Let’s assume the worst case scenario for the sake of argument: Republicans “win” both Georgia Senate seats today. In light of Republicans’ penchant for cheating in order to “win” elections and their refusal to acknowledge losing should their cheating not prevail, any Republican victory (even in deeply red counties) must now be viewed skeptically. In fact, they should all be viewed the way smart people are now viewing Mitch McConnell’s string of blow out victories in Kentucky — a state where he’s only slightly more popular than rectal cancer. But, let’s say Mitch returns as Senate Majority Leader, determined to stand in the way of Joe Biden, Kamala Harris and pretty much every American.
Are we really looking at four years of worsening decline with a deadlocked Congress? In the first few weeks — yes, that’s a distinct possibility. But then things will begin to change — and Mitch’s hold on absolute power (a ludicrous amount of power for a Senate Majority Leader to have over the whole country ffs!) will wane and then disappear entirely. Now, I’ll lay down my caveat here — but I do believe this caveat is actually a fait accompli already. The Democrats are going to play hardball like they’ve never played it before. They no longer have a choice.
There is simply no way to “forgive and forget” what the Republican Party — and it IS the party as a whole — until the party as a whole experiences complete and total contrition. They must confess to everything, start to finish, top to bottom, side to corrupt side. They must tell us about all the conversations about demographics and the extinction of their hold on power. This coup d’etat didn’t just happen; it was planned. It may not have been planned like this — but the idea existed before Donald Trump and his friend Vladimir presented themselves as the best possible vehicle to get the Republican Party the PERMANENT MINORITY RULE it intended to impose upon the country forever if possible.
That is the goal here. That’s why Mitch worked so relentlessly to deny Barack Obama all those judges — Merrick Garland included. The point of the exercise: seize the judiciary first.
The GOP “brain trust” recognized that if not for the Electoral College and slavery’s vote, Republicans would never win the White House ever again. That’s why keeping the EC alive is sooooooooo important to them. Playing the EC is the only way to keep the executive branch in their hands; Trump just lost the popular vote, remember, by more than SEVEN MILLION VOTES. The GOP knows — without the EC or cheating or other “extraordinary measures ” (Bush v Gore comes to mind), the Republican Party might never win a presidency ever again.
As for Congress… well, the House is the most direct representation Americans have on the federal level. It’s really the only direct representation we have there (until we remove or disempower the EC). Yes, we directly elect Senators now (we didn’t used to), but the power the majority of voters get from the Senate is mitigated by the Senate’s structure which gives way more representation to rural real estate than it does urban voters. That empowerment of the minority is the reason Republicans don’t want Washington, DC or Puerto Rico to become states. Adding four likely Democratic Senators would automatically flip the current Senate to Democratic control. Hey — ever wonder why we have TWO DAKOTAS?
The Senate’s structure also keeps slavery’s thumb in our eye. That’s a stone cold fact. We’ve been here before. Let’s keep some perspective, please.
Mitch is counting on keeping the Senate. Losing it outright will be catastrophic for him and pretty much every Republican. It will speed up what’s going to happen past the point where Mitch — or any Republican — can control what’s going to happen.
To begin with, as Vice President, Kamala Harris has some powers in the Senate that have rarely been used in the past but they’re there. And if the Democrats intend to play hard ball, they’ll use Kamala in part like a great utility infielder who also hits for average. Multi-tasking, she’ll assume the additional duties required of a vice-president in the current chaotic environment. But, she’ll also have to assume those additional powers the Senate’s rules give her.
Mitch’s two vote majority should be thought of as a one-vote majority. Kamala’s vote — as president of the Senate — should be held at the ready because Mitch won’t be able to hold his majority together the way he used to; Donald Trump won’t be there backstopping the corruption. That will matter. So will the economic ruin left to us by Trump.
Thirty four Senate seats will be up in 2022. Of those, 12 seats were held by Democrats and 22 were held by Republicans as of November 2020. That’s twice as much pressure on the Republicans to perform as it is on the Democrats. Just as 2020 was not a normal election, neither will 2022 be normal. We’ll still be dealing with all the fallout from the Trump presidency — in large part because a rejuvenated Department of Justice will have been asking certain people (Republicans mostly) some very hard questions UNDER OATH — questions those Republicans had to answer and could not squirm out of because THIS DoJ is out for justice and its bite has teeth.
Also — even if Team Biden did NOTHING, their response to the pandemic could not possibly be worse. Come Spring and Summer as (hopefully — with warmer weather and less indoor crowding and a more competently rolled out vaccination program) we emerge slowly from Covid-19’s terrible shadow, no one will look backward to the Trump Administration with praise and thank you’s. That will all be reserved for the people who actually started the process of alleviating our suffering — the Democrats and Team Biden. At the same time, don’t forget, money will flow to Americans. We’ll get more than just painfully inadequate one-time checks for $600. Even if Mitch stands in the way, he will not have every one of his fellow Republican pirates standing with him.
Those Republican Senators up for re-election in 2022 will have to think about getting re-elected by people who are suffering, starving and desperate. And getting angrier by the day. And getting inundated — by the day — with stories of continuing Republican corruption.
That’s the bottom line here: America is tired of Republican corruption. No — we’re enraged by it now. We’re woke to it. And we will not accept it or tolerate it ever again.
Donald Trump has made it an imperative that we investigate his attempt to strong arm Georgia’s Attorney General. Even if that was ALL Trump did, it would be disastrous for him and his party — who are now standing as literal co-conspirators in an act of open sedition. Remember — every one of these traitors will be questioned UNDER OATH. Sure, they can demure and get all bitchy about their rights, but they still have to answer questions — or sit their soft, white asses in jail.
And, trust me here, those soft, white asses will not do well sitting in jail. Those soft, white asses will (pardon the pun) “crack”. They’ll see the handwriting on the jailhouse wall — and their names in that handwriting. They’ll see generational ruin for their family and their family’s fortunes; that’s what happens to traitors — no one invites them to play reindeer games anymore. Hanging out with pariahs is bad for business.
The rejuvenated Department of Justice will also re-open the counter-intelligence investigations into Trump’s relationship with Russia that Rod Rosenstein killed. That, right there, will terrify pretty much every single Republican because they all knew — or suspected at least — even before they made Trump their nominee in 2016 that he was OWNED BY VLADIMIR PUTIN. As current GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy put it as he walked into a meeting of Republican leaders a month before their 2016 convention: “There’s two people I think Putin pays, Rohrbacher and Trump… swear to God”. As then Speaker Of The House Paul Ryan responded: “Let’s keep that ‘in the family’.”
Everyone in that room needs to answer questions about what happened there and why no one called the FBI — as they absolutely should have. Devin Nunes needs to be interrogated — under oath — about virtually everything he’s done since Trump became POTUS. Same goes for Lindsey Graham (he needs to explain his total one-eighty on Trump). Same goes for Bill Barr and Mike Pompeo.
Same goes for the SEVEN SITTING SENATORS who had dinner in MOSCOW the evening of July 4, 2018: Ron Johnson (WI), Richard C. Shelby (AL.), Steve Daines (MT.), John Hoeven (ND), John Neely Kennedy (LA.), Jerry Moran (KS.), John Thune (SD) — plus Rep. Kay Granger (TX). Each and every one needs to answer questions UNDER OATH about why they went to Moscow on that most American of holidays. We The People need to know what went down. Was the vodka cold enough? How about the borscht — was it fresh? Most importantly, what about the treason — was it served piping hot, the way every one of those traitors likes it?
These Republican secrets will cease to be secrets. The stories they tell about Republican corruption will explode, each more damning then what came before. This will all be added to our understanding of what happened in 2016 — of how the election’s actual outcome (the thing We The People voted for) was literally STOLEN from us. We will learn that Russia won the election for Trump in 2016; without their direct impact on the election’s result, Donald Trump would never have been in the White House.
As each Republican Senator (and House member) suddenly faces legal jeopardy in the extreme (we WILL be talking TREASON after all — Russia is conducting an active cyber war against us and cyber war, we’ll have to acknowledge, is just as much a “war” as a the old fashioned “bombs and bullets” kind), they will be forced to step away from their Senatorial duties to see to their legal defense full time. There won’t be any good explanations for WHY these Republicans sided with RUSSIA over us. There won’t be any good explanations either for why these Republicans sought to overturn this election’s outcome.
Aside from five states — North Dakota, Oklahoma, Wisconsin, Rhode Island and Oregon, the governor can fill a suddenly vacated Senate seat however they like (in some cases up until a scheduled election). That, right there, could flip the Senate’s balance. If the Senate’s not in Democratic control after today? Put the money on corruption culling the Republican herd.
Again — this assumes that the Democrats play hardball every day and in every way they can. While dinosaurs like Diane Feinstein might still regard her Republican colleagues with nostalgic fondness, hers is a shrinking position. Her position will literally vanish — and those friendships will become toxic — as the questioning of Republicans begins.