This last post of the year to my Public Lands Blog is a bit different in that it focuses less on public lands and more on public democracy (though I haven’t forgotten public lands). It is also uncharacteristically short. I’m eschewing graphics, as any relevant images would be of politicians.
Annus Horribilis
One knows one is having a horrible year when the best one can say about it is that the American people (actually the Electoral College) rejected a second term for Donald J. Trump. Of course, a coup might still be attempted when Congress comes to actually certify those electoral votes in early January, but such would be in 2021 so it wouldn’t technically be counted as part of the receptaculum ignis (dumpster fire) that was 2020.
A public lands conservation colleague—who is very much in the front lines while I no longer am—observed that the interregnum between the election and the inauguration of the new president is by far the worst period. The conservation community must continue to resist members of the Trump administration (who are exponentially upping their wreaks of havoc as they prepare to leave government [many likely with pardons in their pockets]) and simultaneously pitch the forthcoming Biden administration to promptly reverse Trump mischief, fulfill campaign promises, and adopt other policies essential to the continuing function of the climate, nature, the economy, and the body politic.
A return to the prior status quo is neither desirable nor possible.
The presidency, long bounded by norms, has become boundless. In the long term, it is necessary to bound the powers of the president, but not quite yet, as those unbounded powers are necessary to reverse the unbounded abuses of the current president.
The Congress, like the nation, is as polarized as it has ever been since the Civil War. The era of bipartisanship is over. Bipartisanship occurred only because there was ideological overlap between the two major parties. There used to be liberal northern Republicans and conservative southern Democrats. The separation of the two parties along the ideological continuum is almost complete. Though still extant, Susan Collins (R-ME) and Joe Manchin (D-WV) are disappearing outliers. Moreover, while many Republican votes would support, say, the Endangered Species Act, those yes votes never occur because Republican leadership prevents any good environmental bills from reaching the floor for a vote.
The Supreme Court has five firm anti-environment votes out of nine. It’s not that those five justices actively detest nature and clean air and admire atmospheric carbon dioxide. It’s that protecting the environment has long been sought and achieved mainly through public policy, meaning regulations enforced by a large government bureaucracy. It is likely we will see a Supreme Court receptive to cases that challenge the very existence of government regulation—if not in itself, then for how it has been done.
Presidential Rollbacks and Rollforwards
With proper administrative procedure, a president can generally roll back the actions of a previous president. We expect Biden to do so.
With proper administrative procedure, a president can generally roll forward by improving government policies using powers Congress has already granted the president. We expect Biden to do so.
The rub comes when new and good public policies require new congressional approval.
To best address the simultaneous crises of climate disruption and species extinction (not to mention voting rights, systemic racism, economic inequality, prison reform, health care, the national debt, et al.), Congress needs to pass new laws. The only way Congress is going to enact any new significant body of law is if one political party controls the House of Representatives, the Senate, and the White House. Of course, I have a preference as to which political party it should be.
48–52? 49–51? Or 50–50+1?
The composition of the Senate for the next, 117th, Congress is in play.
If both Republicans win the two special runoff elections in Georgia on January 5, the Republicans will have 52 of the 100 seats while the Democrats will have 48 (actually 46 as two independents caucus with the Democrats).
If both Democrats win the two Georgia races, the Senate will have 50 Democrats and 50 Republicans. In cases of a tie, the vice president, who also serves as president of the Senate, breaks the tie. I’m confident that Vice President Kamala Harris would vote to promote Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) to majority leader and demote Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY) to minority leader.
If Georgians split their vote by sending one Republican and one Democrat to the Senate, Mitch McConnell remains in control.
Let me give one specific Oregon public lands example of the difference the outcome of the Georgia Senate race will make. It is hoped that Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR), with Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR) cosponsoring, will introduced an unprecedentedly good Oregon wild and scenic rivers bill in early 2021. The chances for its final passage into law—and the size the final bill will be—depend directly on which political party controls the Senate in the 117th Congress.
🎵🎶 Georgia, yeah, Georgia 🎵🎶
The most important thing you can do right now for Oregon’s wild and scenic rivers—not to mention democracy, justice, climate, nature at large, and the American way—is to donate some cash to help the Democrats take the Senate.
COVID-19 be damned, “So far this year, real disposable income per capita in the U.S. has gone up by about 6 percent year-to-date from last year,” says the NPR podcast The Indicator from Planet Money. “Right now, it’s on track to reach the fastest rate of growth since 1984.”
Most of you, dear readers, have more disposable income today than you did last year. You need to dispose of some of it, like I have, by sending contributions to entities seeking to send two Georgia Democrats to the United States Senate. This is why charge cards were invented.
Like the moonlight through the pines, the road leads back to Georgia.
Give here:
• Democratic Senate candidate Raphael Warnock
• Democratic Senate candidate Jon Ossoff
• Georgia STAND-UP (get out the vote for both candidates)
• Black Voters Matter Fund (get out the vote for both candidates)
• Fair Fight (get out the vote for both candidates; Stacey Abrams’s organization)
• UNITE HERE Take Back 2020 campaign (get out the vote for both candidates; recommended by Al Franken)
• New Georgia Project (get out the vote for both candidates)
If don’t have money and/or don’t live in Georgia, these entities also offer volunteer opportunities for non-Georgians to help out.
Happy New Year!
We’ll see. It will be either peachy or the pits.