Georgia On My Mind
Yesterday felt like an annoying rerun of the November election, honestly. Predictably, Shobhit had the TV on cable news literally the entire evening, and I don't really see the use in watching that endless babble of literally no consequence for hours on end, but whatever. Shobhit is a news junkie. He simultaneously had multiple tabs open on his computer to refresh at regular intervals, something I will admit I was also doing on my iPad.
For reference if anyone happens to be reading this years from now: I'm talking about the two runoff senate races in Georgia, which cinched Democratic control in the Senate as of 2021, for the first time in five years. It will also be the first time since Democracts control both the Senate and the House of Representatives in ten years. This would be a fucking big deal regardless of who was President, but it's arguably the biggest deal in decades given the defeat of President Fuckwit (future historians: that's Donald Trump) just two months ago.
Once the Presidential election results were finally made clear, fully four days after Election Day itself last November, it was also clear that these Georgia runoff races would be happening on January 5. I spoke with Gabriel around that time, and while I felt very unsure about how Georgia would pan out—especially since, in the Jon Ossoff / David Perdue race, Perdue actually had more votes the first time around—Gabriel was almost shockingly confident that both of these Georgia Senate races would go our way in January. My thought at the time was just, God I hope he's right, but who knows?
The 2016 election, I think, just had this widespread effect of keeping any of us feeling truly confident about an election result again.
Well, even though the races were tight, Gabriel was indeed right. The ongoing cable news coverage last night was very similar last night to the November election, especially in the Ossoff race, where for much of the evening Perdue was ahead. But, just like in November, final vote tallies came in from left-leaning tallies, putting Ossoff ahead. (In the other race, I don't recall Raphael Warnock ever not being ahead, his wider margin being ascribed to greater name recognition in Georgia.) With the vote tallies as I write this, Warnock is ahead of Kelly Loeffler by nearly 55,000 votes, making their split 50.6% to 49.4%—and leaving Warnock officially declared the winner—and Ossoff is ahead of Perdue by over 17,000 votes, making their split 50.2% to 49.8%. The latter margin is narrow enough still to trigger a recount, but there's no reason to think a recount would change the result; the many recounts over the past four years have never overturned any result.
When I finally went to bed last night, Ossoff was still not ahead yet, but was widely expected to be by the time outstanding votes were counted. I really wanted him to be officially ahead before I went to bed, but he is now, so, whatever. He's also 33 years old, the youngest person elected to the Senate in 40 years, and just as cute, if not cuter, than Beto O'Rourke—and this one was actually elected! He'll probably be the best looking person in either side of Congress. Not that looks are important here or anything, but damn is it fun to see someone who is actually hot in the Senate.
Of course, it's even sweeter to see that truly heinous man, Mitch McConnell, stripped of his power as Senate Majority Leader, especially after his disappointingly easy re-election win in Kentucky in November. He's been the exasperatingly obstructionist Majority Leader since 2015. I think I may detest that man even more than I do President Fuckwit, and that's saying a lot.
Anyway, we have the certification of the Electoral College today, with idiot Republicans set to make more of their endless and baseless "election fraud" claims but thankfully with no hope of it making any difference. Then we look forward to January 20 and the inauguration of Joe Biden, which will be easily the biggest relief of all. We'll finally get some actual competence back into Cabinet positions, and I expect soon thereafter some organization and efficiency sorely lacking right now in the COVID-19 vaccine rollout. It will be nice to see people in government again who aren't focused on either willful negligence or even outright sabotage of governmental institutions.
I am fully aware that we have a lot to keep new leadership to task about, but I am already tired of far-left claims of Biden's supposed uselessness (or, in some circles, even supposed evilness of his own, which is outright idiotic). Biden was never anywhere near my first choice but it seems clear in retrospect that he was the right choice if we actually wanted to win in November. I'd have loved to vote for Elizabeth Warren or even Amy Klobuchar, but let's face it: it is not likely that as many voters would have taken them as choices as they did Joe Biden. Furthermore, it means a lot that he's bringing a multiracial (and still, neither of her parents were white!), Black and Indian-American woman as his Vice President—and again, I reject any of the willfully stupid vilification of her among the far left as well. I think they will make a good, effective team, and it's heartening to know Kamala Harris will be a tie-breaker in the Senate as Vice President, arguably giving her more power as VP than they usually get.
Anyway. Shobhit spent the entire evening with the news; I spent a lot of it in the bedroom, either actually reading my current library book (White Fragility, which is excellent and, even though it's only my first book I'm reading this year, is already likely to be my favorite book I read this year), or in one half-hour stint, watching the first episode of I Hate Suzy on HBO Max, which is so far living up to is high critical acclaim. That about sums up my evening though.
. . . Jesus Christ. And, literally as I write this, pro-Fuckwit demonstrators have stormed the Capitol. Shobhit has the news on, of course, and one of the anchors actually called it "A new low in U.S. history." Indeed. And all because roughly half this country thought in 2016 that this vile excuse for a human being was a better choice than fucking Hillary Clinton. I don't think I'll ever get over that.
January 20 cannot come soon enough.
[posted 12:36 pm]