JOY: Jon Ossoff and & Rev. Warnock Win GA Election; SADNESS: Trump Mob Disrupts Congress

By MUUSJN on Friday, January 8th, 2021

First African American & First Jewish Senators Elected in Georgia!

GEORGIA VOTE GIVES DEMOCRATS CONTROL OF SENATE

CONTROL OF THE SENATE: People working for social justice won a victory today as two pioneering candidates, Jon Ossoff and Rev. Raphael Warnock, won seats in the U.S. Senate according to analysis by the Associated Press. Election of these two candidates means Democrats will control of the U.S. Senate which will have 50 Republicans and 50 Democrats with Vice President Kamala Harris serving as the tie breaker. This will make it possible for President elect Biden to get more Congressional action on his reforms.

HISTORIC CANDIDATES: Rev. Raphael Warnock, who preached at M.L. King’s Ebenezer Baptist Church, became the first African American elected as a Senator from Georgia. Michigan activists contributed time and money to this campaign. Efforts of Stacey Abrams and many grass roots organizations in Georgia helped register 120,000 more voters than participated in the November 3rd election. Many of these new voters were people of color. Jon Ossoff, according to the January 6th issue of Haaretz, became Georgia’s first Jewish Senator. As a matter of fact, he became the first Jewish Senator elected from a Southern State since the 1880’s. Both Black and Jewish persons were victims of attacks by white supremacist groups in Georgia like the Klu Klux Klan.

WOMEN’S & LGBTIQ RIGHTS AT STAKE: MUUSJN’s Interfaith Reproductive Justice Coalition has monitored many issues impacting women’s and LGBTIQ+ rights and have expressed concerns about President Trump’s attacks on the rights of these two groups. The Coalition was encouraged that President elect Joe Biden has a platform that includes reforms that would support progressive change for both groups.

THE ELECTION RESULTS: As of 8:35 p.m. on 1/6/21, the Associated Press reported that Rev. Raphael Warnock got 1.6% more (73,484) votes that Senator Kelly Loeffler; Jon Ossoff got 0.8% more (35,615) votes than Senator David Perdue. A recount would only be required if there was 0.5% or less differences between candidates. Georgia’s (Republican) voting implementation manager, Gabriel Sterling, projected that both Democrats would win. Sterling said 60,470 more absentee votes had to be counted, but all were in Democratic leaning areas.

TRUMP SUPPORTERS MOB THE CAPITOL! At the same day Congress was scheduled to vote to ratify electoral college results, #45 mobilized his supporters across the country to come to Washington DC to demand the electoral college vote for President elect Joe Biden should be overturned. There was mayhem as mobs pushed their way into the capitol, threatening the safety of members of Congress. For more information on this situation, click HERE to read an article in the New York Times “Live Updates: Congress Reconvenes Hours After Mob Storms Capitol as Pence Says, “Let’s Get Back to Work”.

STANDING UP FOR DEMOCRACY: Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell condemned the assault on the capitol as a “failed insurrection”. A number of people, including Trump’s former defense secretary, Jim Mattis, called out the President for “inciting mob rule”. Republicans across the government denounced the violence and, in some cases, Trump for inciting it. Vice President Mike Pence, exercising his legal duty to gavel the Congressional votes on electoral college results, said that today was a “dark day in the history of the United States Capitol”. Senator McConnell described this mob activity as an attempt to “disrupt democracy”… “they failed. They failed.” So today, January 6th, was a historic day. Democracy worked in Georgia and Democracy was preserved in DC. As of this writing, many Republicans have become more inclined to vote to accept the results of the electoral college than before the attacks on the capitol.

As citizens, we must continue to be vigilant to protect our democracy and advocate for justice during 2021. Martin Luther King Jr. and, before him, Theodore Parker (a 19th century Unitarian Universalist Minister) said “the arc of justice is long, but it bends toward justice”.

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