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**JANUARY 6, 2021**

Kuttner on TAP

As Goes Georgia

****

The likely victories in Georgia not only vindicate the strategy of deep,
long-term organizing and increase the chances that the Biden
administration may actually be able to deliver benefits to suffering
citizens. They are also a hopeful harbinger for 2022.

Usually, midterm elections are a disaster for the party of an incoming
president. In 1994, Clinton's first midterm, House Democrats lost 54
seats. That was a modern record until Obama's first midterm in 2010,
when his party lost 63.

An exception to this pattern was 1998, when Democrats picked up five
House seats. What happened? Basically, Republicans overreached and made
fools of themselves when they sought to remove Clinton from office over
the Lewinsky mess.

The 2022 midterm could be more like 1998 than 2010 for three big
reasons. First, the kind of long-term organizing that produced the
Georgia win will be a model for other states. The on-the-ground work
that produced big midterm gains for Democrats in 2018, but was suspended
due to the pandemic, will likely resume and redouble by this fall.

Second, Biden is likely to catch a wave as he begins administering the
vaccine program far more competently than Trump, and as the pandemic
subsides. The related economic recovery will also occur on Biden's
watch.

But the most important resemblance to 1998 is the likelihood that
Republicans will make vivid fools of themselves again. We've had a
rollicking preview of that this week, and it will only continue.

By the fall of 2020, the image of the two parties will be of the Biden
administration trying to deliver practical help, and a grumpy and
fractious Republican Party blocking everything in sight. That plus a ton
of Georgia-style organizing could break the midterm jinx.

~ ROBERT KUTTNER

Follow Robert Kuttner on Twitter

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

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The Coming Electoral Crisis
The system
held-this time. But the Republican threat to American democracy is
real, and we may not be so lucky with the next election. BY PAUL WALDMAN

Record Turnout in Georgia, but Mostly Before Election Day

Expansive early voting made the in-person Election Day process
significantly easier. BY BRITTANY GIBSON

Another BlackRock Veteran Will Join the Biden Administration

Michael Pyle is set to become Kamala Harris's chief economist. Pyle
is not an economist. BY DAVID DAYEN

A New Ohio Law Could Require Public Records of Abortions

It's another way to shame women who exercise their right to choose.
BY MARCIA BROWN

Unsanitized: Time for $2,000 Checks

Democrats need to follow through as simply as the successful campaign in
Georgia. This is The COVID-19 Daily Report for January 6, 2021. BY DAVID
DAYEN

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