Ring Out the Old, Bring In the New. By JIM GERAGHTY
Excerpt: I think President-elect Joe Biden and his administration will get stuck in the mud pretty fast. Biden was elected to not be Donald Trump, and he’ll manage that part of the job from the first minute. And maybe he’ll get some cooperation from Mitch McConnell here and there. Biden’s ability to get Democratic priorities enacted becomes stronger if Democrats win both Senate races in Georgia. Right now, I think the two races will split, as Georgians, exhausted after a seemingly endless season of attack ads dissecting four flawed candidates, hedge their bets. In almost any scenario, West Virginia senator Joe Manchin and Maine senator Susan Collins remain two of the most powerful people in Washington. Beyond that . . . Biden is a 78-year-old longtime senator who was elected to get the pandemic under control, not to enact a sweeping revolution of the economy and society. There just isn’t a legislative majority for the full Biden agenda, and congressional Republicans know what they oppose. They just can’t easily unify behind another alternative agenda, particularly on health care. After the chaos, partisan rage, and post-election whiplash of the Trump and Obama eras, polite gridlock could be good for the country, forcing Congress to build bipartisan majorities to pass legislation, and recognizing that no matter how much one vehemently disagrees with the opposing party, they deserve convincing, too.
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