News of Sen. Rob Portman’s (R-OH) retirement could be grounds for the latest reassessment of the historically-purple-but-lately-pretty-red state.

(First, I’d be grateful for tips, leads, info on the below from any and all regular senate – and now White House – sources either by email or secure channels.)

Democrats, particularly Senate Democrats, already face a stark choice about those “ground rules” I mentioned last week. As noted then, what’s at stake isn’t only effective action today but the ground rules that will shape the next two years and either doom or give Democrats a fighting chance in the 2022 midterms. Last night the Post ran a story headlined: “Fight over the rules grinds the Senate to a halt, imperiling Biden’s legislative agenda“. It’s part of an emerging genre about bulging to-do lists, Republican game-playing and impeachment trials slowing the Senate to a crawl.

What’s happening exactly?

Quite simply, Mitch McConnell is now using the filibuster to stop Democrats from becoming the Senate majority.

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A few thoughts and suggestions for moving forward in the Biden era, in no particular order.

Remember Mark Sanford? If you were a Golden Duke: Duke of Dukes voter this last time around, you most certainly will.

Republicans began by resorting to coups and even violent insurrections to overturn the 2020 election. Having failed at that they are now glomming on to Joe Biden’s focus on national ‘unity’ to insist that Democrats overturn it on their behalf by agreeing to the absurd proposition that unity means forgetting the 2020 election even happened. Most of us intuitively know that is a bad faith gambit. But it’s worth articulating what national unity means and does not.

Donald Trump, former President and current GOP leader, governed by making war on the so-called ‘blue states’. Supporters got cash and assistance, opponents got punished. This was a through-line from the first days of Trump’s presidency and the scope and consequences became more open and grotesque during the COVID pandemic.

Unity means governing on behalf of all Americans, not treating half the country like enemies. In the nature of things Biden’s vision of what to prioritize will match the platform he ran on. There are myriad particulars but in general more social spending, more focus on equity and social justice, renewed commitment to confronting the climate crisis. That is what happens when you win an election. That’s democracy, not divisiveness.

The Biden White House and the Democratic Senate face numerous substantive decisions in the coming days and months. But certain decisions, more procedural than policy, will set the tone and ground rules today and in the months and years ahead. They are critical. And they will have a profound impact on the breadth and success of policy-making over the next two and four years.

You’ll be familiar with these ground rules decisions in concept even if the particulars are technical and occluded in administrative and parliamentary jargon. In short, will resurgent Democrats use their lawful powers to enact their policy agenda or get wrong-footed and derailed by bad faith arguments from Republicans about norms, fairness, unity and the like? Will they be gamed into chasing Republican buy-in, the possibility of which will always be snatched away after it has served its purpose of forcing Democrats to fritter away time they need to deliver on election promises?

This was the great failure of Barack Obama’s presidency, one he fully grasped only late in his second term and after Republicans had used it to wrest away control of Congress and the Courts.

One year ago today the CDC announced the first case of COVID-19 in the United States.

The story we had ready if Trump had won re-election.

Also, special after-the-fact reaction from one of the experts on authoritarianism we had talked to for that story.

Most of us weren’t going to believe it until we saw it.

Joe Biden set a tone yesterday evening to listen rather than speak, to speak through our silences. I will try to heed that as best I can with only some brief remarks as we rest at this threshold. Where do we go from here? What do we make of all this? A lesson for us to learn and absorb is resilience.

So many terrible things have happened over these four years, so many things were harrowing and unimaginable. Most became inevitable the moment the country took the fatal step of putting a sociopath at the helm of the state. We were here four years ago trying to imagine what would happen. Resilience and an ethic of optimism are not only good strategy. They are an ethical stance toward life and a way to survive whatever the world throws at us.

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