Facts
By
Leonard Zwelling
It may take until January 20, 2021 for Mitch McConnell and Kevin McCarthy, the Republican leaders of Congress, to truthfully acknowledge that Joe Biden will be the 46th President of the United States. I’m not exactly sure why it took this long for them to admit Trump lost, but I think they fear that even a hint that Biden legitimately won will enrage the GOP base and cause an uproar in Georgia, thus hurting the GOP’s chances of holding the Senate. That’s pretty lame for a host of reasons, not the least of which is that the GOP had a great night on November 3. Republicans will probably hold the Senate. They have made inroads in the House. They were very successful on the state level. The only real loss was for president. This time they had the bad candidate—or at least the worse one.
Apparently just 27 members of Congress of the over 250 GOP members acknowledged that Biden is the President-elect. And 126 members joined a GOP lawsuit out of Texas that asked the Supreme Court to overturn the fair elections in four battleground states. (The Supreme Court told Attorney General Paxton to go fly a kite). That is really sad and is either delusional or cynical. Either the Republicans in Congress have lost track of reality or they so dismiss their base’s hold on reality as to think they endanger the support of that base by acknowledging what is obvious. Why does it even matter?
First, impugning the honesty and legitimacy of our election process is dangerous. There was no fraud. Even Bill Barr says that. Stop it! Someone is going to get hurt if election officials in swing states get threats of violence with armed men outside their homes.
It also matters because on November 3, 2020, the United States held a free and fair election that led to two big outcomes. First, Republicans made huge advances at all levels of government suggesting that GOP principles are more attractive to the majority of Americans than those held by the liberal left of the Democratic Party. In other words, the Republicans ran better ads on TV and convinced people that a vote for a Democrat was a vote for socialism. This is utter nonsense, but it worked. The second key outcome is that a large majority (306 electoral votes and 6 to 7 million actual votes) rejected Mr. Trump. The GOP wins. He loses.
This is a right of center country that was doing very well economically before the coronavirus crisis. But Mr. Trump’s denial of the reality of the crisis (no, Don, it’s not just going to go away) caused enough Americans to send Mr. Trump packing for Mar-A-Lago. The point is that this was not a bad election for Republicans. In fact, it was a great one. It was a bad election for President Trump. Confusing Mr. Trump with true Republican values is something that many Republicans and a fair number of blog readers cannot seem to get straight. Mr. Trump’s trade policies, his surrounding himself with yes people and ninnies, and his general bluster and narcissism made him a lousy candidate to start with and a bad Republican to boot. Denying coronavirus didn’t advance his cause. Hundreds of thousands of Americans have died and case numbers are still climbing. We are still at least six months from herd immunity induced by vaccination (if that happens and the antivaxxers don’t undo the science).
The facts are that Joe Biden is going to be the 46th President of the United States unless Trump resigns before January 20 so Mike Pence can pardon him. Real Republicans have faced the facts and have put their efforts into electing their candidates in Georgia and working toward advancing their policies in the Congress. The federal judiciary is on their side and it is likely that the GOP will hold the Senate making the Republicans well positioned to deal with the Biden White House. The real fact of the matter is that the Republicans are in the best position they have been in since W. left the White House. They are poised to take over the House in 2022 and run one of many great candidates in 2024 for the presidency against either an octogenarian Biden or a field of lesser names. Facts on the ground are great for Republicans. They need to let Trump go and stop defending his nonsense. To be frank, their denial is unbecoming and not worthy of the their party’s values.
4 thoughts on “Facts”
Trump failed utterly at using the bully pulpit to encourage mask & distance. If he had started doing so last March, he would have not lost 1 single vote, and would have gained several hundred thousand more – probably enough for an Electoral College win. Frankly, I was shocked at his total lack of political skill. But the Americans were sick of the professional politician class. He was a true reset button.
However, his relentless push for vaccines ASAP (as well as stockpiling vents) were very effective. This is not China, not South Korea, not even Germany. More like Israel, in fact. Covid is surging in states (Cali, NY, NJ) regardless of blue or red. Biden will ask for voluntary mask wearing for 100 days. An appropriate gesture. He knows (just like Trump did) that you can’t shut down everything.So tell me, beyond the cheerleader role, what specific steps Trump could have legally and effectively done to reduce covid prevalence & mortality, from sea to shining sea?
Admitted that it was a problem?
Once you descend into Donald Dante’s Inferno, it seems difficult to extract yourself and your integrity.
Thomas Friedman had an important op-ed in the New York Times this week. He encouraged Biden to charge Kamala Harris with reconnecting the Democratic Party to rural America in three important ways: (1) get out there and listen to their needs, (2) increase broadband connectivity in rural America, and (3) develop more educational programs for technology in rural America. Let’s hope that Biden read the op-ed.
I did and agree with you