Now That Democrats Hold the Majority, It's Time to Go Bold

In three days, the United States will inaugurate former Vice President Joe Biden and Senator Kamala Harris as the next President and Vice President.

Getting rid of Donald Trump after four years of lawlessness, mendacity, and perfidy--and two impeachments--that brought our Democratic Republic to the brink of fascism is a cause for celebration.

But ushering in a Democratic successor to modern American history's worst president is not the most important aspect of this moment.

Joe Biden will walk into the Oval Office on Wednesday with a Democratic majority in both houses of Congress.

The last time this happened was those 74 days during the Obama administration during which the Affordable Care Act ("Obamacare") was passed.

While it's true there was a stack of legislation Democrats could have addressed while in the majority, they couldn't have passed it all in that limited time .

Passing the ACA, while imperfect, was definitely the right decision.

Now Democrats will have a full two years before the 2022 mid-term elections to roll up their sleeves and pass progressive legislation nearly impossible under the current Senate.

If they do it right, if they go bold, they might avoid the mid-term rout that traditionally descends on the majority party.

That would put us in a winning stance for 2024, when rising stars of the fascist wing of the Republican party will be seeking the GOP nomination.

There are no excuses anymore for why we can't have a Medicare-for-All-type single-payer national healthcare system.

No longer do we need to contend with Mitch McConnell's obstruction when it's time to pass real COVID vaccine distribution and economic relief.

Here are some other long-overdue reforms on which we can finally see movement:

• Student loan forgiveness
• Rollback of the Reagan, Bush, and Trump tax cuts
• Aggressive infrastructure investment to address climate change, such as that outlined in the Green New Deal
• Trade deals that strengthen living-wage union jobs
• Tuition-free college
• Heavy investment in public education
• Rent forgiveness
• Postal banking
• Expanding the federal courts
• A constitutional amendment eliminating corporate personhood and affirming money does not equal speech
• A constitutional amendment guaranteeing an inalienable right to vote.
• Federal voter registration requirements for all fifty states and U.S. territories
• Raising the federal minimum wage
• Paid family leave
• An immigration pathway to citizenship
• Criminal justice reform

And, of course, a federal response to the coronavirus/COVID-19 pandemic that should have been applied last year.

As Jacobin magazine founding editor Bhaskar Sunkara explains in The Guardian:

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