Patch Of Blue

By Hubie and Bertie

Jimmy Carter has famously said that he wants to live until the last guinea worm in Africa is eradicated. The Carter Center has made near-perfect progress on that: Cases of the horrific disease have declined from 3.5 million in 1986 to just 24. Now, we're happy to report that President Carter has also lived long enough to see a Democratic Presidential candidate carry his home state of Georgia.

Twelve years ago, Democrats marveled that we were able to flip Colorado, New Mexico and Nevada. Now, New Mexico and Colorado are totally gone for the Republicans at the Presidential level. And Nevada is a near-elusive dream for them. Meanwhile, this year we flipped Georgia and Arizona, put a scare in the GOP in Texas, and seized back the Blue Wall in the upper Midwest. 

The lesson here, as Stacey Abrams has proven in the Peach State, is that nothing is easy or quick. Like eradicating the guinea worm, it takes years of work, but it can pay off. In the words of that other Georgia son, John Lewis, "Change often takes time. It rarely happens all at once."

Memo to Team Biden: You cannot let a second go by in which you are not working on the next election. Government can't be above politics, because you can't govern if you don't win. Democrats, led by our new President, must continue to shore up Georgia, Arizona and NE-02 (and Nevada and Wisconsin-Michigan-Pennsylvania, et. al.). We need to figure out how to flip ME-02, and work to win back North Carolina. And someday, Texas will be ours, too.

Joe Biden will have the power, the megaphone and the fundraising capabilities of the White House. He needs to use them boldly.

Finally, here's a fun fact: The 2020 Electoral College results are a mirror image of 2016's — 306 for Biden, 232 for Trump. Don't forget that the Trumpsters described their reverse win four years ago as a "landslide" and a "blow-out." We'll take it. We cats PURR.