WHY GEORGIA STILL MATTERS

First they came for the Communists, and I didn't speak up, because I wasn't a Communist.  

Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up, because I wasn't a Jew.   

Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn't speak up, because I was a Protestant.  

Then they came for me, and by that time there was no one left to speak for me.                               

Martin Niemoller, German Protestant Minister, after his release from Dachau

                                        

 On December 6 there will be a run-off election in Georgia for the Senate seat between the Democratic incumbent, Raphael Warnock, and Republican Herschel Walker.  Warnock led in the general election 49.4% to 48.5%, short of the 50% needed to be certified as the winner.  On the basis of the results of other mid-term elections for the Senate, Democrats will hold 50 seats in the Senate in the next Congress, and Republicans will hold 49 seats.  Thus, regardless of the outcome of the run-off election, the Democrats already have majority control with the Vice President, a Democrat, holding the tie-breaking vote.

As is often the case in competitive elections, and especially in run-off elections, the determining factor will most likely be voter turnout, particularly here where both Parties have disincentives to vote.  For the Democrats, why bother since they already have majority control; for the Republicans, why bother since they have already lost control of the Senate.  So, does it really matter for Democrats?  It certainly does.  Much is still at stake.  Democrats need to go all out to get their people to the polls.  Turnout is determined as much, if not more, by organization and money.  The policies and the personalities/character of the candidates are secondary.  Its all about getting the Party's base and leaners to cast their ballots.  Expense and effort should not be spared.  

But why does it matter?  The reasons are several.  First, and perhaps foremost, the Republican Party must be opposed at every opportunity - as a matter of principle.  If this seems like blind partisanship, so be it.  It certainly has become the Republican method of operation.  Not one inch should or can be surrendered to a Party whose radical right wing and its supporters have become committed to the destruction of the American experiment as it has developed over the years since the founding of the Republic and are willing to espouse violence to achieve their goals.  Does that sound paranoid or over the top?  I don't think so, but let me elaborate below.

Second, there are procedural benefits that come with another seat.  Democrats would no longer have to enter into a power sharing arrangement with the Republicans in the Senate which would be dictated by a 50/50 split.  With 51 Senators, Democrats would claim one-seat majorities on committees. It would help them move legislation forward and confirm judges and presidential nominees.

Third, there are practical benefits.  It will give Democrats a little breathing room if someone threatens to break ranks.  A 51st vote would make the Democrats less dependent on the votes of Senators Manchin and Sinema (DINOs) (and Sanders).  It would also provide a bit of a buffer for 2024 when the Democrats will have more Senate seats to defend.  It may be a platitude to say every vote counts, but keep in mind Democrats will no longer have the House to fall back upon.

Fourth, it would further penalize the Republican Party for nominating such blatantly unqualified, incompetent and dishonest charlatans as Herschel Walker for public office, e.g., Oz, Mastriano, Masters and Lake to name just a few, and perhaps move it back toward the mainstream.

Fifth (overlapping the First), it would be a further statement in opposition to the philosophy promoted by the Republican Party, a philosophy which would condemn America to the past, freeze American mores to those which a majority of Americans have long rejected, and block all attempts to prepare for and facilitate adaption to the future needs of society.  Here, it may be instructive to look at the decisions of the current Supreme Court, which with Donald Trump's appointments has more decidedly become the legal arm of the Republican Party and manifests the Party's objectives.  Since the Republicans, in denying the wishes of a majority of the public, find it difficult to appeal to a broad spectrum of the electorate, they have successfully engaged (most recently largely through the machinations of Mitch McConnell but going back to the time of Ed Meese, Attorney General in the Reagan administration) in taking over the Supreme Court, where there is no voting electorate with which to contend and Justices serve for life.  

The Court is now dominated by fundamentalists flying the flag of "originalism" (at least when it suits their purposes or can be twisted to do so).  Originalism insists that the answers to Constitutional issues are in what people thought hundreds of years ago.  Fundamentalism is the religion of the Republican Party, both figuratively and literally.  If war is politics by other means, then so is Constitutional law as determined by today's Supreme Court (Thomas, Alito, Gorsuch, et al). 

So what does that mean in terms of politics.  We have already seen the overruling of Roe v Wade, the Heller and Bruen Second Amendment decisions, Citizens United, Hobby Lobby, Masterpiece Cakeshop and the Little Sisters of the Poor case re contraception, just to cite few.  The Court is open to the argument that the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment not only doesn't support affirmative action (or even Brown v Board), but that it precludes affirmative action.  This is not just the Supreme Court speaking, it is the Republican Party; it is MAGA writ large.  Besides opposing gun control legislation, abortion rights, separation of church and state, campaign finance legislation and affirmative action, they oppose environmental regulations and wish to impose sharp limits on voting rights and the regulatory authority of Congress and administrative agencies.  And this doesn't even touch on January 6 and election denial.

Herschel Walker! In the Senate!  Are you serious?  It's an insult.  The Georgia run-off election is another opportunity for Democrats and voters in general to echo Howard Beale in Network and shout, "I am mad as hell and I am not going to take it anymore."

In a figurative sense, Democrats should emulate Sherman's march through Georgia vis-a-vis the Republican Party - scorched earth.  It's long past time to speak up.