This election is far from over. None of us should assume so. The momentum of the last week notwithstanding there’s a ton of hard work ahead. Still, it’s clear that by this time last Sunday night it was a whole new ball game. Little did we know then just how much the whole dynamic of the election had shifted. Or more importantly how the seamless passing of the baton from President Joe Biden to his Vice-President Kamala Harris would lead to such astoundingly swift changes to so many things.
As this NPR article (among so many others) notes there are some eye-popping things that have taken place in a single week. Record fundraising hauls, mostly from small dollar donors with more than half of them being first time donors. Record numbers of volunteers wanting to help. This is huge folks. One often overlooked thing that was going on while people were fretting (so they say) this spring about the Biden/Harris campaign was lack of enthusiasm and especially concerns about President Biden’s being up to running another national campaign. However, with a huge war chest the campaign had built out a massive ground operation. Some 230 plus offices with paid staff training up an already significant number of volunteers.
“Boring” grunt stuff but President Biden knew that come convention time he’d have an operation out there, a great one ready to go when the voters started paying attention at the time they do every Presidential election year. He just never got the chance to amp up our side at the Democratic Convention with another SOTU type address. However he’d picked a terrific VP who was capable of taking over from day one. Then he spent over three years providing her multiple Ph.D level information on a variety of things. Harris has had the best possible teacher and mentor. And friend. And now she gets to step out of her boss’s shadow and if her light had shown bright as California AG and then as a Senator, it’s shining like the sun now! If you think the last week was something there’s plenty more to come.
I keep coming back to the flood at what has to have been over a million (way over – there were 900k alone in the first 24 hours) small donors with some 60 percent being first time. The 170k volunteers infusing an already in place national ground game. With all this new money flowing in still more campaign offices with paid staff to properly train and direct the efforts of all these new volunteers it’s no wonder the GOP is rocked back on its heels. If, as I think is possible Harris is as good an “operator” as I think she will be we can all be her proverbial electoral “bulldozer.” Yes, I’ve felt more optimistic today than I have in a very long time. And my thoughts turned from hopes of “steamrollering” the GOP this fall up and down the ballot to a funny tune that makes me laugh every time I hear it.
Heywood Banks is one of those musicians with a genius for comedy of the whimsical kind. My favorite song of him is titled If I Had A Bulldozer. I know we are supposed to recognize that while those who vote Republican are Americans too I can’t get back wanting to, for a while at least treat them the way they treat us. Bush 43 lost the popular vote in 2000 yet governed like he had a whopping huge mandate. He and the GOP had a “f**k you – we won and you lost” attitude and did all kinds of damage. He barely won in 2004 and still wasn’t humbled. Yet when Barack Obama won in 2008 with actually more than what had been traditionally considered a mandate, which came with a large House Majority and control of 59 seats in the Senate what did the GOP say? He did NOT have a mandate and they deserved not just a seat at the decision/policy table but got to set a huge chunk of the agenda!
So I’m not about to ask for forgiveness for thinking our side should “bulldoze” the GOP. Like I said, if WE keep what began the last week going and build on it WE can be Harris’ Bulldozer and I have no doubt she will operate that sucker like some construction worker that’s used one for decades. So have a little fun and listen to the song. And after imaging, get to work tomorrow becoming a part of the Harris Campaign BULLDOZER.
Denis, in 2000, it was Bush 43, not 41….
Fixed. Thanks for the catch.
“Yet when Barack Obama won in 2008 with actually more than what had been traditionally considered a mandate, which came with a large House Majority and control of 59 seats in the Senate what did the GOP say? He did NOT have a mandate and they deserved not just a seat at the decision/policy table but got to set a huge chunk of the agenda!”
Well, that “set a huge chunk of the agenda” was because McConnell made sure to threaten a filibuster at EVERY SINGLE OPPORTUNITY that he could use it. As long as there were 41 solid GOPers that McConnell could rely on (or “whip” into line), McConnell and the GOP could stall every bit of legislation that the MAJORITY wanted passed.
And that’s something the Democrats need to put a stop to when we retain the Senate (and, with any kind of luck, improve our seating) is the filibuster “threat.” No more of that. You want to filibuster? You get up and start talking until you’re relieved by another of your cohorts or until you fall on your face from exhaustion (and, if a motion for cloture can’t pass with 60 votes on the first or second attempt, then the third attempt requires a simple 51-member majority vote).
Yeah Joseph…give me Mr. Smith Goes To Washington…and the Democrats repeat Jimmy Stewart’s mantra of ” you think I’m licked? Well I’m NOT licked. I’m going to stay right here and fight for this lost cause no matter if this room gets filled with lies like these!” We can depend on the gop to fill the airwaves with lies.