Marching on to Save Democracy

Whew! We got through the election, Biden is now POTUS, and we can relax a little now, right? We can back off from campaigning and resume our everyday lives, free from the burden of an ugly election cycle. I hate to burst your bubble, but liberals and progressives cannot relax our guard now. We have 2022 coming up, and there is lots of work to do.

Maintaining Democratic Majority

We have a razor-thin margin in the Senate. Suppose Senators Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona stay true to form and vote with Republicans most of the time. In that case, we might not have the majority votes we need.

This 2019 Arizona Mirror article says that Sinema voted against Democrats 27.5% of the time. The poll website FiveThirtyEight agrees. The report says that puts her at number two on the list of senators who frequently break with their party.

Senator Manchin might as well be Republican for all the time he spends voting with them. According to Manchin's website, he votes with Republicans 54% of the time. Also, Manchin split with Democrats more often since Trump's inauguration, voting with the Trump administration 74% of the time. In the 116th Congress, ProPublica shows that Manchin voted against most Senate Democrats 174 times (24.8%).

What does all this mean for the 117th Congress? We say we have a majority in the Senate, and I'm nervous that we really don't.

Fighting to Retain Power

Mitch McConnell is working hard to hold on to his obstructionist reins of power. McConnell has already begun obstructing President Biden's policy agenda in the Senate. McConnell threatened to delay an Organizing Resolution (which determines the power-sharing agreement in the 50-50 Senate) unless Democrats commit to keeping the archaic filibuster rule intact. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has proposed using the same power-sharing agreement from the last evenly split Senate. That means that committees have even numbers of members, but Democrats assume the chairmanships. McConnell also wasted no time attacking Joe Biden's opening executive orders. The senator warned that the Republican caucus was prepared to block Biden's key policy priorities.

Yes, Mitch McConnell is threatening to filibuster a resolution to ensure the filibuster rule stays in place. If this doesn't convince Democrats that getting rid of it must be their priority, I don't know what will. Joe Biden hasn't even been in office for 24 hours, and already Republicans are gearing up to obstruct and undercut him at every turn. If the filibuster remains intact, Senate Republicans will keep the Senate in gridlock, blame Democrats for it, and then run on Democrats' supposed incompetence in the 2022 midterms. The filibuster needs to go. Immediately.

To understand McConnell is to understand his game plan: obstruct everything the Democrats do no matter the cost. This Los Angeles Times article explains a bit of how McConnell works:

"In Week One of the Biden presidency, McConnell opted for a more familiar pursuit: partisan combat. As the price of a routine agreement to organize the Senate, he demanded that Democratic leader Charles E. Schumer renounce a major goal of his party’s progressive wing, the end of the filibuster rule."

"The proposal was a nonstarter, and Schumer quickly rejected it."

"But that’s what makes the odd little clash so intriguing. McConnell knew his demand was almost surely doomed. So what was he up to?"

"He was sending a message — to Biden, to the Democrats, and to his own party — that as Senate minority leader, he will be the same tough-as-nails obstructionist that he was when Barack Obama was president."

"He was establishing his ground rules for life in a 50-50 Senate: Never mind Inauguration Day rhetoric about unity or gauzy stories about his warm relationship with Biden. In McConnell’s view, the duty of the opposition is to oppose — and to do everything it can to win the majority back."

Later in the article, it says:

"As Senate minority leader during the first six years of the Obama administration, he wielded the rule often to bring that Democratic president’s program to a virtual standstill."

"Obama managed to pass a massive economic stimulus bill in 2009 and a landmark healthcare bill in 2010 — but after the 2010 midterm election, when the Democrats’ Senate majority shrank to 53, McConnell was able to block most of the Democrats’ major legislation."

"Moderate voters, impatient with gridlock, blamed Obama and deserted the Democrats." "Republicans regained a majority in the House of Representatives in 2010 and the Senate in 2014."

"That history is what McConnell wants to repeat in the Biden era: politics as guerrilla warfare, battling the majority to an impasse."

"Obstruction is where McConnell excels. He’s never been much of a visionary: After 48 years in the Senate, he has no landmark laws bearing his name. But give him a monkey wrench, and he knows precisely where to throw it to jam up the works."

Do you see the bold text? This is only one reason why we need to mobilize and get ready for 2022 now. And it is an important reason.

On a positive note, new Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said in a recent news conference that McConnell will not dictate to the Senate what we should and how we should not proceed. McConnell is no longer the Senate majority leader and in every Senate in the past, they've come to an agreement on the Organizing Resolution and McConnell will not dictate how the Senate moves forward.

Keep a close eye on Moscow Mitch because he is smart and cagey. He must not win.

Trumpism is Not Dead

If you think Trumpism is dead just because he's now out as POTUS, think again. On January 23, 2021, Arizona Republicans voted to censure Cindy McCain, former Senator Jeff Flake, and Governor Doug Ducey. It proves that the GOP is enforcing loyalty to Trump. The GOP also reelected Chairwoman Kelli Ward, who is one of Trump's staunchest supporters in Arizona. I think we'll see similar actions across the country from those die-hard believers who can't see Trump for the menace he is. That includes Senators Josh Hawley and Ted Cruz. Even after the attempted coup, how people can continue to support that man is beyond my comprehension.

The impeachment trial is scheduled for February 8 to give the Trump team time to organize. Why wait so long? We all know what happened, we've seen the video where Trump incited the rioters to march on the Capitol to stop Congress from certifying the election. Every day we continue to hear about assassination plots against Pelosi, Pence, and other legislative members by those rioters. If Trump is not held accountable for his actions, for subverting the Constitution, for inciting a riot, then how do we combat Trumpism? That horrid man must not ever hold public office again and he belongs behind bars. What will that mean for our Democracy if we let him off the hook? Will the populist, racist, nationalistic faction bring us that much closer to a fascist state? We've taken a few steps back from that, but how long will it last if people continue to feel they are disenfranchised and if they continue to organize their hateful rhetoric.

Trump is already threatening to start a new MAGA party. His name for it is the Patriot's Party. He has enough believers who might join this new party. However, will they be able to overcome the Republican and Democrat parties? While we all want to erase Trump and his followers from our memories, we can't do that. He is still too much of a threat.

Mobilizing for 2022

Next year there are 34 Senate seats up for reelection, with 14 Democrats and 20 Republicans on the ballot. The website Ballotpedia has the complete list. Reach out to your state or local Democrat committee to see what you can do now to flip Republican seats next year. You can find the link to your state DNC on my State DNC Links page. Click the white arrow in the upper right corner to go to the state website.

We mobilized in 2018 to flip the House and then lost seats in 2020. We need to mobilize and work harder in 2022 to gain more seats in the Senate and the House to maintain a Democrat majority. The continued healing of America depends on our unification and mobilization.

Robert Reich addresses this in a conversation with former Ohio State Senator Nina Turner on Facebook Watch. They discuss how President Biden cannot lead from a centrist position, but need to support progressives in keeping power. As Senator Turner said, "We got to plot, plan, organize, strategize, and mobilize. That is what must happen so that the progressive movement, and people within that movement, are poised to not only make the demand but also ensure that there is a return on this investment. See, the voters make the investment and they need a return on it. And so the progressive movement is the very movement that is set to be able to make sure that they deliver, that this Administration delivers."

Mr. Reich goes on to talk about a very vicious right-wing with elements that are quite aggressive and they are not going to wait. The right-wing is not going to give Biden a honeymoon. We need to stay vigilant about what Trumpism and the right-wing are doing to continue to undermine democracy and our Constitution.

Keep up the good fight for all Americans. We can only do that by supporting those Democrats who support Americans' well-being and the Constitution. Continue to watch this space for updates on what we can do to increase our majority in Congress and to support the liberal and progressive agenda. We cannot relax now.