washingtonmonthly--2020-11-07--There Are No Lawyers Who Can Salvage Trump’s Re-Election Bid

Donald Trump is in deep trouble .
His chances of being re-elected have basically vanished .
As of this writing , he trails by substantial margins in Georgia , Pennsylvania , Nevada and Arizona–three of which he needs to win at a minimum .
In the first three his deficit will almost certainly increase with each new tally ; in Arizona he will continue to make up ground , but he has not been doing so fast enough .
While the networks are still wary of calling the race , Joe Biden will almost certainly become the next president of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is doing what he always does : begging for attorneys to fix his problem for him and allow him to cheat .
This is , of course , how Trump has lived his whole life .
Trump has no particular expertise in or deep knowledge of anything .
He ’ s a trust fund playboy who inherited $ 400 million dollars and somehow managed to go bankrupt several times while stiffing his creditors and the IRS , only escaping the wreckage by assembling an army of accountants , lawyers and fixers who do @ @ @ @ @ @ @ much of his troubled career , the primary fixer was legendary racist sociopath Roy Cohn .
When Cohn passed away , Trump turned to a series of other ne ’ er-do-wells from Michael Cohen to Roger Stone , but he never stopped lamenting the loss of Cohn .
In Trump ’ s world , no problem is insurmountable if you have a shameless and brutal enough team of sharks to fix it for you .
Even if that problem is democracy itself .
But this time there is group of white-collar hitmen who @ @ @ @ @ @ @ which is that he simply doesn ’ t the votes .
He doesn ’ t have a case .
He doesn ’ t have a corrupted jury .
And the system he ’ s up against won ’ t be intimidated or silenced into giving him what he wants .
It ’ s not for lack of trying .
He escaped impeachment by ensuring total loyalty from a compromised Republican Senate .
He explicitly installed Amy Coney Barrett on the Supreme Court in a travesty of a process specifically in order to gift @ @ @ @ @ @ @ challenge .
But in order for the Supreme Court throw him the election there has to be even a flimsy pretext of a case .
And Trump doesn ’ t have one : President Trump ’ s bellicose pledge to fight the outcome of the election in the courts crashed on Friday into skeptical judges , daunting Electoral College math and a lack of evidence for his claims of fraud .
On a day that began with vote tallies in Georgia and Pennsylvania tipping in Joseph R. Biden Jr. ’ s favor , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ This election is not over , ” as the Republican National Committee announced it had activated “ legal challenge teams ” in Arizona , Georgia , Michigan and Pennsylvania .
And the Trump forces named a new general to lead the effort , the hardened conservative political combatant David Bossie .
But none of the dozen or so lawsuits they had brought in battleground states appeared to be gaining any traction in the courts .
And in any case , none seemed likely to give Mr. Trump the edge he would need @ @ @ @ @ @ @ will determine the outcome .
The Trump plan ( insofar as there was one ) was to hold all the states he needed to win except Pennsylvania .
Then , after working with GOP allies in the Pennsylvania legislature to ensure that mostly Democratic mail ballots would be counted last and slowly , attempt to throw doubt on the counting process itself and ask the courts to throw out any late absentees .
But that plan ran aground when Fox News called Arizona–a state Trump was counting on winning–for Joe Biden .
The @ @ @ @ @ @ @ call , as it undercut their core strategy .
But then the firewall also collapsed not only in Wisconsin and Michigan but also crucially in Georgia .
The problem for Trump in Georgia isn ’ t just that he is losing due in large part to the hard work of Black organizers like Stacey Abrams–it ’ s that the state ’ s election apparatus is controlled by Republicans , which makes accusations of organized fraud much more difficult .
And Pennsylvania itself is thwarting Trump in other ways .
Democrats in Pennsylvania were @ @ @ @ @ @ @ cheat the outcome there , that they heavily mobilized the Democratic electorate not only to vote by mail but to vote very early .
That in turn means that the usual flood of late-arriving Democratic mail votes is barely a trickle this year .
Crucially , the big fight over segregating and potentially discarding ballots postmarked before but arriving after Election Day won ’ t matter , because there won ’ t be nearly enough of them to change the outcome of the election even if Trump were to succeed in getting them @ @ @ @ @ @ @ forced Trump ’ s legal team , such as it is , to make small-bore , frivolous complaints about minor issues : observer access in small precincts , a handful of ballots involving registration time window issues in Nevada , etc .
And in nearly all instances , even these complaints are being dismissed with force by judges for being little more than harassment or based on hearsay .
Sensing that his fixers are failing , Trump has taken to yelling for new Roy Cohns and demanding an army of better lawyers : @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that President Donald Trump is not happy with his current legal team .
Collins told Jake Tapper that the legal team — which includes Rudy Giuliani , Pam Bondi , and others — isn ’ t exactly assuaging the president ’ s concerns and Trump has “ questions about the effectiveness of that team.
” “ He ’ s even told one person he wants them to find him better attorneys to put on his team , ” Collins said .
“ Because he wants a team of what he describes to one @ @ @ @ @ @ @ pointed out that there ’ s a question of why this didn ’ t come up sooner , given the predictions that this election would result in legal fights even before Tuesday .
Amusingly , Jake Tapper reported on CNN earlier this evening that Jared Kushner had been put in charge of the search for attorneys .
If true , it would be delicious karma : Kushner ’ s monumental incompetence driving a nail in the Trump coffin after so dramatically mismanaging the COVID crisis .
But the reality is that even a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ be able to salvage this for Trump .
The only thing unfair about this election was voter suppression actions by Republicans and deliberate attempts to slow down the mail , delay counting of mail ballots and then throw them out entirely .
Trump appears to have lost fair and square , and there ’ s not a lawyer in the land who could give even his hand-picked Supreme Court a credible opportunity to install him into a second term .

Donald Trump is in deep trouble. His chances of being re-elected have basically vanished. As of this writing, he trails by substantial margins in Georgia, Pennsylvania, Nevada and Arizona—three of which he needs to win at a minimum. In the first three, his deficit will almost certainly increase with each new tally; in Arizona, he will continue to make up ground, but he has not been doing so fast enough. While the networks are still wary of calling the race, Joe Biden will almost certainly become the next president of the United States.
So Donald Trump is doing what he always does: begging for attorneys to fix his problem for him and allow him to cheat. This is, of course, how Trump has lived his whole life. He has no particular expertise in or deep knowledge of anything. He’s a trust fund playboy who inherited $400 million dollars and somehow managed to go bankrupt several times while stiffing his creditors and the IRS, only escaping the wreckage by assembling an army of accountants, lawyers, and fixers who do have expertise to save him. For much of his troubled career, the primary fixer was legendary racist sociopath Roy Cohn. When Cohn passed away, Trump turned to a series of other ne’er-do-wells from Michael Cohen to Roger Stone, but he never stopped lamenting the loss of Cohn.
In Trump’s world, no problem is insurmountable if you have a shameless and brutal enough team of sharks to fix it for you. Even if that problem is democracy itself.
But this time, there is no group of white-collar hitmen who can solve Trump’s problem, which is that he simply doesn’t have the votes. He doesn’t have a case. He doesn’t have a corrupted jury. And the system he’s up against won’t be intimidated or silenced into giving him what he wants.
It’s not for lack of trying. He escaped impeachment by ensuring total loyalty from a compromised Republican Senate. He explicitly installed Amy Coney Barrett on the Supreme Court in a travesty of a process specifically in order to gift him the election in any potential legal challenge.
But for the Supreme Court to throw him the election, there has to be even a flimsy pretext of a case. And Trump doesn’t have one:
President Trump’s bellicose pledge to fight the outcome of the election in the courts crashed on Friday into skeptical judges, daunting Electoral College math and a lack of evidence for his claims of fraud. On a day that began with vote tallies in Georgia and Pennsylvania tipping in Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s favor, Mr. Trump’s campaign declared, “This election is not over,” as the Republican National Committee announced it had activated “legal challenge teams” in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan and Pennsylvania. And the Trump forces named a new general to lead the effort, the hardened conservative political combatant David Bossie. But none of the dozen or so lawsuits they had brought in battleground states appeared to be gaining any traction in the courts. And in any case, none seemed likely to give Mr. Trump the edge he would need in vote counts in the states that will determine the outcome.
The Trump plan (insofar as there was one) was to hold all the states he needed to win except Pennsylvania. Then, after working with GOP allies in the Pennsylvania legislature to ensure that mostly Democratic mail ballots would be counted last and slowly, attempt to throw doubt on the counting process itself and ask the courts to throw out any absentee ballots.
But that plan ran aground when Fox News called Arizona—a state Trump was counting on winning—for Joe Biden. The Trump team erupted in fury over the call, as it undercut their core strategy. But then the firewall also collapsed not only in Wisconsin and Michigan but also crucially in Georgia. The problem for Trump in Georgia isn’t just that he is losing due in large part to the hard work of Black organizers like Stacey Abrams—it’s that the state’s election apparatus is controlled by Republicans, which makes accusations of organized fraud much more difficult.
And Pennsylvania itself is thwarting Trump in other ways. Democrats in Pennsylvania were so wise to the Republican strategy to cheat the outcome there, that they heavily mobilized the Democratic electorate not only to vote by mail but to vote very early. That, in turn, means that the usual flood of late-arriving Democratic mail votes is barely a trickle this year. Crucially, the big fight over segregating and potentially discarding ballots postmarked before but arriving after Election Day won’t matter, because there won’t be nearly enough of them to change the outcome of the election even if Trump were to succeed in getting them thrown out.
All of this has forced Trump’s legal team, such as it is, to make small-bore, frivolous complaints about minor issues: observer access in small precincts, a handful of ballots involving registration time window issues in Nevada, etc. And in nearly all instances, even these complaints are being dismissed with force by judges for being little more than harassment or based on hearsay.
Sensing that his fixers are failing, Trump has taken to yelling for new Roy Cohns and demanding an army of better lawyers:
CNN’s Kaitlan Collins reported Friday that President Donald Trump is not happy with his current legal team. Collins told Jake Tapper that the legal team — which includes Rudy Giuliani, Pam Bondi, and others — isn’t exactly assuaging the president’s concerns and Trump has “questions about the effectiveness of that team.” “He’s even told one person he wants them to find him better attorneys to put on his team,” Collins said. “Because he wants a team of what he describes to one person as ‘killers.’” She pointed out that there’s a question of why this didn’t come up sooner, given the predictions that this election would result in legal fights even before Tuesday.
Amusingly, Jake Tapper reported on CNN earlier Friday evening that Jared Kushner had been put in charge of the search for attorneys. If true, it would be delicious karma: Kushner’s monumental incompetence driving a nail in the Trump coffin after so dramatically mismanaging the COVID crisis.
But the reality is that even a team of legal superstars wouldn’t be able to salvage this for Trump. The only thing unfair about this election was voter suppression actions by Republicans and deliberate attempts to slow down the mail, delay counting of mail ballots and then throw them out entirely.
Trump appears to have lost fair and square, and there’s not a lawyer in the land who could give even his hand-picked Supreme Court a credible opportunity to install him into a second term.


washingtonmonthly--2020-11-07--The Cost of Freedom

The Cost of Freedom

Elections are really complex accounting practices .
It ’ s not just a final vote count that is fraught and difficult .
Citizens going to the polls must consciously make multiple personal calculations : Will taxes rise ?
How much should individuals pay for healthcare ?
Must we spend heavily on defense ?
In America ’ s democracy , we also reckon — often unconsciously — what we are willing to pay for our fundamental liberties .
What is the price of freedom ?
It seems like a straightforward question .
The answer , however , is anything but simple @ @ @ @ @ @ @ historical roots .
Philosophers have forever talked about free will and the nature of liberty .
In the modern era , American colonists fought a revolution to be free from oppressive “ taxation without representation ” levied by the British crown .
Throughout the 20th century , freedom has been the battle cry of democracies and would-be democracies around the globe .
In his first campaign for the White House , Woodrow Wilson successfully ran on a “ New Freedom ” platform .
During his State of the Union address on Jan. 6 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ famously advocated for four freedoms : freedom of speech ; freedom of worship ; freedom from want ; freedom from fear .
But what is freedom ’ s price tag ?
The cost is borne by individuals , institutions , and society .
People sacrifice blood and treasure to achieve independence , as well as to maintain and defend it .
For some , the cost may be perceived as too high .
Sadly , some freedoms are lost , frittered away or taken .
Although we pay lip service — and are @ @ @ @ @ @ @ universal human rights , freedom ’ s details differ from one country or culture to another .
In the United States , we hold freedom of speech , assembly and belief as fundamental to our national identity .
They are enshrined in the documents that established America as independent and sovereign .
They are constitutionally codified and traditionally cherished .
Those fundamental freedoms have been hard won in the Anglophone world .
They are also unavailable or , at best , exclusively limited privileges to the majority of the planet ’ s population @ @ @ @ @ @ @ these pages , I ’ ve argued and advocated for universal freedoms .
My columns have echoed the fundamental belief that every person on Earth should have the right to life , liberty and the pursuit of happiness .
At the moment , this is not a universal view .
In fact , it is not even a consistently held aspiration in countries enjoying or seeking to achieve those rights .
Many in the United States believe that America should promote democratic rights and liberal freedoms everywhere .
Others argue that the costs @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Even guaranteeing freedom domestically , for example to ensure universal suffrage , comes with a cost that is politically high and often highly partisan .
We witness frequent efforts to manage , marginalize or entirely disenfranchise large swaths of the public .
Meanwhile , the price of promoting democracy in places such as Afghanistan and Iraq has been enormous with marked consequences at the ballot box back home .
Those wars , initially fought in unilateral retribution and with imperial hubris , have humbled America ’ s greater global ambitions .
The failed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of precious national resources created discord at home .
They have also given the space and time necessary for America ’ s most menacing competitor , the People ’ s Republic of China , to act more assertively on the world stage .
We ’ ve seen the costs of liberty up close : – Freedom of speech cost dissident Saudi Arabian journalist Jamal Khashoggi his life .
His October 2018 murder and dismemberment shocked the world and underscored the difference in values between the United States and its close Saudi ally .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ Samuel Paty his life .
He was beheaded last month .
President Emmanuel Macron reacted to the gruesome homicide by saying it contradicts everything that the French Revolution fought to achieve — liberté , egalité , fraternité — as well as “ the freedom to believe and the freedom not to believe.
” – Freedom of assembly and to protest has had a very high cost in Ukraine , Belarus , Hong Kong and Venezuela .
For decades , these places erupted in unprecedented democratic uprisings followed by brutal , dictatorial suppression .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ be none greater than the right to live and thrive as a fully actuated human being , in dignity , without fear and to achieve one ’ s God-given potential .
That basic freedom of breath and a heartbeat too often is wantonly taken by dictators and authoritarians .
Good health is increasingly threatened by the global pandemic .
Some governments have managed better responses than others .
COVID-19 has given illiberal states fresh cause to challenge free democratic systems and their failure to contain the virus .
Authoritarian China argues it is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ As America waits out the presidential election ’ s final tally , it is also doing an accounting of what it values most : freedom .
The costs are always high , and the accounting always difficult .
In the end , however , Americans always figure the price is worth paying .

Elections are really complex accounting practices. It’s not just a final vote count that is fraught and difficult. Citizens going to the polls must consciously make multiple personal calculations: Will taxes rise? How much should individuals pay for healthcare? Must we spend heavily on defense?
In America’s democracy, we also reckon — often unconsciously — what we are willing to pay for our fundamental liberties. What is the price of freedom? It seems like a straightforward question. The answer, however, is anything but simple.
The desire for freedom has deep historical roots. Philosophers have forever talked about free will and the nature of liberty. In the modern era, American colonists fought a revolution to be free from oppressive “taxation without representation” levied by the British crown.
Throughout the 20th century, freedom has been the battle cry of democracies and would-be democracies around the globe. In his first campaign for the White House, Woodrow Wilson successfully ran on a “New Freedom” platform. During his State of the Union address on Jan. 6, 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt famously advocated for four freedoms: freedom of speech; freedom of worship; freedom from want; freedom from fear.
But what is freedom’s price tag?
The cost is borne by individuals, institutions, and society. People sacrifice blood and treasure to achieve independence, as well as to maintain and defend it. For some, the cost may be perceived as too high. Sadly, some freedoms are lost, frittered away or taken.
Although we pay lip service — and are bound by international treaty — to respect universal human rights, freedom’s details differ from one country or culture to another. In the United States, we hold freedom of speech, assembly and belief as fundamental to our national identity. They are enshrined in the documents that established America as independent and sovereign. They are constitutionally codified and traditionally cherished.
Those fundamental freedoms have been hard won in the Anglophone world. They are also unavailable or, at best, exclusively limited privileges to the majority of the planet’s population.
During the last few years in these pages, I’ve argued and advocated for universal freedoms. My columns have echoed the fundamental belief that every person on Earth should have the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. At the moment, this is not a universal view. In fact, it is not even a consistently held aspiration in countries enjoying or seeking to achieve those rights.
Many in the United States believe that America should promote democratic rights and liberal freedoms everywhere. Others argue that the costs of doing so are too high.
Even guaranteeing freedom domestically, for example to ensure universal suffrage, comes with a cost that is politically high and often highly partisan. We witness frequent efforts to manage, marginalize or entirely disenfranchise large swaths of the public. Meanwhile, the price of promoting democracy in places such as Afghanistan and Iraq has been enormous with marked consequences at the ballot box back home.
Those wars, initially fought in unilateral retribution and with imperial hubris, have humbled America’s greater global ambitions. The failed policy, lost war and squandered allocation of precious national resources created discord at home. They have also given the space and time necessary for America’s most menacing competitor, the People’s Republic of China, to act more assertively on the world stage.
We’ve seen the costs of liberty up close:
– Freedom of speech cost dissident Saudi Arabian journalist Jamal Khashoggi his life. His October 2018 murder and dismemberment shocked the world and underscored the difference in values between the United States and its close Saudi ally.
– Freedom of religion cost French schoolteacher Samuel Paty his life. He was beheaded last month. President Emmanuel Macron reacted to the gruesome homicide by saying it contradicts everything that the French Revolution fought to achieve — liberté, egalité, fraternité — as well as “the freedom to believe and the freedom not to believe.”
– Freedom of assembly and to protest has had a very high cost in Ukraine, Belarus, Hong Kong and Venezuela. For decades, these places erupted in unprecedented democratic uprisings followed by brutal, dictatorial suppression.
– Freedom of life. There might be none greater than the right to live and thrive as a fully actuated human being, in dignity, without fear and to achieve one’s God-given potential. That basic freedom of breath and a heartbeat too often is wantonly taken by dictators and authoritarians.
Good health is increasingly threatened by the global pandemic. Some governments have managed better responses than others. COVID-19 has given illiberal states fresh cause to challenge free democratic systems and their failure to contain the virus. Authoritarian China argues it is better able to protect its citizens.
As America waits out the presidential election’s final tally, it is also doing an accounting of what it values most: freedom. The costs are always high, and the accounting always difficult.
In the end, however, Americans always figure the price is worth paying.


washingtonmonthly--2020-11-07--Reach Out to Trump’s Victims. Not His Supporters.

As Donald Trump ’ s historic defeat begins to settle on the national consciousness , calls are already coming in for victorious Democrats to reach out to Trump supporters with patience and understanding .
Op-eds have already been published calling for Biden to pardon Trump for any crimes .
Conservatives are asking the nation to give Trump time for self-care and a safe space to begin to accept his defeat .
These calls would be understandable in a normal political divide over policy issues .
And certainly , President-Elect Biden is saying all the right words in his role as @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to keep the peace .
But the problem is that this is not a normal political divide .
On one side is a movement for better healthcare , economic equity and climate justice that spans culture , race , faith , gender , age and orientation .
It ’ s a movement that wants better material outcomes not only for themselves but also their political opponents .
On the other side is a movement dedicated less to any specific policy than to harming the first coalition .
It is compromised almost entirely of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ rural fundamentalist Christians .
It is driven heavily by conspiracy theories centered on racist and anti-semitic slurs against that coalition .
Even its relatively minor recent gains among non-whites appear to based mostly on QAnon , toxic masculinity and both intra- and interracial grievance .
This year ’ s GOP had no policy platform .
It accomplished almost nothing on policy beyond a tax cut for the wealthy .
Its single unifying characteristic is a desire to own the libs .
Its rallying cry is “ cry more , snowflake ” and its @ @ @ @ @ @ @ laughing at those wailing over the death and darkness of the disastrous presidency they knew was coming .
The majority coalition in this nation is still suffering from a collective trauma inflicted by a president who governed explicitly to harm them .
Those who grew up in households of trauma and abuse recognize the similarity of the last four years to their own childhood experiences .
Donald Trump has spent the last four years less as president than taunting cult leader , an inescapable lashing presence in the psyche of every American just @ @ @ @ @ @ @ paragon of a fearful shrinking apartheid minority attempting to plant its boot firmly on the necks of a growing hopeful majority .
The Democratic coalition spent years tearing itself apart over whether to win over their opponents by offering them left-populist universal healthcare or reaching out with cross-partisan moderation ; conservatives responded by rolling coal , intentionally letting them die of COVID and accusing their opponents of killing children for adrenochrome .
Now is the time not to reach out to Trump supporters , but to celebrate emancipation from them .
Now is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Biden to work with Republican Senators who represent 20 million fewer Americans than Democratic Senators do , but for Democrats to do all in their power to ensure that the man who grinned while forcing through the most extremist conservative Supreme Court in American history right before an election , can not continue to dictate terms in defeat .
Now is the time to break free from the house of the abuser , not to patch things up and hope they ’ ll change this time .
And not just from revenge against @ @ @ @ @ @ @ victims .
Over 230,000 Americans have already died from COVID , with tens of thousands more likely to die before Trump leaves office .
Many more who survived are suffering long-term symptoms .
Most of them would be alive today if a Democrat had been president .
We should be reaching out to them and their families , not to the reckless COVID deniers and mask refusers .
Hundreds of families were intentionally separated , many never to be reunited , in an aggressive , systemic racist assault to Make America White Again @ @ @ @ @ @ @ them and their families , not the blubbering white supremacists with tiki torches shouting “ you will not replace us.
” We should be reaching out to the Black people suffering the brunt of billy clubs , tear gas canisters and bullets in no-knock raids , not the men in paramilitary gear wielding and using them .
We should be reaching out to the millions of women fearful that their abortion rights may soon be eliminated , not the Bible-thumping patriarchs afraid that their daughters might have sex without fear of the Lord @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
No one in the majority coalition wants to harm Trump supporters ; indeed , they want to help them materially .
But nor do they have to coddle their emotional well-being .
The trauma of the last four years will take years to repair .
There is more than enough work to do to resolve conflicts within the left coalition , many of which exist largely as a difference of strategic responses to the depredations of the right .
And indeed , the damage is not done .
Donald Trump still has @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Mitch McConnell threatens to wage a campaign of economic and social sabotage if permitted to do .
And the Supreme Court looms as a monstrous revanchist blockade against the majority coalition ’ s attempt to save ourselves from a future of climate catastrophe and medieval levels of economic inequality .
Yes , we all share the same geographic space .
But we don ’ t share the same level of good will toward one another .
We owe our compassion for the traumatized , not the traumatizers .
Work toward policies that help @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the victims .
Certainly , many Trump supporters are hurting economically , and we should help with those problems just as we work to raise the economic circumstances of every American .
But leave the perpetrators to stew in their own resentment .
If they want to become part of the solution that is their prerogative as Americans , but the majority coalition of the decent owe them no more than that .

As Donald Trump’s historic defeat begins to settle on the national consciousness, calls are already coming in for victorious Democrats to reach out to Trump supporters with patience and understanding. Op-eds have already been published calling for Biden to pardon Trump for any crimes. Conservatives are asking the nation to give Trump time for self-care and a safe space to begin to accept his defeat.
These calls would be understandable in a normal political divide over policy issues. And certainly, President-Elect Biden is saying all the right words in his role as the leader of all Americans to attempt to keep the peace.
But the problem is that this is not a normal political divide. On one side is a movement for better healthcare, economic equity and climate justice that spans culture, race, faith, gender, age and orientation. It’s a movement that wants better material outcomes not only for themselves but also their political opponents.
On the other side is a movement dedicated less to any specific policy than to harming the first coalition. It is comprised almost entirely of older, whiter, more male, rural fundamentalist Christians. It is driven heavily by conspiracy theories centered on racist and anti-semitic slurs against that coalition. Even its relatively minor recent gains among non-whites appear to based mostly on QAnon, toxic masculinity and both intra- and interracial grievance. This year’s GOP had no policy platform. It accomplished almost nothing on policy beyond a tax cut for the wealthy. Its single unifying characteristic is a desire to own the libs. Its rallying cry is “cry more, snowflake” and its avatar is a smug, smirking frog laughing at those wailing over the death and darkness of the disastrous presidency they knew was coming.
The majority coalition in this nation is still suffering from a collective trauma inflicted by a president who governed explicitly to harm them. Those who grew up in households of trauma and abuse recognize the similarity of the last four years to their own childhood experiences. Donald Trump has spent the last four years less as president than taunting cult leader, an inescapable lashing presence in the psyche of every American just trying to live their lives, the paragon of a fearful shrinking apartheid minority attempting to plant its boot firmly on the necks of a growing hopeful majority. The Democratic coalition spent years tearing itself apart over whether to win over their opponents by offering them left-populist universal healthcare or reaching out with cross-partisan moderation; conservatives responded by rolling coal, intentionally letting them die of COVID and accusing their opponents of killing children for adrenochrome.
Now is the time not to reach out to Trump supporters, but to celebrate emancipation from them. Now is not the time to encourage a victorious Biden to work with Republican Senators who represent 20 million fewer Americans than Democratic Senators do, but for Democrats to do all in their power to ensure that the man who grinned while forcing through the most extremist conservative Supreme Court in American history right before an election, cannot continue to dictate terms in defeat. Now is the time to break free from the house of the abuser, not to patch things up and hope they’ll change this time.
And not just from revenge against the bullies, but compassion for the victims. Over 230,000 Americans have already died from COVID, with tens of thousands more likely to die before Trump leaves office. Many more who survived are suffering long-term symptoms. Most of them would be alive today if a Democrat had been president. We should be reaching out to them and their families, not to the reckless COVID deniers and mask refusers. Hundreds of families were intentionally separated, many never to be reunited, in an aggressive, systemic racist assault to Make America White Again. We should be reaching out to them and their families, not the blubbering white supremacists with tiki torches shouting “you will not replace us.” We should be reaching out to the Black people suffering the brunt of billy clubs, tear gas canisters and bullets in no-knock raids, not the men in paramilitary gear wielding and using them. We should be reaching out to the millions of women fearful that their abortion rights may soon be eliminated, not the Bible-thumping patriarchs afraid that their daughters might have sex without fear of the Lord’s consequences. And so on.
No one in the majority coalition wants to harm Trump supporters; indeed, they want to help them materially. But nor do they have to coddle their emotional well-being. The trauma of the last four years will take years to repair. There is more than enough work to do to resolve conflicts within the left coalition, many of which exist largely as a difference of strategic responses to the depredations of the right.
And indeed, the damage is not done. Donald Trump still has two more months to wreak havoc. Mitch McConnell threatens to wage a campaign of economic and social sabotage if permitted to do. And the Supreme Court looms as a monstrous revanchist blockade against the majority coalition’s attempt to save ourselves from a future of climate catastrophe and medieval levels of economic inequality.
Yes, we all share the same geographic space. But we don’t share the same level of good will toward one another. We owe our compassion for the traumatized, not the traumatizers. Reserve care for the victims. Work toward policies that help everyone. Certainly many Trump supporters are hurting economically, and we should help with those problems just as we work to raise the economic circumstances of every American.
But leave the perpetrators to stew in their own resentment. If they want to become part of the solution that is their prerogative as Americans, but the majority coalition of the decent owe them no more than that.


washingtonmonthly--2020-11-07--“This is The Time to Heal”

“This is The Time to Heal”

Vowing to be “ a president who seeks not to divide but to unify , ” Joe Biden addressed the nation on Saturday night for the first time as President-elect and the winner of a bitter presidential contest that brought the four tumultuous years of Donald Trump ’ s presidency to a nail-biting end .
Jogging on to the stage at the Chase Center in Wilmington , Del .
to the rhythm of Bruce Springsteen , Biden declared “ a convincing victory , ” thanked politicians in the crowd as if it were still a campaign rally , and reintroduced @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to the American people .
He also thanked his staff , the kind of traditional tip of the hat that a victorious candidate would give on election night–only this time it took four days .
The former vice president offered a particularly strong shout out to African-Americans , a vital constituency that saved his sagging campaign during the primaries and helped lift him to victory in the general election : “ You always had my back .
And I ’ ll always have yours.
” Biden repeated his unity theme– “ This is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ said–and said bipartisanship was part of his mandate .
He also vowed to strengthen the federal government ’ s response to the COVID-19 pandemic , announcing the first meeting of his own pandemic task force on Monday .
Vice-President Elect Kamala Harris spoke first at the outdoor “ car rally ” of about 360 vehicles .
The crowd exploded in cheers and honks as the first woman to be elected vice president took the stage ahead of Biden .
“ To the American people who make up our beautiful country , thank you @ @ @ @ @ @ @ make your voices heard , ” Harris said .
“ You chose hope , unity , science , and truth.
” Many elections are called historic , but this one unarguably is .
It is the first ouster of an incumbent president in 28 years and the end of a presidency that was the most divisive in the 20th or 21st century .
Biden , 77 , becomes the oldest person to assume the office and will be the nation ’ s second Roman Catholic president .
Harris , 56 , will become @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of African-American and Indian heritage .
Her parents were immigrants to the U.S. from Jamaica and India .
Biden ’ s victory was impressive by any measure .
He won at least 50 percent of the popular vote , a number comparable to Ronald Reagan in 1980 and higher than the vote won by Harry S. Truman , John F. Kennedy , and Bill Clinton .
His final count of electoral votes is likely to be north of 300 .
In American cities and towns , Biden-Harris supporters erupted in celebration , honking @ @ @ @ @ @ @ moment in iconic spots such as Lafayette Park in front of the White House and Times Square in New York City in scenes reminiscent of victory celebrations at the end of World War II .
Across the street from the National Cathedral in Washington , D.C. , the celebration continued for hours .
President Trump ’ s determination to fight the election results in the courts , which he repeated in a statement on Saturday , seems doomed .
“ The simple fact is this election is far from over , ” the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ avoided the microphones .
.
Lower courts and judges appointed by presidents and governors of both parties have swatted away his attempts to alter the count .
His invocation of the Supreme Court as a lifeline to a second term ignores the justices ’ inability to issue a single ruling that would stop balloting nationwide , making a repeat of the Court ’ s 2000 Bush v. Gore decision all but impossible .
Pennsylvania ’ s 20 electoral votes put the Democratic nominee over the top , according to the Associated Press , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to other news organizations declaring Biden the winner .
The state was the most bitterly contested of the election , and its falling into the GOP column four years ago shocked Democrats as did other Great Lakes states .
It is also the birthplace and early childhood home of President-elect Biden .
AP also called Nevada for Biden .
No winner has been projected in Georgia , North Carolina , and Alaska .
When he assumes office Jan. 20 , Biden faces extraordinary challenges , most importantly taming and reversing the COVID-19 pandemic @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
He is likely to have to do it with GOP control of the U.S. Senate .
No president has been elected in a crisis with such little congressional ballast .
Franklin Roosevelt and Barack Obama had strong congressional majorities when they were elected and faced the Great Depression and the Great Recession .
Democrats ’ slim hopes to wrest control of the Senate rest on two Georgia races that will be determined by run-off votes in January .
Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock are the two Democrats who hope to oust two @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Loeffler .
Republicans were on track to pick up at least eight seats in the House , putting an ax to the promising Congressional careers of several freshman Democrats elected in the 2018 blue wave and giving a gut punch to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi .
Without the Senate , Biden ’ s agenda could be on life support .
The Senate , likely controlled by Mitch McConnell , the GOP leader from Kentucky , puts the most ambitious dreams of liberal reform–an end to the filibuster , statehood for the District of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Supreme Court–in peril .
Biden ’ s progressive tax and spending plans seemed doomed .
Even if Democrats can claw their way to a 50-50 tie in the Senate–making Vice President Kamala Harris the tiebreaker–it would require lockstep unity in a Democratic party not exactly know for it .
The anxiety-producing presidential race showed that Americans remain deeply divided as they faced the starkest presidential race since Lyndon Johnson squared off against Barry Goldwater in 1964 .
Biden headed the most progressive Democratic ticket since LBJ ’ s landslide election .
His party @ @ @ @ @ @ @ like Green New Deal style-investments in alternative energy and a bold public option to bolster the Affordable Care Act , as well as cultural changes like the end of the Hyde Amendment—which prohibits federal funding for Medicaid ( Biden has supported the latter since 1979 ) .
The Democratic Party ’ s platform doesn ’ t fulfill all of the wants of its ascendant left-wing .
Still , there ’ s enough there to keep them happy—for now .
By contrast , the GOP had no platform this year , reflecting the Republican @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
The triangulation that Trump hinted at in 2016—echoing Democratic priorities like protecting Social Security , investing in roads and bridges—never materialized .
The Trump of 2020 pushed for an end to the payroll tax , which would end Social Security .
Famously and laughably , “ Infrastructure Week ” proved to be a mirage .
Trump proved to be a standard , donor-class Republican with an inhuman face .
His anti-immigrant fervor , disdain for defense alliances , and multilateral trade pacts were a patina on traditional Republican faith in the trinity @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and deregulation .
His violation of presidential norms from continuing to own his business to tweeting insults at all hours offended many .
It made Trump one of the most divisive figures in American history .
Trump ’ s coalition was paved with states with large populations of white working-class voters .
Still , it proved insufficient in a changing America where their percentage of the electorate continues to shrink .
Biden ’ s strength among suburban voters , minorities , women , and the college-educated gave him more than half the popular @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and likely more .
Biden ’ s low-key , some say lackadaisical , campaign proved wise .
One upside for Biden : it kept the focus on Trump , making the election a referendum on the president .
Biden was simultaneously the most likely and least likely Democratic nominee this cycle .
His 50-year tenure in electoral politics made him well known , and his eight-years as Barack Obama ’ s wingman transformed him from a Senate lifer into presidential timber .
But his age—he turns 78 this month—was always a looming burden @ @ @ @ @ @ @ U.S. Senate is both a bragging right and an albatross .
When Biden was sworn into the Senate in 1973 , just days after his wife and daughter were killed in a car accident , the chamber had deep roots in the past .
Three World War I veterans were still serving , as were multiple former segregationist Senators who chaired powerful committees , forcing him to work them and charm them alongside other young liberals .
Ted Kennedy , who came to the Senate in 1962 , ten years earlier , had @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for president in 1980 .
Still , the Democratic Party of that year didn ’ t hold it against him , perhaps because he was a Kennedy .
Biden got no such break this year .
When Kamala Harris whacked him on school busing to achieve racial desegregation , it smarted .
But Biden played the long game .
He didn ’ t jerk too far to the left during the primaries .
He didn ’ t embrace single-payer health care , even while he jettisoned pro-corporate stances on bankruptcy reform and antitrust @ @ @ @ @ @ @ make Delaware home .
His long cultivation of Black voters—Delaware is the state with the ninth largest Black population , he often noted—and his unswerving loyalty to a younger Black president made him ripe for the endorsement of James Clyburn in South Carolina .
The powerful House Democratic Whip used his Palmetto State machine and Black voters ’ ready enthusiasm to push Biden to a resounding victory over minority candidates like Cory Booker or the party ’ s left stalwarts , Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders .
The party gathered around Biden quickly @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar poured in .
The moment of Sanders ’ s inevitability proved very short , snatched by the Black voters in the state that launched the Civil War .
Warren faltered quickly , coming in third in her home state .
Trump ’ s Republican party was unified from the start .
He never faced a serious primary challenge .
Those who put up a fight with the president like Republican Senators Bob Corker and Jeff Flake walked away rather than facing uphill battles in primaries dominated by MAGA devotees @ @ @ @ @ @ @ unified party to reset his unpopular presidency , returning to infrastructure or easing back on the constant Twitter invectives .
But he didn ’ t .
And that was before the pandemic .
Perhaps the gravest national crisis in 100 years or at least since World War II and the Depression , COVID-19 could have been Trump ’ s lifeline .
But a negligent response sent the death toll higher than it should ever have been .
He turned mask-wearing into a political statement instead of a prophylactic .
His blathering made him @ @ @ @ @ @ @ continued self-indulgence amidst death—complaining about not getting a fair shake from Fox News of all places—made him seem , if not AWOL from the pandemic fight , then like he was cosseting the enemy .
Even his illness , which might have provided a moment to right his campaign , was only a fleeting photo op .
Still , the fact that he remains an underdog with a chance is testimony to his grip on rural America , traditional Republicans , and white-working-class men .
In Harris Biden found a running mate that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ senator represents the Democrats ’ diversity , with her Jamaican and Indian ancestry , Jewish husband , and Jewish stepchildren .
Hailing from the Bay Area , although now living in Brentwood , she ’ s pure West Coast blue .
If elected , she ’ ll be the first woman to occupy the vice-presidential mansion in Washington , D.C .
The first president or vice president since Warren Harding not to have had their own children .
( Biden will be the first widower to be elected since Woodrow Wilson . )
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ electoral power of African-American women , the most loyal bloc in the Democratic coalition .

Vowing to be “a president who seeks not to divide but to unify,” Joe Biden addressed the nation on Saturday night for the first time as President-elect and the winner of a bitter presidential contest that brought the four tumultuous years of Donald Trump’s presidency to a nail-biting end.
Jogging on to the stage at the Chase Center in Wilmington, Del. to the rhythm of Bruce Springsteen, Biden declared his “a convincing victory,” thanked politicians in the crowd as if it were still a campaign rally, and reintroduced his wife, Dr. Jill Biden, to the American people. He also thanked his staff, the kind of hat-tip that a victorious candidate would give on election night–only this time it took four days.
The former vice president offered a particularly strong shout out to African-Americans, a vital constituency that saved his sagging campaign during the primaries and helped lift him to victory in the general election: “You always had my back. And I’ll always have yours.”
Biden repeated his unity theme–“This is the time to heal,” he said–and said bipartisanship was part of his mandate. He also vowed to strengthen the federal government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, announcing the first meeting of his own pandemic task force on Monday.
Vice-President Elect Kamala Harris spoke first at the outdoor “car rally” of about 360 vehicles. The crowd exploded in cheers and honks as the first woman to be elected vice president took the stage ahead of Biden. “To the American people who make up our beautiful country, thank you for turning out in record numbers to make your voices heard,” Harris said. “You chose hope, unity, science, and truth.”
Many elections are called historic, but this one unarguably is. It is the first ouster of an incumbent president in 28 years and the end of a presidency that was the most divisive in the 20th or 21st century. Biden, 77, becomes the oldest person to assume the office and will be only the nation’s second Roman Catholic president, the first being John F. Kennedy 60 years ago. Harris, 56, will become the first female vice-president and the first of African-American and Indian heritage. Her parents were immigrants to the U.S. from Jamaica and India.
Biden’s victory was impressive by any measure. He won at least 50 percent of the popular vote, a number comparable to Ronald Reagan in 1980 and higher than the vote won by Harry S. Truman, John F. Kennedy, and Bill Clinton during his two terms. His final count of electoral votes is likely to be north of 300.
In American cities and towns, Biden-Harris supporters erupted in celebration, honking car horns and congregating to cheer the moment in parks and in homes and in iconic spots such as Lafayette Park in front of the White House and Times Square in New York City in scenes reminiscent of victory celebrations at the end of World War II. Across the street from the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., the celebration continued for hours.
President Trump’s determination to fight the election results in the courts, which he repeated in a statement on Saturday, seems doomed. “The simple fact is this election is far from over,” the statement said while the normally loquacious president avoided the microphones. (He was at his golf club in Sterling, Va. when the race was called for Biden.) Lower courts and judges appointed by presidents and governors of both parties have swatted away the Trump campaign’s attempts to alter the count. The president’s invocation of the Supreme Court as a lifeline to a second term ignores the justices’ inability to issue a single ruling that would stop balloting nationwide, making a repeat of the Court’s 2000 Bush v. Gore decision all but impossible.
Pennsylvania’s 20 electoral votes put the Democratic nominee over the top, according to the Associated Press, whose call Saturday morning opened the floodgates to other news organizations declaring Biden the winner. The state was the most bitterly contested of the election, and its falling into the GOP column four years ago shocked Democrats, as did other Great Lakes states turning red. It is also the birthplace and early childhood home of President-elect Biden, who visited there more than any other state. AP also called Nevada for Biden. No winner has been projected in Georgia, North Carolina, and Alaska.
When he assumes office Jan. 20, Biden faces extraordinary challenges, most importantly taming and reversing the COVID-19 pandemic and bolstering an economy deeply wounded by it. He is likely to have to do it with GOP control of the U.S. Senate. No president has been elected in a crisis with such little congressional ballast. Franklin Roosevelt and Barack Obama had strong congressional majorities when they were elected and faced the Great Depression and the Great Recession.
Senate Woes
Democrats’ slim hopes of wresting control of the Senate rest on two Georgia races that will be determined by run-off votes in January. Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock are the two Democrats who hope to oust two incumbent senators, David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler.
Republicans were on track to pick up at least five seats in the House, putting an ax to the promising Congressional careers of several freshman Democrats elected in the 2018 blue wave and giving a gut punch to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Without the Senate, Biden’s agenda could be on life support. The Senate, likely controlled by Mitch McConnell, the GOP leader from Kentucky, puts the most ambitious dreams of liberal reform–an end to the filibuster, statehood for the District of Columbia, and new seats on the Supreme Court–in peril. Biden’s progressive tax and spending plans seemed doomed. Even if Democrats can claw their way to a 50-50 tie in the Senate–making Vice President Harris the tiebreaker–it would require lockstep unity in a Democratic party not exactly known for it.
Not Since LBJ
The anxiety-producing presidential race showed that Americans remain deeply divided as they faced the starkest presidential race since Lyndon Johnson squared off against Barry Goldwater in 1964. Biden headed the most progressive Democratic ticket since then. His party’s platform touts massive expenditures, like Green New Deal style-investments in alternative energy and a bold public option to bolster the Affordable Care Act, as well as cultural changes like the end of the Hyde Amendment—which prohibits federal funding for Medicaid-financed abortions (Biden has supported the latter since 1979). The Democratic Party’s platform doesn’t fulfill all of the wants of its ascendant left-wing. Still, there’s enough there to keep them happy—for now.
By contrast, the GOP had no platform this year, reflecting the Republican Party’s subservience to the president. The triangulation that Trump hinted at in 2016—echoing Democratic priorities like protecting Social Security, investing in roads and bridges—never materialized. The Trump of 2020 pushed for an end to the payroll tax, which would end Social Security. Famously and laughably, “Infrastructure Week” proved to be a mirage. Trump proved to be a standard, donor-class Republican with an inhuman face. His anti-immigrant fervor, disdain for defense alliances, and multilateral trade pacts were a patina on the traditional Republican faith in the trinity of tax cuts, conservative judges, and deregulation. His violation of presidential norms from continuing to own his business to tweeting insults at all hours offended many. It made Trump one of the most divisive figures in American history.
Trump’s coalition was paved with states with large populations of white working-class voters. That proved insufficient in a changing America where their percentage of the electorate continues to shrink. Biden’s strength among suburban voters, minorities, women, and the college-educated gave him more than half the popular vote and at least 273 electoral votes and likely more.
Biden’s low-key, some called it lackadaisical, campaign proved wise. One upside for Biden: it kept the focus on Trump, making the election a referendum on the president.
The Long Game
Biden was simultaneously the most likely and least likely Democratic nominee this cycle. His 50-year tenure in electoral politics made him well known, and his eight-years as Barack Obama’s wingman transformed him from a Senate lifer into presidential timber.
But his age—he turns 78 this month—was always a looming burden, and his long history in the U.S. Senate is both a bragging right and an albatross. When Biden was sworn into the Senate in 1973, just days after his wife and daughter were killed in a car accident, the chamber had deep roots in the past. Three World War I veterans were still serving, as were multiple former segregationist Senators who chaired powerful committees, forcing him to work them and charm them alongside other young liberals. Ted Kennedy, who came to the Senate in 1962, ten years earlier, had the same work-with-segregationists history when he ran for president in 1980. Still, the Democratic Party of that year didn’t hold it against him, perhaps because he was a Kennedy. Biden got no such break this year. When Kamala Harris whacked him on school busing to achieve racial desegregation, it smarted.
But Biden played the long game. He didn’t jerk too far to the left during the primaries. He didn’t embrace single-payer health care, even while he jettisoned pro-corporate stances on bankruptcy reform and antitrust that unsettled the many financial institutions that make Delaware home. His long cultivation of Black voters—Delaware is the state with the ninth largest Black population, he often noted—and his unswerving loyalty to a younger Black president made him ripe for the endorsement of James Clyburn in South Carolina. The powerful House Democratic Whip used his Palmetto State machine and Black voters’ ready enthusiasm to push Biden to a resounding victory over minority candidates like Cory Booker or the party’s left stalwarts, Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders. The party gathered around Biden quickly; endorsements from rivals such as Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar poured in. The moment of Sanders’s inevitability proved very short, snatched by the Black voters in the state that launched the Civil War. Warren faltered quickly, coming in third in her home state.
Trump’s Republican party was unified from the start. He never faced a serious primary challenge. Those who put up a fight with the president like Republican Senators Bob Corker and Jeff Flake walked away rather than facing uphill battles in primaries dominated by MAGA devotees. The president could have used his unified party to reset his unpopular presidency, returning to infrastructure or easing back on the constant Twitter invectives. But he didn’t.
Trump Blows His Chance For a Reset
And that was before the pandemic. Perhaps the gravest national crisis in 100 years or at least since World War II and the Depression, COVID-19 could have been Trump’s lifeline. But a negligent response sent the death toll higher than it should ever have been. He turned mask-wearing into a political statement instead of a prophylactic. His blathering made him seem more idiotic than Churchillian. His continued self-indulgence amidst death—complaining about not getting a fair shake from Fox News of all places—made him seem, if not AWOL from the pandemic fight, then like he was cosseting the enemy. Even his illness, which might have provided a moment to right his campaign, was only a fleeting photo op. Still, the fact that he remains an underdog with a chance is testimony to his grip on rural America, traditional Republicans, and white-working-class men.
In Harris, Biden found a running mate that matches their party perfectly. The California senator represents the Democrats’ diversity, with her Jamaican and Indian ancestry, Jewish husband, and Jewish stepchildren. Hailing from the Bay Area, although now living in Brentwood, she’s pure West Coast blue. If elected, she’ll be the first woman to occupy the vice-presidential mansion in Washington, D.C. The first president or vice president since Warren Harding not to have had their own children. (Biden will be the first widower to be elected since Woodrow Wilson.) Her election is also representative of the electoral power of African-American women, the most loyal bloc in the Democratic coalition.
The evening ended with a fireworks display over the event on the banks of the Christina River.


washingtonmonthly--2020-11-07--Nationalism Is Ascendant Around the Globe. Biden Just Defeated Its Biggest Leader

At 3:00 AM on Wednesday , November 4 , shortly before a police cruiser drove Milwaukee ’ s 169,000 absentee ballots to the city ’ s election officials , I called a friend and former colleague in India .
Almost everyone I knew in the U.S. was now ( somehow ) asleep .
But it was early afternoon in Delhi , which meant that my friend would certainly be following the American tallies .
Joe Biden trailed Donald Trump by 107,000 votes in Wisconsin .
The next hour would probably tell us if Biden had done well enough with mail-in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the presidency .
Whether America was about to hand Trump his second shock victory hung heavy .
“ I ’ m calling to let you know just how incredibly manic I am , ” I told her .
She laughed .
Puja Sen is an editor at The Caravan , a major Indian politics magazine .
She knows as well as anyone what it is like to have the populist right win back-to-back victories .
In 2014 , Narendra Modi , a Hindu nationalist , became the first politician in thirty years to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s large , factitious parliament .
Before becoming the country ’ s prime minister , Modi led the Indian state of Gujarat .
Under his tenure , rioters and police killed as many as 2,000 people—mostly Muslims—in a 2002 pogrom .
Experts continue to debate Modi ’ s role in the violence , but it ’ s clear that , at a minimum , he did little to stop the bloodshed .
In the aftermath of the violence , George W. Bush ’ s state department banned him from entering the U.S @ @ @ @ @ @ @ after Modi won the 2014 national election .
In 2019 , the prime minister overwhelmingly won again .
The 2014 victory was expected .
A 2019 rout was not .
Most polls suggested that Modi would squeak by in his second turn before voters , with his party losing seats .
Many forecasters estimated he would need to create a cross-party coalition to stay in power .
But despite high unemployment and a slowing economy , Modi ’ s party picked up 21 districts after a campaign spent demonizing Muslim immigrants .
Indian @ @ @ @ @ @ @ observers outside the country , including me .
In retrospect , I shouldn ’ t have been surprised .
If there ’ s one transnational election takeaway from the last six years , it ’ s that right-wing nationalism is extremely difficult to defeat .
In addition to Modi ’ s two wins , in 2018 , Jair Bolsonaro won a commanding presidential victory in Brazil .
In Poland , right-wing nationalists have been ascendant for roughly five years , and Viktor Orbán has governed Hungary for more than ten .
Benjamin Netanyahu @ @ @ @ @ @ @ over a decade , despite many close calls .
The United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union in 2015 .
In many of these races , including the Brexit referendum , nationalists stunned observers by over-performing polls and expectations .
It happened here in 2016 .
As Sen and I spoke , it seemed entirely possible that it would happen once again .
We discussed Trump ’ s earlier press conference , where he lied about voter fraud and effectively declared victory .
We followed the news frantically until results from Milwaukee @ @ @ @ @ @ @ here in Washington .
The new numbers were overwhelmingly favorable to Biden .
It would take time to call Wisconsin , but by 5:00 AM , it seemed effectively settled .
Biden was going to win the state and then , probably , the presidency .
“ That ’ s huge , ” Sen said .
Giving the results such weight felt premature , and not just because Biden hadn ’ t yet claimed a nationwide , or even statewide , victory .
If the Obama administration is any guide , it is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to pass anything significant without Democratic control of Congress .
And although the odds of a President Biden were going up , the odds of a Democratic Senate were going down .
As of this writing , to win Senate control , the party will likely need to carry both of Georgia ’ s seats .
Sen , who endures the consequences of American elections without getting a vote ( the U.S. remains the world ’ s most powerful country ) , pointed out that a Biden win would have big , international @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the U.S. will rejoin the Paris climate agreement , ” she said .
“ There are all sorts of other international agreements that matter.
” She ’ s right .
Under Trump ’ s tenure , we ’ ve withdrawn from the Paris agreement and the Iranian nuclear deal .
We have plans to leave the World Health Organization .
We seem to have as many trade disputes with traditional allies as we do with traditional opponents .
She also reminded me that , when Modi won again in 2019 , he made @ @ @ @ @ @ @ by his victory , the prime minister revoked Kashmir—India ’ s only Muslim-majority state—of its constitutionally enshrined autonomy ( he has been helped , so far , by a friendly judiciary ) .
He then shut down the state ’ s internet for more than seven months and detained thousands of its residents .
Not too long after the lockdown began , the government announced policies that could render millions of India ’ s many Muslim citizens stateless .
The United States is not India , and there ’ s a whole lot @ @ @ @ @ @ @ election results .
In many key states , Biden only won very narrowly , and it is unclear if he won because of his talents as a politician or because Trump is undisciplined .
Democrats will need a flush to take the Senate .
The party performed poorly in statehouses and will be at a serious disadvantage in redistricting .
Trumpism remains very much alive in America , and progressives will face formidable , frightening barriers for the next decade .
Yet considered comparatively , there really is something impressive about Biden ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , but he outperformed his peers in countries governed by the nationalist right .
Unlike Sonia and Rahul Gandhi ( both dispatched by Modi ) ; Isaac Herzog , or Benny Gantz ( defeated and enlisted by Netanyahu , respectively ) ; or the myriad challengers to Hungary ’ s Orbán and Poland ’ s Law and Justice Party , Biden unseated a nationalist incumbent .
That is notable anywhere , and especially notable in the United States , where presidents are usually reelected .
His popular vote victory will be sizable , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ It will take a lot more organizing before progressives can build the coalition they need to truly govern .
But political U-turns are extremely difficult , and in an era where demagogues are ascendant , Sen said , “ any victory is worth celebrating .
”

At 3:00 AM on Wednesday, November 4, shortly before a police cruiser drove Milwaukee’s 169,000 absentee ballots to the city’s election officials, I called a friend and former colleague in India. Almost everyone I knew in the U.S. was now (somehow) asleep. But it was early afternoon in Delhi, which meant that my friend would certainly be following the American tallies. Joe Biden trailed Donald Trump by 107,000 votes in Wisconsin. The next hour would probably tell us if Biden had done well enough with mail-in ballots in the upper Midwest to win the presidency. Whether America was about to hand Trump his second shock victory hung heavy.
“I’m calling to let you know just how incredibly manic I am,” I told her. She laughed.
Puja Sen is an editor at The Caravan, a major Indian politics magazine. She knows as well as anyone what it is like to have the populist right win back-to-back victories. In 2014, Narendra Modi, a Hindu nationalist, became the first politician in thirty years to win an outright governing majority in India’s large, factitious parliament. Before becoming the country’s prime minister, Modi led the Indian state of Gujarat. Under his tenure, rioters and police killed as many as 2,000 people—mostly Muslims—in a 2002 pogrom. Experts continue to debate Modi’s role in the violence, but it’s clear that, at a minimum, he did little to stop the bloodshed. In the aftermath of the violence, George W. Bush’s state department banned him from entering the U.S. The Obama administration lifted the restrictions after Modi won the 2014 national election. In 2019, the prime minister overwhelmingly won again.
The 2014 victory was expected. A 2019 rout was not. Most polls suggested that Modi would squeak by in his second turn before voters, with his party losing seats. Many forecasters estimated he would need to create a cross-party coalition to stay in power. But despite high unemployment and a slowing economy, Modi’s party picked up 21 districts after a campaign spent demonizing Muslim immigrants. Indian liberals were shocked. So were political observers outside the country, including me.
In retrospect, I shouldn’t have been surprised. If there’s one transnational election takeaway from the last six years, it’s that right-wing nationalism is extremely difficult to defeat. In addition to Modi’s two wins, in 2018, Jair Bolsonaro won a commanding presidential victory in Brazil. In Poland, right-wing nationalists have been ascendant for roughly five years, and Viktor Orbán has governed Hungary for more than ten. Benjamin Netanyahu has been Prime Minister of Israel for over a decade, despite many close calls. The United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union in 2015. In many of these races, including the Brexit referendum, nationalists stunned observers by over-performing polls and expectations. It happened here in 2016.
As Sen and I spoke, it seemed entirely possible that it would happen once again. We discussed Trump’s earlier press conference, where he lied about voter fraud and effectively declared victory. We followed the news frantically until results from Milwaukee began to scrawl across my computer screen here in Washington. The new numbers were overwhelmingly favorable to Biden. It would take time to call Wisconsin, but by 5:00 AM, it seemed effectively settled. Biden was going to win the state and then, probably, the presidency.
“That’s huge,” Sen said. Giving the results such weight felt premature, and not just because Biden hadn’t yet claimed a nationwide, or even statewide, victory. If the Obama administration is any guide, it is unlikely a President Biden will be able to pass anything significant without Democratic control of Congress. And although the odds of a President Biden were going up, the odds of a Democratic Senate were going down. As of this writing, to win Senate control, the party will likely need to carry both of Georgia’s seats.
Sen, who endures the consequences of American elections without getting a vote (the U.S. remains the world’s most powerful country), pointed out that a Biden win would have big, international ramifications. “It would mean that the U.S. will rejoin the Paris climate agreement,” she said. “There are all sorts of other international agreements that matter.” She’s right. Under Trump’s tenure, we’ve withdrawn from the Paris agreement and the Iranian nuclear deal. We have plans to leave the World Health Organization. We seem to have as many trade disputes with traditional allies as we do with traditional opponents.
She also reminded me that, when Modi won again in 2019, he made the country far more exclusionary. Emboldened by his victory, the prime minister revoked Kashmir—India’s only Muslim-majority state—of its constitutionally enshrined autonomy (he has been helped, so far, by a friendly judiciary). He then shut down the state’s internet for more than seven months and detained thousands of its residents. Not too long after the lockdown began, the government announced policies that could render millions of India’s many Muslim citizens stateless.
The United States is not India, and there’s a whole lot for liberals to dislike about the 2020 election results. In many key states, Biden only won very narrowly, and it is unclear if he won because of his talents as a politician or because Trump is undisciplined. Democrats will need a flush to take the Senate. The party performed poorly in statehouses and will be at a serious disadvantage in redistricting. Trumpism remains very much alive in America, and progressives will face formidable, frightening barriers for the next decade.
Yet considered comparatively, there really is something impressive about Biden’s victory. He underperformed his polls, but he outperformed his peers in countries governed by the nationalist right. Unlike Sonia and Rahul Gandhi (both dispatched by Modi); Isaac Herzog, or Benny Gantz (defeated and enlisted by Netanyahu, respectively); or the myriad challengers to Hungary’s Orbán and Poland’s Law and Justice Party, Biden unseated a nationalist incumbent. That is notable anywhere, and especially notable in the United States, where presidents are usually reelected. His popular vote victory will be sizable, and that itself is a statement.
It will take a lot more organizing before progressives can build the coalition they need to truly govern. But political U-turns are extremely difficult, and in an era where demagogues are ascendant, Sen said, “any victory is worth celebrating.”


washingtonmonthly--2020-11-07--There Are No Lawyers Who Can Salvage Trump’s Reelection Bid

Donald Trump is in deep trouble .
His chances of being re-elected have basically vanished .
As of this writing , he trails by substantial margins in Georgia , Pennsylvania , Nevada and Arizona—three of which he needs to win at a minimum .
In the first three , his deficit will almost certainly increase with each new tally ; in Arizona , he will continue to make up ground , but he has not been doing so fast enough .
While the networks are still wary of calling the race , Joe Biden will almost certainly become the next @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Donald Trump is doing what he always does : begging for attorneys to fix his problem for him and allow him to cheat .
This is , of course , how Trump has lived his whole life .
He has no particular expertise in or deep knowledge of anything .
He ’ s a trust fund playboy who inherited $ 400 million dollars and somehow managed to go bankrupt several times while stiffing his creditors and the IRS , only escaping the wreckage by assembling an army of accountants , lawyers , and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ him .
For much of his troubled career , the primary fixer was legendary racist sociopath Roy Cohn .
When Cohn passed away , Trump turned to a series of other ne ’ er-do-wells from Michael Cohen to Roger Stone , but he never stopped lamenting the loss of Cohn .
In Trump ’ s world , no problem is insurmountable if you have a shameless and brutal enough team of sharks to fix it for you .
Even if that problem is democracy itself .
But this time , there is no @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Trump ’ s problem , which is that he simply doesn ’ t have the votes .
He doesn ’ t have a case .
He doesn ’ t have a corrupted jury .
And the system he ’ s up against won ’ t be intimidated or silenced into giving him what he wants .
It ’ s not for lack of trying .
He escaped impeachment by ensuring total loyalty from a compromised Republican Senate .
He explicitly installed Amy Coney Barrett on the Supreme Court in a travesty of a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the election in any potential legal challenge .
But for the Supreme Court to throw him the election , there has to be even a flimsy pretext of a case .
And Trump doesn ’ t have one : President Trump ’ s bellicose pledge to fight the outcome of the election in the courts crashed on Friday into skeptical judges , daunting Electoral College math and a lack of evidence for his claims of fraud .
On a day that began with vote tallies in Georgia and Pennsylvania tipping in Joseph R. @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Trump ’ s campaign declared , “ This election is not over , ” as the Republican National Committee announced it had activated “ legal challenge teams ” in Arizona , Georgia , Michigan and Pennsylvania .
And the Trump forces named a new general to lead the effort , the hardened conservative political combatant David Bossie .
But none of the dozen or so lawsuits they had brought in battleground states appeared to be gaining any traction in the courts .
And in any case , none seemed likely to give Mr. @ @ @ @ @ @ @ vote counts in the states that will determine the outcome .
The Trump plan ( insofar as there was one ) was to hold all the states he needed to win except Pennsylvania .
Then , after working with GOP allies in the Pennsylvania legislature to ensure that mostly Democratic mail ballots would be counted last and slowly , attempt to throw doubt on the counting process itself and ask the courts to throw out any absentee ballots .
But that plan ran aground when Fox News called Arizona—a state Trump was counting @ @ @ @ @ @ @ team erupted in fury over the call , as it undercut their core strategy .
But then the firewall also collapsed not only in Wisconsin and Michigan but also crucially in Georgia .
The problem for Trump in Georgia isn ’ t just that he is losing due in large part to the hard work of Black organizers like Stacey Abrams—it ’ s that the state ’ s election apparatus is controlled by Republicans , which makes accusations of organized fraud much more difficult .
And Pennsylvania itself is thwarting Trump in other @ @ @ @ @ @ @ wise to the Republican strategy to cheat the outcome there , that they heavily mobilized the Democratic electorate not only to vote by mail but to vote very early .
That , in turn , means that the usual flood of late-arriving Democratic mail votes is barely a trickle this year .
Crucially , the big fight over segregating and potentially discarding ballots postmarked before but arriving after Election Day won ’ t matter , because there won ’ t be nearly enough of them to change the outcome of the election even @ @ @ @ @ @ @ them thrown out .
All of this has forced Trump ’ s legal team , such as it is , to make small-bore , frivolous complaints about minor issues : observer access in small precincts , a handful of ballots involving registration time window issues in Nevada , etc .
And in nearly all instances , even these complaints are being dismissed with force by judges for being little more than harassment or based on hearsay .
Sensing that his fixers are failing , Trump has taken to yelling for new Roy Cohns @ @ @ @ @ @ @ : CNN ’ s Kaitlan Collins reported Friday that President Donald Trump is not happy with his current legal team .
Collins told Jake Tapper that the legal team — which includes Rudy Giuliani , Pam Bondi , and others — isn ’ t exactly assuaging the president ’ s concerns and Trump has “ questions about the effectiveness of that team.
” “ He ’ s even told one person he wants them to find him better attorneys to put on his team , ” Collins said .
“ Because he wants @ @ @ @ @ @ @ one person as ‘ killers.
’ ” She pointed out that there ’ s a question of why this didn ’ t come up sooner , given the predictions that this election would result in legal fights even before Tuesday .
Amusingly , Jake Tapper reported on CNN earlier Friday evening that Jared Kushner had been put in charge of the search for attorneys .
If true , it would be delicious karma : Kushner ’ s monumental incompetence driving a nail in the Trump coffin after so dramatically mismanaging the COVID crisis @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a team of legal superstars wouldn ’ t be able to salvage this for Trump .
The only thing unfair about this election was voter suppression actions by Republicans and deliberate attempts to slow down the mail , delay counting of mail ballots and then throw them out entirely .
Trump appears to have lost fair and square , and there ’ s not a lawyer in the land who could give even his hand-picked Supreme Court a credible opportunity to install him into a second term .


washingtonmonthly--2020-11-07--“This Is The Time to Heal”

“This Is The Time to Heal”

Vowing to be “ a president who seeks not to divide but to unify , ” Joe Biden addressed the nation on Saturday night for the first time as President-elect and the winner of a bitter presidential contest that brought the four tumultuous years of Donald Trump ’ s presidency to a nail-biting end .
Jogging on to the stage at the Chase Center in Wilmington , Del .
to the rhythm of Bruce Springsteen , Biden declared his “ a convincing victory , ” thanked politicians in the crowd as if it were still a campaign rally , and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , to the American people .
He also thanked his staff , the kind of hat-tip that a victorious candidate would give on election night–only this time it took four days .
The former vice president offered a particularly strong shout out to African-Americans , a vital constituency that saved his sagging campaign during the primaries and helped lift him to victory in the general election : “ You always had my back .
And I ’ ll always have yours.
” Biden repeated his unity theme– “ This is the time to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ was part of his mandate .
He also vowed to strengthen the federal government ’ s response to the COVID-19 pandemic , announcing the first meeting of his own pandemic task force on Monday .
Vice-President Elect Kamala Harris spoke first at the outdoor “ car rally ” of about 360 vehicles .
The crowd exploded in cheers and honks as the first woman to be elected vice president took the stage ahead of Biden .
“ To the American people who make up our beautiful country , thank you for turning out @ @ @ @ @ @ @ heard , ” Harris said .
“ You chose hope , unity , science , and truth.
” Many elections are called historic , but this one unarguably is .
It is the first ouster of an incumbent president in 28 years and the end of a presidency that was the most divisive in the 20th or 21st century .
Biden , 77 , becomes the oldest person to assume the office and will be only the nation ’ s second Roman Catholic president , the first being John F. Kennedy 60 years @ @ @ @ @ @ @ become the first female vice-president and the first of African-American and Indian heritage .
Her parents were immigrants to the U.S. from Jamaica and India .
Biden ’ s victory was impressive by any measure .
He won at least 50 percent of the popular vote , a number comparable to Ronald Reagan in 1980 and higher than the vote won by Harry S. Truman , John F. Kennedy , and Bill Clinton during his two terms .
His final count of electoral votes is likely to be north of 300 .
In @ @ @ @ @ @ @ erupted in celebration , honking car horns and congregating to cheer the moment in parks and in homes and in iconic spots such as Lafayette Park in front of the White House and Times Square in New York City in scenes reminiscent of victory celebrations at the end of World War II .
Across the street from the National Cathedral in Washington , D.C. , the celebration continued for hours .
President Trump ’ s determination to fight the election results in the courts , which he repeated in a statement on Saturday @ @ @ @ @ @ @ fact is this election is far from over , ” the statement said while the normally loquacious president avoided the microphones .
( He was at his golf club in Sterling , Va. when the race was called for Biden . )
Lower courts and judges appointed by presidents and governors of both parties have swatted away the Trump campaign ’ s attempts to alter the count .
The president ’ s invocation of the Supreme Court as a lifeline to a second term ignores the justices ’ inability to issue a single @ @ @ @ @ @ @ making a repeat of the Court ’ s 2000 Bush v. Gore decision all but impossible .
Pennsylvania ’ s 20 electoral votes put the Democratic nominee over the top , according to the Associated Press , whose call Saturday morning opened the floodgates to other news organizations declaring Biden the winner .
The state was the most bitterly contested of the election , and its falling into the GOP column four years ago shocked Democrats , as did other Great Lakes states turning red .
It is also the birthplace and early @ @ @ @ @ @ @ visited there more than any other state .
AP also called Nevada for Biden .
No winner has been projected in Georgia , North Carolina , and Alaska .
When he assumes office Jan. 20 , Biden faces extraordinary challenges , most importantly taming and reversing the COVID-19 pandemic and bolstering an economy deeply wounded by it .
He is likely to have to do it with GOP control of the U.S. Senate .
No president has been elected in a crisis with such little congressional ballast .
Franklin Roosevelt and Barack Obama @ @ @ @ @ @ @ elected and faced the Great Depression and the Great Recession .
Democrats ’ slim hopes of wresting control of the Senate rest on two Georgia races that will be determined by run-off votes in January .
Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock are the two Democrats who hope to oust two incumbent senators , David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler .
Republicans were on track to pick up at least eight seats in the House , putting an ax to the promising Congressional careers of several freshman Democrats elected in the 2018 blue wave and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Nancy Pelosi .
Without the Senate , Biden ’ s agenda could be on life support .
The Senate , likely controlled by Mitch McConnell , the GOP leader from Kentucky , puts the most ambitious dreams of liberal reform–an end to the filibuster , statehood for the District of Columbia , and new seats on the Supreme Court–in peril .
Biden ’ s progressive tax and spending plans seemed doomed .
Even if Democrats can claw their way to a 50-50 tie in the Senate–making Vice President Kamala Harris the tiebreaker–it would @ @ @ @ @ @ @ not exactly know for it .
The anxiety-producing presidential race showed that Americans remain deeply divided as they faced the starkest presidential race since Lyndon Johnson squared off against Barry Goldwater in 1964 .
Biden headed the most progressive Democratic ticket since LBJ ’ s landslide election .
His party ’ s platform touts massive expenditures , like Green New Deal style-investments in alternative energy and a bold public option to bolster the Affordable Care Act , as well as cultural changes like the end of the Hyde Amendment—which prohibits federal funding for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ since 1979 ) .
The Democratic Party ’ s platform doesn ’ t fulfill all of the wants of its ascendant left-wing .
Still , there ’ s enough there to keep them happy—for now .
By contrast , the GOP had no platform this year , reflecting the Republican Party ’ s subservience to the president .
The triangulation that Trump hinted at in 2016—echoing Democratic priorities like protecting Social Security , investing in roads and bridges—never materialized .
The Trump of 2020 pushed for an end to the payroll tax , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and laughably , “ Infrastructure Week ” proved to be a mirage .
Trump proved to be a standard , donor-class Republican with an inhuman face .
His anti-immigrant fervor , disdain for defense alliances , and multilateral trade pacts were a patina on traditional Republican faith in the trinity of tax cuts , conservative judges , and deregulation .
His violation of presidential norms from continuing to own his business to tweeting insults at all hours offended many .
It made Trump one of the most divisive figures in American history .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ states with large populations of white working-class voters .
That proved insufficient in a changing America where their percentage of the electorate continues to shrink .
Biden ’ s strength among suburban voters , minorities , women , and the college-educated gave him more than half the popular vote and at least 273 electoral votes and likely more .
Biden ’ s low-key , some called it lackadaisical , campaign proved wise .
One upside for Biden : it kept the focus on Trump , making the election a referendum on the president @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and least likely Democratic nominee this cycle .
His 50-year tenure in electoral politics made him well known , and his eight-years as Barack Obama ’ s wingman transformed him from a Senate lifer into presidential timber .
But his age—he turns 78 this month—was always a looming burden , and his long history in the U.S. Senate is both a bragging right and an albatross .
When Biden was sworn into the Senate in 1973 , just days after his wife and daughter were killed in a car accident , the chamber @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Three World War I veterans were still serving , as were multiple former segregationist Senators who chaired powerful committees , forcing him to work them and charm them alongside other young liberals .
Ted Kennedy , who came to the Senate in 1962 , ten years earlier , had the same work-with-segregationists history when he ran for president in 1980 .
Still , the Democratic Party of that year didn ’ t hold it against him , perhaps because he was a Kennedy .
Biden got no such break this year .
When @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to achieve racial desegregation , it smarted .
But Biden played the long game .
He didn ’ t jerk too far to the left during the primaries .
He didn ’ t embrace single-payer health care , even while he jettisoned pro-corporate stances on bankruptcy reform and antitrust that unsettled the many financial institutions that make Delaware home .
His long cultivation of Black voters—Delaware is the state with the ninth largest Black population , he often noted—and his unswerving loyalty to a younger Black president made him ripe for the endorsement @ @ @ @ @ @ @ The powerful House Democratic Whip used his Palmetto State machine and Black voters ’ ready enthusiasm to push Biden to a resounding victory over minority candidates like Cory Booker or the party ’ s left stalwarts , Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders .
The party gathered around Biden quickly ; endorsements from rivals such as Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar poured in .
The moment of Sanders ’ s inevitability proved very short , snatched by the Black voters in the state that launched the Civil War .
Warren faltered quickly , coming @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Trump ’ s Republican party was unified from the start .
He never faced a serious primary challenge .
Those who put up a fight with the president like Republican Senators Bob Corker and Jeff Flake walked away rather than facing uphill battles in primaries dominated by MAGA devotees .
The president could have used his unified party to reset his unpopular presidency , returning to infrastructure or easing back on the constant Twitter invectives .
But he didn ’ t .
And that was before the pandemic .
Perhaps the gravest national @ @ @ @ @ @ @ since World War II and the Depression , COVID-19 could have been Trump ’ s lifeline .
But a negligent response sent the death toll higher than it should ever have been .
He turned mask-wearing into a political statement instead of a prophylactic .
His blathering made him seem more idiotic than Churchillian .
His continued self-indulgence amidst death—complaining about not getting a fair shake from Fox News of all places—made him seem , if not AWOL from the pandemic fight , then like he was cosseting the enemy .
Even his @ @ @ @ @ @ @ moment to right his campaign , was only a fleeting photo op .
Still , the fact that he remains an underdog with a chance is testimony to his grip on rural America , traditional Republicans , and white-working-class men .
In Harris , Biden found a running mate that matches their party perfectly .
The California senator represents the Democrats ’ diversity , with her Jamaican and Indian ancestry , Jewish husband , and Jewish stepchildren .
Hailing from the Bay Area , although now living in Brentwood , she ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , she ’ ll be the first woman to occupy the vice-presidential mansion in Washington , D.C .
The first president or vice president since Warren Harding not to have had their own children .
( Biden will be the first widower to be elected since Woodrow Wilson . )
Her election is also representative of the electoral power of African-American women , the most loyal bloc in the Democratic coalition .
The evening ended with a fireworks display over the event on the banks of the Christina River .