\n\n“But the FDR and LBJ examples show conclusively why visions of a transformational Biden agenda are so hard to turn into reality. In 1933, FDR had won a huge popular and electoral landslide, after which he had a three-to-one Democratic majority in the House and a 59-vote majority in the Senate. Similarly, LBJ in 1964 had won a massive popular and electoral vote landslide, along with a Senate with 69 Democrats and a House with 295. Last November, on the other hand, only 42,000 votes in three key states kept Trump from winning re-election. Democrats\u2019 losses in the House whittled their margin down to mid-single digits. The Senate is 50-50.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Further, both Roosevelt and Johnson had crucial Republican allies. In the 1930\u2019s, GOP Senators Robert LaFollette and Frank Norris were ardent advocates for organized labor. In the \u201860s, Senate Minority Leader Everett Dirksen gave LBJ crucial help in getting his civil rights agenda passed. When Medicare became law in 1965, it passed with 70 Republican votes in the House and 13 GOP votes in the Senate. In today\u2019s Washington, Kevin McCarthy and Mitch McConnell have been successfully working to keep Republican support for Biden\u2019 policies at precisely zero.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
…<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“The threats to a free and fair election that have emerged since last November are real\u2014and require nothing more than the willingness of state legislators to use and abuse the existing tools of government. Arizona, whose two new voting rules were just validated by the Supreme Court, also took the power to litigate election laws away from the (Democratic) Secretary of State and gave the power to the (Republican) Attorney General. In at least 8 states, Republicans are advancing legislation<\/a> that would take power away from local or county boards. Many more states are moving to make voting harder<\/a>. It might be anti-democratic, but it falls well within the rules.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Also within the rules: How McConnell helped build a federal bench almost certain to ratify the power of those legislatures to pass laws far more restrictive than the Arizona rules upheld last week. He creatively eviscerated Senate norms to keep Merrick Garland off the Supreme Court and hand Donald Trump an astonishing three nominations in a single term. And he\u2019s recently suggested that, should a Supreme Court vacancy open, he\u2019d block even consideration of a Biden nominee if the Republicans take the Senate back in 2022. This is abnormal, anti-democratic and a cynical abuse of power\u2014but it\u2019s legal within the existing rules.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n