of passage before the 2022 midterm elections.
There is something far more important to be considered, though. For the last 40 years, Republicans have successfully built their party from the ground up. Local school boards, city councils, county commissions and state legislatures, elections that in many places, Democrats don’t even bother to contest.
I live in the far southern suburbs of Atlanta, about 40 miles south of the city, My first election here was in 2012. With no Senate races that year and no governor’s race either, I voted for president and for Congress — both for candidates who had no chance of winning — and then looked at the other nine races, all of which were Republicans running unopposed.
It wasn’t all that different this time.
And even with 75 million people voting for Biden this time, Democrats will lose aq few seats in the House and gain only one (so far) in the Senate.
It’s the state legislatures where the real damage comes. The 2020 election was a crucial one, coming in a census year, because the legislatures just chosen will reapportion voting districts that will stand until after the 2030 elections.
Democrats wanted desperately to flip legislatures in states like Texas. They didn’t, and they even went backward in so-called liberal states like Washington.
Don’t get me wrong. Dumping Trump was huge, and Biden will take his place. Biden is a very good man who will make a difference. Indeed, the future belongs to Democrats, as old, uneducated white people become a smaller and smaller part of the electorate. But Republicans will use gerrymandering, vote suppression and other tools of that sort to hang onto power much longer than they should.
Georgia Governor Brain Kemp only won in 2018 because he managed to suppress about 250,000 potential black votes. He was damned honest about it too. “If all of them vote, I can’t win,” he said.
Republicans usually win the PR battle, even though they do it dishonestly. When Democrats say poorer people and minority votes need help to level the playing field, the GOP has a perfect retort.
“Democrats say you can’t win without government help,” they said. “We just want to get the government out of your way.”
Checkmate.
At least for now.
So enjoy the pummeling we gave Trump. The world will be a safer place without him.
But there’s still a ton of work to be done, starting with two Senate races here in Georgia.
Get busy.
Well done.
Unfortunately, the impact of Trump and McConnell’s Republican mismanagement is going to be with us for a long time.
So with that in mind, maybe it’s time to try something different – lean into the local republican constituent/voter and really listen to what they are saying. It’s about the economy, for them, their family, and even for their community. No, they are not interested in Social Justice – as much a dog whistle to them as Law & Order is to the Democrats/Liberal constituent. How about talking about fair treatment under the law, easier/better access to capital for small businesses, investment in family support programs. Political parties who can speak past the labels and more to the individuals listening, being in conversation with them, will be the party that can build going forward. This can ONLY happen at the local/foundational level – then build up from there.
That’s what the Republicans did behind the outrageousness of Donald Trump.