Only In America

“Much like the mythological ‘kraken’ monster after which plaintiffs have named this lawsuit, their claims of election fraud and malfeasance belong more to the kraken’s realm of mythos than they do to reality,” Georgia Governor Brian Kemp and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said, in a weekend filing seeking a dismissal of lawyer Sidney Powell’s cartoonish “kraken” suit, which alleges a conspiracy so outlandish that even Rudy Giuliani was compelled to tacitly disavow it.

Late last month, Powell accused Kemp of crimes during a wholly bizarre interview with Newsmax. The unfounded allegations were met with incredulity and derision from virtually all corners. Chris Christie, for example, called Trump’s legal strategy a “national embarrassment” and lambasted Powell’s allegations against Kemp as “outrageous.”

On November 22, she was effectively removed from Trump’s five-member “elite strike force,” as attorney Jenna Ellis infamously described the outgoing president’s legal team during a farcical press conference that became an internet sensation when Giuliani’s hair dye began running down the side of his face. That event was attended by “strike force” member Joe diGenova, who got himself into a bit of hot water last week for saying that Christopher Krebs, America’s top cybersecurity official who was fired by Trump for debunking election conspiracies, should be “taken out at dawn and shot.”

During a Saturday evening event in Valdosta (which I absolutely will not quote from directly out of respect for readers’ sanity), Trump parroted a version of Powell’s wild claims in the course of attacking Kemp and Raffensperger, whose wife has reportedly received what one top Georgia election official last week described as “sexualized threats” to her personal cell phone.

This is the fraught backdrop for David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler, who are attempting to navigate extremely choppy waters in the state ahead of Georgia’s two Senate runoffs on January 5. Loeffler’s campaign ads attacking Raphael Warnock rely on some of the same scare tactics employed successfully by the GOP in the past. But the messaging comes across as racially-charged, something strategists reportedly worry could backfire on Loeffler.

The Republican establishment is understandably nervous. Trump and Powell have spent the last two weeks insisting the state’s voting system is not only “rigged,” but possibly manipulated by outside forces including Xi Jinping, Ayatollah Khamenei, and the eight-years-dead Hugo Chavez.

“Plaintiffs allege wide-ranging conspiracy theories that Georgia’s electronic voting system has been compromised by Hugo Chavez and the Venezuelan government, or China and Iran, depending on which ‘expert’ is asked,” Georgia’s flabbergasted Attorney General wrote, in Saturday’s filing seeking a dismissal of Powell’s suit.

And yet, the GOP desperately needs voters in the state to trust that system enough to elect Loeffler and Perdue. Needless to say, Democrats don’t have this problem, because Democratic voters don’t generally believe that Chavez and Khamenei are pulling the strings in Georgia.

As absurd as all of this is, it’s absolutely crucial to keep yourself apprised, because control of the Senate rides on the Georgia runoffs. If the conspiracy theories floated by Powell and promoted by Trump end up costing Mitch McConnell the Senate, it’s difficult to imagine how Trump could possibly run again in 2024 on the Republican ticket.

But in the near-term, remember that the fate of fiscal stimulus under the Biden administration depends on the Senate. While one imagines it would be difficult for Biden to push for any truly transformative policies while clinging to the slimmest of majorities, it is entirely possible that a Democratic Senate could pass, say, a trillion (or possibly more) in additional fiscal stimulus over Biden’s first term than would get passed otherwise. That would come on top of any spending associated with a virus relief bill passed during the lame duck session.

Unless you’re holding your breath for everyone in D.C. to suddenly embrace an MMT lens when it comes to government finance, more stimulus will mean more borrowing.

So, there’s a very real sense in which Treasury supply forecasts now depend on 1) the extent to which Republican voters in Georgia believe a deceased Venezuelan dictator along with a (possibly ailing) Khamenei and unidentified “communists” have seized control of the state’s voting apparatus, and 2) how those voters assess that “information” when it comes to deciding whether to show up for Loeffler and Perdue.

Only in America, folks. Only in America.

(Oh, and Rudy Giuliani has COVID-19.)