An election that really, really counts
The future of America has come down to Georgia with the possibility of two Democrats getting elected to the U.S. Senate in early January if the Republicans keep lending a hand. That will mean a one-party, autocratically inspired, socialistically tantalized government saying shut up if you believe in liberty and goodbye to the economy. President Joe Biden could be denied use of his negotiating skills, except possibly ineffective attempts with stare-him-down comrades.
Just the other day, by way of messing up, President Donald Trump allegedly said in a private meeting no more private than usual that he thought members of the recently arisen politically active group QAnon believe in good government. That may be true, but hardly overrides their more advertised belief in Satan-worshipping, pedophilic federal bureaucrats dictating stuff they must defeat. More nearly in this world, tough Trump ally Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham is said to have asked Georgia’s secretary of state about his ability to get rid of some class or the other of absentee ballots, not a righteous-sounding query whatever he meant.
Then there’s this attorney who is encouraging Republican voters in this state that cheats them to forget voting because that would sure as anything teach the Democrats a lesson. It is hard to know what lesson he has in mind, but it’s a good guess the Democrats might learn he is worth a payroll position.
One thing the Republicans have going for them is that the polls contend the two Democrats in the runoff race are ahead, and, as we all know, pollsters are getting better at making mistakes. It is important because, in all seriousness, if the Democrats control both Congress and the presidency, they can follow through on packing the Supreme Court, ending the Senate filibuster, exploding the debt, raising corporate taxes to the point of limpalong production, committing more Middle East mistakes and destroying our suburbs.
Watch out for this last item because President-elect Biden does favor something akin to a federal takeover of suburbs, building apartment houses and business districts and restricting car use. He also favors raising taxes to pay for maybe half of all of his spending ambitions. He seems to have a cooler, more centrist head on many issues than ever-cheerier, leftist Democrats, but will they be able to force him where he does not want to go? We are right now in a scary political period where old norms seem disposable if they get in the way of central planners who know better how to lead your life than you do.
President Trump may have inadvertently boosted this cause with his obsessions, as in not giving up on overturning a presidential election staying put, and his Twitter mentality. But he has also been an example of how the Democratic cause can be abused, as in the constant, egregious, illegitimate attempts to push him out of office. He has performed well in a variety of ways, as in deregulation that helped make us energy independent. Democrats love regulations, and President Barack Obama set a record in the number of major ones established during his administration.
If Democrats win Georgia, those regulations will likely come back, new ones will join them, and we may be further enmeshed in what Alexis de Tocqueville warned about in his 19th-century work, “Democracy in America,” not outright tyranny, but a grinning imitation. He imagined a governmental force that speaks for a majority as it “hinders, compromises, enervates, extinguishes, dazes and finally reduces” Americans to a “herd of timid” animals.
In this case, it might be at its worse for only two years with the Republicans regaining congressional control in the next election, and right now we are learning if money talks. Spending on both sides has gone crazy even though those who spend the most are not necessarily the winners.