By Assistant Political Editor Deborah Downer
with Jenny Herk in Naples, Florida and Jacy Farrow in Wichita Falls, Texas
Well, that was fun.
Democrats who had been staring at the pipe behind their gas ranges finally got something to smile about last week: the spectacle of a united joyful party leaving their Convention with a ticket that actually appears to be leading in swing-state polls.
Before we leave that lead, though, let's consider the insanity of the Electoral College system that insulates Republicans from that democracy thing (see, e.g., 2000, 2016) and ignores the preferences of voters in more than 40 states – a system perpetuated only because Republicans like the idea that they can win the Presidency while losing the actual vote.
But leading nationally and in swing states narrowly is a good thing. Raising half a billion dollars in a week is a good thing. The Harris-Walz ticket is a really good thing. An energized party base is a good thing.
So why does the road ahead look like this?
We've already mentioned the bent Electoral College.
There's more. Let's look at a recent poll conducted by Fairleigh Dickinson University showing Harris ahead of DonOld by 50 to 43. That's a pretty good national lead.
When FDU broke down the responses it turned out that 49% of white voters intended to support DonOld and Jimmy Don Vontz.
Other polls have shown the Tangerine-Faced Felon holding on to a majority of white voters.
Let's think about why half of white people would support a demented convicted felon and adjudicated sex offender whose first term was a disaster culminating in economic collapse and a nation ravaged by a lethal pandemic who is also a racist?
We're going to go way out on a limb here and state that the only possible explanation can be the last word. Do you think 49% of white voters would cast their ballot for a demented convicted felon and adjudicated sex offender whose first term was a disaster culminating in economic collapse and a nation ravaged by a lethal pandemic if he championed the cause of racial equality and overcoming the systemic racism of American life?
To ask the question is to answer it. As usual though, the media calls the phenomenon of white people supporting a white racist “tribalism.”
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| All media: this is tribalism |
That's not tribalism. Tribalism is preferring New England Clam Chowder to that watery tomato soup crap they serve in Manhattan, madras jackets to hoodies, or Harvard to obscure universities located in Southern Connecticut.
In other words, there are no ethical or political stakes involved. If you prefer Manhattan clam chowder, the hated Yankees, or Dartmouth, go f*** yourself. Because ultimately it doesn't make any difference.
Tribalism isn't when white racists seek to perpetuate white racism by supporting other white racists. That's evil. It requires all good persons, even those who like tomato-soup chowder or pizza-flavored lasagna, to rise to the occasion and condemn it. Or reach out to white racists if you follow Gov. Nick Kristof. And good luck to you.
But the first thing you do is recognize what we're up against. And the astonishing power and durability of white racism (astonishing to Chief Justice John Roberts '76, that is) is only one obstacle.
Speaking of the judicial arm of the Republican Party, another obstacle Democrats must surmount is the evisceration of the Voting Rights Act by the bent Republican Supreme Court, which has spent years gutting the law on grounds that have nothing to do with the law or the Constitution and everything to do with their assumption of power as an unelected political branch protecting the interests of the Republican Party. More on that threat to democracy later.
In fact Democrats are caught between a Republican-corrupted Supreme Court (ask Sulky Sam Alito about that $995 bottle of wine he drank on his free Alaska vacation) and Republican states working hard to rig elections so that Democrats can't win.
The most recent example was the takeover of the Georgia election board by election denying insurrectionists. According to The Guardian,
Conservative activists in Georgia have worked with prominent election deniers to pass a series of significant changes to the procedures for counting ballots in recent weeks, raising alarm about the potential for confusion and interference in the election certification process in a key swing state this fall.
Since the beginning of August, the five-member state election board has adopted rules that allow local election boards to conduct a “reasonable inquiry” into election results before they are certified, and to allow any local election board member “to examine all election related documentation created during the conduct of elections prior to certification of results”. The same rule also requires local boards to reconcile any discrepancies between the total number of ballots cast and the number of voters who check in. If it can’t reconcile the numbers, the board is authorized to come up with a way to figure out which votes count and which do not.
According to recent polling data, Harris is running only about a point behind the Tangerine-Faced Felon and is placing lots of emphasis on Georgia. Any victory she obtains is sure to be razor-thin, along the lines of Joe Biden's 11,780-vote win in 2020.
Back then DonOld tried to f*** with Georgia election officials and came away with nothing to show for it other than indictments. But if only a few county election boards refuse to certify results on Trumped-up grounds, the ratification of the Georgia vote could be delayed.
Enter the bent Supreme Court. We know that they will throw an election on the basis of 587 votes. A narrow margin in Georgia could tempt them to intervene again. And we know how Clarence “Ramblin' Man” Thomas deals with temptation.
The point is that Democrats must win this election by a margin that is, in Stephanie Miller's term, “too big to rig.”
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| The new Georgia Elections Board looks nice |
Should Harris start to pull away in the Presidential race, expect the plutocratic Republican dark-money machine to aim their firehose of cash in an effort to take the Senate and hold the House. Republican control of either body could derail almost anything of importance the Harris Administration wants to do, including unrigging the Supreme Court with various legislative fixes.
The Senate, currently 51-49, looks especially dire. West Virginia is gone, although the Republican candidate could be indicted or behind bars before he is sworn in at the rate he's going.
Democrats are defending vulnerable seats in too many places: Nevada, Arizona, Ohio, Michigan, and Montana. The loss of any one could return the Senate to the tender mercies of insane Republican rule. Why would anyone think that a Republican Senate would confirm any Harris Supreme Court nominee? Or for that matter any appellate court nominee?
There are no easy pickup opportunities, although especially loathsome Republicans are running only a bit ahead in Texas and Florida. Sending Sen. Rick “Skeletor” Scott back to his billions looted from Medicare would be huge, but Florida has proven to be hard for Democrats to unlock since all those nice old Jewish grandmothers from New York who lived in the condos of Miami and Ft. Lauderdale, um, died.
Even if the Democrats manage to take the House and Senate, nothing good can happen unless the old tossers get rid of the filibuster. Without abolition, Republicans will block every single Harris-Walz initiative, including Supreme Court reform, reauthorization of the Voting Rights Act and Mitch McConnell's worse nightmare: statehood for DC and Puerto Rico, which would unrig the Senate with four likely Democratic seats.
The point here is simple: joy is swell, but we can't afford to get high on our own supply. We can't afford to ignore House and Senate races. We have to prepare ourselves for legal and illegal efforts to steal the election.
The Tangerine-Faced Grifter may be decompensating before our eyes, but the Republican juggernaut will stop at nothing to perpetuate its cruel, corrupt minority rule.
And everything we do per order of Gen. Michelle Obama must be done with that in mind.
