Thank you for continuing to share these messages with your friends. If you are not already on our mailing list, please click here to be added to our list. You can also follow me on Facebook where you can read and share these messages. The more people we can reach, the more we contribute to this growing movement. We share these posts on our blog, A Path Forward to November 3, 2020, every two weeks, leading up to the Presidential election of 2020, in which our country will select a whole new course.
This is the next to last of a series of 104 missives, filed every two weeks since the calamitous election of November 2016. In this house, we listened to classical music for a week after that election before we could bear to turn on the morning news. Then we decided that writing about the path forward and providing specific action steps every two weeks would help us play our own role in the resistance.
Word of mouth has given this blog nearly 2000 followers! We are a small part of the countless activist efforts around the country, mushrooming from the initial efforts of organizations like Indivisible, Swing Left, and Move On. We are all acquitting ourselves. Early on, many of us turned from despair and each became a part of a gigantic effort to have November 3, 2020 bring a fresh outcome and reclaim the idea of America. We are proud of our relentlessness during what has turned out to be an awful time.
We are not going to be distracted by predicting an outcome. We feel good about our prospects and are eager to roll up our sleeves to repair this country, which was in need of serious work even before the Trump debacle began.
It is still about keeping our equilibrium. Without getting ahead of ourselves, we can be pleased at the levels of early voting in swing states. High turnout works to our advantage, so it is fair to be happy that Donald Trump, through his voter suppression efforts, has become the inadvertent chair of our Get out the Vote campaign. Given his past lack of verisimilitude, voters aren’t buying any of Trump’s attacks on Joe Biden, and they know we haven’t turned the corner in battling the virus. Thanks to a demonstration of integrity by the Wall Street Journal (who considered and rejected the story) they aren’t buying Trump’s false claim that Joe Biden benefited financially from Hunter Biden’s international contracts. Trump had been counting upon that as an October surprise.
There are multiple paths for Biden and Harris to get to 270 electoral votes. It’s thought by many that we won’t know the outcome on election night, but that is no certainty. Yes, our key states of Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania will have been delayed in the certification and counting of mail in ballots by their state laws. However, Florida, Arizona and North Carolina all certify their mail in ballots as they arrive, guaranteeing that their election night totals will be meaningful. The Biden/Harris ticket showing well in one or more of those states would be terrific election evening news. And of course we will be keeping an eye on Georgia, Iowa, Ohio, and Texas as well.
Of course, getting the Senate majority is fundamental too, all the more so because of Amy Coney Barrett’s confirmation to the Supreme Court (which hopefully will cost Lindsay Graham his Senate seat). Here the important thing to remember is that there will not be 50 Democratic votes in the Senate to expand the size of the Supreme Court, regardless of Biden’s support or opposition.
Where court expansion comes into the picture is in tandem with another Democratic tool. If we gain the majority, Majority Leader Charles Schumer will increase the likelihood that Democrats will select the “nuclear option” which would change the rules to eliminate the 60-vote requirement to close debate. (This requirement was already eliminated by Harry Reid for federal judicial appointments and by Mitch McConnell for Supreme Court). The Democratic majority would start by using both court expansion and the nuclear option as a threat. They are hoping their prospective use of the nuclear option will generate lower resistance by Republican Senators to major legislation on health care and climate change.
On many legal fronts, control by Democrats of the Presidency, the House and the Senate will also enable them to fix any court-identified “defects” in the Affordable Care Act or other laws targeted by the increasingly conservative Supreme Court. Unfortunately, this repair option will be more difficult and complex in response to the Court’s interpretation of equal protection under the law, guaranteed by the 14th Amendment. Protection of the LGBQT community is threatened by the narrow interpretations of “originalist” judges. Whatever unfavorable rulings that emerge may be difficult for Congress to respond to through statutory changes. Eventually, we could end up requiring a stronger (but very difficult to achieve) constitutional amendment to protect previous legal gains. Moreover, as much as Republican Senator Susan Collins stresses otherwise, these justices do not see Roe v Wade as “settled law”.
So, the battles of the future will be intense. The first step is to win back the Presidency and the Senate by doing these three things:
| 1) Make a Nostalgia Filled Contribution to Theresa Greenfield | |
| Remember back to the days we you were sending more money than you planned to political candidates? With your help, Act Blue handled $1.5 billion in Democratic donations in the third quarter. If you are interested in revisiting old times with one more click, choose Theresa Greenfield, battling in Iowa against incumbent Joni Ernst. One of our Senatorial candidates is going to win or lose by a few thousand votes, and it would be a horrible thing to have happen to Theresa. | |
2) Don’t Miss Out on the Last Week’s Campaigning | |
There is still campaign work being done around the country, including the all-important “curing” of ballots, which is helping voters correct the errors on their rejected ballots. Here is a full list of things you can be doing from the star activist Bill McClain:
| |
3) Take Care of Yourself | |
 | Go for a socially distanced walk. Take stock of your mental health. Lean on friends. |
Thomas Paine reminds that “the harder the conflict the more glorious the triumph.” After this is over, if it is over, we can all think about what we have learned and what we can do next for our country.
David Harrison
Bainbridge Island, Washington
Thank-you David -- I appreciate your blogs and your emphasis on action. Well done, old friend.
ReplyDelete