You never get a second chance to make a first impression
Hi guys! I’m back at it again. But I want to be up front, because I respect my readers. This article is going to branch off into pure speculation. Granted, it’s speculation based on more than 50 years, but it is speculation nonetheless. If you don’t happen to care for a look into a possible future, then I’ll see y’all in the next article. For those of you up for a look at what’s possible, and how I see it playing out, then read on.
For the purposes of this article, I am proceeding with two hypotheses. The first is that Joe Biden will win the election in November. I have already written at length why I am confident that he will do so, and every time that Trump gets out of bed in the morning,he only adds to my confidence. The second hypothesis is that the Democrats will retake the Senate in November. Twice in the last three days, pollster Charlie Cook has said that his only question in November is where in the range of 54-58 seats the final Democratic majority lies. And the more I look at the polling, and the map, the harder I find it to disagree with him.
So there’s the starting point, Biden wins the White House, and the Democrats retake the Senate. But if that happens on November 3rd, don’t look for a whole lot of chest thumping and river dancing to be going on in the halls of congress. There’s far too much important work to be done.
The Democrats in the House will have to be vigilant to stop any last minute nonsense from the GOP dominated Senate during the lame duck session. And the Democratic minority in the Senate will have to be on their hind legs to try to stall and block as many last minute appointments as McConnell can try to ram through onto the federal bench. Bit even more important, returning Democrats in both the House as ell as the Senate will already be busy crafting legislation for newly elected President Biden’s first 100 days.
Because this is not a normal election. In a normal election, the House or the Senate switches hands, the White House may switch hands, and things just keep churning on as normal. This is a seminal election. In this election, the people will choose whether we will choose to remain a functional democracy that believes in the rule of law, or whether we will slip into a dictatorship at the hands of Donald Trump. It is as simple as that. And if Biden wins, then we need to strike while the iron is hot.
The first change will take place before Biden is even sworn into office. In the first week of the new session, on day one, newly minted Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer will pull the trigger on the nuclear option, and will abolish the filibuster for legislative purposes. He has no choice. Whether McConnell survives or not, the surviving GOP caucus in the Senate will use the filibuster to stall Biden’s agenda. The Democrats will have a firm mandate to govern, and to do that, they have to be able to pass bills through the Senate.
The pace will be dizzying. Watch for the House to reintroduce the George Floyd police reform bill, which will pass, and which Biden will sign. Watch for the passage of a mammoth new infrastructure bill, with hundreds of billions being set to work creating new American jobs that can’t be shipped overseas. And to pay for the infrastructure bill, watch for the Democratic congress to pass a bill that overturns the giveaway for the richest 1/10 of 1% from Trump’s tax bill.
The Democrats have a window of opportunity here. They will have a mandate to legislate, to govern. And by passing bills and signing laws that make life better for everyday Americans, they can prove that they always had the solutions, and by so doing, they will ensure that the Republican party will become a regional party. Incapable of seriously challenging for the White House for at least a generation. After all, who, even in a red state, doesn’t want to be able to take their kid to the doctor?
As I said at the top, this is all pure speculation. But given the horror show that Trump has unleashed upon the landscape for the last 4 years, the Democrats may well be presented with an opportunity to reshape that landscape onto something better. And if they do, then all for the good.
To know the future, look to the past.before the insanity of the 2020 election, relive the insanity of the 2016 GOP primary campaign, and the general election, to see how we got to where we are. Copies of President Evil, and the sequel, President Evil II, A Clodwork Orange are available as e-books on Amazon, at the links above. Catch up before the upcoming release of the third book in the trilogy, President Evil III: All The Presidents Fen
Follow me on Twitter at @RealMurfster35S
I want to see all that and so much more.
We need to start formulating the exact series of actions and strategies right now for when we win, including negating any apocalyptic revenge moves from the toddler in chief
I’m with you, Murf. We tried playing nice during our true president’s time, which got us nothing. Nobody therefore is under any delusions on the sabotage the GOP might try now. And after 4 years of Trump…
This election is far from in the bag but Cook has the right idea. It’s as close to a mortal look as one of these can get.
We need at least two years controlling the Senate and House with Uncle Joe in the big chair to fix everything the orange sh!tstain has destroyed….
….and if Joe doesn’t win…..I’m blaming Murf!!!!
*smirk*
Absolutely right that this election will be seminal — it will also be cathartic. In some respects, the Trump presidency was always going to result in a catharsis for America, because his corruption and blatant criminality was always going to force Americans to confront what had become of the world’s greatest democracy. The vast majority of Americans are not corrupt nor are they criminal: they’re decent people who want to live in a decent world, governed by decent leaders. Only a democracy can offer that ideal. With a ruling Republican party whose corruption no longer lurks in dark corners, but is out in broad daylight dismantling all democratic norms, honest citizens have no recourse but to protest and then to vote the traitors out of office. Only then can the clean-up begin.
Here, here, Jarvis! Well said!
I agree that things COULD happen quickly. I can state in five words why I fear the moment will be lost: Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer.
If only we would have someone with guts and a backbone of steel it could happen. Schumer has neither. What battles we’ve won with Trump have been in spite of, not due to or with much meaningful assistance of Schumer. If Speaker Pelosi had a true equal as her counterpart in the Senate then I agree with you that great things would be possible.
Oh, knock it off, Denis. Schumer takes his orders from Pelosi and carries said orders out to the letter. None of that will change anytime soon. All he has to do is watch how McConnell has lost control of his caucus to understand the consequences if he does something else instead. If only people would quit pretending it was 10 years ago and face up to a truly unknown future…
It would be nice if Pelosi would actually lead. She’s great at cat-herding, but leading charges isn’t somethign she does.
Her priority at this point is getting the next generation of Dem leadership ready to take the reins. THEY’RE the ones who’ll be doing the changes because it’s their world now. Once Trump is put aside, she’ll likely retire, her job done. I look for Joe to do the same after one term. Get it through your head, people: the Boomer generation is finished as a political force in America after this year.
“the Boomer generation is finished as a political force in America after this year”. As a Boomer, I agree with you completely. My Boomer generation has been a great disappointment to this Country, and the sooner the Boomer’s get out of the way the better for our future!
The “Boomer generation” will be the one leading the transformation and some people even OLDER than the Boomer Generation, such as Pelosi who is not a Boomer. And stop the bigoted, divisive crap about “generations,” OK? I’m just tired of it.
All Pelosi does is lead, while the armchair critics lob their misogynistic darts at her. She had been brilliant this term, piling mountains of legislation on McConnell’s desk. Her JOB is to herd the cats, but she has been better than that. If McConnell was willing to ass her legislation, this country would be transformed. So sick of this. I am tired of people thinking there’s someone out there who could do the job better — and if they define what they think the job is they are always wrong.
There is one bill they must pass first thing. A sweeping bill that EACH AND EVERY JUDGE, ANYWHERE IN THE UNITED STATES, appointed by Mitch McConnell in the past 12 years, is HEREWITH IMPEACHED and without judicial authority as of the instant of President Biden’s signing of this law. That’s right – every single last one of Mitch McConnel’s judges MUST be thrown out in one feel swoop. THIS will be the greatest kick in the gonads that rat-bastard could ever get, and show that every moment of his worthless life was a complete and total waste of existence. And then we can get rid of Citizens United, Enshrine Roe-Wade forever, Develop a serious single-payer healthcare system once and for all putting Americans in the same legal healthcare place as every other person in every other first world country, and most of all, get serious about the fact our planet is giving us MAJOR messages about how we’re treating it that we REALLY need to listen to. Repeat after me, Justices Lawrence Lessig and Lawrence Tribe. Sure Tribe will only last a few years, but since my proposed law will get rid of Kavanaugh and Gorsuch, and frankly they should get rid of Alito and Thomas while they’re at it, I think we can afford a few years of the greatest legal mind in the country, Lawrence Tribe, regardless of the fact he’s no “spring chicken”.
We need to eat with reality, not with fantasy. People who come in with fantasy goals quickly derail and end up getting NOTHING done. All trying to kick out every edge McConnell has appointed (and there’s no legal basis or process for) would do is explode the coalition that got the Democrats in office, and give Republicans the ammo to re-insert themselves and retake power. And along the same lines, as long as we pretend that Medicare for All is a solution and in fact the ONLY solution, we’ll continue to be the only developed nation without universal access to affordable health care — and those other countries have a variety of systems. The purity progressives who have prematurely picked one and use it as a litmus test and bludgeon are one of the biggest obstacles to better health care access.
And an Democratic president who appointed a 79-year-old Supreme Court just should lose his job for stupidity and giving away the store. Sheesh.
Bryan,
Couldn’t this be done if Barr can willi-nilly fire 3 US Attorneys who are investigating Trump’s crimes?
Back in 2006, didn’t Alberto Gonzales fire 7 US Attorneys?
All that is likely, except for the ..grinch. If the mango moron challenges the election results in say 4 key states (AZ, WI, NC, FL) Biden could be sitting with 269 electoral votes. If the red legislatures in those states refuse to act to certify the results, which must be done by 12/14/20, then SCOTUS could step in as they did to stop FL counting votes in Bush v. Gore. They throw it to the House to decide? Sounds good with a blue House right, except it is one vote per state and more red states. Yup, the 3 people in WY have an equal voice to the 40 million in CA. So the House can just say … ok we will do it .. someday, cause there’s no mandatory schedule. Thus Nancy ascends to temp POTUS… oh but then there’s the 20th amendment. That gives the Senate the vote on who will be VP, but hey.. we just won the Senate right? nope. Only the “newly elected” Senators get to vote. 23 of 34 senators up for election are GOP. Even if we steal 6 of them, unlikely, it’s then 17-17 .. except.. NC, AZ have not certified their vote… so we lose 2 of the blue senators we just got. So the 17-15 GOP vs. Dem senate votes to pick the moron’s VP candidate (Ivanka) and she takes over as POTUS and promptly pardons her daddy. .. so now I’m ready for another margarita.
Pul-ease Keith!
LET IT BE!
Sounds logical to me! Wish we could just do one bill to “reverse” every f***ing bill they passed since he became President.
I’m dead weary of being endlessly outraged at this slow moving coup.
The American public is a feckless bug that innocently stumbled into a web in 2016. The spider is ruthless, calculating and deadly. In panic and rage, we lurch from dazed confusion to useless struggle as methodically another string is wrapped around us. We bitch, we complain, grasp at hope, then exhausted and defeated, we sink into paralysis.
But NOTHING changes.
What’s going on? We’re America, icon in the political universe. Desperate peoples have looked to us for hope throughout the modern era.
I am sick of this! I’ve done all I can. Why isn’t someone who has power and a conscience saving us?
Sure, we have another house hearing, more scandalous headlines but no one to stand up and say, “Enough!”
What Barr has done is intentional, devious and clearly illegal.
It is time for decisive action.