Why Democrats Lost In Virginia Is Painfully Obvious

[Frankenstein Underworld]

 

[Grant Jennings]

McAuliffe was an uninspiring, corporate approved candidate but that's not the only reason he lost.

Critical Race Theory: Fox and other conservative news outlets have adopted this term to describe school curricula about race. Democrats have responded by arguing that C.R.T. is a college level course and isn't taught in K - 12 but U.S. history is. This is technically correct but fails to address the concerns of the parents. Public schools in Virginia and throughout the country aren't teaching C.R.T. but they are teaching Anti-racism. They're teaching children as young as first grade that all White people are oppressors and all Black people are oppressed; the most disadvantaged White person, solely because of the color of their skin, has more privilege than any Black person will ever have; all White people are racists but Black people (due to their lack of privilege) can't be racist. This isn't C.R.T. but it isn't history either and many parents - White and Black - don't want it taught to their children.

Transgender rights and rape: In May of this year a girl was raped in the girls restroom of a Loudon County public school by a student who identifies as female but has a penis. While the investigation was ongoing, the accused rapist was allowed to continue to attend school but was transferred to another school in Loudon County - where they raped another female student. During a school board meeting this Fall the issue of transgender students and access to restrooms came up; one board member asked if there had been any sexual assaults in restrooms. The superintendent said there had not been any. This was not true. At another board meeting the father of the first rape victim raised his concerns about student safety, he lost his temper and was arrested. The father is now being labeled a "domestic terrorist".

Loudon County has been solidly Democratic for the past several election cycles. McAullife won in Loudon County but he didn't run-up his numbers enough to offset other parts of the state where he did poorly. Elections where Democrats win in Virginia often show a map that is mostly red with only a few patches of blue. Loudon County and the other D.C. suburbs is the largest, darkest blue patch. If a Democrat doesn't win that area by a wide margin, with a sizable turnout, they cannot win.

 

[Crimson]

11 of the last 12 governor's elections in VA were won by the party not in the White House. American politics has such predictable ebb-and-flow, I am baffled that people are still surprised or look for "meaning". Voters are contrarians who vote against who they see as in power, and the base of the party on the out tends to be more energized. Democrats will get massacred in the midterms. Possibly the Republicans will retake the White House two years after that; if they do, then they'll get massacred in the next midterms. Rinse & repeat.

On the other hand, it's the first time in 44 years that a Democrat was re-elected as governor of NJ; so, there's that.

 

[Frankenstein Underworld]

11 of the last 12 governor's elections in VA were won by the party not in the White House. American politics has such predictable ebb-and-flow, I am baffled that people are still surprised or look for "meaning". Voters are contrarians who vote against who they see as in power, and the base of the party on the out tends to be more energized. Democrats will get massacred in the midterms. Possibly the Republicans will retake the White House two years after that; if they do, then they'll get massacred in the next midterms. Rinse & repeat.

Voters are likely contrarians because the party in power never lifts a finger to help them. There's a difference between calling yourself the next FDR and actually being FDR. Of course, cable news has the opposite take. Whenever their corporate backed neoliberal candidates lose, they always blame it on the Democratic Party "moving too far left."

Imagine if Biden and the Democrats actually fought in favor of ending the wars, universal healthcare, student debt relief, a living wage, raising taxes on the rich, humanely addressing the border crisis, and taking steps to combat climate change. It's hard to believe voters would be contrarians if the Democrats materially improved their lives.

Hell, presidential term limits were set at 2 precisely because people wouldn't stop voting for FDR. Since Bill Clinton, the Democratic Party is just another right wing party.

On the other hand, it's the first time in 44 years that a Democrat was re-elected as governor of NJ; so, there's that.

I wonder if they were swayed by Obama's rousing speech where he ridiculed "uninspired voters" and literally praised Democrats for their half (more like quarter) measures.

 

[Frankenstein Underworld]

McAuliffe was an uninspiring, corporate approved candidate but that's not the only reason he lost.

Critical Race Theory: Fox and other conservative news outlets have adopted this term to describe school curricula about race. Democrats have responded by arguing that C.R.T. is a college level course and isn't taught in K - 12 but U.S. history is. This is technically correct but fails to address the concerns of the parents. Public schools in Virginia and throughout the country aren't teaching C.R.T. but they are teaching Anti-racism. They're teaching children as young as first grade that all White people are oppressors and all Black people are oppressed; the most disadvantaged White person, solely because of the color of their skin, has more privilege than any Black person will ever have; all White people are racists but Black people (due to their lack of privilege) can't be racist. This isn't C.R.T. but it isn't history either and many parents - White and Black - don't want it taught to their children.

Transgender rights and rape: In May of this year a girl was raped in the girls restroom of a Loudon County public school by a student who identifies as female but has a penis. While the investigation was ongoing, the accused rapist was allowed to continue to attend school but was transferred to another school in Loudon County - where they raped another female student. During a school board meeting this Fall the issue of transgender students and access to restrooms came up; one board member asked if there had been any sexual assaults in restrooms. The superintendent said there had not been any. This was not true. At another board meeting the father of the first rape victim raised his concerns about student safety, he lost his temper and was arrested. The father is now being labeled a "domestic terrorist".

That speaks to the insanity of the woke movement. They think every straight, cis-gendered white person is evil, and every transgendered person and person of color is a victim. In another thread here, someone actually said "It's not cis men and women who need protection from trans people but trans people who need protection from cis people." Anyone can be a predator and anyone can be a victim. And as far as privilege goes, there are white homeless people while Barack Obama is a wealthy former president...

 

[Spooky Owl!]

That speaks to the insanity of the woke movement. They think every straight, cis-gendered white person is evil, and every transgendered person and person of color is a victim. In another thread here, someone actually said "It's not cis men and women who need protection from trans people but trans people who need protection from cis people." Anyone can be a predator and anyone can be a victim. And as far as privilege goes, there are white homeless people while Barack Obama is a wealthy former president...

One of the reasons corporations are embracing and exploiting Wokeism is because it's just a modern version of an old trick: keep the underclasses fighting with each other so they're too busy to realize what the oligarchs are doing with all the money.

It usually works.

 

[Grant Jennings]

Wokeism isn't about doing good, it's about feeling that you are doing good and being perceived as doing good. The woke movement lacks direction; they have no trouble deciding what they support and oppose - often forming opinions before they have all the necessary information - but they rarely have concrete ideas of what they plan to accomplish. Black Lives Matter didn't accomplish much other than becoming a slogan that appears on signs on the lawns of upper middle-class White liberals. BLM did accomplish one other thing: it bought Patrisse Khan-Cullors a lot of expensive real estate.

Woke organizations pushed for the (extremely vague) police reform ballot initiative in Minneapolis but the people who actually live in Minneapolis voted against it. New York had several mayoral candidates who supported "defunding" the police but they elected Eric Adams who supports "stop & frisk".

 

[Crimson]

Voters are likely contrarians because the party in power never lifts a finger to help them. There's a difference between calling yourself the next FDR and actually being FDR.

Even FDR lost big in his midterm. Not the first one, which atypically went in the direction of the WH; so it only takes a Great Depression to get voters to break from being contrarian.

It's hard to believe voters would be contrarians if the Democrats materially improved their lives.

That's when the other c-word would likely rear its head: complacency. People are more likely to actually vote when they're agitated about something. If Americans had better healthcare, most voters would still stay home and elections would be won by people riled up over who's using which bathroom or which version of history is being taught to fourth graders. Just barely over half of the electorate turned out in VA (which apparently was considered an excellent turn out), and boutique culture war issues seemed to be more of a motivator than anything that could materially improve their lives.

To @Snarky Oracle 's point, this could be credited to corporate media manipulation and a few loud mouth agitators, but it's the voters who fall for it time and time again, with a mixture of apathy and being easily distracted.

 

[Frankenstein Underworld]

Even FDR lost big in his midterm. Not the first one, which atypically went in the direction of the WH; so it only takes a Great Depression to get voters to break from being contrarian.

One would think a once in a lifetime pandemic would have a similar effect, but unlike the FDR era, all of the "relief" is being transferred upward today.

That's when the other c-word would likely rear its head: complacency. People are more likely to actually vote when they're agitated about something. If Americans had better healthcare, most voters would still stay home and elections would be won by people riled up over who's using which bathroom or which version of history is being taught to fourth graders. Just barely over half of the electorate turned out in VA (which apparently was considered an excellent turn out), and boutique culture war issues seemed to be more of a motivator than anything that could materially improve their lives.

To @Snarky Oracle 's point, this could be credited to corporate media manipulation and a few loud mouth agitators, but it's the voters who fall for it time and time again, with a mixture of apathy and being easily distracted.

There's some truth to that, but we also see what happens when an inspiring candidate comes along. They either get co-opted by the establishment (like Barack Obama), or they see their momentum destroyed by backroom manipulation and cable news propaganda (like Bernie Sanders). Dems care more about thwarting the left than winning elections.

And when your final two choices are either Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump, apathy becomes an understandable response. The pandemic likely helped swing the election to Biden and the Dems, but their refusal to help people has voters rightfully seething. As to VA specifically, McAuliffe was an unlikeable Clinton ally and establishment tool.

 

[bspooky9]

Hell, presidential term limits were set at 2 precisely because people wouldn't stop voting for FDR. Since Bill Clinton, the Democratic Party is just another right wing party.

Then why are Democrats portrayed as leftists? Is it because they're not as far to the right as the Republicans are?

 

[Frankenstein Underworld]

Then why are Democrats portrayed as leftists? Is it because they're not as far to the right as the Republicans are?

I'd say it's more of a trick used to deceive people. Dems portray themselves as leftists when they campaign to get the party's base to vote for them. In contrast, Republicans portray conservative Dems as radical leftists to make them seem unappealing to Republican voters. And when conservative Dems lose, so-called "liberal" outlets like MSNBC and CNN lie and say it's because the party moved too far left. It's a coordinated effort to ensure both parties continue serving the same corporate and militaristic masters.

 

[bspooky9]

I'd say it's more of a trick used to deceive people. Dems portray themselves as leftists when they campaign to get the party's base to vote for them. In contrast, Republicans portray conservative Dems as radical leftists to make them seem unappealing to Republican voters. And when conservative Dems lose, so-called "liberal" outlets like MSNBC and CNN lie and say it's because the party moved too far left. It's a coordinated effort to ensure both parties continue serving the same corporate and militaristic masters.

No wonder FOX "News" and MSNBC are the way they are! I'll tell you the truth, knowing what I know now, after that screaming match that FOX "News" called a "debate," both Trump and Biden would have been disqualified to me, and I would have definitely voted third-party (even if that third-party vote gave votes to Trump).

 

[Spooky Owl!]

 

[Crimson]

One would think a once in a lifetime pandemic would have a similar effect,

Pre-pandemic, I was fairly optimistic about America; for all of the political divisiveness, I thought the country could come together when push came to shove. If something as inherently politically neutral as a pandemic not only can't unite us but proves to be more politically divisive, I think we're doomed.

Now when someone in a Red State threatens to secede, my thought is "well, hurry up so the rest of us can join the 21st century."