The violent scenes in Washington, DC this week risk overshadowing Georgia's historic election result. The Democrats' victory in this Deep South state holds vitally important lessons for the future of US democracy.

Biden's party may now have a slim majority in the US Congress, but the country remains bitterly divided and – as this week demonstrated – support for Trump is not going away.

Some suggest Trump’s persistent false claims of election fraud hurt the Republicans in this election. But, as Mary Fitzgerald and Aaron White learned travelling across Georgia, the Democratic victory here didn't happen overnight.

They spoke to dozens of voters and activists on the ground, as they watched an ambitious, long-term, grassroots operation help turn this traditionally red state blue.

Just as in the 1960s with the Civil Rights movement, activists and organisers from Martin Luther King’s home state are once again sending leaders in Washington a powerful signal of where things need to go next. But will they listen?

Andra Gillespie is a political science professor at Emory University in Atlanta.

openDemocracy’s editor in chief Mary Fitzgerald spoke with Andra for the recent ourVoices documentary episode on the Georgia Senate runoff races.

Their extended conversation dives into the political history of Georgia and why it is suddenly competitive after Biden became the first Democratic presidential candidate to win the state since 1992.

On 5 January, a special Senate run-off election in the ‘Deep South’ state of Georgia will determine the future of Biden’s presidency. Will the new president be able to pass badly needed COVID relief; take action on climate change, racial justice and much more?

The voters of Georgia will decide the crucial power balance in the US Senate – and right now, the polls are neck and neck.

Ahead of the vote, we’ve been talking to friends, family, political experts and regular people across the state. They’ve told us how record-breaking sums of cash are piling into Georgia; of fierce battles over voter suppression, corruption and dirty tricks – and of how millions of Black, Brown and younger voters are mobilising in this historic race.

We’ve spoken with the trailblazing Nse Ufot of the New Georgia Project about how grassroots organisations like hers have registered millions of new voters. Investigative journalist Greg Palast has told us about how he uncovered documents showing widespread voter suppression.

We’ve heard from Republican lawyers waging war on the state’s voting system; from elusive ‘swing voters’ – and from citizens just struggling to survive.

As we’ve been discovering, the story of Georgia is both a story of what’s deeply broken in American politics – and of how dramatic change is possible, fast.

And follow us on Twitter @maryftz and @aaronwolfwhite to get our latest updates from the ground, as we travel across this new battleground state during the final crunch days of this race.

This episode was produced by Freddie Stuart. Special thanks to Penny Dale

In this ourVoices special, openDemocracy’s Editor in Chief Mary Fitzgerald travels 1,400 miles across the midwestern United States with North America editor, Aaron White.

Their journey starts on the eve of the US election in the city of Louisville, Kentucky – where Mary’s family has lived for generations – and ends on the east coast in Philadelphia, right as jubilant crowds are proclaiming Biden the winner.

Despite the carnival, they found a country facing a dark winter; with nearly half a million COVID deaths projected by year-end, and an economic crisis not seen since the Great Depression. People from all walks of life say they desperately need unity and leadership.

But with Republicans still likely to wield Senate control, much of Biden’s agenda will be blocked. And, as we heard in episode 1, the coalition that propelled him to power is fragile.

With the country and Washington DC more fractured than ever, is there any hope that Biden can deliver what’s needed? And what are the consequences if he doesn’t?

Listen in on their journey and discover what’s happening outside the current political system: on the streets of big cities, in small towns in the rural midwest – and among a new generation of activists daring to imagine a radically different future.

Jecorey Arthur is the soon to be youngest member ever elected to the City Council of Louisville in the state of Kentucky. He’s also a professor and a musician.

openDemocracy’s editor in chief Mary Fitzgerald spoke with Jecorey for the recent ourVoices documentary episode on the US election.

Here is their extended conversation.

From race to a broken political system, the story of Louisville is in many ways the story of America.

In this ourVoices special, openDemocracy’s Editor in Chief Mary Fitzgerald travels back to Louisville, Kentucky: the city where her father’s family has lived for generations.

For months, the city centre has been occupied by Black Lives Matter activists, continuing to protest daily over the police killing of Breonna Taylor. They say they won’t give up, no matter who wins the US election.

Kentucky is also the home of one of America’s giant political figures: Mitch McConnell, the Republican Senate Majority leader who’s been in power 36 years. It looks inevitable the state will choose Trump, and Mitch, again this time.

But as Mary discovers, what’s happening on the ground in Louisville still tells us a lot about where the country could be headed on November 3rd – and in the months and years to come.

With over 8.5 million cases, and nearly 225,000 deaths, the coronavirus pandemic has exposed the cruel dysfunctionality of the US healthcare system.

Even before the coronavirus, 87 million US citizens were either underinsured, or had no health insurance whatsoever. 30,000 Americans lost their lives every year because they lacked access to a doctor.

Whilst $11,000 are spent per person on maintaining the system of private insurance, more than half a million families declare bankruptcy each year due to medically related debt.

So how did we get to this point?

Why, in the richest country on the planet, is the healthcare system so woefully defective?

In this fourth installment of ourVoices's special series on the US election, Aaron White and Freddie Stuart explore the history of federal healthcare reform, and place the resurgent movement for Medicare for All in the context of decades of struggle for universal coverage.

Aaron White and Freddie Stuart are joined by David Adler, the policy director of the Democracy in Europe Movement (DiEM25) and General Coordinator of the newly launched Progressive International – a global initiative with a mission to unite, organize and mobilize progressive forces around the world. 

The conversation dives into the current state of the international left, the threat of another Trump term, and the strategy of the Progressive International moving forward.  

Related reading: 

David Adler, Announcing the Progressive International

Srecko Horvat, The Belmarsh Tribunal

Michael Galant, Introducing the Wire International

The police murder of George Floyd in the US sparked Black Lives Matter protests in every continent in the world. Combined with the global pandemic and the climate catastrophe – both of which are highly racialised - they have led many people to fundamentally question the deepest structures of our political economy.

A recent article in the British magazine the Spectator, frets that the 34,000 people who have recently donated a million pounds to Black Lives Matter UK are unwittingly endorsing an organisation that ‘wants to dismantle capitalism’, thinks climate change is racist, wants to abolish prisons, wants to get rid of borders and wants to get rid of the police. But what if the 34,000 are not so unwitting, but actually agree with those ideas?

In this episode of ourVoices, we’ll be taking a deep dive into how capitalist markets and nation-states perpetuate structural racism. And we’ll be looking at fresh ideas for how to transition to a new political economy based on repair, healing and justice.

We ask whether our political economic system – capitalism – is itself racist. And, if it is, what can we do about it?

This week’s guest is the academic philosopher, and political theorist, Charles W. Mills. 

Mills is a professor at The Graduate Center, City University of New York, and the author of multiple books – most famously The Racial Contract published in 1997. 

This conversation, between Charles Mills, and ourEconomy’s Europe Editor, Laura Basu, delves into the concepts of racism and capitalism – dissecting the historical role of the nation state, and asking whether any form of capitalist system requires racial differentiation and thus racial discrimination.

For the other interviews in our series on capitalism and racism, including conversations with Vijay Prashad and Gargi Bhattacharyya, head over to opendemocracy.net/oureconomy