The Black Star News is endorsing Rev. Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff in this Tuesday, January 5th Georgia runoff elections for the U.S. Senate.
The State of Georgia is on the minds of many Americans right now.
And Georgia should be, since Jan. 5th is almost here.
Joe Biden’s Presidency, and possibly American democracy, hinges on the outcome of this Tuesday’s Georgia runoff races for the final two U.S. Senate seats.
If Democratic hopefuls Rev. Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff are victorious, Democrats will control the U.S. Senate. This will allow President Joe Biden to pursue his agenda more fully without GOP impediments.
But if any one of the two incumbent Republicans senators, Sen. Kelly Loeffler or Sen. David Perdue, retain their seats Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell will be able to continue his legendary obstructionist tactics killing much meaningful legislation pursued by Biden and Democrats.
Senator McConnell, who has described himself as the “Grim Reaper” of the U.S. Senate, enjoys his current role as the king of senatorial sabotage.
Not long after Barack Obama was elected America’s first Black president, McConnell, in an October 2010 interview, said, “The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president.”
Although he was unable to do that, McConnell and the Republicans did much damage by repeatedly blocking many elements of President Obama’s policy agenda during his presidential term. After becoming Senate Majority Leader, McConnell spearheaded an ongoing campaign of blocking Obama’s judicial nominees, like Judge Merrick Garland nominated for the Supreme Court.
If McConnell is still the Senate Majority Leader after Tuesday’s runoffs in Georgia, President Biden will face the same obstructionist tactics, if not worse, that President Obama faced—and those who have suffered much, and are still suffering, because of the damaging impact of COVID-19 will see little meaningful relief.
McConnell has just killed the push by Democrats to raise COVID relief payments—which was also given lip-service by Trump—from a measly $600 to $2,000. And the only reason struggling Americans will be even getting that $600 is because McConnell’s calculated strategy is that the Georgia Republican candidates, Sen. Purdue and Sen. Loeffler, would use it as a campaign ploy to get them re-elected.
Indeed, both Purdue and Loeffler were against the $2,000 payments before Trump’s declaration of supporting these payments—which were only made because Trump was upset with McConnell for saying the Electoral College had spoken and Biden had won the election. Now, in a move to satisfy Trump, while killing any real chance that the $2,000 payments would be given, McConnell attached the creation of a commission to investigate so-called voting irregularities, in the 2020 Election, to the bill.
As the pandemic continues to ravage America, Republicans have dusted off their hypocritical fiscal conservative argument by saying giving struggling Americans the $2,000 direct payments would add too much to the national debt.
What a specious argument at such a deadly time.
When Republicans want to ram through the latest bloated military budget, they say nothing about the national debt and push the fear card about the need to protect America. Can there be any better moment to add to the debt than to preserve and protect the lives of Americans now in this time of COVID?
We are witnessing a historic health crisis. But Republicans are saying Americans don’t deserve help to get us through this time of national travail.
Why don’t we, somehow, ever hear this fiscally conservative argument about the national debt when Republicans are busy giving tax breaks to the wealthiest?
Sen. Purdue and Sen. Loeffler have both been implicated in insider trading scandals, regarding making money on the COVID-19 pandemic—while, like Trump, downplaying the dangers of the health crisis. These lawmakers were padding their financial portfolios while COVID was killing Georgians and other Americans.
And Jon Ossoff, in a debate, said this, “My opponent, Senator David Perdue, is the embodiment of that corrupt system. This is a guy who’s been caught selling meetings for corporate PAC checks, who puts lining his own pockets ahead of service to the people he represents, whose stock trading is among the most egregious political misconduct in Georgia political history.”
Ossoff also said this directly to Purdue, “It’s not just that you’re a crook, Senator. It’s that you’re attacking the health of the people that you represent. You did say Covid-19 was no deadlier than the flu. You did say there would be no significant uptick in cases. All the while you were looking after your own assets and your own portfolio.”
It was, therefore, not surprising when Sen. Purdue, in a cowardly fashion, refused to debate Jon Ossoff for these runoffs.
Sen. Kelly Loeffler is another horrible example of racist Republicans. Loeffler, as co-owner of the WNBA Atlanta Dream team, attacked the Black Lives Matter movement during the protests after George Floyd’s murder and criticized the Black athletes who spoke out against ongoing injustices by police. She has also attacked the LGBTQ community.
Loeffler’s hypocrisy is stunning.
This white woman, who makes tons of money off of Black, and gay athletes, is attacking the very people who fill her filthy pockets with money while sending her blessings to the continuation of systemic racism. This outrage led Dream players to call for her removal as a WNBA owner. Moreover, those players have enthusiastically endorsed Rev. Warnock.
And then Loeffler was photographed smiling with known white supremacist Chester Doles. Her campaign claims Loeffler didn’t know who Doles is, but the evidence does not seem to support that assertion. And given the power of white supremacists, as a voting bloc in the Republican Party, it isn’t surprising to see Sen. Loeffler pictured with a Klansman who was convicted of a racial attack.
Over the last year, COVID-19 has caused much pain and misery. Both Democratic candidates have made it clear that Americans must have more support to survive this pandemic, and both have articulated the need for better overall healthcare for Americans moving forward.
Rev. Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff on all the issues are obviously more progressive than Loeffler and Purdue. Warnock and Ossoff are also articulating a vision for the problems that are especially concerning to Black Americans like the state of healthcare, jobs, education, voting rights—and the hot-button topic of criminal justice reform, including the out-of-control issue of racial policing where Black Americans are abused and murdered with impunity.
None of these problems will be advanced for Georgia, or Black America, if either Loeffler or Purdue are re-elected to the U.S. Senate—which allows Sen. Mitch McConnell to retain his title as U.S. Senate Majority Leader.
This is why Tuesday’s runoff elections in Georgia is one of most momentous in American history.
And this is why we at the Black Star News endorse Rev. Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff to be the next two U.S. Senators for the State of Georgia.
