Americans have Georgia on their mind, where southern hospitality has given way to a battle royale for control of the U.S. Senate, the national agenda and the fate of the free world. The implied rallying cry: to the winners, the spoils.
Yet, overlooked in all of this, one of America’s most vital safeguards hangs perilously in the balance: checks & balances. Embodied in Articles 1-3 of the Constitution, this democratic pillar for more than two centuries ensured we could move forward without succumbing to the extremes of ideology and emotion that too often in human history drove tempest and tyranny, incivility and inhumanity.
Now all eyes are focused on Cobb and Fulton Counties, on Election Day voting and post-Election Day counting, to determine whether checks in the nation’s Capitol can be written without any pretense to balance or dialogue.
If American voters have their way, they want loads of both.
As the election dust has (nearly) settled from the 2020 campaign, the results reveal that “we, the people” voted neither Democrat or Republican, right or left, but forward. We voted for moderation, not revolution, as the best way forward in remedying what ails and injures us.
The message was as loud as it was clear. Attack COVID without assaulting our livelihoods. Take on China and North Korea and Iran without igniting a third world war. Provide for conscience and protest, but punish violent criminality hiding within the ranks of both.
This is where the Georgia special elections are so much bigger than the contenders themselves. Instead of focusing on whether Kelly Loeffler has leadership chops or her opponent Raphael Warnock ran over his ex-wife; or whether David Perdue had a conflict of interest or Jon Ossoff has no hesitation in defunding the police.
Think bigger. Much bigger.
If Democrats capture both contested seats, the Senate will not fall into 50-50 parity but rather 51-50 hell. Kamala Harris would quickly move out of normal VP anonymity into the abnormal brandishing of unchecked political power. As partisans refuse to see the world beyond their respective party bifocals, Harris – a liberal bent on getting even with the injustices of history – will embrace fixes championed by Alexandria Oc
If Loeffler and Perdue prevail, Americans will be able to sleep at night knowing a harrowing Harris will not be readying revolution but some version of reformation. Checks and balances will be alive and well, quelling misguided calls for total pandemic lockdowns, and rewarding those who’ve led our cities into civic intolerance and financial despair.
If not, fear not because there IS a silver lining to all of this. If Warnock and Ossoff make off with first prize, there are already signs that a January surprise is afoot, one that could force Kamala back into “Veep-like” humility and the nation towards moderate-like governance.
As evidenced by the nearly-complete stimulus package, a new power center from the center is emerging in the Senate (and, in similar fashion, the House).
Although maligned and mired in threatened election peril from both the left and right, six senators – Mitt Romney, Susan Collins
This is where split government can forge a more unified America, a less divisive body politic and a more civil society.
After the year we’ve just weathered, who amongst us isn’t rooting for that?
Adam Goodman is a national Republican media strategist and columnist. He is a partner at Ballard Partners in Washington, D.C., and the first Edward R. Murrow Senior Fellow at Tufts University’s Fletcher School. Follow him on Twitter @adamgoodman3.