Voters on Tuesday repudiated the Bernie/AOC/Pocan left
A “bloodbath,” University of Virginia election analyst Larry Sabato told Rachel Maddow last night (2 November 21).
“A five-alarm fire.” — Van Jones on CNN.
“Whatever we’re doing, it’s not working.” — Joan Walsh in The Nation.
The progressive agenda, rejected
“In the war between Democratic progressives and Democratic moderates, the Republicans won.” — former US Rep. Steve Israel, D-NY.
“A six-point program to make schools better and college more affordable will mean very little if voters believe their neighborhoods are unsafe; and while demagogues will eagerly feed such fears, they will motivate voters only if there is an underlying reality to them.” — Jeff Greenfield in Politico.
“A Thumping in Virginia. Voters warn Democrats to walk away from the Sanders-Pelosi agenda.” — Wall Street Journal.
Republicans argue that Democrats and Mr. McAuliffe’s campaign failed to address what is behind [a] sense of decline: increased costs of groceries and gasoline caused by inflation; continued frustration with schools; supply chain challenges; and crime. —New York Times.
Tuesday’s election results “could spell doom for Biden’s congressional Build Back Better agenda, which is currently being held together by a rusty paperclip and some old chewing gum. — The Dispatch.
“If you are a Democrat sitting on Capitol Hill and you are from one of these swing districts in suburban areas, are you rethinking tonight your vote on this reconciliation package?” former Obama adviser David Axelrod told CNN.
Critical race theory, exposed
“The Virginia GOP’s most valuable player [award] has to go to Randi Weingarten, the leader of a radical teachers’ union that ignored actual teaching, politicized everything, shut down schools, and literally tried to tell parents to shut up.”— U.S. Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Nebraska.
“A hard night for the hard left. … The official party line is that CRT isn’t taught in the public schools, that it’s just some obscure graduate school seminar topic. But that’s nowhere near true. While something called CRT is not taught in schools, some of the concepts are most definitely there.” — former Madison WI mayor Dave Cieslewicz.
“Glenn Youngkin’s victory proves white ignorance is a powerful weapon. Virginia’s new Republican governor won his race by stoking outrage over critical race theory.” — MSNBC’s Joy Reid, auditioning for a remake of the movie Clueless.
‘Go Brandon,’ voters said
“Turns out voters really don’t want to get mugged. They really don’t want their businesses firebombed. And, if they are parents, they really don’t want their kids being fed a bunch of racialist B.S. that is designed to provoke, divide, and indoctrinate.” — Erick Woods-Erickson.
Free at last!
“Mr. Trump, naturally, tried to take credit for Mr. Youngkin’s victory in statements on Tuesday night. But he was jumping in front of the victory parade.” — Wall Street Journal.
“Far from simply juicing the GOP’s pro-Trump base, [Youngkin] proved a Republican could assemble a broader coalition of right-leaning voters who may have scorned the former president — but who are willing to forget him. … throughout rural Virginia, Youngkin ran even with or, often, ahead of Trump.” —Politico.
Blaska’s Bottom Lines:
- Would even Rachel Maddow invite the Lincoln Project into her studio?
- Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred will eat humble pie in the city he stiffed for the All-Star game.
- Global climate change is the biggest non-issue since Comet Kahoutek.
- Donald Trump is fading like that snapshot of Marty McFly and his siblings.
- Progressive Democrats can’t pass gas without squabbling.
- Critical race theory is a dead man walking.
- Democrat-run Virginia had a tax on groceries? Groceries!
Education
Blaska Policy Werkes 
Small correction – McFly’s parents weren’t in the photo, it was just the kids.
LikeLike
BTW, love BTTF references. Trivia – saw it originally at the old University Square 4 with my college roommate. At one point he elbows me and says ” That’s today!”, referring to the “present date” display in the DeLorean – October 26 1985.
LikeLike
Republicans should be very wary of proclaiming a mandate because the margin of victory in these elections shows nothing of the sort. The political teeter-totter is only slightly off balance.
LikeLiked by 1 person
A takeaway for me was that a Republican won in a state presumed to be all but guaranteed for a Democrat. VA’s HD-75 is a primarily black district, and last I heard, it had flipped to the GOP. This is significant.
That said, I agree that Republicans need to be very wary. These results seem to be more a rejection of broken down leftist policies (especially CRT) than an embrace of conservative ones. It wasn’t a landslide by any means, and things can easily change in the near future. Voters are fickle.
LikeLike
Liberty wrote, “These results seem to be more a rejection of broken down leftist policies”
A rejection would be reflected in a really strong margin of victory, a mandate, so I wouldn’t go that far.
Remember the hard core lefty and righty voters will vote for their side no matter what, so there’s a reasonable solid base on both sides and that hard core base is relatively equal, it’s the more independent voters that shift the balance of power one way or the other. Keeping that in mind, the left isn’t rejecting leftist policies, the right is always going to reject the leftist policies, and the independent middle seems to be split damn near straight down the middle on the leftist policies. The Republicans fired up their base and targeted the independent middle with core arguments, the Democrats fired up their base and ostracized the independent middle with their propaganda, their lies and their woke nonsense and the elections were still very close.
LikeLike
A state that went 10 points for Biden exactly one year ago, that had not elected a Republican statewide in 12 years elects three? The teeter totter has tottered.
LikeLike
Yes, but it has only tottered to roughly “balanced”. As Liberty wrote, “voters are fickle”.
LikeLike
Steve, The aggregate vote here, in numbers and in percentages, was decidedly for Youngkin’s common-sense. Both parties have taken notice…
LikeLike
I agree with Steve about Republicans needing to be wary.
This was a vote against regressive policies, not necessarily an embrace of conservative ones. If Republicans get complacent and sloppy, we will find ourselves on the losing end at some point in the near future.
We won the battle last night. The war the left rages against everything we value in this country still rages on. It would be foolish to think they’re giving up.
LikeLike
Hilarious to see Axelrod basically encouraging Dems to reject the multi-trillion dollar bills which if they fail will basically blow up Biden’s presidency.
Also funny to see Anderson Cooper saying that lots of people are just annoyed by the elitist Dems as if he isn’t one of them.
I just hope the Dems double down, cry harder, and keep screeching about rayyycism and Jan. 6th was the worst thing everrrrr all the way through 2022 and 2024. Keep up the stunts, lying, and calling voters eayyycist!
LikeLike
I know, right?
Sad that their motivation for ditching a plan that would bankrupt this country is solely to win an election. If they thought that plan would help them win, they’d be all on it. Their motivation is not to serve the country, but to maintain power and control at any cost. These are not good people, in my opinion.
Anderson Cooper and the rest feigning surprise is laughable. They made their intentions perfectly clear and there’s no amount of backpeddling they could do that will change that. With their lies and manipulation, they helped destroy & divide this country. Excuse me, but F them and their phony outrage.
Will be interesting to see if the Dems double down on their insanity or learn from their mistakes. To learn from one’s mistakes, you have to be humble and self aware. Not exactly their strong suits.
LikeLiked by 3 people
Someone might want to very gently break the news to Joy Reid that Winsome Sears (great name!) is black.
LikeLike
And Virginia’s new Republican attorney general is hispanic.
LikeLike
Even after the polls were showing that McCaullife campaign was in trouble, he doubled down on his message, proclaiming that there are too many white teachers in public schools.
Arrogant, out of touch establishment politicians will sell their souls to win.
LikeLike
When you’re a fanatic and you sense trouble brewing, you don’t sit down and conduct a sober assessment of your beliefs. You double down on them. Can you imagine sanctimonious charlatans like Nancy Pelosi or Bernie Sanders admitting that their ideas/policies are anathema to most Americans despite the evidence of yesterday’s election results? The Democrats now are in the position Jim Jones was in after his followers gunned down a Congressman and others in Jonestown–too late for second guessing. The only thing left is to persuade your remaining followers to guzzle the Kool-Aid (with a Tylenol chaser) and wait for the apocalypse.
LikeLiked by 3 people
I don’t think Bernie would disavow his crackpot commie beliefs if BLM literally marched to one of his million dollar mansions and demanded he turn over title and keys to same and ordered him to get to steppin’.
Let’s see if he can keep every vulnerable Dem congressmember on board with Biden’s insane multi-trillion dollar effort to punish success and reintroduce permanent welfare programs.
LikeLike
Good point, Gary.
I’d add that they’re unable to assess themselves because they lack humility and self awareness. I think a lot of egos were bruised last night,
LikeLike
In a fundraising email today Tammy Baldwin said that …Virginians elected a Trump endorsed candidate… Does she just not get this?
LikeLiked by 1 person
No, and in fact I see many doubling down.
Let them. Because the more fanatical they become, the more people’s eyes are opened.
LikeLike
Great collage of restive & provocative quotes -where to begin? I’ll leave that to others more knowledgeable than I. All’s I can say is, “Yay !”
LikeLike
I’m basking in the warm afterglow of a massive electoral victory for ALL Americans. After I thank God, I’ll fire up a Churchillian fatty, savor an adult beverage and pray for more wins.
Smothered in smug sanctimony and basted in their own racist juices, Lefties never saw the shellacking coming. They were insulated from reality in their safe-spaces, bubble world and Leftist echo chamber. All the myopic, hive-minded #GetTrump Ms. Media misread it.
Although CNN’s Jeffery Toobin was just a beat off in his political analysis.
Besides, how could he see reality when he’s going to go blind?
“Quick, Good Dog, who were the last three Democrat presidents known by their initials?”, Herr Happmann quizzed.
“Well, there was FDR, then there was JFK and then LBJ”, Good Dog lifted one hairy eyebrow, smiled and said, “… and now there’s FJB.”
“Voofda!”
LikeLiked by 1 person
Cher: Republicans are fascists who want a whites-only country.
VA: Meet our new black female GOP Lt. Gov. and our new GOP Hispanic (Cuban) AG.
LikeLike