Don't forget the Senate

The prospect of a third Trump appointment to the Supreme Court has focused attention on the Senate, and deservedly so.  But it's been clear for years that flipping as many Senate seats as possible is almost as vital as winning the presidency.

Under the iron-fisted rule of McConnell -- a man at least as evil as Trump and far more capable -- the Senate has for years stood as an impenetrable wall against progress.  Almost everything of value that the House passes, from measures to safeguard elections against hacking to the new covid-19 relief bill, founders there on the shoals of the Republicans' do-nothing anti-interventionist ideology and their determination to consolidate power at all costs.  It's the Senate which has enabled Trump to infest the federal judiciary with an ever-growing gaggle of religious fanatics and miscellaneous wingnuts who now threaten everything from voting rights to abortion.  And out of fifty-three Republican senators, it would have taken only twenty during impeachment to remove the most flagrantly crooked, malignant, and dangerous president in American history -- but only one of the fifty-three voted to do the right thing.

Even if we keep the House (very likely) and win the presidency (fairly likely), if the Senate remains under Republican control, it will continue to block almost everything we try to do to repair the damage done by Trump, combat covid-19, and move the country forward.  Remember Merrick Garland and the "McConnell rule", now exposed as flagrant hypocrisy.  If another Supreme Court judge were to die five minutes after Biden's inauguration, Moscow Mitch would invent some pretext for holding the seat vacant for four years.

A public option / Medicare expansion.  Serious action on climate change.  A minimum-wage increase.  Protecting our elections against hacking.  Overhauling the country's antiquated infrastructure.  Federal rules to stop gerrymandering and vote suppression.  Legislation to protect abortion rights in case Roe falls.  Safeguarding Social Security.  Real help for the millions thrown out of work by covid-19.  Reversal of the deficit-exploding tax cuts for the wealthy.  Federal support for reform of education, policing, immigration, criminal justice, and on and on.  An expansion of the Supreme Court.  Statehood for DC and Puerto Rico.  Even with a Democratic House and president, none of that will get done if the Republicans keep the Senate.  I wouldn't put it past McConnell to block all of Biden's cabinet appointees and judges, making the country ungovernable as long as Democrats are trying to govern it.

And every seat counts, because our majority needs to be as large as possible.  Even with a majority, most of what the country needs still won't get through unless the filibuster is abolished -- something which a few conservative Democratic senators may balk at.  The bigger our majority, the more defections we can afford and still get that done.  The same goes for some of the more radical necessities like expanding the Supreme Court.  A larger majority can still accomplish it even if a couple of our own senators vote no.

And it's the right thing to do.  Out of cowardice or opportunism, Senate Republicans have enabled and protected Trump at every turn while he targeted the vulnerable, divided the country, trashed the Constitution, and bungled covid-19.  They need to pay a price, in the form of removal from power.

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