"'LOL we don't need Warnock,' is what people say who haven't worked in Congress and don't know how it works.
Here are the differences that 51st Senator can make, just off the top of my head:
-
- A 51st Dem means no power-sharing in the organizing resolution. Dems have a majority on committees. No more deadlocks, no more discharge petitions for floor votes. That massively accelerates both the legislative process and the confirmation process.
- The individual power of the two chaos puppets (Manchin and Sinema) is drastically reduced. Both of them will now need to be opposed to whatever Dems are trying to do in order to block progress.
- The Senate is a gerontocracy. These guys are not healthy a lot of the time, or not present a lot of the time. We could have a death in a state with a Republican governor. A lot of things could happen. 51-49 versus 50-50 means you can have up to 2 absences/noes.
- A 51-49 majority means that VP Harris won't be required to be in DC to babysit the Senate all the time, and can actually be a much more effective VP who can be deployed for both policy and campaigning.
So the upshot is, work for Warnock just as hard as you could if you thought that Schumer's gavel depended on it. Because as far as you know, at some point in the next two years, it very well could."
(via Porcupinecheeks)
And to paraphrase a lot of the comments on his post, I suggest they move as quickly as they can on appointments and codifying abortion, gay marriage, and contraceptive rights. It needs to be a blitzkrieg of action, striking while the iron is hot. Also, the "We don't need…" mindset is what led too many people to sit out the 2010 and 2014 midterm elections and afterward they blamed Obama for not doing enough during his time as POTUS. And lastly, we don't want the caliper of person that Hershel Walker is in our United States Senate. There are already enough illiterate liars with no experience or knowledge of government holding those seats as it is.