The Wall Street Journal - USA (2020-12-01)

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL. Tuesday, December 1, 2020 |A19

W

hen the election was
called for President-
elect Joe Biden, pro-
gressives across the
nation breathed a
sigh of relief. But as the congressio-
nal results became clear, many of us
paused the celebration. Unless Dem-
ocrats win both Georgia Senate
seats in Jan. 5 runoffs, Mr. Biden
will be the first Democrat to face a
Republican Senate at the beginning
of his first term since Grover Cleve-
land in 1885. How can he even hope
to pursue a progressive agenda?

The concern is well-founded be-
cause continued gridlock would be a
disaster, blocking America from
working through its challenges. But
there is a way forward. Pundits are
prone to parse the electorate be-
tween red and blue, but voters are
much more complex. Millions who
cast their ballots for Mr. Biden or
President Trump support policy po-
sitions held by the other candidate.
That isn’t to argue that President Bi-
den should walk away from his
agenda and put his finger in the
wind. But it does suggest that, while
Republican senators may profess to
oppose the Democratic agenda, on
particular issues, they’re poised to
join a “coalition of the willing.”

Start with issues that

cross party lines. For some

ideas, look to November’s

state ballot measures.

How Biden Can Break the Senate Stonewall

Voters are more complex and less

partisan than is commonly appreci-

ated. More than a third describe

themselves as independents. In bal-

lot measures this November, various

Trump states embraced progressive

priorities—and Biden states turned

right as well. In Florida, where Mr.

Trump won by more than 350,000

votes, more than 60% of voters ap-

proved a ballot initiative raising the

minimum wage to $15 an hour. Mr.

Biden won California 64% to 34%,

but a ban on affirmative action was

upheld 57% to 43%. South Dakota

voted 54% to 46% to legalize mari-

juana, but supported Mr. Trump. Illi-

nois, which gave Mr. Biden a 16-

point margin, voted down a

progressive income tax. Three

months after voting for Medicaid ex-

pansion, Missouri went for Mr.

Trump. And previously red Arizona,

which Mr. Biden won by a hair, ap-

proved an income tax hike on those

making more than $250,000 to fund

the state’s schools.

Because these ballot measures

weren’t connected to candidate per-

sonalities or any larger narrative,

they offer an unvarnished view of

what people really believe and a

window into how to lead during a

period of divided government. No

Democrats and very few Republi-

cans want to replace Trump-era vit-

riol with Biden-era bickering, and

that should inform the way Demo-

crats at both ends of Pennsylvania

Avenue think about their legislative

strategy. With the filibuster still in

place, progressives will have no

way of forcing controversial legisla-

tion through the Senate, regardless

of what happens in Georgia. So the

White House will need to gain the

acquiescence of at least a handful

of Republican senators to drive

progress.

One strategy is to try to beat

moderate Republicans into submis-

sion, dreaming that a deluge of an-

gry phone calls, emails and social-

media posts will cow them into

supporting a progressive agenda.

While that may be emotionally grat-

ifying, it’s rarely effective. A more

promising approach would be to find

issues on which individual senators

would benefit politically from break-

ing with their leadership and sup-

porting President Biden’s plan. That

would allow for small compromises

that build the trust needed to ad-

vance bigger legislative priorities

later.

The minimum wage would be a

good start—if only because, as the

results from Florida reveal, millions

of Republican voters would support

raising the federal floor for the first

time since 2007. In the House, an

up-or-down vote would almost

surely pull GOP support. That would

then put pressure on the Senate,

where Republican members up for

re-election in 2022 would have rea-

son to jump on board. It would be

an auspicious start.

Next, the White House should

look to executive actions that can

spur legislative action. With a stroke

of a pen, President Biden will be

able to undo some of the damage

Mr. Trump has done on immigra-

tion—most notably to the Dreamers

brought to America as small chil-

dren who remain at risk of being de-

ported. And once Mr. Biden has

pushed as far as he can go with ex-

ecutive action, he can push Congress

to enshrine that policy in federal

law. That playbook can be applied

across a range of issues where Re-

publican legislators may have reason

to engage.

The same goes for the environ-

ment. Trump voters may recoil at

the phrase “Green New Deal,” but

many Republicans support clean wa-

ter and air. The Biden administra-

tion could strengthen fuel-economy

standards on its own, then turn to

Congress to create new incentives

for renewable energy. Likewise, Re-

publican legislators may resist

“Medicare for All,” but many want

to make prescription drugs more af-

fordable and end surprise medical

billing. Lawmakers can also build on

bipartisan progress on criminal-jus-

tice reform and find opportunities to

improve support for ex-convicts re-

entering society. Some activists

would see these smaller victories as

inconsequential. But these reforms

would make a difference in the lives

of ordinary people, and that would

help build political momentum for

bigger changes.

The core challenge for Democrats

is to prevent Senate Republican

leader Mitch McConnell from ap-

proaching the Biden administration

with the same obstinacy he used to

stifle President Obama’s agenda,

with mixed success. To make Mr. Bi-

den a single-term president, Mr.

McConnell would need to hold his

caucus in lockstep. Democrats can

counter by showing that they’re ca-

pable of building a “coalition of the

willing” one issue at a time.

Mr. Emanuel was a senior adviser

to President Clinton and chief of

staff to President Obama. He repre-

sented Illinois’s Fifth Congressional

District, 2003-09, and served as

mayor of Chicago, 2011-19.

By Rahm Emanuel

JIM WATSON/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

Joe Biden after meeting governors in Wilmington, Del., Nov. 19.

OPINION

Media Treat Trump’s Team Like Dogs, Biden’s Like Puppies

W

hen Joe Biden gets to the
White House, he will, it
seems, be bringing with him
a menagerie of domesticated ani-
mals, eager to roll over and have
their tummies tickled by a solicitous
first couple.
There will be Champ and Major,
the two German shepherds, one of
whom, like his master, is a veteran
of the Obama administration. There
will be the as-yet-unnamed cat who,
we learned last week, will prowl the
echoing halls of the executive man-
sion, no doubt mischievous and im-
perious by turns, like all felines.
Above all there will be a whole
pack of cuddly, playful, yelping pup-
pies, eager for attention and desper-
ate to please, gently nuzzling their
master and members of his adminis-
tration whenever they stoop to
stroke them or issue a kind word or
a stern command.
These fully house-trained pets
will sport White House press passes

and carry laptops and microphones.

They will project a vulpine self-re-

gard and profess a houndlike com-

mitment to hunting down the truth.

But it’s clear already that when

brought to heel they will have all the

independence of mind of one of

those nodding toy dogs that used to

adorn the dashboards of motorcars.

The level of critical scrutiny on

display so far from the national

press corps since Mr. Biden began

announcing the members of his ad-

ministration and its plans makes

Toto look like the Hound of the

Baskervilles.

There was the giggling excitement

from reporters last week when the

president-elect announced the latest

recruit into his expanding animal

kingdom. As I read the coverage

from supposedly serious news

sources, I tried to imagine for a mo-

ment what it would have been like if

President Trump had announced at

any point in the last year that he

was acquiring a cat.

“President Trump to Forcibly In-

carcerate Helpless Animal on Fed-

eral Property,” The New York Times

would doubtless have thundered, in

a multiple-byline, six-column front-

page blockbuster. CNN would have

featured interviews all day with sci-

entists about how cats are Covid

superspreaders and how this was

the latest act of irresponsibility on

the part of a president who had al-

ready murdered a quarter-million

Americans.

To be fair, we are all suckers for

new pets, and excitable reporters,

like small children, can be forgiven

for falling hopelessly for cute ani-

mals. But how does this apply to

John Kerry?

The former secretary of state’s

anointing as special envoy on cli-

mate change has elicited mostly af-

fectionate coverage from most of our

media watchdogs. So too the rest of

the foreign-policy team. We have

been treated to lengthy profiles of

Antony Blinken, the designated sec-

retary of state; Jake Sullivan, na-

tional security adviser; Avril Haines,

director of national intelligence;

Linda Thomas-Greenfield, ambassa-

dor to the United Nations. All high-

light their impeccable credentials,

their experience in previous Demo-

cratic administrations, and the con-

trast they represent with the dilet-

tantes and extremists of the Trump

administration. There’s the occa-

sional dissenting voice but the over-

all message is carefully consistent

with Mr. Biden’s own gloss: “America

is back.”

You’d think at minimum that an

inquisitive press corps would want

to examine all this experience, that

the reader might have questions

about what these giants of American

security strategy contributed to an

Obama administration that, as even

its friends overseas acknowledge,

produced a desultory and confusing

foreign policy that did nothing to ar-

rest the decline of American prestige

in its eight years.

On economic policy, we are told in

awed tones that Janet Yellen’s ex-

pertise and experience in what will

be the three top domestic roles—at

the White House, Federal Reserve

and now Treasury—makes her

uniquely qualified. But there’s al-

most no critical assessment of the

role she played, especially at the

Fed, in the accelerating financializa-

tion of the U.S. economy, with all the

baleful consequences that has had

for most American workers and their

living standards.

There’s a larger point here about

the rot in America’s institutional

leadership that, in part at least, the

Trump administration was elected to

undo. In its largely celebratory cov-

erage, the press is unwittingly em-

phasizing what this restoration rep-

resents: the triumph of its own class.

It is highlighting how completely in

lockstep the various elements of the

new and old establishments now are:

the media and tech platforms, the

global corporate bossocracy, the

vast, overfed Washington policy

crowd, whose different characters

pop in and out of government with a

change of president without leaving

a footprint on the receding sands of

American leadership.

Harry Truman famously reminded

us that canine friendship is the only

enduring loyalty when things go

wrong in Washington. Joe Biden and

his administration will at least have

plenty of other friends to provide

comfort as they set out on yet an-

other familiar journey.

The largely celebratory

coverage unwittingly

emphasizes the triumph

ofthepress’sownclass.

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Fake Claims About Dominion Voting Systems Do Real Damage

A

ccurate, transparent and ac-
cessible elections—this is the
objective that motivated me to
create Dominion Voting Systems 18
years ago in Canada. From the start,
the company was focused on im-
proving paper-based voting, and it
continues to pursue vote-tabulation
solutions that enhance accuracy and
transparency through audits and re-
views, as well as by allowing voters
to create, verify and privately cast a
marked paper ballot. But if you’ve
heard about our role in the U.S. elec-
tion on Twitter, it’s likely you’ve
heard something different.
The allegations against Dominion
are bizarre, but I’ll set the record
straight. Dominion is an American
company, now headquartered in Den-
ver. Dominion is not and has never
been a front for communists. It has
no ties to Hugo Chávez, the late dic-

tator of Venezuela. It has never been

involved in Venezuelan elections.

None of Dominion’s systems use the

Smartmatic software that has come

under attack, as any state certifica-

tion lab could verify.

There is no secret “vote flipping”

algorithm. Third-party test labs, cho-

sen by the bipartisan Election Assis-

tance Commission and accredited by

the National Institute of Standards

and Technology, perform complete

source-code reviews on every feder-

ally certified tabulation system.

States replicate this process for their

own certifications. Postelection can-

vassing and auditing also exist to

provide additional assurance of the

vote totals’ accuracy.

The part of the election process

on which Dominion focuses is highly

regulated and certified. The com-

pany doesn’t work in noncertified

areas such as voter-registration sys-

tems, poll books or signature-verifi-

cation software, and it doesn’t pro-

vide vote-by-mail printing. Dominion

voting machines do one thing: accu-

rately tabulate votes from county-

verified voters using a durable paper

ballot controlled and secured by lo-

cal elections officials.

Some of the main counties where

results have been contested, like

Philadelphia and Allegheny (Pitts-

burgh), don’t even use Dominion

voting systems. In fact, across the 14

Pennsylvania counties that use Do-

minion systems, President Trump

received 52.2% of the vote.

Despite the company’s limited

role in elections, it has been the

target of a stream of outrageous

statements since Election Day—in-

creasingly reckless and defamatory

allegations that don’t stand up to

scrutiny. Dominion is never able to

affect the outcome of an election.

The entire certification process

makes sure of that. Regardless, the

company’s focus has always been

to be nonpartisan and respectful of

all views. Dominion’s customers

are election officials from both

parties in the 28 states where it

operates.

Unlike its critics, Dominion has

had to attest to every part of its

business ownership and operations

to governmental agencies and in

courts—under oath and penalty of

perjury. We believe it is important

to welcome the highest degree of

scrutiny and transparency in the

election process. This builds trust

and leads to more resilient and ro-

bust elections. The widespread dis-

information campaign America cur-

rently faces, however, does the

opposite. Baseless and ludicrous

smears are presented without evi-

dence and amplified across social

media.

These attacks undermine the tens

of thousands of state and local offi-

cials who run our elections. When it

comes to counting ballots, officials

have established a distributed, mul-

tilayered system with checks and

balances, in which robust safeguards

ensure that no one needs to trust

blindly any person, company or

technology. Here are some of the

safeguards in place in Georgia,

where the Trump campaign has con-

tested the result:

• Tabulation machines are tested
  publicly, before bipartisan witnesses,
  before and right after Election Day.


• On Election Day, poll workers—
  not Dominion systems—verify voters’

identities, including a signature check.

• Voters mark a paper ballot to
  vote. Absentee voters use pens,
  while in-person voters use “ballot
  marking devices,” which display a
  digital ballot for voters to make a
  selection and then print a paper re-
  cord. In both cases, voters verify the
  marked paper ballot before casting
  it in a secure ballot box through an
  air-gapped scanning tabulator.


• After polls close, results are tal-
  lied by local officials. Paper ballots
  are safeguarded by thousands of poll
  workers distributed across 2,656
  precincts.


• The Georgia Secretary of
  State’s Office certified election re-
  sults after hand-auditing five mil-
  lion ballots, which showed that the
  paper-ballot voting system counted
  and reported results accurately. The
  small change to the final tally was
  due entirely to the addition of bal-
  lots that had been uncounted due to
  human process errors.


• The state also enlisted Pro V&V,
  a certified third-party testing labo-
  ratory, to audit a random sample of
  Dominion machines. No tampering
  was found.
  The wild allegations of recent
  weeks have fueled the harassment of
  election officials and Dominion em-
  ployees across the country—includ-
  ing stalking and death threats. The
  lies and smears have no basis in
  fact, but they do real damage to our
  democracy by casting doubt on the
  legitimacy of the electoral process.
  The false allegations should be re-
  tracted immediately.
  Citizens should know that Amer-
  ica’s rigorous, layered and transpar-
  ent electoral process—in which Do-
  minion is proud to participate—
  ensures its elections are secure,
  accurate and credible.

Mr. Poulos is president and CEO

of Dominion Voting Systems.

By John Poulos

Our machines have no

secret ‘vote flipping’

algorithm. We have no ties

to dictator Hugo Chávez.

Karol Markowicz writing in the

New York Post, Nov. 30:

“Why is my school closed,

Mommy?” asks the sweet fictional

child who has stopped going to

school for no apparent reason. “I

haaaaaaaaate Zoom,” screams the

real child rolling on the floor, while

his teacher repeatedly asks little

Sally to mute herself and little Billy

to put his shirt back on....

While the media have published a

slew of articles on how to talk to your

kids about the election, racism and

other tough topics, none has ad-

dressed how to help kids understand

why school inexplicably opens and

closes....Letmetakeashot at a

sample “lesson plan.”

Start by teaching your children

not to love politicians.

Notable&Quotable