Title pretty much says it.
Can I at least fantasize about Democrats frantically creating procedural bulwarks and safeguards between now and inauguration day that will have some effect and not be immediately swept away by the incoming administration?
To what degree can they have any impact on the next four years, and do we think they are pulling all the levers they can?
On the state level, there are protections (for now) since a ton of stuff has to be done to the constitution to remove such powers and they don’t have the majority needed for that. Sure there are loopholes, but for every fed willing to turn a blind eye, there’s a state rep willing to disregard their made up policy. CA already has a lawsuit fund, lol.
The federal level gets dicier. Despite the kiss asses on the GOP side, I don’t think they’ll have the courage to do deeply unpopular things for their region. For instance, removing the Dept of Education isn’t popular in places that get a lot of that Title I money. That ain’t a safe guard the Dems put in place, per se, but they made it in 79 under Carter and even Reagan couldn’t get the support to undo it in 80.
Any current safe guards? Biden is unfortunately very bad at these things as far as I can tell and what good he did will likely be credited to Trump despite the truth. Best we’ve got I think is just trying to sure up as much Ukraine support as possible. The house Dems might have the best shot, though, given the narrow lead. With Senate, it’s probably a good thing Manchin wouldn’t let Dems abolish the filibuster… although the GOP might go ahead and do that themselves this time. Senators don’t really have to answer to their constituents because of incumbent advantage, so there isn’t at much deal making like in the house.