Tell me I'm wrong about the messages Virginia voters sent

[maxrandb]

I'm not much of a "nuance" guy. Just 9 months ago, for the first time in United States history, a sitting President blew up our peaceful transfer of power...FOR THE FIRST TIME IN UNITED STATES HISTORY!!

This former President should be a pariah. He's NOT!

He is still the leader and face of his party.

The Retrumplicans shouldn't be able to win as dogcatcher, unless and until they completely repudiate this evil fuckstick, yet they win a hell of a lot more than dogcatcher.

Here is the messages I take from Virginia.

- Violence is not only acceptable, it is rewarded.

- Playing footsie with violent racist is not only acceptable, it is rewarded

- Threatening to murder School Board members and their children is not only acceptable, it is rewarded

- Supporting an authoritarian dictatorship is not only acceptable, it is rewarded.

- The violent overthrow of American Democracy is not only acceptable, it is rewarded

- Vigilante Bounty Hunting to deny Americans their Constitutional rights is not only acceptable, it is rewarded.

There is no way to spin this.

Virginia stared evil in the face, and a majority of them chose evil.

We had better get to work, because if we allow these messages to be our future, well...that future looks pretty fucking bleak.

[PoliticAverse]

1. You're wrong...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/elections/interactive/2021/exit-polls-virginia-governor/

And Trump was a non issue, Younkin didn't campaign with him.

Glenn Youngkin triumphed by winning over a large number of voters who don’t support the former president.
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2021/11/repubiclans-say-trump-helped-them-win-the-virginia-governors-race-the-polls-say-theyre-wrong.html

In 2020 Trump lost Virginia to Biden 54.11% to 44.00%.

[FrodosNewPet]

5. I don't think they are completely wrong.

At the risk of getting in trouble for pessimism, we are in deep trouble for 2022 and 2024.

Between the gerrymandering and the electoral College Democrats have an uphill fight.

People are being sold that we are in deep trouble right now. And that's not entirely untrue. There is inflation. People see the gas price. Unfortunatelythey're not smart enough to realize that Joe Biden does not control that. All they see is Democrats in power things are not good right now. Crime is high. Meanwhile the Republicans have successfully painted the Democrats as being soft on crime.

The Democratic party is going to have to address these situations. Build back better is just not going to be enough.

[PoliticAverse]

8. As someone once said "It's the economy stupid"...

And looking at the exit polls in Virginia the top issues were:

The economy/jobs (33% of voters, helped the Republican)
Education (24% of voters, Republicans made what was being taught in schools a big issue in Virginia)
Taxes (15% of voters, Helped the Republican)
The Corona Virus pandemic (14% of voters, big issue for voters voting Democratic)

https://www.washingtonpost.com/elections/interactive/2021/exit-polls-virginia-governor/

And as someone else once said "All politics is local".

[SmittyWerben]

58. Agreed

I have been saying this for a bit now. If Biden does not move on student loan debt, a relief he can effect now, we will lose even more seats in the house and senate. In March 2022 student loans come due again and those who are being more selective about where and how they work (and tend to vote democratic) will be forced back into the low wage, low hours, multiple jobs market place and will absolutely blame the democratic party...and rightfully so. We can say "but the republicans are standing in the way" all we want, but the truth is it was democrats who stood in the way. Tell me why independents should vote for a party that cannot get it's own agenda passed? "It's the economy, stupid" won us a presidency once, and will lose us the majority if we as a party don't fix this shit. Biden needs to act before the midterms.

[Marius25]

68. The Virginia economy has done very well under Northam

[ananda]

89. Well, they will be the ones most hurt by their idiotic votes.

Same as always.

[Amishman]

28. agreed, they didn't care about any of that

The voters, particularly independents, did not care about the sins of the Trump administration. Trump is out of office and out of mind.

Time to move on or be left behind.

[Omnipresent]

2. Let's all take a couple of deep breath's....

This is an off year election, with the party in power being blamed for everything not being perfect.
Republicans were energized and many Democratic voters stayed home.
I expect things to start slowly swinging back in time. Especially, if Republicans start to resurrect confederate monuments.

[BlueStater]

3. Not enough people see the Republican Party as the evil entity it is.

Trump is a despicable asshole, but he never would have been able to cause as much destruction as he did without Republicans enabling him at every fucking turn.

I truly despise independents.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

15. I'm an independent.

https://www.danville-va.gov/Faq.aspx?QID=84

How do I change my political party preference?
Virginia does not have registration by political party.

If I show up at a primary election, I'm asked which ballot I want. This assumes that there is a Republican primary, instead of a convention.

[moose65]

32. I'm starting to think like you

I don't really understand the "Independent" voter.

I know that many of them probably left one of the major parties and still probably vote with that party most of the time.

Is there really such a thing as a true Independent? Someone who looks around and says "Well Democrats have had 9 months to clean up this mess and they haven't done it, so let's give power back to the ones who caused the mess." I can't wrap my head around someone who thinks like that!

I also can't wrap my head around people who don't vote in off-year elections, either.

[NurseJackie]

4. I think if we can get our "allies" to stop comparing Biden to a BOWL OF SHIT; and...

Last edited Wed Nov 3, 2021, 07:54 AM - Edit history (1)

I think if we can get our "allies" to stop comparing Biden to a BOWL OF SHIT;

-- and to stop saying that Democrats are "the party of the one-percent";
-- and to stop saying that Democrats are "corrupt";
-- and to stop saying that Democrats are "ideologically bankrupt";
-- and to stop saying that Democrats are "no different than Republicans";
-- and to stop saying that Democrats are "feeble";
-- and to stop saying that Democrats are "war-hawks";
-- and to stop saying that Democrats "don't care about the middle class";
-- and to stop saying that Democrats "don't care about climate change"; etc, etc etc...

well... that would be a good start in getting MORE voters to support Democrats. All I'm trying to say is that type of nonsense needs to stop, and when people call-out those lies and that type of negativity shouldn't be harassed for doing so either.

The lies and smears and attacks only serve to create an atmosphere of negativity: Negativity generates apathy. Apathy discourages voter turnout. Low voter turnout gives Republicans a chance to steal the elections.

[brer cat]

45. +++

I wonder some times if that is the point of these attacks. "My way or the highway" is not a winning strategy.

[FBaggins]

6. I'd say that you have it wrong - even backwards

The clear message is that we can’t successfully paint every Republican as a Trump supporter… nor even every Trump supporter as an insurrectionist.

[onenote]

54. AGREED. And this was a win for the Republican Establishment in Virginia.

The Republican establishment won the Virginia election. I know some will vociferously disagree with that statement and argue that there is no Republican establishment anymore. But in this case, it's true.

Specifically, the Republican establishment in Virginia was tired of the far right element of the party in the state picking the party's nominees and then getting their asses handed to them because those candidates were anathema to suburban voters that might otherwise lean Republican -- candidates like Corey Stewart and Ken Cuccinelli. Amanda Chase -- who describes herself as Trump in Heels -- might well have been the Republican nominee for governor if there had been a primary in which several "establishment" Republicans split the vote. So the establishment Republicans successfully pushed to have the nominee selected by convention rather than primary in order to freeze out Chase. They ran a risk -- Chase might have launched a third party campaign and that probably would have given McAuliffe the victory (just as the breakaway Libertarian candidate helped McAuliffe win in 2013). But Chase played the role of good soldier (one wonders what she's been promised) and served as a link to Youngkin and the far right elements of the party. Meanwhile, the establishment Republicans had a candidate who looked and played the part of a anti-abortion, mainstream Republican with a business background and a pro-family message.

The trick for Virginia republicans is whether, going forward, they can continue to hold the far right and establishment pieces of their party together (just as one might wonder whether we Democrats can hold together the more progressive and more establishment portions of our party). I think we may have a better chance of doing so than they do, but time will tell.

[FBaggins]

76. Re: that "time will tell"

I think the loss likely mutes the chances that the most progressive parts of our coalition will drive us over a cliff. Hopefully, it doesn't take another 1994 or 2010.

[drexelkathy]

7. Parents

Don’t want politicians even MENTIONING their kids.


That’s the take away.

[Jon King]

56. We have a winner!!!!

We live next 2 two large schools, our neighborhood is full of parents. Even the Biden voters hated the school closures and as time went on shifted the blame wrongly to the Dems.

Add in the Repug selling the idea that radical lefties were now forcing a woke curriculum on their kids, it was game over.

[BeyondGeography]

9. Except they didn't have to stare evil in the face

Evil has been normalized, and that’s where we could do a lot better.

Trump isn’t the former guy, he’s a fucking gangster, and the Republican Party is in thrall to him. And for those of you who say this wasn’t about Trump, you’re missing the point.

This is about big lies that we, for whatever reason, have repeatedly been unable to counteract, and there is no bigger lie than Trump won.

If you want to blame the media and point to the power of the wingnut ecosystem, fine. What do we do about it? Better yet, what do they do about it? They double-down on the biggest lie in American political history with a coup attempt for good measure and get away with it! CRT and transphobia are small potatoes compared with that.

The Democratic Party needs a major reset. Legal and legislative processes are not going to save us from the mob. We need to get our hands dirty and brand the Republicans for what they are. Traitors and liars. Every day. Not former guys. Traitors and liars. And when the media says but, but the American people believe this and that, when it’s a lie, the answer is that’s because they are being fed lies and misinformation, and they worship the biggest liar in the history of American politics. Pointing this out every day would have the happy effect of mobilizing our support and blunting some of theirs.

By all means, continue with the hearings and the subpoenas. We might even do something radical and fast-track the enforcement of subpoenas. But until we come up with one simple sentence that all of our candidates can repeat to brand the Republicans, there will be a lot more nights like last night.

[Evolve Dammit]

60. Very well said.

[Mike 03]

10. Just wrote to Senator Mark Warner saying basically the same thing, plus

it is imperative we stop these 425 voter suppression laws. I too listened to strategic analysis all night and I'm not buying that passage of the Infrastructure bill would have made any difference.

It's what you said, IMO.

[njhoneybadger]

11. We suck at Politics!

Rethugs win people over with lies and emotion.
Democrats turn people off with the truth and logic.

[Mike 03]

17. I think you're dead right. Reading Ezra Klein's book "Why We're Polarized"

radically altered my views about how we can win more elections.

I wish we could get rid of this stereotype of Democratic families sitting around the dinner table carefully going through proposed legislation, discussing how each provision in a bill might save us a few dollars a month. I no longer believe policy is what gets us out to the polls in droves.

Like you are saying, we are emotional beings just like Republicans. We like to be motivated by aspirational ideas and visionary goals. And just like Republicans, we are sometimes more reliably brought out to vote by anger or even rage than by agreement with our own side.

[njhoneybadger]

18. Well said.

[jaxexpat]

19. ".....how each provision in a bill might save us a few dollars a month."

Actual relevance of big policy scaled to an individual's fiscal reality has much less import than the cost of an overpriced coffee to which everyone already feels they're entitled. If we could convince the republicans to adopt an anti-Starbucks platform we'd actually have the senate.

[bucolic_frolic]

42. McCauliffe didn't generate excitement

He was a retread extolling stability he didn't create. But I don't understand those rural counties - 83% (R). No one is ever 83%.

[uponit7771]

65. +1

[Mike 03]

67. That's for sure.

I admit I was pessimistic about this race from early on for that very reason.

[uponit7771]

62. +1, we can "Go High" while stoking emotions and tell the truth !!

[Sympthsical]

73. That is seriously a good book

I read it and did a paper on it for my social psychology class.

I think everyone should have to read it. So many people on our side really don't have any idea what average Republican voters are like. They're painted as caricatures with extreme examples and anecdotal stories. And they have the same problem with us. To them, we're all a bunch of lunatic wokesters coming for their kids. The politicians are going to ride that into 2022.

I need to find my copy of it. That study in it that Klein discusses is so revealing. It's the one where they asked partisans what the Republican and Democratic parties are like. Republicans thought things like we're 30% LGBT people, and Democrats thought Republicans were way, way older than they actually are. All this data showing, the more partisan someone is, the less they actually know about the other party's voters.

I think about that study all the time when I read here.

[uponit7771]

21. THIS !!!! ☝🏾☝🏾☝🏾 We blame our bad message on slogans from the poor and oppressed then run

... the same bland messaging (from post mortem reports) that don't stoke any emotions like the GQP does

[moose65]

33. Sometimes, it seems like it

Republicans don't care about policies or things they will enact when elected. All they care about is GETTING elected. It seems to me that a lot of them see it as a game, like an athletic competition. Once you win a game, it's over. When you win an election, that's just the beginning.

What I don't understand is why people keep rewarding them. They have nothing but slogans and punchlines.

[hadEnuf]

47. We are so busy trying to not be like the Republicans we've crippled our avenues of response.

But when we try to be like the Republicans we look false and inflict damage on ourselves.

The key is in the messaging and handling the media. Bill Clinton knew how to handle the media and so did Obama.

[Wednesdays]

82. Like 1994 and 2010?

[hadEnuf]

84. That's apples to oranges. We're coming off of one of the worst presidencies in history,

followed by a deadly insurrection and attempted coup.

Republicans shouldn't even be able to get jobs as street sweepers at this point, yet they are still a formidable force walking around laughing, threatening and gaining power?


Yeah, I think there is a Democratic messaging and media problem. We need to reset and give these scum the beatdown they desperately deserve.

[Rebl2]

61. So you

are saying we should be more like republicans and lie?

[uponit7771]

66. No, we can "go high" stoke emotions and tell the truth. We leave out the "stoke emotions" part for

... policy amendments and procedural shit that doesn't matter to mouth breathers.

The VA elections have changed my mind on "just policy" ... we need an emotional connection and some policy wins .. that beats the GQP lie machine

[hadEnuf]

85. We've got enough truth to smash them to bits. We don't need to lie.

We need to get over this nonsense that we don't want to look like the Republicans and use whatever means needed to deliver the truth.

[dlk]

12. Sometimes, Democrats underestimate how deeply entrenched racism is in our country

That goes for sexism, too. Republicans understand all too well.

[luvtheGWN]

48. I think you can add ignorance to that list.

And by "ignorance", I mean uneducated and/or purposefully unaware of what is good for them and good for the country.

[dlk]

83. Cultivated ignorance...

[Mike 03]

13. I listened to fourteen hours of coverage and Joy Reid was the ONLY

person I heard raise this as a causative factor.

One of the political strategists said the quiet part out loud when he said, to paraphrase, "We always want the problem to be something simple so we can fix it, so we hope it's a messaging issue."

That really sums it up. They don't want the problem to be the ongoing effort to overthrow our form of government because that's really hard to solve. They also don't want it to be the 400+ voter suppression laws at the state level, because that's also really hard to solve.

[uponit7771]

23. THANK YOU !!!

[Tomconroy]

14. It does seem Younkin didn't want any part of Trump except

his voters. I think you have to look elsewhere for answers.
Virginia is a blue state that went red. I don't think the issues you raise were relevant to the outcome.

[maxrandb]

16. If my sister marries a pedophile

it's not enough that she doesn't bring him to Thanksgiving dinner with the family.

[markie]

20. ...

[Beastly Boy]

27. What would you expect her to do?

If your sister marries a pedophile, it's a hopeful sign when she doesn't bring him to a thanksgiving dinner. It is a sign she doesn't want him in her family. Take a hint.

[maxrandb]

69. Except, apparently the Retrumplicans do want him at the party

The way you reject someone and remove them from the family is divorce, not saying you really want him out if the family on Sunday and sleeping with him on Monday.

That is how I will feel about ANYONE voting for the current Retrumplicans Party, until their party makes a full and complete break from him.

[Beastly Boy]

79. Metaphorically speaking, if Youngkin sleeps with Trump on Monday, it will not go well with his

constituents. It remains to be seen whether Youngkin will do so or not. Meanwhile, however, I d not so much trust Youngkin to avoid Trump, as I am encouraged with the apparent stance of his constituents, who responded positively to Youngkin staying away from Trump. If this trend is not a fluke, there is hope for the Republican Party, if not for Youngkin

[BootinUp]

22. I'll let you know if I figure something out, but I am

pretty mystified at the moment.

[uponit7771]

24. The exception would've been the dem winning in VA and he almost did closing the gap ...

... from 2009 by 12% and that's screwing up the campaign by mostly focusing on Trump vs Local issues.

Youngkin was able to run away from Trump and Terry didn't demonize his association with Trump enough, we can "go high" and tell the truth.

We also lost NJ after Obama won

Trump is still a boogyman but local issues have to take focus

I don't think GQP is going to run away from Trump like Youngkin did

[BootinUp]

29. So if its a predictable thing because of national politics

then it has a lot to do with not getting our voters out. I didn't watch the campaign. Saw a few headlines and assumed Youngkin was a Trumper and was going to lose. I was too busy with things to follow it.

[uponit7771]

34. We got voters out, the turnout numbers were record IINM. The issue is 15% swing in white women

... to Youngkin ... WTF ?! ... we need to know what's up with that.

The good news is Youngkin ran away from Trump, there's no way the GQP does this nationally

[Sympthsical]

71. McAuliffe's entire campaign was painting Youngkin as secretly Trump

Seriously. It was all he and his surrogates talked about half the time. They even sent out subversive mailers to that effect in the waning days, and tried to taunt Trump into coming to the state in the final days.

Some really strange revisionism happening this morning. We just saw this campaign. McA's campaign wasn't making it a secret.

[uponit7771]

77. So McA defined Youngkin early AND HARD as a Trumper? I didn't see that, how was Youngkin able

... to get 19% non college educated white women swing in voting if that was done?

tia

[Beastly Boy]

25. You are wrong

I see Youngking's victory as a hopeful sign. I see Virginia Republicans rejecting Trump in 2020 and voting for Biden, and embracing a Republican non-Trumpist in 2021. Given the state of Republican politics today, it's a step in the right direction.

I have no problem with a two-party system, and I have no problem with accepting a legitimate electoral loss. In fact, I think it is healthy. It will make the Democrats rethink their assumptions going into 2022. And I hope this rethinking finds its way into DU.

[uponit7771]

26. 100% agree that VA rejected Trump again seeing Youngkin ran away from him like he stank

... and I too would like a two party system but we don't have that now.

The GQP doesn't want democracy any longer (see Texas) so I view them getting into power as a threat.

Youngkin is going to do what Trump tells him to do ... they're all wimps

[Beastly Boy]

31. Youngkin will do what his constituents tell him to do

And they are telling im to stay away from Trump. When you are talking about the GOP Trump worshipers, you are talking about a GOP minority. There is no need to generalize.

[uponit7771]

35. Like Abbot, like DeathSentence, like Ducey? tia

[Beastly Boy]

78. No, there is a detectable difference between them and Youngkin.

Abbot, DeSantis and Ducey, clearly influenced by the sentiments of their constituents, are overt and enthusiastic Trump asskissers. Youngkin, clearly influenced by the sentiments of HIS constituents, stayed away from Trump.

[uponit7771]

87. Most Texans don't want to get rid of abortion, Abbot did it because he doesn't have to pay a price

... unless he crosses Putin's Whore

[Beastly Boy]

88. Most Texans are OK with Trumpism. Most Virginians are not.

Apparently, not wanting to get rid of abortion was not a deciding issue for most Texans.

[atreides1]

46. Nope!

Last edited Wed Nov 3, 2021, 10:26 AM - Edit history (1)

Remember some of his constituents are hard core Trumpers...if Youngkin speaks out against Trump...he'll lose those numbers, remember he didn't say anything against Trump.



Trump has already taken credit for Youngkin winning!

https://www.mediaite.com/politics/trump-takes-credit-for-youngkin-win/

Donald Trump took credit for Glenn Youngkin’s (R) win in Virginias’s gubernatorial race mere moments after hinting at possible voter fraud in the state.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/virginia-governor-race-youngkin-trump-b1950389.html

Donald Trump and his camp have taken credit for the victory of Republican party candidate Glenn Youngkin in the Virginia governor’s race.

https://hillreporter.com/trump-who-was-crushed-by-10-in-virginia-immediately-takes-credit-for-glenn-youngkins-win-116848

[Beastly Boy]

80. Then he will do so at his peril.

The fine point in my argument is his constituents. They rewarded Youngkin with a win for his decision to stay away from Trump, just as they rewarded Biden a year earlier for not being Trump. The writing is on the wall for Youngkin, and if the trend continues as I hope it will, it is on the wall for all Republican politicians.

BTW, Trump tales credit for everything that shines the light on him, and blames others for everything that makes him look bad. This is not a measure of Youngkin's allegiance or opposition. Trump's boastings are totally baseless. The question is, will Youngking thank Trump for his victory?

[maxrandb]

70. He will do what Donnie Dipshit tells him to do

or he loses 35% of his voters.

Mark my words.

He won by less than 70K votes out of over 2M cast, but he and the absolutely crazy fucks that won Attorney General and Lieutenant Governor will rule like they won by 2M votes.

[Beastly Boy]

81. Apparently not in Virginia.

Youngkin's win was most decisive in the suburbs, who rejected Trump in 2020 and who rewarded Yougkin for his disassociation from Trump in 2021

[CrackityJones75]

30. I am the a acceptance point

I am the a acceptance point that people in this country are just fucking stupid. I don’t know if there is any messaging that can change that but the self flogging ourselves over it sure as shit isn’t helping. People vote. And they are dumb as fucking rocks. There isn’t really any other way around it. If people cannot see that the republican party is going to fuck them over while giving them some jingoistic bullshit to hang onto…. What the fuck are we going to do about it? And if you are stuck in one of these dumbfuckington states. Well I sin hope that you can find some way to get the fuck out of there a d move to a solidly blue state. This country is in a nosedive to some bad tomes ahead. Biden has given is a bit of a reprieve for the moment but people are so fucking dumb that they are rejecting it and clamoring for more of what we had and I think part of it is that they like the awfulness. That is how god damned dumb they are.

I sincerely do not think there is a message to compete with that. When all the Right has is the latest boogeyman you can’t beat it because as soon as you try to argue it you legitimize the boogeyman. Hell even if you say it doesn’t exist the reply is “But what if it is?” And when people get to that point there is no saving them.

[uponit7771]

36. Yes there is messaging that can change that and dems need to implement it the way the GQP does

... but with truth that's more effective.

We don't, we blame our bad messaging losses on slogans from the poor and oppressed that we never came up with and don't attack and define opponents enough ... see what McCauliffe did with Youngkin ... he never conflated Youngkin with Trump enough ... AT FIRST ... then when Youngkin ran away from Trump after the primary he didn't switch the issue.

The messaging has to be right, stoke emotions that are tethered to truth ... see how many times we DON'T do that in losses

[CrackityJones75]

38. Ok get back to me when you figure that out.

Because for the last 40 years it has been “we are bad at messaging”…. Here’s the truth. People are too fucking stupid to get the message. If you have to dumb it down to the point of grunts and snorts there is no message.

[uponit7771]

40. I posted it already, stoke emotions like the GQP does but with truth. We don't do that ...

... they are king at it.

The guy who admitted not knowing what CRT was but "didn't like it" was the tell tale that GQP knows how to galvanize via emotions and racism.

Democrats need to do the same, I had an emotional connection with Obama because he was factually going to be different and he was

[CrackityJones75]

41. They are good at it BECAUSE they lie

They are good at it BECAUSE they lie. Until we are willing to lie to win we will not match their ability in that regard. We can’t say we need to be more like then but different and expect anything different. This country is far too stupid to see blatant lies put before them. I don’t know how long it is going to take for the electorate to get smart but that is what it will eventually take. For Germany it took the worlds biggest attrocity.

[uponit7771]

43. 100% agree that the GQP doesn't have to tell the truth to stoke but we can stoke AND tell the truth

... for instance we should put the nation on a 9/11 terrorism footing but using 1/6 assholes as the boogyman and then allowing the GQP to tie themselves to the threat.

That's what the GQP did in 02 off elections to dems but they lied doing it, we could tell the truth by tying GQP pols to J6rs and Trump the traitor.

We wont, we constantly think "going high" is "being nice"

[CrackityJones75]

50. That seems like a good plan but...

Politically NOBODY cares. Seriously white people do not care about white people committing crimes. They MUST be prosecuted but as for people caring politically it is a snoozefest. Now POC upset about being murdered on the streets by cops…. Well that just can’t happen and if some white boy comes along and guns them down…. Well that is just peachy. Sure WE are outraged. But this country has a bunch of fucking idiots that buy the tucker carlson garbage and the ricky schroeder bullshit that he is somehow nustified.

I hear you I really do. I just don’t know how our “messaging” is ever going to compete with that level of stupidity and the volume of the platforms that the GOP has.

I fear that the only thing that is going to change it is something that wakes people up and that is going to be a massive tragedy. The rest of the workd is fast becoming sick of our shit. I do not like where we are heading.

I hope you are right and we can somehow reach people. I REALLY do.

[uponit7771]

53. I feel like you do but relating more to implementation than tactic, the tactic works ... look at

... CRT and the GQP, most MAGA don't even know what CRT is.

That's crazy, the GQP knows how to push those buttons we can do the same but with reality.

I don't feel optimistic that dems understand the efficacy of the stoking emotions with facts tactic, we are still blaming non sequitur slogans we never ascribed to on down ballot losses !!

[Justice matters.]

74. "Trump the traitor" is not a lie.

"Equal Justice For All" is a lie. And I bet tons of Independents see that clearly, and they punish the "Do Nothing About It Dems"

[Lonestarblue]

37. The message I got from the Virginia race was white grievance.

It wasn’t black parents protesting at school board meetings about CRT. Republicans are masters at using emotions and fear in their campaigns. We all know, and I suspect that many of Youngkin’s voters also know, that schools are not teaching CRT. Parents against masks for their children were part of this whole parents’ rights issue, but much of it centers on white backlash to what they see as the attempt by minorities to gain power at their expense. Perhaps some of them see the issue as Democrats trying to erase their history by bringing up the true horrors of slavery. The removal of Confederate statues, the term defunding the police, the huge protests after George Floyd’s murder, the census data showing a decrease in whites as a percentage of the total population—all have been used by Republicans to instill determination in their voters to maintain their privilege. Most of them do not recognize it as privilege because they simply want to continue their advantages and they do not care what happens to anyone else. As for exit polls, people lie. No one will say they voted because of racial resentment.

Obviously that wasn’t the only reason that people voted for Youngkin, but I think it was a big one because white parents in the rural areas and the burbs thought they—and not the state—should determine what their children are taught. It’s part of the anti-government attitude that Republicans have been cultivating since Reagan. It’s evident in Republicans refusing to wear masks or be vaccinated because the government has no right to tell them what to do. By promising that he would ensure that CRT was never taught in Virginia schools, Youngkin was promising voters that he was on their side and would not allow liberals to indoctrinate their children with a history that makes white people look guilty of heinous crimes—and it’s an easy promise for Youngkin to keep because CRT is not taught in any public school. What will happen, though, is that Virginia will do what Texas is doing now and insist that books on racial injustice be removed from libraries and classrooms.

We Democrats (or at least this Democrat) underestimated the significance of the whole CRT issue because we knew it wasn’t actually taught. But Republicans are very good at manipulating people and rousing them to anger with fabricated issues. We would do well to address the reality that Republicans win elections on emotions, and Democrats lose them by not appealing to emotions. Policies are good, but Republicans have no policies other than maintaining white privilege through their support of loose gun laws, anti-government rhetoric around personal freedom, and few restrictions on businesses to make as much money as possible on the backs of their workers.

The 2020 election was not a rejection of Republicans, it was a rejection only of Trump because he had done a terrible job with the virus. Without the pandemic, I believe Trump would have been re-elected. And in 2024, barring another wave of infections, he stands a strong chance of being elected again because he appeals to those who want nothing to do with resurrecting the history of slavery and those who want to enact their religious beliefs into law. Along with those who just don’t care what happens to the country so long as they get tax cuts and no restraints on whatever they want to do, that is a strong enough base to re-elect Trump. I’m not saying we should give up by any means, but I think we need to recognize the motivations of the other side and not just attribute our losses to the economy.

[wildman76]

51. Really, there's a soft coup going on, and Trump is all over it

[bucolic_frolic]

39. Biden has spent the year cleaning up the Trump mess, including the pandemic

We're not being rewarded for that.

[wildman76]

44. No your not wrong, the devils walk among us

[old guy]

49. Yup. The voters had a simple choice.

Fascism or democracy. They chose the one that was closest to their mindset.

[maxrandb]

72. Retrumplicans: "When do we finally start killing these people"?

Virginia 2021 Electorate: "soon my friend...very soon"

[Jon King]

52. Suburban parents hated the Covid closures and blamed Democrats.

Of course the MAGAs came out with their agenda but that is not what tipped the suburbs. Read the exit polls, go back for the last 18 months and hear what suburbanites have been yelling about.

In the end the parents hated the Covid school closures and were angry and needed to blame someone. That someone was Democrats, as backwards as that is.

Parents in the suburbs had their lives destroyed for 2 school years. Most kids stink at online learning. Moms were forced out of the workforce to stay home. Kids got depressed. The teachers refused, and rightly so, to teach in person.

Once Covid is not an issue in schools will suburban parents come back to the Dems? Now that Dems are also associated with the 'super woke' curriculum being forced on kids according to Repugs, who knows.

Dems have to regain the suburban parents.

[Autumn]

55. Virginia voters voted their values. i don't get the shock over this.

[world wide wally]

57. Maybe we need to face the fact that we are a greedy, vindictive and fascistic nation that

longs for an authoritarian dictator that imposes his authority on everything we think, say, or do. Kind of like living vicariously through television. Altogether too many Americans just don't want to make the effort to think, study, or explore the options available to us. It is so much easier to just take orders, and those that want to give them simply want power. Not to do good, but purely for their own personal gain.

[Steelrolled]

59. As far as I know, Trump wasn't running for governor

and didn't campaign in the governor race. McAuliffe was swinging for a fast ball and got a change up. Wasn't a bad strategy but it just didn't work.

[ancianita]

63. Also,

It wrong and stupid to say, "forgive them for they know not what they do." They know.

This is beyond the dumbfuck fury over critical race theory.
This is a majority vote for minority rule through voter nullification by REPUBLICAN statehouses.
It is wrong and stupid to give up and give in to the VA message.

VA will now be the launch platform for the ongoing "protests" that eventually become the next coup attempt in Washington, DC.

American democracy's failure has not been its laws, but their enforcement, and how spelling out that "shall" enforcement is not part of each law.
Time to change that, so that governance is real, not corporate theater.

As the Atlantic argues,

America Is a Republic, Not a Democracy’ Is a Dangerous—And Wrong—Argument


https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/11/yes-constitution-democracy/616949/

[Bettie]

64. Empty Greene, Hawley, Ted Cruz, and a host of others

are proof of this.

None of them have or will receive any consequences for their actions.

It's all about what the media chooses to amplify.

They love chaos and Democrats don't bring that.

[Apollo Zeus]

75. I think you would have to look at exit polling to reach any conclusions

CRT seems to have been a factor and what that points to is something that has been a problem for Dems since at least 2016.

"You can't reason a person out of a position they didn't reason themselves into." IOW, people take positions based on emotions and the longer they hold those positions the more it seems true to them.

Real CRT:
- is graduate level college cirriculuum
- is primarily focused on law and race, not "history"
- seeks to link cause and effect through careful study

Virginia CRT:
- was created as a wedge issue
- means (to those voters) 'teach white kids to feel guilty'
- is fear-based (emotion, not reason)
- fits perfectly into white paranoia, especially in southern states where statues are coming down

The issue was designed to rally the GOP base and put Dems on the defensive. The Dems did not effectively counter the fake-CRT issue -- they tried to counter it with "Trump bad" and "racism bad." Both of which are true but the 2 mistakes are 1) not using a similar tactic and appropriate issue to put the GOP on defense, and 2) not messaging in a way that engages voter's emotions including fear.

A basic marketing technique that works even better in politics than in sales is "Listen to the customer (voter) and then speak back to them using the words and phrases they used." So you can't engage with those voters and give them a college-level lecture on what CRT really is. They won't sit still for it and even if they did it doesn't counter the emotion-based messaging they are getting from the other side.

[moondust]

86. It's the party

without a platform that's for me!
Toot! Toot!
It's the party without a platform that's for me!
Toot! Toot!
It's the party without a platform
With it's head up an orange ass!
It's the party without a platform that's for me!
Toot! Toot!

Who needs a platform when you can rely on racism and greed to take you as far as you want to go?