Election Breakdown!
Youngkin Ain’t Trump And So Can You!
In what will be looked back on as the most tone deaf, desperate, and ultimately unsuccessful tactic in recent memory, Terry McAullife and his friends over at the DNC decided to go all in on what I’ll call the “Trump around every corner” strategy.
Glenn Youngkin? Just like Trump! Parents angry that their kids are being taught racism? Trump! Want lower taxes? You’re Trump! AHHHHH TRUMP IS EVERYWHERE!!! LOL. It didn’t work.
Couple of things: First, Glenn Youngkin isn’t Donald Trump. He doesn’t look like him. He doesn’t dress like him. He doesn't talk like him. As a matter of fact, he has been more successful than any Republican since 2016 in distancing himself from Trump while not drawing the ire of the dedicated MAGA base. It was a very successful exercise and it’s not at all obvious the Orange Menace will allow such a thing to happen again.
Having said that… at least for today, this is what a post-Trump GOP can look like. Sane, likable, open minded, soft spoken, diverse, and most importantly… ELECTABLE.
It Turns Out People Don’t Like Being Called White Supremacists… Who Knew?
Here is what actually happened in Virginia last night. Republicans and independents voted to elect a milk toast white dude as Governor, a black woman as Lt. Gov. and a Cuban American as AG. These people will replace Ralph Northam… a dude who wore Klan robes. Conclusion? Republicans are racist, of course. (Looks like the GOP will reclaim the statehouse too)
To listen to the race hustlers over the last 5 years, you’d think that 2021 America is worse than 1845 Mississippi on race issues. They have thrown away any legitimate conversation on racial sensitivity and the need to talk about problems that minorities in America face in favor of just calling everything and everyone they don’t like a “white supremacist”. Think about that for a second… Not just racially insensitive. Not a little tone deaf. Not even ignoring the needs of minorities… Nope. White… Supremacist. Bold strategy, Cotton. Let’s see if it pays off for them.
As it turns out… almost nobody in Virginia is actually a “white supremacist”. And when you call good people “white supremacists”, they tend not to like it. I know… crazy.
There are conversations about race that need to be had. The black experience in America does seem to be regressing. Crime is on the rise. Drug use is on the rise. Inner city schools are as bad as they have ever been. Fatherlessness is a problem. Anger is a problem. The African American relationship with the police is a problem. We all recognize this… but sitting around on TV blaming white people while making excuses for inexcusable behavior in their own community is… ineffective.
I know that might be controversial, but it’s still true. I know.. I know… I guess I’m a “white supremacist”.
What in Sam Hill is Happening Up In New Jersey?
Anyone notice how New Jersey is a shockingly close race? Anyone else notice how they just kind of stopped counting votes? Anyone know why? Me either.
I’m assuming it just takes time to fill in all those mail in votes they didn’t think they would need. This will be fun to watch if all of a sudden they start “counting” 85% Democrat returns with a straight face and call me a “conspiracy theorist” for thinking that seems odd.
All I know is that whatever happens in New Jersey, it’s probably a bigger shock than Virginia was. NJ wasn’t supposed to be close. The reason you haven’t seen much analysis on it is because nobody was paying any attention to it. It was assumed by everyone to be an easy Dem win. Well, at this moment… it’s not.
Let’s see what happens.
Conclusions
The obvious conclusion is that assuming we can keep the Orange Menace from making everything about him (a tall order), the Democrats are facing a reckoning that they have had coming for over a decade.
They have assumed that certain parts of their platform play… And they don’t play. The GOP has just been unelectable. Whether it was running Mitt Romney against Obama in 2012 or the Virginia GOP nominating extremist mental midgets to run for the last decade and half, the GOP has just not been able to get out of its own way.
What Youngkin and the GOP crew in Virginia prove is that if you just get out of your own way and find the best people… people who don’t divide the citizens against each other… you can win over suburban moms and the pickup truck crowd at the same time.
Donald Trump makes women’s skin crawl. They will NEVER vote for him or anyone like him. Frankly, I think Youngkin could have won by several points more than he did if it weren’t for the reverberations of Trump’s disgusting behavior that still turn many college educated whites off the GOP even now.
The question remains… how to get rid of him. My guess is that he HATES the fact that his absence in Virginia gave Youngkin and crew the edge. My guess is he will start trying to inject himself more into the midterm races… and that’s going to turn those ever important suburban college educated whites away from the GOP. The GOP can’t win without them… and the Democrats know it.
They will keep screaming about Trump either way, but if Trump isn’t actually there… it doesn’t really work. If he is there, it will work. In the ultimate irony… it seems that only Donald Trump can save the Democratic Party next year. Wow.
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There’s more happening and more to talk about… but I want to keep these articles digestible. I’ll follow up in a day or two.
Thanks for reading and please forward to a friend you think might be interested. Share on Twitter and The Facebook.
Happy Wednesday and GO BRAVES!!!!
—V