We won.
It was a long fourhundredyears coming since 2016, but we won!
In spite of or because of a still raging pandemic, the 2020 presidential election had the highest turnout rate (66.9 percent) in 120 years (since 1900 when the turnout was 73.7 percent), by preliminary estimates. Both Republicans and Democrats mobilized as many voters as they've ever done before in over a century.
But we won.
After President-Elect Joe Biden and Vice President-Elect Kamala Harris made history and gave their amazing victory speeches Saturday night, you could see on the Sunday shows that Republicans were already rewriting the narrative to seem like our victory is hollow.
Take Willard "Mittens" Romney. Making multiple appearances on CNN, ABC, NBC and Fox News (I didn't check Telemundo), the uncle of Ronna McDaniel tried to sound like a reasonable Republican. Here is a Romney quote from CNN's "State Of The Union" with Jake Tapper, responding to whether he thought it was good for the country that Biden was elected:
ROMNEY: Well, I think half the country thinks it's a great idea. I think the other half thinks it's not such a great idea But the reality is, given the fact that the statisticians have come to a conclusion at this stage, I think we get behind the new president. Unless, for some reason, that's overturned, we get behind the new president, wish him the very best. And I send our congratulations. And we will keep this president, just like the last president, in our prayers.
But it took almost zero time for Mittens to show his lack conviction when asked if he voted for Biden or Trump. (He famously wrote in his wife Ann rather than vote for Hillary to prevent Trump in 2016)
TAPPER: You said you didn't vote for President Trump, or you said you weren't going to vote for him. Did you vote for Joe Biden?
ROMNEY: I'm not going to talk about my vote. That's in the rearview mirror. I'm going to talk now about how I can work with the new president. I know he's on the other side of the aisle, butI want to make sure that we conservatives keep on fighting to make sure that we don't have a Green New Deal, we don't get rid of gas and coal and oil, that we don't have a Medicare-for-all plan put in place, that we don't raise taxes on American enterprise.That would kill the economy.So, look, I congratulate him, but I'm not going to put aside conservative principles. We're going to fight for the things that we believe in.
Ah, yes! Those good old "conservative principles," like continuing to kill the planet with fossil fuels, poisoning water with fracking, keeping those sweet ass tax cuts for corporations (they " are people, my friend " after all) and making sure America remains the only industrialized country not to provide healthcare as a basic human right.
Mittens added some extra spin to make losing the presidency, reducing the GOP's power in the Senate and not winning the House into somehow a Republican win, on "Meet The Press":
ROMNEY: Well, I learned that Republicans picked up seats in Congress, held onto the Senate, picked up statehouses across the country, but we lost the presidency. And so it's a bit of a mixed message. I think people are saying that conservative principles still account for the majority of public opinion in our country.
That's not how it works, Mittens. Technically, Democrats in the Senate lost one seat (Doug Jones, Alabama), won two (Mark Kelly in Arizona, John Hickenlooper in Colorado) and send both Georgia Republican Senate seats (Purdue vs . Ossoff and Loeffler vs . Warnock) into a runoff in new blue state Georgia. If we win those, Republicans lose the Senate completely. That is a pretty big repudiation when combined with all these progressive wins all over the country .
I'd call Mittens a flip-flopper or spineless coward or a blatant opportunist for his own self-interest, but that would be petty. Because according to some, when Trump wins, liberals are told we must understand Trump supporters, and when Trump loses, liberals are told we must understand Trump supporters. Right?
For evidence of why we not only have to accept this win, but fight to keep it and maintain our focus we go to South Carolina GOP senator Lindsey Graham. Appearing on Fox News "Sunday Morning Futures" one week after begging teary-eyed for donations, Graham said the quiet part out loud while also disputing Romney's "conservatism is on the rise" rhetoric, by admitting cheating IS the game plan now:
“If Republicans don’t challenge and change the U.S. election system, there will never be another Republican preside… https: //t.co/gqz5j17CwQ
— Matt Wilstein (@Matt Wilstein) 1604855251.0
Yes, he really said that.
But what should be a wake up call for all Democrats is Graham saying exactly what will happen if we fight each other rather that work together to win those two Senate seats in Georgia:
GRAHAM: The bottom line is House Republicans have increased their majority. They can slow down the 'radical agenda' coming out of the House. But Senate Republicans can kill it and stop it! If we pick up these two Republican seats in Georgia, we have the ability to stop the most radical agenda in the history of the United States. Kevin McCarthy can slow it down. Mitch McConnell, Lindsey Graham and others can stop it. Only if we win Georgia. We have to win these two seats in Georgia! I'm confident that we will. To the people of Georgia: The future of America is in your hands.
This is what Republicans were doing while we all celebrated the fall of the failed empire like "Return Of The Jedi" this weekend.
Yub nub, y'all... Here & all over the planet, YUB NUB*!!! 🇺🇸🌎🎆🗺️🧨🌐👏🌍🎇🌏😍🏳️🌈🥰🏳️⚧️👍 (*#Hooray_Freedom) https: //t.co/igMe1c6qYI
— Mark Hamill (@Mark Hamill) 1604802355.0
It's time to get back to work and clinch this thing on January 5 if we want to see real progress from electing Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.
We won. Let's continue winning!
Have a week.
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