What’s At Stake

Voting booth attendants show Tech. Sgt. Virtue voting literature. Eielson Air Force Base. Photo by U.S. Air Force/Airman 1st Class Thibault.

President Trump held a rally last night in Georgia. I didn’t watch it; I have little interest in hearing anything else from the anti-American squatter until such time as he is entering a plea in court. Despite the effort for Trump to make this election all about him, it isn’t. Trump is not on the ballot. Trumpism is.

Today’s election takes place in a state which hasn’t had a Democratic Senator since centrist Zell Miller retired in 2005. The last time David Perdue ran, he won by more than 7%… not a landslide, but a decisive win. Isakson, the man whom Kelly Loeffler replaced, won by more than 13% in his last election before retiring due to health concerns. This is not a Democratic state, by the numbers.

A win for both Senators becomes more likely, not less, when November’s election is taken into account. There was obviously great resistance to a continued Presidency of Donald Trump, a notion so distasteful that it motivated Republicans to cross the aisle and vote for Joe Biden and energized a slew of new voters to submit their ballots. Simultaneously, though, the nationalist message and portrayal of heroic victimization of Trump brought an additional 5 million voters beyond his 2016 numbers. (While it’s accurate to say that many of the final 74 million were voting more out of fear of the progressive agenda than support for Trump’s nationalism, that same fear would have been present – likely, in greater measure – during the joyfully progressive campaign of Hillary Clinton than the moderate leftist campaign of Joe Biden; up to the initial 69 million of 2016 may have been anti-progressive votes, but the new votes were generally signing on to Trump’s nationalism.)

Biden’s Senate composition was set to be the focus of the Georgia elections, and that boded well for the Republicans. Many independents and Republicans who voted for Biden are hoping for a restrained Presidency following the insanity of Trump, and others are against the calls by some on the left to expand the court… particularly after the fears of the court acting as Republican puppets and doing Trump’s bidding were demonstrated to be overstated following the continual rejections and failures associated with Trump’s attack on the peaceful transfer of power.

Trump has undermined those hopes by fostering conspiracy theory and delusion about his chance to remain in office. He’s inspired his cultists to pressure their Congressmen to bypass the intent of the Constitution. He’s convinced many Georgians that the election is about Trump, that he retains some chance to stay in office.

As stated earlier, Trump is not on the ballot, nor is there any chance that he stays in office past January 20th. But the threat of having the nationalists stay home as some bizarre protest against Constitutional elections has driven both Loeffler and Perdue to publicly embrace all aspects of Trumpism, down to blatant appeals to racists such as posing while flashing white supremacist symbols or darkening the skin tone of opposing candidates. These efforts, and the fear of Trump somehow remaining, have also driven more Democrats to the polls and encouraged some more aisle-crossing.

This has brought us to today. The Republicans were expected to have easy wins, in early November. Two months later, it’s a fight.

If both Senate seats remain Republican, it will demonstrate to McConnell and other party leaders that Trumpism remains a dominant force. McConnell will work to obstruct Biden and the Republican machines will be more likely to continue to appeal to the nationalists even as they try to maintain some distance from the radicals in the group. Biden will face a more difficult Presidency because McConnell, lacking any ethical standards, will fight him even on issues upon which they agree… it’ll all be a show for the rubes. It will also encourage the Trump enablers for 2024, even as they hope that criminal charges take all the direct family members out of the running. This, despite the fact that both seats remaining Republican was the expected result. It will be yet one more case of Trump taking credit for someone else’s success.

If one seat flips, it’s going to show that Trumpism is already flagging. McConnell will still be somewhat obstructionist, but Biden’s experience in the Senate will serve him well and he’ll be able to get a majority of his agenda passed. The Republican leadership will have watched one of two solid wins pissed away because of Trump, and that will affect their calculations on how much to push back in the upcoming months.

If both seats flip, the repudiation of Trumpism will be resounding; that will be two losses which can be pinned directly to the President’s involvement. McConnell will no longer be in control of the Senate, and will be unable to wantonly obstruct, although he may retain enough power to stymie Biden on truly controversial issues. Biden may or may not expand the Supreme Court; he will be under some pressure to do so, but the recent rejection of Trump’s litigation may inspire him to spend his political capital elsewhere. Such election results will also increase the likelihood of legal repercussions for blatantly illegal acts by the President and his retinue.

About the opinions in this article…

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About AlienMotives 1991 Articles
Ex-Navy Reactor Operator turned bookseller. Father of an amazing girl and husband to an amazing wife. Tired of willful political blindness, but never tired of politics. Hopeful for the future.

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