cartoon from Economist magazine June 2020
As we are distracted by a global pandemic raging out of control and a mad king as President of the United Stated trying desperately to perpetuate his reign, it's difficult to realize that the pandemic is only the beginning.
It's an understatement to say the Election 2020 was bittersweet. It was bitter in that there was nothing close to a 'Blue Wave'. It was sweet in that Joe Biden won decisively, and Donald Trump was given the hook. Unfortunately most of the craven and corrupt GOP Senate Republicans survived. Observers all over the world who had hopes that the US would lead the world out of its of its ecocidal and proto-fascist death spiral were dashed. There was no solid rejection of the Republican Party's obstructionist and reactionary non-agenda. But most alarmingly over 73,000,000 Americans voted for Donald Trump even as he was leading many of them to ICU wards and ventilators. And now most of the same fools have been deceived into believing the Democrats cheated and he should have won.
The myth on the left that the
40% of the electorate who seldom voted harbored progressive tendencies if only they could be
persuaded to participate was dispelled. A record number of Americans voted
including those who usually don't. And, alas, many of them apparently voted for Donald Trump or
if not split their ballot and still voted for Repubs for legislative seats. The US is bitterly divided.
The Demos not winning a decisive
majority in the Senate killed all hopes for real change. The level of Trump's support gave the Frankenstein monster of Trumpian Republicanism a mainline hit of meth. A
significant number of voters must have voted
to oust Emperor Nero but for retaining his Republican Party consorts.
Pollsters were again deceived. And now everything hinges on flipping
two Senate seats in a cracker-infested Deep South state which
Biden surprisingly narrowly carried. This will be a very heavy lift. And if successful there will still be only a tenuous 50-50 split with the Demo VP giving the
Demos a measly one vote majority - hardly a Blue Wave. It hard to admit but it appears that had not Covid19 intervened and had not Trump fumbled the
response so tragically, he probably would have a waltzed into a
second term. Too many Americans have lost their way. It
is very sad.
Barring the discovery of some serious
administrative error by Rudy Giuliani's crew of legal beagle
scumbags, that can be framed as the tip of some evil iceberg, Trump will be gone Jan
20th 2021. No way will the Joint Chiefs of Staff allow him to pull
off some kind of banana republic style coup with his 'irregular troops'
of training-in-the-woods militias and
dull normal range intelligence members of the Proud Boys. Not after Mr. Bone Spurs dissed
all those who gave their lives in past wars.That is not say the above crew of 'irregulars' especially the militias who fancy themselves as "armed patriots" and "heroic defenders liberty" won't or can't cause serious problems in future days.
In his series of presidential campaign rallies Trump predicted that if Biden won, it would be only through 'mass voter fraud'. This was obviously a characteristically Trumpian veiled threat of refusing to leave even if he lost. So surprise surprise he lost and is now refusing to concede or cooperate on the transition. And his MAGA hat wearing Kool Aid drinking hoards are angry, yelling “we wuz robbed”. Where all of this is headed is unclear. Hopefully it will dispel at some point and Trump will slink off to Mira Logo and concentrate on staying out of a New York jail cell.
This present charade would seem unthinkable - except most of the GOP is going along with it as if it were a perfectly normal post election process. Trump's absurd refusal to acknowledge reality and his ability to drag along his political party only goes to show what depths of depravity and dishonesty the Grand Old Party has sunken to.
Mustering enough Deep South Georgia voters to bump out not one but two corrupt knuckle draggers is a thin reed to depend on. Difficult but not impossible. Otherwise things look very bleak. McConnell and the Senate Repubs without Trump as President know Trumpism still alive and well. They no doubt will feel the wind in their sails. They will be encouraged to be evermore recalcitrant in hopes of gaining more seats back in the future if nothing significant gets done wing. It will be Obama redux minus Obama's charm and charisma - total obstructionism and with an even harder right wing Supreme Court as a backstop.
I sincerely hope I am being overly pessimistic but we could see:
As Biden tries to re-invigorate a post-pandemic economy with multi-billion dollar 'green' infrastructure oriented spending proposals the GOP rediscovers the Dreaded Deficit as it moves deeper into multi-trillion dollar territory.
Only an inadequate stimulus spending clears the GOP held Senate and the post-pandemic economy flounders allowing the Republicans to claim the Democrats ruined Trump's “Greatest Economy Ever”.
The crisis of immigration and undocumented citizenry continuing to fester as the xenophobes and nativists within the GOP resist any reasonable compromise.
Any formal legislation required to patch up the damage of four long years of Trump swinging his wrecking ball in the pottery shop goes nowhere and the hard won regulatory apparatus continues to atrophy including many environmentally crucial restraints.
As Single Payer health care becomes a dead letter, improvement of the Affordable Care Act with the promise of 'a government option' gets short circuited and demonized as 'socialized medicine' leaving millions still without any health care. That is if ACA even survives further Supreme Court challenges.
The Republican Party continues to stand for nothing but pseudo libertarianism, Second Amendment gun rights, low taxes (for the rich) and criminalization of abortion – and get away with it as the 6-3 Supreme Court finally throws out Roe vs Wade. Church and State fuse further into a theocracy.
Biden goes down in history as a weak, do-nothing President. One of Trump's bozo sons wins in 2024 with a refined version of Trumpism, which has now morphed into full bodied Christian-evangelical fascism. This as the planet continues heats to a point of no return thus creating a self fulfilling prophesy of the End Times straight out of the Book of Revelations.
