Onwards and upwards

Yesterday at this time, we had no idea what the day portended.

I had a quiet confidence that Jon Ossoff and Rev. Raphael Warnock would defeat their simp opponents. But it really was a coin toss.

Cut to today.

Democrats have control of the Senate and the House. They have control of the White House.

Victory has a thousand parents, while defeat is an orphan. But in this case, we can say that victory has two parents: Stacey Abrams and Joe Biden.

Joe focused on the Georgia races. He didn't take Donald Trump's bait, responding to his increasingly unhinged behavior. He didn't turn it into a personal grudge match, but kept the focus on things which mattered to Georgians and Americans more broadly. He allowed Ossoff and Rev. Warnock to take the spotlight.

Meanwhile, Stacey Abrams. From 2020, there are two great stories of "failed" candidates turning around and changing their states. One is Beto O'Rourke's, who moved the needle further on turning Texas blue. And then there's Stacey's. Being robbed of the governorship of Georgia by Brian Kemp, she didn't stew in dejection and apathy. She turned her undeserved defeat into a rallying cry, a motivating force. She was the field general we needed in Georgia. She was our modern-day William Sherman, marching through the state, defeating the neo-confederates of the Republican Party. Ms. Stacey won't have to buy a drink or a meal for the rest of her life.

The calamity of 2016 has engendered something. Americans who have not fallen in thrall to the Trumpian mishegas finally realized that freedom wasn't free. That it had to be nurtured, cared for, and fought for. Democracy isn't guaranteed; it can be taken away, it can be corrupted to the point of death. Today we're going to see seditionists try to overturn the democratic will of the people. What a kick in the crotch that they'll be doing it the day after they lost control of the Senate. As a community organizer once said: We are the change we've been waiting for. Leaders can give direction and allocate resources, but we have to be engaged and enlightened. Power in this country rests not with presidents and legislators; it rests with we, the people, who elect them.

We're still in a heap of trouble, as our own Andres will detail in a piece later this week. But we're ascending. Enemies, both foreign and domestic, have always underestimated what a free people can accomplish. And every time they've been proven wrong, sometimes terminally. 

Have a good cuppa and an eclair. We've earned it.