By Peter White
NASHVILLE, TN – The Democrats won both Senate races in Georgia last week. Those victories have flipped the U.S. Senate from red to blue. Although both parties have 50 senators, Vice President Kamala Harris breaks all ties votes. And that means Democrats will now control both houses of Congress and the White House for the first time in a decade.
Rev. Raphael Warnock won his runoff against Kelly Loeffler by 50.7% to 49.3%, becoming the first Black to represent Georgia in the U.S. Senate.
Warnock’s opponent was a Trump loyalist, who was appointed in 2019, and in early 2020, Loeffler and her husband made a number of profitable stock trades just prior to the economic crash caused by the pandemic. At the time, she said she had nothing to do with buying and selling stocks in her portfolio. Her critics accused her of using advance knowledge of the coming economic collapse to her advantage. She called such criticism “socialist attacks”.
Both Loeffler and Purdue said they would support Trump’s illegal attempt to stop the Electoral College vote. Hard to say, but that last-minute twist may have cost them and their party the election. According to the Associated Press, although both Senate races were decided by less than 2%, many Republicans in Georgia’s red counties did not come out to vote. That was not true of Georgia’s Democrats who voted in large numbers just as they did in November.
Last Wednesday afternoon, as armed hooligans overran the Capitol in Washington, CNN called the second Georgia senate race for Jon Ossoff, who beat incumbent David Purdue by 50.4% to 49.6%. He will be the first Jew to serve in the U.S. Senate from Georgia.
All in all, it was a good day for the Democrats. Despite the rioting in Washington, the Electoral College worked late Wednesday night to certify that Joe Biden will become the 46th President of the U.S. He intends to appoint Judge Merrick Garland to be his Attorney General. President Obama nominated Garland to the Supreme Court but then-majority leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) blocked the vote, something he will no longer be able to do as Senate Minority Leader.
President-elect Joe Biden is going into his new job with a lot more power to enact sweeping liberal legislation and push through Cabinet nominations without Republican support. One thing he will likely do is get a $2000 check for most Americans included in another stimulus bill. He will also move quickly to take over federal oversight of the coronavirus, including vaccine distribution.
He will also start to undo many of Trump’s spiteful executive orders that did everything from dashing the hopes of the dreamers to threatening war with Iran if they retaliated for a drone attack he ordered that killed Iranian General Qassim Suleimani in January 2020. Biden will no doubt resume nuclear talks with Iran soon.
He will also rejoin the Paris Climate Accord and renew nuclear arms reduction talks with Russia. Those are not small things. And now, the Republicans can’t block them.
