If ballots were counted on time in 2020, Joe Biden would’ve
won before bedtime on Election Night.
As we saw on Election Night, it was actually very easy to
count ballots prior to Election Day. Florida, which had been processing mail-in
ballots for years, had their results in and the state called by 10 pm. The fact
it went red, of course, scared the bejesus out of people into thinking Joe
Biden was going to lose.
Instead, Joe Biden did not lose. In fact, he won by a lot.
He won Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin by a combined 200,000+ votes, well
out of the reach of recounts. Forget the much closer wins in Arizona and Georgia
– Biden only needed those three states to take the Presidency and he took them
with relative ease.
Imagine a world where Joe Biden wins by midnight on Election
Night.
We don’t live in that world. We live in one where an
engineered controversy gave oxygen to the Big Lie that persists to this very
moment some seven months later. A bunch of yahoos are conducting a fraud audit
in Arizona’s Maricopa County, literally adding numbers to Trump’s side of the
ledger to keep up the charade. The Big Lie has led to multiple red states
enacting voter suppression laws. The Big Lie has Republicans in Congress
holding on to the last guy like an ex-lover for reasons that are frankly beyond
me.
The news media, based on its ratings absolutely tanking in2021, misses the last guy even more than Republicans, so it’s been in their
best interest to continue propping him up. When he sends bizarre missives, they
don’t get any traction – except from reporters breathlessly sharing them.
He’s a former President. He’s a disgraced former President.
His “movement” was so toxic that he lost the White House and both chambers of
Congress in four years. It’s almost hard to imagine a worse politician.
But he remains a figure in the party because of the
perception that the election was close. Even though Republicans lost the
Senate, it was expected to be worse. I don’t know, feels like losing both seats
in Georgia is pretty bad. Even though Republicans lost the House again, it was
expected to be worse. I don’t know, feels like losing the House again despite a
massive, gerrymandered advantage is pretty bad.
As we’ve seen during the first few months of the new
administration, Joe Biden is remarkably popular and the guy he beat like a drum
is surprising not popular.
Why isn’t that narrative being shared? Why isn’t that the
dominant story?
For some reason, there is a bizarre notion that Republicans
are favored to storm back into power in 2022 based on previous mid-term
results. It is true that history shows that the opposing party has a strong
showing in the initial mid-terms. It’s also true that no opposing party has
remained so tightly aligned with the guy who lost the last election.
Think back to 2018 and the Blue Wave the swept Dems back
into power in the House. They didn’t run again to support Hillary Clinton, even
if many voters were her voters. They ran on a new start for Democrats.
The important piece why we need to remember that Joe Biden
won by a lot is that it shows that people were on board with that direction for
the country. His approval ratings have been solid and steady about 50% and
creeping toward 60% in some polls. His leadership has helped drastically reduce
COVID cases nationwide and we’re ever-so-close to normalcy.
Do we really think that all those people who came out to
support Biden and reject MAGA will suddenly disappear in MAGA remains on the
ballot in 2022?
If anything, the MAGA stain remaining on the ballot is the great
news for Democrats because it will keep the electorate engaged. We collectively
looked over the precipice in 2020 and we don’t ever want to go back. We stared
into the hate on 1/6/21 and never want to let them out again.
Joe Biden won the 2020 election by a lot. Don’t forget that.
Let it motivate you in 2022. It’ll happen again if we stay focused.
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