The President Comes to Town

 

President Joe Biden is on his way to Crystal Lake. 

President Joe Biden will be in my neck of the woods today.  He will make an appearance at McHenry County College literally around the corner and a mile or so northwest of my Crystal Lake, Illinois house.  According to a somewhat sketchy public itinerary, the President should be greeted at O’Hare late this morning by Governor J. B. Pritzker, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot, and other dignitaries.  There will be a photo op and brief press statements, perhaps even a few moments of private consultation before Marine One ferries him to the MCC campus.  Pritzker will likely be on board as will Congresswoman Lauren Underwood who barely won re-election to her 14th District seat last fall despite a narrow loss in McHenry College.  The county was also the only Collar County that Biden failed to carry.

White House press know-it-alls seemed befuddled by the choice even though it fits with Bidens campaign to take his economic, educational, and family initiatives currently stalled in the closely divided Senate to Mid-western battlegrounds.  But Illinois is the most safely Blue state in the region and the trip doesn’t take him to an economically ravaged rust belt spot where he might appeal to disaffected working class voters.  McHenry County is traditionally Republican, mostly white with a growing Latinx minority, and for the most part comfortably middle class.  The pundit class shook their collective heads trying to figure out Joe’s choice.  Valuable time, it seemed to them could be better spent almost anywhere else.

Like  the President Congresswoman Lauren Underwood narrowly lost McHenry County last fall but is already campaigning hard for re-election.  Just after marching in the Crystal Lake Independence Day Parade on Sunday, she will be back with Biden at MCC.

But despite the 2020 election results, McHenry County has steadily been turning from deep Red to Purple.   Barak Obama carried the county in 2008 and narrowly lost it four years later.  State Democrats have fared very well.  Lauren Underwood and Sean Casten were elected to Congress largely thanks to the revulsion of suburban Republican women with the former Resident.  And even though red-meat Trumpists doubled down on their fealty to the former Cheeto in Charge, their victory was less than overwhelming, and Democrats were able to make important inroads on the County Board.  Republicans seem perpetually in civil war with themselves over who can stake out the most radical positions which are deeply unpopular with many.  There is political hay to be made here.

Be that as it may, local Democrats seemed just as surprised when Biden’s visit was first floated on Monday.  Neither Underwood’s re-election campaign nor the Democratic Party of McHenry County apparently courted a visit.  Pritzker and Lightfoot each could probably have picked a half-dozen better spots to shore-up their political fortunes or highlight pet issues.  Powerful Black Democrats who now dominate the Illinois House and Senate could easily get their noses out of joint by perceived snub. 

Local Democrats seemed just as surprised a national media pundits about Biden's visit to McHenry County.

Perhaps as White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said, the visit is about policy, not politics.  Kristina Zahorik who triples as McHenry Dem Chair, head of the Illinois County Democratic Chairman’s Association, and as a State Central Committeewoman, agreed telling the press: 

The event is not a political event. We are excited, however, that the president is highlighting our great community college and thank him and our Illinois Democratic delegation for supporting building back better with investments in the American Rescue Plan, the American Infrastructure Plan and the American Family Plan.

Indeed, those are the policy initiatives Biden plans to put front and center.

Vice President George H.W. Bush and Illinois Governor "Big Jim" Thompson in their October 1988 visit to McHenry County.

While this will be the first visit by a sitting President to Crystal Lake, it is not the first time we have been brushed by Presidential politics.  Back in 1988 Vice President George H. W. Bush made two campaign appearances at McHenry County College, in the run-up to the Illinois primary in which he faced Kansas Senator Bob Dole and again in the fall before he faced Democrat Michael Dukakis.  At the latter event he repeated the promise that would come back to haunt him—“Read my lips.  No new taxes.”

Former State Senator Jack Schaffer and Bush’s McHenry County campaign chair publicly claimed credit for both visits.  In reality they were kiss-the-ring homages to McHenry County GOP chair and State Central Committee Chair Al Jourdan, the undisputed political boss who built his powerful local organization by aping the Cook County Democratic machine with filled precinct captain slots beholden to the Party for patronage jobs, contracts, and the price of admission to the local power elite.

I was relatively new to McHenry County back then but remember watching Bush’s helicopter fly low overhead while I was picking up garbage outside of the old Crystal Point Mall in Crystal Lake that October.  It was an overcast, blustery day.  Inside the mall it was the excited topic of everyone’s conversations.  I took an outsider’s jaundiced view of the whole thing.

On both occasions Bush was accompanied by his wife Barbara and in November his entourage included Governor “Big Jim” Thompson and Congressman Phil Crane.  The McHenry County Republicans tightly controlled tickets to both events and the October visit also connected the candidate to deep-pocket donors.

The local press seemed to expect that County Dems would handle the Biden visit the same way.  But the Party was not handling tickets for the event.  It is unclear just who will be admitted to Biden’s remarks inside the College—faculty and students, perhaps carefully screened, and invited guests.  Just who those guests might be, are a mystery.  I apparently lack the clout to get such a pass.

Biden's American Families Plan will be a key focus of his local visit.

Biden is expected to tout the benefits of the American Families Plan, the expanded Child Tax Credit, and his $973 billion bipartisan infrastructure deal. The latter includes money to build a national network of electric vehicle charging stations, purchase thousands of electric buses, upgrade the electrical grid, spend $55 billion to improve drinking water and wastewater systems, and $47 billion to tackle climate change.  MCC, a community college leader in educating workers in industrial, agricultural, business, and medical fields is a perfect spot to highlight his educational plans including community college tuition support and some level of student loan forgiveness.

McHenry County College will host Biden's local appearance.  

There is general excitement here.  Some folks hope that he will somehow include a visit to downtown Crystal Lake on his trip.  Rumors swirl, unconfirmed.  The best bet to catch a glimpse of Biden will probably be on the grounds of the college but access will be limited with parking confined to a remote lot requiring a considerable hike.

MAGA morons are planning demonstrations, but they will be held well out of sight.  A heckler or two might get into the event.  Meanwhile excited Democrats want to turn out in support and some on the left maybe on hand to demand immigration reform, gun control, and Medicare for All.

With a hurricane bearing down on Florida and the East Coast, the final evacuation of most troops from Afghanistan, and a surge in Covid-19 Delta variant infections, hospitalization, and deaths in anti-vax Red states, don’t expect more than a couple of sentences sound-bite tonight on the evening news.

But we mere provincials will be talking about it for quite some time.

Election 2020—Shaking Out Illinois and McHenry County

As expected, Joe Biden won deep Blue Illinois.

 

Over the last couple of decades Illinois has gone from a swing state in Presidential elections to being among the deepest and most reliably Blue States along with the likes of Massachusetts, New York, and California.  It has gone for every Democratic Presidential candidate since Bill Clinton in 1992.  Not only does it deliver a near landslide popular vote and reliable Electoral College vote, but it keeps both Senate seats in Democratic hands, as well as almost all state-wide offices.  If it once showed a soft spot for Republican governors despite the shenanigans of bad-boy Rod Blagojevich the disastrous term of millionaire “reformer” Bruce Rauner may have put an end to that exception.

In the days of the old Daley Machine the Democratic vote out of Chicago, along with enclaves downstate was pretty evenly matched by GOP turn out in the rest of the state and especially by suburban Cook County.  But migrating Chicagoans stopped shedding their Democratic loyalties the instant they crossed into the County and now most, if not all of Cook is Democratic.  Similar movements spread to the collar counties giving Democrats control of Lake and Will Counties as well as making inroads in former Republican bastions like DuPage and McHenry.

This chart shows the explosive growth of the Democratic vote in the Collar Counties and in Downstate population centers.

All of this played out predictably this year in Illinois which was once nearly alone among upper Midwest rust belt states to remain reliably Democrat.  Joe Biden easily carried the state by a 56.5% to 42.6% margin.  Dick Durbin, the second ranking Senate Democrat coasted to a fifth term even though his margin was narrowed by gadfly Willie Wilson, a Black millionaire who previously ran for Mayor of Chicago.  Wilson’s candidacy seemed to be encouraged and abetted by Republicans to syphon off some Black votes.  Wilson did get 4% of the vote, but not enough to help out Republican nominee Mark Curran who could only muster a pitiful 40.5%.

The big news state-wide was the resounding defeat of the Fair Tax Amendment for a progressive income tax backed by Governor J. B. Pritzker to both address the state’s long term budget woes and deal with the economic impact of the Coronavirus pandemic.  Millions of dollars were spent on both sides for massive TV and other media buys.  The pro-tax campaign was out of the gate earlier and seemed to be attracting wide support.  Enter Illinois billionaires who funded a late ad blitz aimed at convincing, against all proof that the “politicians” will come after the middle-class and retirees next.  Anti-tax sentiment helped fuel Trump support in parts of the state, including McHenry County.

Governor J.B. Pritzker's new Covid-19 restrictions announced two days before the election helped fuel a Trump backlash.

Although it was not on the ballot Covid-19 and restrictions to combat the current second wave surge.  Early on Governor Pritzker’s firm response along with Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s aggressive policy helped keep Illinois from becoming a national hot spot.  But the state is surrounded by Wisconsin, Indiana, and Iowa where wide-open policies inevitably led to disastrous surges that could not be stopped at the border.  As Illinois numbers spiked to new records Pritzker imposed tight new restrictions on every zone in the state two days before the election.  It was deeply unpopular with businesses, particularly the hard-hit hospitality and personal services industries as well as with Covid-weary folks fearful of a new lockdown over a long winter.  Schools that had begun to cautiously reopen were forced to roll-back in-person learning and return to virtual computer classes to the dismay of frazzled parents.

Like the tax issue these resentments fed Trump’s claims that the pandemic was largely a phony issue, a hoax, and that the economy needed to opened up and damn the torpedoes.  Restaurants and bars in McHenry County and elsewhere announced that they would defy new restriction and local Republican office holders catered to them and egged on defiance.

Meanwhile Democrats managed to retain their seats in the House of Representatives including well established Jan Schakowsky and Brad Schneider on the North Shore and Bill Foster in the south west ‘burbs.  Progressive new comer Marie Newman handily won the seat formerly held by conservative anti-choice Representative Dan Lipinski.  First termer Raja Krishnamoorthi swamped a Republican challenger.

Freshmen Sean Casten (6th District) and Lauren Underwood (14th District) both won office in deep red districts and had a harder re-election campaign.  Casten, a businessman/scientist who has become one of the leading environmentalists in Congress beat back a strong Republican challenger and was able to claim victory on Wednesday with 52.1% of the vote over extreme right-wing firebrand Jeanie Ives. 

Representatives Sean Casten and Lauren Underwood each have survived efforts to unseat them.

Underwood—my Representative—is a young Black woman from an overwhelmingly White district. Despite her strong record as a leading health care reformer who kept close contact with voters through frequent district visits, town halls, and attendance at important local events, Underwood has narrowly lagged milk magnate and you-name-it-I’ll-run-for-it Jim Oberweis.  Trump clone Oberweis declared victory Wednesday but Underwood has refused to concede with thousands of mail-in, absentee, and overseas ballots yet to be counted.  Many of those are from Democratic leaning Lake County and McHenry County where Democrats overwhelmingly voted by mail.  As results trickled in, Underwood has steadily eroded Oberweis’s election night 800 vote lead.   Both she and many observers believe there are more than enough votes for her that are yet to be counted or reported to put her over the top.  Perversely, alone of all County Clerks in her district, Republican Joe Tirio is not reporting those ballots as they come in but will not announce them until the official canvas on November 18.  Underwood should win.

Of all of the Collar Counties, McHenry was most influenced by the late Trump surge.  Democrats here have been able to score victories in some recent national and state-wide elections.  Notably it went for Obama, Senators Durbin and Tammy Duckworth, and several state candidates most notably Secretary of State Jesse White have carried the county while locally Dems have begun to win County Board races.  But this year Trump easily carried the county by a 51% to 47% margin.  Durbin lost 45% to 50% with 2% going to Willie Wilson in an overwhelmingly White county.

Sean Casten in the 6th District narrowly carried the county as of Wednesday but Loren Underwood in the 14th had apparently lost the county as of election night.  Both however, benefited by the Democrats strong push for early voting and even with County Clerk Tirio’s determination not to release additional ballots opened after election night.  Casten will widen his lead and virtually all observers now believe that Underwood will gain enough votes for re-election.

Time ran out for McHenry County Board Chair Jack Franks.  

The biggest shock of the night was Jack Franks’ bid for re-election as County Board Chair to virtually unknown political neophyte Mike Buehler by a 53% to 47% margin even wider than Biden’s loss in the county.  Franks became the first Democrat in decades to break through total Republican dominance when he narrowly won a seat in the state House of Representatives in 1998 and went on to be re-elected eight more times by increasing margins and often with no opponent.  He was one of the most popular elected officials in the county and attracted state-wide notice for leading the attack on scandal tainted Governor Rod Blagojevich.  He was also a meticulous, aggressive campaigner.  He turned his attention to the McHenry County Board and heavily promoted the voter referendum that switched from a County Board Chair elected from their own ranks by members of the Board to a chair elected directly by county voters.  Then he stepped into the job he created in 2016.  As board chair he promoted shrinking the size of the board and aggressive budget cuts.  He cast himself as a Tax Fighter and pressed other local government bodies including school boards to match the 10% across the board cuts he made to the county budget.  Republican resented him stealing their tax slashing issue and chaffed at his attempts to extend the executive authority of the Board Chair.

But this time out, after un-proven allegations of improper sexual harassment during his years in Springfield, Republicans finally had an opportunity to paint him as a corrupt politician, not a crusading reformer.  It seemed to take the wind out of Franks’ sails.  By his own admission this time he did not significant fundraising relying on existing reserves in his campaign fund.  He did not campaign aggressively, failed to mount his signature letter to the editor campaign in which his loyal supporters submitted letters over their own signature that were crafted by the campaign, published and circulated little literature, and bought almost no advertising.  He claimed that he could rely on the fact that he had never lost an election and his reputation.  Republican showered Buehler with cash that he spent on lavish direct mail campaigns and tons of signs.  Franks strikes me as to smart a politician to be so self-deluded.

Another avenue for an attack on Franks was an attack on his county-wide referendum to abolish the county Coroner as an elective office and replace it with a hired forensic professional similar to a medical examiner.  This common sense reform should have been relatively uncontroversial, but it would have denied the Republicans of a sinecure for one of their political hacks and a modest reserve of patronage plums.  They flooded the county with large signs reading “Fight corruption! Vote No” with no bother to explain how an appointed coroner would be corrupt.  They also erected a billboard and distributed other yard signs depicting Franks as a lying Pinocchio, corrupt pol, and sexual predator.  The coroner referendum lost.

Democrats did not slate a candidate for Coroner since the referendum would have eliminated the elected position before one could take office.  They also didn’t slate candidates for States Attorney or Auditor.  Their only county wide candidate was Renee Overlee, a long-time employee of the Circuit Court Clerk’s office who faced her boss, incumbent Katherine Keef.  She was swamped by a 20% margin.

Democratic signs on a McHenry County lawn.

It was not all bad news for local Democrats, however.  Suzzane Ness edged incumbent Allen Skillicorn in an expensive battle that featured TV ad buys in the Chicago market.  Ness was strongly backed by pro-choice groups her opponent who would ban abortions even in the cases of rape, incest, or to save the life of the mother.

On the County Board Paula Yensen, the dean of Board Democrats won re-election from District 5.  She led a list of exceptional women Board candidates.   Theresa Meshes in District 1 and Jessica Phillips in District 2 are apparent winners.  Tanya Jindrich in District 3 was only 178 votes behind in her race and could pull ahead when the late vote count is finally released by the County clerk.  Democrats are poised for a gain of three seats on the Board—still a minority, but a stronger one.

For me the most disappointing local losses were the three supremely qualified judicial candidates—Beth Vonau, Jeannie Ridings, and Kimberly Crum Klein—each of whom ran strong, community based campaigns to break of the judicial old boys club. 

 

Election 2018—Much to Celebrate but Some Flies in the Ointment

Democrats celebrating gains in the House of Representatives.  Women, young people, and minorities propelled those wins.

It was a roller coaster night for Democrats, progressives, and those who hope to stop a slide into fascism.  But on the whole, there is much to celebrate.  I don’t mean to go into great detail, but here are some high and low lights and my take on them.

Despite the determined efforts of some TV pundits to pooh-pah a Blue Wave in the House and the significance gains Democrats did make—I’m looking at you Chuck Todd—it looks like Democrats not only take back the House, but will exceed most expectations after results of some tight races are called especially in California where a lumbering vote counting procedure can take weeks to announce final results.  Dems will probably end up with a net gain of nearly 40 seats which will prevent the defection of a handful of Blue Dog Democratic conservatives from advancing the Trump agenda in the House.

Even more impressive, Democrats topped Republicans by about 9% in all House votes cast in the nation.  Their gains would have been more impressive except for the heavily gerrymandered districts drawn by GOP legislatures.

But Democratic gains in a number of key races for governor and flipping some state legislative houses they now have a shot a drawing more equitable election maps after the 2020 census.  Despite a tough, narrow losses in Florida and Texas Senate races by rising Dem stars Andrew Gillum and Beto O’Roark and a still undecided Georgia race by Stacy Adams that is headed to court and a possible run-off election, Dems picket up 7 executive mansions previously held by Republicans including open seats in Maine, Michigan, Kansas, New Mexico, and Nevada and ousted two incumbent Governors, Wisconsin’s loathsome union buster Scott Walker, and Illinois’ disastrous Bruce Rauner.  Women won four of the open seats including a stunning victory by Laura Kelly in deep Red Kansas.

 

A lot of Democrats took the narrow loss of charismatic Texas progressive hard.  But the magnitude of his achievements in raising enromous amounts of cash from individual donors shunning PACs and special interests and in personally runing his direct-to-the -people campain appearing in every one of the Lone Star State's 200+ counties cannot be underestimated.  He redefined what  is possible in Texas and is a rising star for the progressive wing of the party.

In fact it was women who propelled Democratic victories across the country by not only showing up at the polls in record numbers but as fresh new candidates.  That included numbers of African Americans, Hispanics, two Muslims, two Native Americans, as well as some veterans.  The heavy shift of women, who out participate men in elections, is bad news for Republican who are widely viewed as the party of misogyny, because many former Republican women have probably left their old party for good.

Worse for the GOP, Millennials showed up to the polls in Droves and Democrats captured most of them.  Younger voters were particularly motivated by social issues including the protection of Gay and Transgender rights, gun regulation in the wake of school shootings and mass murders, equitable and fair immigration and asylum, a hope for relief from crushing student loan debt, and a general revulsion at racism, xenophobia, and anti-Semitism that has been fostered in the Republican base by Trump.  The wave of the Millennials already outnumbers aging Baby Boomers.

Young voters lining up to vote in Minnesotta.  Not only dide they show up to the polls in eyepoping numbers, they energied campaigns across the country.

In the wake of Trump’s success in Senate races in his base states, he has put his brand and stamp on the Republican Party.  Many so-called moderates in both houses—a half a generation ago most of them would have been considered hard conservatives themselves—have either retired or been ousted in House, replaced by Trump loyalists.  Trump has cut off appeal to Latin and Black voters, the LBGTQ community as well as women and young people.  His is the party of aging white men.  But whites will be a minority in the United States within twenty years and his base vote will slowly die off and fade away replaced by today’s young voters.  The future of the Republican Party is indeed bleak unless they can pull a rabbit out of hat.

A screen shot of NBC calling the Illinois governor race for J.B. Pritzker.

 If the Blue Wave did not impress Chuck Todd nationally, in Illinois it was a virtual tsunami.  Led by J.B. Pritzker his Lt. Governor running mate Juliana Stratton, plenty of cash to spread around, and fired-up armies of volunteers Democrats swept all statewide offices without breaking a sweat, picked up two suburban House Seats—Sean Casten in the 6th District and Lauren Underwood in the 14th--, increased their majorities in the state House and Senate, reached down to the county and local level boosting Democrats in Red suburban and Collar County races.  

Lauren Underwood celebrating her historic win in the drawn-for-Republican Illinois 14th Congressional Distict with supporters.

But Pritzker, who carried some baggage as a Billionaire who evaded property taxes by removing toilets from and empty mansion next door to his Gold Coast home, was actually outperformed by his down-ticket running mates including Kwame Raoul for Attorney General, Michael Frerichs for Treasurer, and Susana Mendoza for Comptroller.  Jesse White, the perennially popular Secretary of State won a sixth term with 69.4% of the vote topped the ticket.

Meanwhile McHenry County showed that it is still a tough nut to crack Republican stronghold with loyal voters showing up in droves on Election Day to counter strong Democratic turnout among early voters.  Yet the nut was at least cracked even if all the meat could not be extracted.

Sean Casten won his portion of the County although Lauren Underwood, despite a tremendous ground-game campaign and many visits here could not win her part.  She made up for that for that in Kane and DuPage Counties to win anyway. 

Jesse White was the only state candidate to carry McHenry, but he has won here before and is popular from regular appearances of his Jesse White Tumblers in local parades and festivals.

Democrats were blanked in State Senate and House races although Nancy Zettler came close in the 33rd House District with 48.73% of the vote.

Kelli Wegener was one of three Democrats who made it onto the McHenry County Board.

The real good news is that due to McHenry County’s quirky three member County Board system with no more than two seats open in off-year elections Democrats were able to pick up three seats bring a grand total to 4 out of 18 seats.  That will be the most Dems in living memory on the board.  Democrats Michael Vuuk in District 1, Suzzane Ness in District 2, and Kelli Wegener in District 3 all finished second three person races to win a Board seat.  Carlos Accosta in District 4 came within 187 votes in his race.

The Cheeto-in-Charge is gloating about his Red state Senate wins and will probably double down on the divisive rhetoric and hardly veiled racism that he believes won the day.  He has not yet grasp the peril that a Democratic House majority represents for him.

The bad news of Election night, of course, was the U.S. Senate where Trump’s relentless red meat rallies helped fire-up his base in an election map that heavily favored Republicans, They will increase their majority in the Senate by at least two despite Jacky Rossen flipping a seat Blue in Nevada.  Republicans turned out Democratic incumbents in Indiana, Missouri, and North Dakota.  Democrats staved off challengers in deep Red West Virginia and in Montana.  Races are still too close to call in Florida where incumbent Senator Bill Nelson is within .4% of current Governor Rick Scott and in Arizona where Democrat Kyrsten Simemea currently trails Martha McSally by .9%.  Both races will turn on absentee and provisional ballots and may result in re-counts.

Firm control of the Senate is most dangerous because it will give a free pass to boatloads of Trump hyper-reactionary judicial appointments, including one or two possible Supreme Court openings in the next four years.  Those lifetime appointments will warp the courts for decades and will be extremely dangerous for free speech, minorities, voting rights, reproductive rights, Gay and transgender rights, immigrants and asylum seekers, labor, general civil liberties, environmental regulation while being sympathetic to corporations and Christian pleas for exemption from many laws and regulations on the grounds of supposed freedom of conscience. 

Perhaps even more immediately dangerous, his Red state victories have confirmed to Trump that his instinct to use immigration as scare tactic, attacks on the press, and tacit approval White Nationalism and violence.  Chances are that he will double down on all of that.  He may even turn to his base for protection should the Mueller investigation get close to him, House Democrats unearth irrefutable evidence of criminal behavior in his personal or business affairs or prove collusion with the Russians.  He is not above raising the specter of civil war or even of pulling the trigger on one if cornered.

He will also continue to try to rule by executive fiat with growing confidence that a sympathetic court will not stop him.

The United States will undergo huge racial, ethnic, and age demographic changes in coming decades.  The Party of Old White Men is doomed.

The problem for Democrats is that at least until the demographic and generational changes discussed above fully kick in they are at a complete disadvantage in the Senate, which guarantees two Senators for each State serving six year terms.  Blame the Founders and the compromise between large and small states engineered by James Madison as the price of ratification of the Constitution.  Today the Southern, Border, and Western states carried by Trump in 2012 minus Florida, Texas, Missouri, and Arizona have a combined total 34 Senators despite having a total population less the California which has only two. 

We are hearing talk of a Constitutional Amendment base Senate representation on population.  But there are only three ways to accomplish that.  A new Constitutional Convention could be called, but that would open the entire document to revision perhaps putting the guarantees of the Bill of Rights in jeopardy.  No one outside the far-right fringes seriously supports a new Convention and they aren’t the folks likely to change the Senate.

Since small states will not to vote to reduce their influence in Congress there is no hope to reform Senate representation by Constitutional Amendment.

Both Congress and the States themselves can initiate a proposed amendment.  But Article 5 requires 3/4 of all the states to ratify an amendment for it to take effect.  It beggars the imagination that the many states with small populations would voluntarily vote to reduce their own influence in Congress. 

The Senate as we know it is here to stay whether we like it or not.  Even if Democrats win an overwhelming Presidential victory in 2020 and increase their majorities in the House they would likely still face a hostile Senate and definitely be restrained by a hostile court.

There are no easy paths in the continuing struggle ahead.  But continue to struggle we must.