It all comes down to this.
Control of the United States Senate and the future of our country will be determined by two runoff races in Georgia. An entire nation is holding its collective breath while we await the outcome.
The stakes couldn’t be higher.
On the one hand, if Democrats Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock both win, it will enable soon-to-be President Joe Biden to pursue his agenda unencumbered. If Republicans Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue win, or if just one prevails, Mitch McConnell will remain Majority Leader and almost certainly obstruct Biden in the same manner he did during the final two years of Barack Obama’s administration.
Victories by Ossoff and Warnock would also give Biden wider latitude when making cabinet selections. The president-elect still hasn’t nominated an Attorney General or Labor Secretary.
Most critically, wins by Ossoff and Warnock will allow Biden and Democrats to pass generous stimulus packages and bring the country back from the economic calamity brought on by Donald Trump’s disastrous handling of the COVID-19 crisis. If Republicans retain control, McConnell will continue to stifle relief efforts, allowing only barebones measures, if any at all.
The country is in a similar predicament, economically, as when Obama and Biden took over from George W. Bush in 2008. Democrats had control of Congress back then, giving Obama the support he required. Biden needs the same freedom.
From a legislative perspective, any attempts to pass voting rights or police reform rely on Ossoff and Warnock winning. With McConnell in control of the Senate, those initiatives will go nowhere.
Then, of course, there is the small matter of federal judges. McConnell has spent the last four years packing courts with conservatives. If Republicans control the Senate, he will almost certainly block any and all judicial nominations until the bench is under 100 percent conservative control.
Looking at our electorate purely through a political-science perspective, it is highly unlikely that Democrats will retain control of the House of Representatives after the 2022 midterms. The political party that occupies the White House traditionally does poorly in the first midterm following a new president’s election.
In 2018, two years after Trump became president, Republicans lost 41 House seats. In 2010, two years after Obama become president, Democrats lost 63 seats. In fact, since the Civil War, the president’s party has picked up seats in the House only four times: in 1902, 1934, 1998 and 2002.
In all likelihood, this will be the best chance Democrats have to control government, and the legislative agenda, for a long, long time.
And here’s the thing. These runoffs should be a no-brainer.
Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue are odious human beings. Instead of warning Americans about the pandemic, both used inside information from the Senate to profiteer off it. Loeffler, who co-owns the Atlanta Dream WNBA franchise, has drawn the ire of every player in the league, to the point where they have taken the court wearing “Vote Warnock” T-shirts. She even has been photographed recently with a white supremacist.
Perdue, for his part, didn’t have the courage to debate Ossoff last month, forcing the Democratic candidate to square off against an empty podium.
Ossoff and Warnock are both scandal free, not counting the bogus propaganda Loeffler and Perdue have thrown at them. They are the better candidates. They are better for the people of Georgia. And, most importantly, they are better for America.
This nation has asked a lot from Georgians this past year. For the third time in seven months, they are being forced to stand in hours-long lines, because the Republican-run state does everything it can to suppress Democratic votes. Georgians heroically turned out in huge numbers to deliver the state to Joe Biden two months ago, but the job isn’t done.
Americans needs the Peach State to come through for us one last time.