What would Ray say...?

January 08, 2021 | Mark Ryan


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I fell asleep last night feeling heavy angst over the Georgia senate election. Would democrat wins surprise and topple the market’s recent good mood?

 

(Insert wavy dream sequence graphics here)

 

 

In my restless night sweat, Ray Charles was standing in the blowing snow singing “Georgia” while Frosty the Snowman danced along, with a snowy whirl of NYSE trade tickets flurrying around him.

I was sitting in front of Lucy (from Charlie Brown Christmas), under her scribbled sign: “Psychiatric Help 5 cents.” Reaching desperately for pocket change, instead I pulled out Charlie’s precocious little sister Sally, who was nattering on about something, and quickly morphed in to Donald Trump, repeatedly bugling: “All I want is what was coming to me. All I want is my fair share!”

 

Ray faintly crooned above the storm:

 

“Georgia, Georgia

Yeah

No no, whoa

No, no, no peace I find.”

 

Which was exactly what I was afraid of.

 

Trump had kicked the Jolly One out of his sleigh, and stole away in the wintery blast. This left Rudolf and I stuck with Frosty and all the misfit toys. But that famous “very shiny nose” was covered with a thick COVID mask, and everything was a foggy soup. Trump flew wildly in his sleigh-jet looking for lost votes, and, meanwhile, Steve Jobs sat, smirking dryly above it all on a puffy cloud in white jeans, occasionally tossing frozen apples at whoever annoyed him at that particular moment.

 

Morning broke with two impending Georgia victories. This will bring the Senate count to 50/50, giving vice-presidential-elect Camilla Harris the tie-breaker.

 

So Now what?

 

A tied Senate gives focal power to known moderate senators. Joe Manchin of West Virginia is the most well-known moderate Democrat, along with fellow Dems Mark Kelly and Kysten Sinemawho. Meanwhile Montana’s Democratic Senator, Jon Tester will need to consider his increasingly republican base. Utah’s Mitt Romney, a moderate republican will also be in the spotlight, with or without Rudolf’s shiny nose.

 

Take Your Vitamins!

 

A 50/50 Senate also means that the death of a Senator can change everything. Since governors appoint vacant senate seats, if a Democratic Senator from a state with a Republican Governor dies the new Republican appointed Senator would switch the line up to 51/49. Or the opposite…

 

Democrats taking control of the Senate will make life easier for the first two years of the Biden Administration, but the American system has enough checks and balances to hold back the crazy (think about that for a moment). In short, it probably won’t result in a flood of extreme legislation.

 

To close off the strange dream, Ray Charles piped in with a stirring rendition of “Hit the Road Jack,” while Frosty jigged a funky shake with Mrs. Clause.

 

Happy New Year.

 

Mark