Perception Meets Reality: The Election Glass Is Only Half Full

With election 2020 almost behind us, Democrats have found themselves in the proverbial glass half-full/half-empty paradigm. The voting populace have elected a leader whom they believe epitomizes the key qualities needed at this moment: compassion, empathy, integrity and a true moral compass. At his side will be the nation’s first black, Indian woman vice president, someone who has spent her life pursuing equality and justice for all.

Black women especially, but African Americans generally, along with the tribes, delivered the election results. But the promised policies that convinced voters to elect the Biden/Harris ticket are unlikely to be implemented with an unbalanced Senate, the makeup of which now hangs in the balance at 48–50 in favor of the Republicans.

The two Senate seats subject to run-off are both in Georgia. Senate candidates Rev. Raphael G. Warnock and Jon Ossoff are running against Republican incumbents David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler. Loeffler’s name came up in the course of an insider trading case earlier this year; Perdue continues to deal with his own insider trading case. If Warnock and Ossoff win, there will be a 50–50 tie in the Senate and then-Vice President Kamala Harris will be the tie-breaking vote. Without a Senate tie, most of the critical changes sought by 78+ million voters simply will not be achievable by the Biden/Harris administration.

In the middle of Barack Obama’s first term in office, Senate Majority Leader Mitch…