Republicans late Wednesday night won a big vote in the Senate. With the help of Democrats Manchin and Sinema, they saved the filibuster and killed bad Democrat legislation. Of course, if they had a Senate majority it would never have come up for a vote.
That Georgia 2021 loss of the Senate majority, a day before January 6th, was the worst Republican political debacle of last year. And whose fingerprints were on both events? Donald Trump. Hell of a two days for the guy.
How is Georgia worse than January 6th? On the 6th Trump instigated a riot. It was a bad riot and a woman was shot and killed, though not by the rioters. But it was not an insurrection or a coup attempt, as many leftist types would have you believe. It was a gathering of idiots and mouth breathers that got out of hand. It wasn’t much worse than the afterparty of the first Jackson inaugural and the mess was cleaned up pretty quickly. Yeah, Trump absolutely provoked many, not all, into trashing the Capitol. But there are worse things. Like losing the Senate.
In November and December of 2020 Trump’s ego was crying out for revenge. Though there was lots of Dem cheating, Trump likely still lost the presidential election. Albeit, by a small margin. He had just said too many dumb things, sent too many bizarre tweets, to get reelected. So where did he think he could claim redemption? Georgia.
After the November results there were two runoffs in Georgia that would settle the majority in the US Senate. The Republicans had one strong candidate in David Perdue and one damaged by financial scandal candidate in Kelly Loeffler. Loeffler was up against a Marxist Democrat cleric, Raphael Warnock. His wacky ideology should have evened the scales. Perdue had a good chance against Democrat Jon Ossoff. Then Trump came to town.
By repeating stolen election fantasies and stealing the focus from Perdue and Loeffler, Trump crashed their party and brought his massive political baggage with him. Moderate voters who might have gone Republican in the Senate races were repulsed by Trump, his tone, and his inane charges. He was a Democrat godsend. By making the races about himself, not about issues or Georgia, on January 5th he cost the Republicans both races and the Senate majority.
So, a one day riot versus at least two years of a Democrat Senate. Which is worse? Granted, the Dems have tried to use January 6th as a call to arms. Look at Virginia, look at the Senate vote last night. It’s not working. But the fact that we had to expend time and energy fighting Schumer on the filibuster, and the Dems on other issues from the minority benches, is the fault of one man. If Trump gets the nomination in 2024, he may be at fault for much worse.