What Georgia wins would mean for Biden’s power in office

The president-elect can now lay claim to a marginally stronger mandate for his plans, writes Sean O’Grady, but perhaps the more significant thing about the imminent 117th Congress is what it will not do

As an old hand and senatorial dealmaker himself, Joe Biden well understands the limits of presidential power and the art of the possible (AFP/Getty)

As things stand, the Democrats will shortly be in charge of both houses of Congress as well as the White House for the first time since 2010. It is an outcome that few would have thought likely during the high noon of Donald Trump in 2016. His populist nationalist revolution looked permanent, the deep cultural divisions in American society driving an ever more hateful, polarised politics. The hatred and the divisions haven’t gone away, but the counter-revolution seems to have been successful.  

So the danger is to read too much into the moment. The last Senate contests in Georgia were extremely tight, and, ironically, it may have been President Trump's erratic behaviour since losing in November that tipped the seats into the Democrats’ hands. Mr Trump is good at mobilising his base, but now the Democrats are becoming better at getting their vote out. Black votes matter after all, it seems. Joe Biden is simply not as scary as Donald Trump, and that has left him in a relatively strong position. Yet it is relative. Mr Biden can now lay claim to a marginally stronger mandate for his plans. That will help him deliver some modest reforms to Obamacare (which he helped get through Congress in 2010 when he was vice president). He will also be able to pursue a more aggressive campaign against Covid, and almost certainly be able to rejoin the Paris Climate Accord. As provided for by the constitution, the Democrats will control domestic policy, defence and the federal budget (via the House of Representatives) and treaty obligations and foreign policy through the Senate and the White House itself. Mr Biden’s cabinet appointments and other key jobs (such as new Supreme Court justices in due course) will also be more smoothly approved by Congress.