By Andrea Shorter–
The struggle is real. What a struggle it has been to remain in the global cathartic elation at the finally announced election of the historic Democratic Biden-Harris ticket to the White House whilst its current occupant is doing everything in his diminishing official and not so official powers to stave off looming lawful eviction, or at least appear that he will not be ejected without a show of righteous indignation to his followers.
There will be no traditional, genteel, majestic peaceful transition of power from Trump to anyone. Commentators can save the Ken Burns-esque nostalgic reels of presidential and incumbent candidates in George H.W. Bush, John McCain, John Kerry, and Hillary Clinton maturely, gracefully conceding loss in decoratively flourished patriotic speeches as the opponents’ victory was apparent. Yeah, none of that stuff is happening, and was so never going to happen per Trump.
Even the sour “you won’t have Richard Nixon to kick around anymore” of an embittered former vice president—then nearly impeached President Nixon following his earlier epic loss to Pat Brown in the 1962 California gubernatorial race registered as possibly the sorest loser sound bite in modern political history—pales in comparison to the outright scorched Earth, gangster reign of terror on democracy Trump and his bandit coalition of the willing have predictably orchestrated to deny, delay, disrupt, and dilute the power of those eminently tried and true words, “The American people have spoken; now, get the f–k out.”
Well, maybe not ever quite like that, but still, in this particular case, a record-shattering number of 77 million plus—and still counting—American voters have clearly proclaimed a once popular, branded phrase: “You’re fired!”
The struggle continues as we work to balance rejoicing in the masterfully executed strategies to push back against voter suppression as led by Stacey Abrams and other sisters running smart strategies, campaigns, and even running for offices themselves to turn out Black, Brown, and young voters to turn blue tidal waves across key states against the harrowing fact that some 72 million people voted for Trump.
In 2016, 54 per cent of white voters brought Trump into the White House, and, from 2020 exit polls, 57 percent of white voters voted to keep him there. With nearly 60 percent of white people casting their votes for a patently racist, xenophobic, white nationalist during a negligent response to a pandemic that has upended all of our lives, and continues to disproportionately impact the lives of people of color, it’s hard to deny that folks voted for Trump because of these attributes and not in spite of them. How else can one see it? Just how much white nationalism and racism factored into any one voter’s choice? Is it quantifiable: 10%? 17%? Does it matter?
Which brings us back home to Georgia, the resurrected battleground for a renewed racially driven civil war to turn a grayed Confederate blood-red state into Democratic union blue. A robust coalition of Black, Brown, young, and college-educated white voters turned it out for a Biden-Harris triumph in Georgia.
All roads now lead back to Georgia to win both U.S. Senate seats to seize a Democratic majority in the Senate under a pending Democratic presidency. With Democratic contenders in a Black clergyman, and a young Jewish journalist against two stalwart Trump loyalist incumbents who failed to outright secure re-election, this pitch battle will be one for the ages, as vitally important as defeating Trump himself.
We must win in Georgia. We must. The work to beat back fervent attempts to keep racist Trump-ism alive and kicking for eternity is only just beginning. 72 million voters have just told us so. Wrestling these two seats from the death grip of a once grand old party consumed, devoured, and now anchored and branded by white nationalist fervor is the battle now.
Pushing with all get out to raise and secure that blue wall in Georgia matters. 5 million plus voters in Georgia stand between the majority druthers of 72 million voters for Trumpism to be represented in the Senate, and 77 million mega majority votes for sanity. Getting out the vote—again—in Georgia in January is the new imperative. Whatever we can give, whatever we can do to help some keen organizing sisters to turn out the vote in Georgia, do it. Keep the lights burning bright and blue in Georgia.
Andrea Shorter is a Commissioner and the former President of the historic San Francisco Commission on the Status of Women. She is a longtime advocate for criminal and juvenile justice reform, voter rights and marriage equality. A Co-Founder of the Bayard Rustin LGBT Coalition, she was a 2009 David Bohnett LGBT Leadership Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.
Published on November 19, 2020
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