The Science and Philosophy Forum

The Rev. Raphael Warnock has won a Senate run-off election against Kelly Loeffler, and will become the first black senator in Georgia’s history according to Decision Desk HQ.

https://twitter.com/DecisionDeskHQ/status/1346671627518566400

https://twitter.com/DecisionDeskHQ/status/1346716886340411392

Decision Desk HQ along with the New York Times are also predicting that Democrat candidate Jon Ossoff is likely to beat Republican incumbent David Perdue by a small margin in the other Georgia Senate run-off election (with 98% of estimated votes reported).

https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/01/05/us/loeffler-ossoff-warnock-perdue

The pollster Nate Silver’s Fivethirtyeight.com site (currently on pause) seems to agree with these predictions.

https://fivethirtyeight.com/live-blog/georgia-senate-election-results/

If confirmed, these results mean that Democrats will take control of the Senate because the seats would be tied 50-50, and VP Kamala Harris would have the casting vote. Chuck Shumer will become the new majority leader, and Democrats will become the chairs of all the committees.

So, Georgia has elected an African-American man and a Jewish man...the remains of Nathan Bedford Forrest are rotating at high rpm in his grave.

And I'd like to thank Shane Hazel, the man who made this thrilling completion of the Blue Wave possible. For those of you in far-flung places, Shane Hazel was the Libertarian candidate in the Georgia general election in November. Because he drew over a hundred thousand votes away from the incumbent Senator, David Perdue, Perdue was unable to secure the few thousand votes that would have given him the general election and made a January runoff election unnecessary for that seat.

In that case, the US Senate would have remained Republican-controlled.

Just a bit of Blue Wave music...

https://youtu.be/p13yZAjhU0M

That wave might be a tiny exaggeration - but, hey, they're entitled to one; gods know they've earned it!

Yep, a wee bit of exaggerating there. In fact, a fifty-fifty Senate, with the veep as a tiebreaker, will be unable to pass many pieces of major legislation which require a 60 vote majority to be enacted. What it does accomplish is smoothing the path for cabinet and judicial appointments, and that ain't small potaters.

There will be legislative initiatives where Biden, due to his bipartisan skills, may be able to woo nine GOP senators and get the needed supermajority. But these will be watered-down bills, for sure.

Once the furore dies down. After the instigator-in-chief retires to whichever of his golf-courses he's allowed on * and the whelp are busy with lawsuits of their own, the faithful grow tired of kicking their heels on the floor and fall asleep - at least until the next demagogue taps their unfathomable well of misdirected rage.
(*I long for news of him having to sulk in his plane on a runway in Scotland, for the duration of the pandemic. Petty, I know.)