大象传媒

On Friday, Nov. 13, most major news networks projected that former Vice President Joe . That didn鈥檛 change the fact that any neutral observer had the election as a whole.

That would seem to have put the race behind us, even as several lawsuits by the Trump campaign continued to be . (Even some of Trump鈥檚 from these obviously frivolous cases鈥� getting involved in cases so lacking in evidence.)

Our election system, the foundation of our democracy, has been put to a test, and it鈥檚 passed鈥攂arely.

But the race isn鈥檛 over. The balance of power now rests on the outcome of two races for U.S. Senate in Georgia on Jan. 5. Early voting begins Nov. 18, and the stakes could not be higher. If Democrats pick up both seats, Vice President-elect Kamala Harris becomes the tiebreaking vote in a chamber split 50-50. If Republicans manage to hold on to just one seat, however, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell remains the most powerful person in Washington, D.C., as he鈥檚 been since Republicans took the chamber in 2014. And there鈥檚 no doubt he would continue to use every bit of his power to obstruct any significant reforms from the Biden administration, let alone anything on a progressive wish list.

All this is why the organizing efforts led mostly by Black women have been critical. The New Georgia Project this year . And Fair Fight Action, founded by former gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams, has fought to protect and restore voting rights to Georgians unfairly disenfranchised by strict laws.

The impact of those efforts can鈥檛 be downplayed, because there is so much at stake for the country, and not just about whether Biden will be able to meaningfully enact an agenda in the face of unified Republican opposition.

The U.S. is now in a very dangerous period. Trump himself hasn鈥檛, and won鈥檛, concede the election, because he鈥檚 . Meanwhile, the Republican Party, with few exceptions, , , or otherwise refusing to acknowledge Biden鈥檚 victory.

This has extended into the apparatus of the federal government. Notably, a relatively obscure that would acknowledge Biden鈥檚 victory and provide millions of dollars in resources set aside to facilitate the transition between administrations. Other , including the coronavirus task force鈥� despite the fact that .

Already we鈥檝e seen Trump鈥檚 more militant supporters threatening and committing violence. They tried to stop the counting of votes in the states where Trump led on election night, or insisted on recounts in those where he fell behind. Now in the interregnum we鈥檝e seen the 鈥淢illion MAGA March鈥� on Washington, D.C., (actual attendance: likely ) that later between Trump supporters and counter-protesters.

We鈥檝e seen at least one . We鈥檝e seen the president鈥檚 former adviser . Trump supporters even staged a , as if they were still fighting the 2016 election.

Before the election, the Transition Integrity Project brought together professionals from both parties to 鈥済ame out鈥� post-election outcomes. Most of the results of the exercise ended in violence in America鈥檚 streets, and the group : 鈥淭ransition teams will likely need to do two things simultaneously: defend against Trump鈥檚 reckless actions on his way out of office; and find creative solutions to ensure landing teams are able to access the information and resources they need to begin to prepare for governing.鈥�

That chaos has come to pass, with notable , to make it hard to remove them, and Trump鈥檚 refusing to let the government talk to Biden鈥檚 team.

This is why Georgia matters. This election, after four years of the Trump administration鈥檚 dysfunction, corruption, malign neglect, and authoritarian drive to consolidate power for decades to come, 70 million people still said they鈥檇 prefer four more years of the same to what promises to be more or less competent leadership from President-elect Biden. Even so, the Biden administration and activists hoping to seize the moment and propel the country leftward will have to contend with a likely Republican-held Senate and Trump鈥檚 to federal judgeships, including 53 Appeals Court judges and three Supreme Court justices, with 32 nominations still awaiting Senate approval.

This should not have been a close one. And if it weren鈥檛 for a lot of organizing at the ground level, including in Georgia, it wouldn鈥檛 have been: Trump would have repeated his 2016 Electoral College win, and the American experiment would come to an undignified end.

In Georgia, that organizing drove turnout to up to a record 5 million votes cast in the state, helping . That same organizing also helped Nikema Williams, the state Democratic Party chair, win election to the late John Lewis鈥� seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, and brought the Senate races into a hair鈥檚 breadth of a Democratic victory. Georgia saw record turnout among Black voters and young voters. But voters also stood in long lines during a pandemic, faced , including the discovery during a hand recount of that hadn鈥檛 been uploaded, narrowing Biden鈥檚 lead by about 800 votes.

. She knows the stakes, because if anyone has a claim to having an election stolen, it鈥檚 Stacey Abrams. She lost her 2018 governor鈥檚 race to Brian Kemp by 55,000 votes鈥攁fter Kemp, who, as Georgia鈥檚 secretary of state, had the year before the election, then remained on the job to oversee the election in which he was a candidate. Then, a month before the election, under the state鈥檚 strict 鈥渆xact match鈥� voter ID law. Predictably, . And since 2012, 鈥攁gain, mostly in poor and minority communities.

Fair Fight sued and got in time for the 2020 election, helping turn the Peach State blue. If Democrats pull off the two Senate races, Abrams and her cohort may wind up being the only reason why there is any hope that Biden will be able to effectively govern.

But Abrams has been doing this for years, in the Georgia Legislature, founding the New Georgia Project in 2014, and Fair Fight Action in 2018. She and her co-organizers built this movement from the ground up for close to a decade before the Democratic National Committee provided any institutional support.

Republicans have been playing a longer game for a longer time than Democrats. The Republicans early on invested in local races at the state and municipal level, building up a back bench of talent they can draw on. Meanwhile, , and tended to focus attention on swing states. That鈥檚 a battle that鈥檚 won some results, but often at the cost of races elsewhere鈥攖he party lost seats in the House of Representatives this year, and didn鈥檛 flip any state legislatures.

Georgia shows that progressive change can happen. But if the national Democrats want to see more of that, they need to do what the Republicans have done, and what Stacey Abrams, the New Georgia Project, and Fair Fight Action have done: Start building from the bottom up. That鈥檚 the real foundation of democracy, and without it, any progressive wins are likely to be temporary.