A Lot To Be Relieved About

Last evening Democratic Senator Catherine Cortez Masto, of Nevada, was projected to hold her seat, assuring that Democrats would maintain control of the Senate. If Senator Warnock, of Georgia, holds his seat in the December 6th runoff, Democrats will achieve a net gain of one senate seat.

No less important: Most election deniers and anti-democracy Republicans were defeated in both Senate and House contests and in contests for state offices. Feared disruptions of the electoral process, baseless law suits such as those filed by Trump and allies after his 2020 defeat at the polls, and riots by pro-MAGA thugs didn’t materialize. The electoral process and results were, on balance, a rebuke of Trump and anti-democratic forces that were threatening to take American democracy down.

Thank goodness, but we still have a lot to worry about. It’s highly likely that Republicans will take control of the House of Representatives and that for the next two years they will throw as many monkey wrenches as they can lay their paws on in an effort to discredit and impede the orderly working of the federal government with the aim of making Biden look bad. They will likely make much needed reforms impossible to pass. Republicans haven’t gained as much power as they had hoped to, but their character hasn’t changed.