Georgia

I haven't seen any tweets from Trump today that the market is up 500 points. 

jamie said:

Trump must be so mad that democrats are able to "find" votes they need - but republicans can't.  They're such amateurs.

So happy Abrams assumed the role she did - she deserves a lot of credit.  I think the credit could be split 3 ways - the candidates - Abrams and Trump.

 the next task in GA is to elect enough Democrats to their legislature to try and undo the state's voter suppression tactics.  Statewide elections there are only this close because the state's GOP makes it so hard to vote.  

I honestly hadn't allowed to get my hopes up that both Dems could win. Could I still be asleep and dreaming? 

steel said:

I honestly hadn't allowed to get my hopes up that both Dems could win. Could I still be asleep and dreaming? 

We're in the same boat, man. I thought Warnock would win but was pessimistic about Ossoff. 

ml1 said:

 the next task in GA is to elect enough Democrats to their legislature to try and undo the state's voter suppression tactics.  Statewide elections there are only this close because the state's GOP makes it so hard to vote.  

Agreed. Kemp and Raffensberger may seem like heroes right now but make no mistake: they want to make it harder for people to vote before the next election. 

mrincredible said:

steel said:

I honestly hadn't allowed to get my hopes up that both Dems could win. Could I still be asleep and dreaming? 

We're in the same boat, man. I thought Warnock would win but was pessimistic about Ossoff. 

 Same here

I was fairly pessimistic over either of them winning.  Wonder if and when the other side will concede.  

Moving forward I really hope we don't have 50/50 splits on all legislation moving forward.  I'm just glad Mitch won't be the Bully in chief anymore (pending Ossoff's win).

It seems to have taken not just the Presidential election loss, but also the Georgia Senate losses + the coup attempt, for Trump's long-apparent malignant narcissistic egoism to be recognized as 'a problem' by Republicans. 

For example, this opinion published in the conservative WSJ:

https://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-loses-the-senate-11609966486?mod=hp_opin_pos_2

Trump Loses the Senate
His post-election tantrums hand the government to the left.

Republicans lost both Senate races in Georgia on Tuesday, losing control of the Upper Chamber, and you don’t have to be Karl Rove to understand what happened.

If you want to win, don’t tell voters that their votes don’t matter. Don’t have a President tell his voters that the last election was stolen, that Georgia Republicans were complicit in the theft, that GOP Senate leaders don't care, and then expect those same voters to turn out in the Senate runoffs after a rally and a few tweets.

Donald Trump cost Republicans the Senate by making the two Georgia runoffs a referendum on himself. The races should have been a referendum on blocking Democrats from controlling all of Congress and the executive branch. But that message was obscured, if not obliterated, by Mr. Trump’s insistence on telling voters day after day that he was cheated in November—no matter the lack of credible evidence or plausible path to victory.

The Georgia election details prove this point. Turnout was down from November as expected in most places. But it was down more in Trump areas than in Democratic strongholds. The suburban voters who rejected Mr. Trump in November also didn’t return to support GOP incumbents Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue.

Neither Republican was a strong candidate, but in November Mr. Perdue beat Democrat Jon Ossoff by some 88,000 votes and nearly avoided a runoff. This time he’s losing by about 17,500. Mr. Ossoff won 54% of suburban Cobb County’s vote against Mr. Perdue in November but 55.8% on Tuesday. In Gwinnett County, also in the Atlanta suburbs, Mr. Ossoff won 56.8% in November but 59.9% this time. Those two counties were GOP strongholds not long ago.

Mr. Trump also hurt Republicans by stumping for $2,000 in Covid relief checks after the GOP Senate had voted for $600. The President’s negotiators had signed off on the $600, but Mr. Trump seemed bent on punishing GOP Senate leaders Mitch McConnell and John Thune for not endorsing his fanciful bid to overturn Joe Biden’s victory.

In essence, Mr. Trump gave away control of the Senate to the Democrats with acts of political egotism. And that’s the generous interpretation. The more cynical one—and plausible given his political character—is that Mr. Trump wanted Republicans to lose the Senate to show they couldn’t keep power without him.

As expected, Mr. Trump is blaming everyone else for the Georgia debacle. He says Mr. McConnell should have signed off on the $2,000 checks. But Mr. Trump (aided by Sen. Josh Hawley ) elevated the issue for Democrats Raphael Warnock and Mr. Ossoff to exploit.

Mr. Trump also blames GOP Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger for not finding enough votes to overturn the November result, as he lobbied and threatened in his now famous phone call to Mr. Raffensperger. But Mr. Trump is the one who picked the fights that divided Republicans and dominated the news. Polling began to turn negative for the two GOP Senators in late December as Mr. Trump escalated his intra-party brawling.

These defeats didn’t have to happen. Voters in November ousted Mr. Trump, but they also narrowed the Democratic House majority and reduced the GOP Senate majority by only one net seat though Republicans were defending more swing states. That was before Georgia, a state where Republicans hadn’t lost a Senate seat since 2000.

The 2020 results in total show the limits of the Trump coalition. He hasn’t inspired a new multi-racial, middle-class majority. For every working-class, rural voter he’s attracted, he has lost votes in the suburbs. That cost Republicans control of the House in 2018, and in 2020 it cost them the White House and now the Senate.

The country will soon endure the consequences, and they are likely to be considerable. With control of the Senate and the House, Democrats can write a budget without having to compromise with Republicans. They can raise taxes through budget reconciliation.

They can repeal Trump Administration deregulatory rules made final since mid-August with a simple majority vote. They can confirm nominees and judges on party-line votes. And that’s without repealing the 60-vote legislative filibuster rule. They can and will block any Congressional oversight of the Biden Administration, and the media will fall in line.

National policy will move sharply to the left—along the arc of Sacramento, Springfield and Albany. Joe Biden will be less inclined, and less able, to resist his party’s progressives, who will be even more emboldened after the Georgia victories.

We hope Republicans keep Mr. Trump’s contribution to these defeats in mind over the next two years as their taxes and energy costs rise, as woke cultural mandates rain down from Washington, and as more of the economy comes under political control. By his destructive behavior, especially since his defeat, Mr. Trump has erased much of his own legacy.

I had to click the link to find out which scum-sucking **** nugget wrote that, only to find it was the entire Editorial Board of the WSJ. Scum-sucking **** nuggets the lot of them.

ridski said:

I had to click the link to find out which scum-sucking **** nugget wrote that, only to find it was the entire Editorial Board of the WSJ. Scum-sucking **** nuggets the lot of them.

 that last paragraph is pretty amazing, especially the part about Trump now erasing his "legacy."  If anything yesterday didn't erase anything.  It merely added to the shameful legacy he had built.

ridski said:

I had to click the link to find out which scum-sucking **** nugget wrote that, only to find it was the entire Editorial Board of the WSJ. Scum-sucking **** nuggets the lot of them.

I did the same thing and was as surprised (not shocked, though) as you.

steel said:

I honestly hadn't allowed to get my hopes up that both Dems could win. Could I still be asleep and dreaming? 

 It's real. 

Y’all getting excited about a Jew and a Black guy teaming up to avert the apocalypse like it’s some new thing smh pic.twitter.com/dNG1lgB0EF

— Abraham Riesman אברהם ריסמאַן (@abrahamjoseph) January 6, 2021