So, we Democrats are in the process of winning the New Jersey governor election, the special House

[Atticus]

seat election in Ohio and the mayoral race in New York City. But, since we are likely losing the governorship of Virginia, that proves our policies are bad and we are destined to lose both houses of Congress in '22 and Trump will be reelected in '24?

This is BULLSHIT, people, UNLESS you believe it!

If we allow talking heads whose checks are signed by mega-corporation CEOs to predict our certain failure on a daily basis, we can either allow their prophecy to become reality or we can THINK for ourselves and deny them the smug satisfaction of another "We told you so!"

Virginia has apparently elected a governor whose primary campaign promise was that he would "ban the teaching of critical race theory" in Virginia. CRT has never been taught in Virginia schools. But, the cowardly white people allowed Youngkin to play HIS race card and they rewarded his racism with the governorship of their state.

As far as I am concerned, Virginia ignorantly reclaimed its status as a Confederate state today, but that's on them, not us.

[malaise]

1. Great post

Rec

[FBaggins]

3. I'd love to stick my head in the sand with you

Biden won NJ by 16%. If we win by 5% that's still evidence of a tectonic shift politically.

[former9thward]

4. The R just took the lead in NJ

I don't know if it will hold. We will see.

[qazplm135]

5. let's take those one at a time

1. Very blue state
2. Very blue district
3. Very blue city

VA was purple. It's a microcosm of the country in that respect.

So just like the folks saying it's all over forever are vastly off, so is the, everything is fine no worries you are trying to sell.

[Lawrence454]

6. GOP currently in the lead

Jack Ciattarelli is currently in the lead……

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/11/02/us/elections/results-new-jersey.amp.html

[Sugarcoated]

11. It won't hold

Just one example: Burlington County is only 5% in...blue county...

[CousinIT]

7. OK. But Democrats STILL NEED TO GET TO WORK ON THEIR DAMN MESSAGING...

....LIKE - ACTUALLY *HAVE SOME* AND NOT ONLY HAVE SOME -- BUT HAVE SOME THAT IS *FIRE*.

[Mister Ed]

15. Yes. That is the real lesson from VA. n/t

[JudyM]

20. Been saying this for years. We're too damned erudite. We have to fire people up instead of

assuming the righteousness of our side is self-evident and will prevail.

[TheRealNorth]

8. In my city, we kept the MAGATS off our local School Board

Last edited Wed Nov 3, 2021, 12:31 AM - Edit history (1)

so at least that is something.

[brooklynite]

9. We are winning the safe Democratic seats. We are losing the competitive seats.

but that's on them, not us.

Until we need to win them again.

[UnderThisLaw]

10. I see a

couple of replies from people who believe it, or would like to believe it

[mcar]

12. Thank you

This is 100% on the media. They focused on nothing but VA and pushed and misreported because they have to have their "Democrats in disarray" meme.

VA is a huge disappointment - if the results hold true. Otherwise, it's not been a bad night thus far.

[onetexan]

16. Comes down to tepid voter turnout. Dems dont show up at the polls

Or mail in their ballots, this is what happens. How soon ppl forget. SMH

[mcar]

17. Yep

When Democrats vote, Democrats win. Any D who didn't vote has this on their hands.

[ecstatic]

13. It should be a clean sweep. The fact that it's not shows something

is really wrong with our messaging strategy, accomplishments, etc. Why are people voting for repugs with everything they're doing? Are they not seeing what happened in Texas? Did we not mention it??? And if not, why not?

[maryellen99]

18. Because they are still mad about stay at home orders ,masks and vaccines nt

[2 Meow Momma]

14. Exactly, thank you! nt

[Cha]

19. Congrats to New Jersey Dems!

[Pepsidog]

21. Let this be a lesson to all of us. Shamefully, I didn't vote nor did the 5 other democrats in my

home because Murphy was a lock to win so why bother. So because of my apathetic attitude today there were 6 fewer votes for democrats. I blame myself and the media who influence our decisions on election days.

[SYFROYH]

22. Are we going to win NJ?

At 11:21pm Ciattarelli 51.1% V Murphy 47.7%

[brooklynite]

23. No votes in from Newark.

[SYFROYH]

24. True, a bunch of Essex County just posted and shrunk the lead to 1.2%

Sadly my old home county, Bergen, is going Red.

[mvd]

25. It just got a lot tighter..

and according to the posts I see, Murphy should be ok.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

26. Less that 6,000 votes difference now

Come on Murphy!!!

[apcalc]

34. Yes, I believe so.

[Jon King]

27. This thread is not sensible, its apples and oranges.

The special election was in a heavy Dem area so a no brainer. NJ is very close. Of course NY City was not going to vote for the former guardian angel who is a heavy Trumper.

That has nothing to do with the mess in VA. Biden's approval among independents is gone. VA is gone. The House is going to be gone in 2022, redistricting alone will take 5 seats.

Why pretend? Our message is failing with white suburban women. We lost the excitement with people of color as nothing happened with voting rights. The watered down bills will not help. The young did not get their community college or full student loan forgiveness.

The Repugs have a great plan, bash Dems on open borders, crime, China, with a little the radical left will be deciding what your kids will learn sprinkled in.

We are in deep, deep doo doo for 2022 and 2024. And the fact is if not for Covid, Trump would still be President.

[ColinC]

28. I would actually argue that it proves that running on our policy pays dividends

Far more than gambling on personality or trying to run against Trump.

[DallasNE]

29. Democrats Need Younger Blood

And they need to tackle the culture wars head on. The fact that Youngkin ran on the big lie theory shows that you don't attack the lie because nobody cares. You attack what the lie represents.

You agree that there is no place for the study of critical race theory in elementary and high school but point out that that is not what your opponent is really saying. He is using it as code for not teaching history in elementary and high school and you then say that teaching history as a core subject is critical to understanding just who we are as a nation and how we got there.

Only 2 counties in Virginia voted 80% or more for the Democrat while 20 counties voted 80% or more for the Republican. This shows how Republicans now have a stronger hold on the white vote than Democrats do on the black vote. This trend is what is going to keep Texas Republican for several more years or until well after Texas has has gone majority, minority.

[Sympthsical]

30. Tinkerbellism doesn't work

I see this all the time. If we just believe enough, we'll win! And when we don't, well, this or that segment of the party just didn't clap sufficiently hard.

That is not how any of this works.

First off, McAuliffe was the best we could do there? The man was awful. Enough with the Clinton era. It's over.

Secondly, people do not understand how much voters do not like to be lectured about what goes on with their children. Republicans just learned this CRT stuff can swing suburbs and independents.

Third, the most partisan people do not seem to know what goes on with voters. What they're seeing, reading, and listening to. I knew this was coming months ago. Why? Because I read other websites that don't agree with me. I've been banging this damn drum for months. If you never read ideas different from your own, you will have no idea where other people are coming from. And no, posting Twitter links to the most ridiculous shit some random Republican does is not reading the other side. Look at that Dallas Q-Anon story. Some small group of people do stupid shit, and that's what we preoccupied ourselves with half the day. The story was friggin everywhere.

Those people aren't even slightly representative of the average Republican voter. And they are absolutely not what independents are like.

There have been studies done on this. I don't have the one I'm thinking of in front of me, but it was discussed in Ezra Klein's book about polarization. The more partisan you are, the less you actually know about the other side.

And the reactions I'm seeing. It's like watching Michael Scott from the Office react to Pam after she learned he was dating her mom. "I'm just going to start calling you racist even harder."

The Bubble is going to be the death of us in a year, and people will blame everyone but themselves, because self-awareness and reflection is becoming increasingly impossible in a polarized, partisan echo chamber that subsists mainly on cable news and social media.

[Sugarcoated]

31. What websites do you read?

[Sympthsical]

32. A lot of it

You have your National Reviews or the Bulwark or the Dispatch or what have you. But those are the "polite" conservatives who generally socialize with liberal people in the NY/DC axis. They're usually the ones going on about policy.

I also go into the shit. Breitbart, Town Hall, Hot Air, Red State. There's a bunch of blogs I glance into once a week or so where they're just full on Trumpists.

The disconnect is here. On our side, we're seeing, "They don't know what CRT is. CRT is just teaching about racism in history!" (er, it's more complicated than that). You know what their side sees? Stories about that one teacher separating white students from non-whites calling them the oppressors and the oppressed. Stories about HR departments forcing employees into training about internalized white supremacy.

The Right gets a steady diet of this stuff from their chosen forms of media. They see it all the time.

Would those stories get posted here? No. They wouldn't come close to lasting. So when this CRT stuff suddenly arrived, it wasn't sudden. It's been percolating for years now. Trump unleashed it more starkly into the open, but it's been there for quite awhile. Making CRT an educational issue and going after school boards is the Republicans finally finding and seizing on a way to insinuate the narrative they see into a broader part of the electorate by making it just palatable enough to . . . suburbanites and independents. Just like we saw.

"They're coming for your children," taps into a deep, primal fear. The stuff going on in Virginia with Education was barely alighted on here. It was all over the Right. Not just what McAuliffe said, but the Loudon school board covering a sexual assault, to books in a middle school library that were so graphic, TV stations literally wouldn't run campaign ads about them - they were too obscene.

That's what they see everyday. So when people are shocked by this stuff, I just sigh. If we'd just read what the other side is actually doing, actually talking about instead of relying on the extreme examples and the stuff so dumb it defies parody, this stuff wouldn't catch us off guard as it seems to have here.

[mopinko]

36. it's the soccer moms all over again.

nutcases start showing up at schools, and they are yours for the taking. just push the button.

[betsuni]

33. K&R

[Greybnk48]

35. K&R n/t