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**DECEMBER 21, 2020**

Kuttner on TAP

A Christmas Miracle

****

One can get vertigo reflecting on just what a close call this was for
the American Republic.

For starters, it is a miracle that Republican judges, from the U.S.
Supreme Court to the Wisconsin Supreme Court, as well as countless
district court and state court judges, had had a bellyful of Donald
Trump and refused to play his games. Given the hard-right partisan
makeover of the courts, this was in no way guaranteed.

It is a similar miracle that local and state Republican election
officials took more pride in doing their jobs well than in stealing the
election for Trump. Given all the voter suppression that Republicans
have carried out in past years, this was a pleasant surprise as well.

All of this suggests that more of the deep state, otherwise known as
core American democracy, is alive and well than we feared.

And it is miraculous that the Democratic Party at all levels, and the
entire grassroots infrastructure of the progressive movement, went all
in for Biden. Given that the fractious Democrats are famous for not
being able to organize a two-car funeral without bickering about the
details, this was in no way assured. But you have to go to the left wing
of

**Jacobin** magazine and the warmed-over far-left sectarian faction of
DSA to find some dunce who argued that Biden was not worth voting for.

It was a miracle that the COVID vaccine breakthrough did not occur even
two weeks earlier. Whether or not some vaccine makers held back good
news, we got very, very lucky.

It was a miracle that Putin decided to show off his hacker prowess on
everything but the election itself. He easily could have created enough
havoc on Election Day to throw the results into doubt and facilitate any
of the several Trump scenarios that, mercifully, did not come about.

Maybe Putin, having watched Trump do his bidding for four years,
concluded that all the useful damage had been done, and that Trump was
such a loose cannon that he might turn against Moscow next.

Of course, we will not fully exhale until Joe Biden is inaugurated in
just one month. And then the business of rebuilding can begin. But look
at all the bullets we dodged.

Blessings all around.

~ ROBERT KUTTNER

Follow Robert Kuttner on Twitter

Robert Kuttner's latest book is
The Stakes: 2020 and the Survival of American Democracy
.

[link removed]

What a Miserable 2020 Revealed About America

It exposed an impotent political system, a deadly mythology of rugged
individualism, and a Republican Party without shame. BY PAUL WALDMAN

Democrats in Georgia Senate Races Neglect Rural Voters

Their opponents' records in particular could provide an opening to
hold down margins in rural Georgia. BY DANIEL BOGUSLAW

It's Time to End the Korean War

Seventy years into the conflict, Biden can resolve the original forever
war. BY JESSICA J. LEE

Unsanitized: COVID Relief Success Depends on Vaccination Success

If the vaccine rolls out quickly, this is a good bridge. If not... This
is The COVID-19 Daily Report for December 21, 2020. BY DAVID DAYEN

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