2021 American Political Scene

[zraver]

It was your final and parting thought.... You interjected Trump into something that was not Trump because deep down like most lefties you can't actually accept that bullshit leftist policies are why Youngkin won. You might pay lip service to the truth but what you really feel and delieve is what you closed with. It's your thesis, hidden though you think it is.

[TopHatter]

It was your final and parting thought.... You interjected Trump into something that was not Trump because deep down like most lefties you can't actually accept that bullshit leftist policies are why Youngkin won. You might pay lip service to the truth but what you really feel and delieve is what you closed with. It's your thesis, hidden though you think it is.

As I've said many a time before: You're entitled to your delusions.

[tbm3fan]

As someone who actually lives in Virginia, let me weigh in.

Last year the Democrats won because they turned out in very high numbers (something which didn't occur this year) and many Republicans stayed home. Plus Biden won the suburbs last year, Youngkin yesterday.

What did Youngkin win? He pushed the entire CRT bullshit line. CRT is not and has never been a part of any K-12 Virginia curriculum. I should know...my son went through K-12 in our local Virginia school system and their history curriculum was basically crap. I know cause I regularly checked it and wrote to the schoolboard repeatedly about the blatant Jim Crow-ism on those books. Why? Cause Virginia, like so many states, are chained with text books determined by the TX State Education Board since they have an outsize impact of school texts used around the country. Texas has so many high schools that textbook companies use what they buy as the template for all books sold. If you as a state want something different, that state needs to update the book and then cover all costs for conversion. And they are only going for your state. I had long conversations over beers with our former School Supervisor, Bobby Broward, about this subject years ago.

Fortunately, as I am an historian, I was able to get the straight word to my son...I was appalled by the whitewashing of the Confederacy. But then again we had Monument Avenue until this year so...

So as for Trump and Virginia...Those who voted for Trump in voted for Youngkin yesterday. The yard signs were a one to one match from last year...hell, some still have his signs up. And the CRT "issue" was right out of what Trump was saying this year. Same with people's reactions to how our Governor, a medical doctor, handled the COVID issue. As I said on other threads we got killed early in Virginia because per earlier agreements, because so much of the federal personnel and government officials live in Virginia, we are dependent on the federal government for PPP...and the federal government by Executive decision did not hold up their end of the bargain. Eventually Governor Northam us dug out and insisted on a professional response to COVID by locking down, etc. All that was covered in the COVID threads. That, coupled with social distancing and eventually the vaccine got us out of the crisis. Still not all over (I live in a low vax county) but we are doing okay.

So if you look at those 2 issues you see where the Trump Administration the the former POTUS's rhetoric had an impact yesterday.

And I'll reiterate...Youngkin beat a badly flawed candidate in Terry McAuliffe.

It is always nice to hear the opinion from someone who ACTUALLY lives there.

[TopHatter]

Notes on the State of Virginia

Three months ago, former Virginia governor Terry McAuliffe (D) was a strong favorite to defeat Glenn Youngkin (R) and regain his old job. However, Youngkin ran a very effective (if rather dishonest) campaign, and consistently made up ground as the election heated up. But did he gain enough ground? Yes, he did. With more than 95% of the votes in, all the major media outlets projected Youngkin as the winner in the contest, taking 51% of the vote to McAuliffe's 48.3% (with 0.7% for Princess Blanding). McAuliffe did not concede last night, but he will presumably do so sometime early today.

Get ready for a slew of "gloom-and-doom for the Democrats" thought pieces. We continue to caution against reading too much into this result, for a variety of reasons:

• McAuliffe: McAuliffe is the prototype bland, unexciting, establishment candidate. Few people loathe him. Even fewer love him. He is a centrist's centrist, a compromiser's compromise candidate, and a ho-hummer's ho-hum selection. In his successful 2013 campaign, he got 47.8% of the vote, or about 0.5% less than he got this year. It sure looks like approximately 48% is his level, and he wins when a third-party candidate siphons off some votes from the Republican (as happened in 2013, but not this year).
• The Clintons: McAuliffe is intimately associated with the Clintons, who are currently pretty toxic. This angle didn't get a lot of coverage during this campaign, but surely there must have been some Youngkin voters who are really anti-Clinton voters.
• Virginia Is Not That Blue: Yes, the Old Dominion State has gone for the Democratic candidate in the last several elections, but it did go for George W. Bush twice, it had a Republican U.S. Senator as recently as 2009, a Republican governor as recently as 2014, and Republican control of both chambers of the legislature as recently as 2020.
• An Off-Year Election: We've said it a million times, and here is instance #1,000,001: Off-year elections are strange creatures. It is true that the 2022 elections will also be off-year, but elections like the ones last night are really off-year.
• The National Climate: Joe Biden's approval ratings are poor right now, gas prices are crazy, and the Democrats are in the midst of an ugly sausage-making process in Congress. Was this a huge anchor around McAuliffe's neck? We doubt it. Was it a medium-sized or small anchor around McAuliffe's neck? That seems more reasonable. And in an election decided by 2-3%, a medium-to-small anchor is all it takes to sink the ship.

As to the Virginia House of Delegates, there is little clarity as to which party will have control once the dust has settled. As of 12:01 ET Wednesday, 39 seats had been called for the Republicans, 38 for the Democrats, and 23 were still up in the air. In terms of other statewide offices, the Lieutenant Governorship and Attorney Generalship also went to the Republican candidates.

In any event, there was little good news for the Democrats in Virginia last night; we are just suggesting that the extent of the bad news should not be overstated. If the national climate is similar in 11 months—Congress blows it on the infrastructure bills, the economy has continued issues, Biden remains stuck in the low 40s, popularity-wise, then it's time to start thinking of Virginia as a portent of what is to come on Nov. 8, 2022. But for now, patience is called for. It's also possible that this will be the canary in the coal mine for Democratic voters, and that failure in Virginia will persuade many that they simply must get out and vote in 2022. Or, it might persuade Democratic candidates to avoid a "hammer Trump all day and all night" strategy.

An interesting question, which we also pointed out yesterday, is whether other Republicans will be able to replicate Youngkin's keep-Donald-Trump-at-arm's-length approach. Johnathan V. Last, writing for the right-leaning but anti-Trump The Bulwark thinks it might not be. The reason is that Virginia Republicans realized they were at risk of being stuck with Amanda Chase, a fanatical Trumper who believes that women who don't carry guns are encouraging rapists, that the conviction of Derek Chauvin for the killing of George Floyd was "political" and "sick," that liberals are "trying to erase white history," and that Indigenous People's Day is part of an insidious plot to give American land back to the natives.

Concluding that Chase would not win the election, the Virginia GOP essentially cooked the rulebook to spare Youngkin a primary. Had that primary happened, then Youngkin probably would have lost. Even if he had won, it would have come after veering rightward, which would have made his general election strategy problematic. Needless to say, most state Republican organs are not going to rig the primaries like this.

Anyhow, regardless of what happens with the House of Delegates, Virginia is likely to have divided government until at least January 2024, because the state Senate has a 21-19 Democratic majority and the terms of the senators do not end until Jan. 8 of that year. One presumes gridlock will be in the offing. At very least, anyone concerned with electoral-vote-stealing chicanery can rest easy when it comes to Virginia, since the next state Senate—even if it's a Republican majority—will take office too late to try it. Plus, Youngkin doesn't seem to be too interested in Trump returning to power.
_________

A pretty solid write-up from my favorite (actually only) political blog.

[Albany Rifles]

2 things from this....

Concluding that Chase would not win the election, the Virginia GOP essentially cooked the rulebook to spare Youngkin a primary. Had that primary happened, then Youngkin probably would have lost. Even if he had won, it would have come after veering rightward, which would have made his general election strategy problematic. Needless to say, most state Republican organs are not going to rig the primaries like this.

Amanda Chase was a real bull (maybe cow) in the china shop for the GOP. Her refusal to wear a mask or get vaccinated had her sitting in a plexiglass booth in the Senate Chamber...a real Man In The Glass Booth look. The VAGOP moved heaven and earth to prevent her from getting the nomination...if it had been a primary she would have won easily. The convention was a way to sideline her.

• McAuliffe: McAuliffe is the prototype bland, unexciting, establishment candidate. Few people loathe him. Even fewer love him. He is a centrist's centrist, a compromiser's compromise candidate, and a ho-hummer's ho-hum selection. In his successful 2013 campaign, he got 47.8% of the vote, or about 0.5% less than he got this year. It sure looks like approximately 48% is his level, and he wins when a third-party candidate siphons off some votes from the Republican (as happened in 2013, but not this year).
• The Clintons: McAuliffe is intimately associated with the Clintons, who are currently pretty toxic. This angle didn't get a lot of coverage during this campaign, but surely there must have been some Youngkin voters who are really anti-Clinton voters.

This cannot be overstated. As I have said previously, McAuliffe was a lousy candidate. There was no one available in the state Democratic Party to take his place. And the Clintons are kryptonite in VA.

I think the VA DEMs best choice in 2025 may be a current Congressman...either Abigail Spanberger or Donald McEachin. Both have a lot of pull in the party and would make good governors. the current speaker, Eileen Filler-Corn, would also be a good choice for GOV or LT GOV.

Anyway, the Democratic Party of Virginia has some work to do.

[DOR]

Lake Elections Supervisor Alan Hays to GOP election-fraud claims: ‘PUT UP OR SHUT UP!!’

The Orlando Sentinel, Nov 3, 2021
Irritated by Lake County Republican leaders who want a forensic audit of the 2020 vote and who allege the “entire election system is fraught with flaws,” Elections Supervisor Alan Hays — a long-time member of the GOP — posted a rebuttal on his official website Tuesday, demanding they “PUT UP OR SHUT UP!!”

”As an election professional, I find it disturbing that some of our citizenry continue to promote a narrative that is unsubstantiated in fact or example,” he wrote. “It begins with the unrelenting desire to believe that an election was ‘stolen,’ and that ‘the vast majority of us witnessed (this) on election night 2020.’ ”

Hays, a former state legislator, defended the elections in Florida and in Lake, where he has served as supervisor since January 2017. He posted the lengthy “News Bulletin” on lakevotes.com as citizens in five Lake cities went to the polls to choose municipal leaders, including a mayor in Mount Dora.

“There continues to be reliance on unproven algorithms and analysis that has been the basis of these ‘stolen’ election claims,” he wrote.

The Lake County Republican Executive Committee last month passed resolutions demanding the Legislature conduct an “immediate, open, transparent and independent full forensic audit, including a hand recount” of Lake County and the entire state, though Trump won the county and Florida by almost 372,000 votes.

They wanted the review to be “at least as thorough as the audit being conducted in Maricopa County, Arizona.”

The Maricopa audit, authorized by the GOP-controlled Arizona Senate based on Trump’s allegations, ultimately concluded that Biden actually got more votes than originally reported. Florida-based Cyber Ninjas, the company that conducted the audit, was later criticized by GOP data analyst as having “made up the numbers.”

The resolutions insist “a majority of citizens doubt that the November 3, 2020, election was conducted openly and fairly” and “doubt the number of legal votes cast for each candidate equals the reported and certified results, in Lake County, the State of Florida, and the United States.”

Hays said he spoke Monday with Walter Price, chairman of the Lake County GOP, and gave him a 5 p.m. deadline to produce evidence of voter fraud in Lake. Hays said he never heard back from Price.
“I don’t care who it is,” Hays said in a Tuesday phone interview. “If anybody’s going to be walking around town spreading lies about my office or making allegations about the conduct of ... this office, they better be able and equipped to substantiate their claims. And if they can’t, they better shut up.

“I am highly, highly insulted and I am not going to let him nor anybody else ... on this planet get away with criticizing my people and disparaging the performance of the professionals I work with unless they have evidence.”

Price did not immediately return a phone message left seeking comment.
Hays said he would be willing to investigate voter fraud if he was presented credible evidence.

“But not one person has offered the first bit of evidence or given me any names of alleged violators of our election laws,” he said.
https://www.orlandosentinel.com/politics/os-ne-lake-supervisor-put-up-shut-up-20211102-xwqs33hatnbbzhl7xt6syfeovq-story.html

[TopHatter]

2 things from this....

Good stuff Buck, always nice to have a first hand perspective.

[Albany Rifles]

Good stuff Buck, always nice to have a first hand perspective.

I try!

[zraver]

Buck, IF this is a real site, your info may be out of date.

https://www.fairfaxtimes.com/article...c9103236c.html

[statquo]

Buck, IF this is a real site, your info may be out of date.

https://www.fairfaxtimes.com/article...c9103236c.html

Nowhere in that article did it say it's being taught in schools. It even says it in the first sentence:

School districts across Virginia have been expending resources, directing staff time, and hiring consultants to address “equity” in curriculum delivery and for professional development of teachers and other employees.

All it talks about is addressing current curriculum, professional development, and even makes a mention of the boogeyman George Soros.

[zraver]

Curriculum...,. What's taught in the class room.

[Albany Rifles]

As Statusquo says...it is not a part of the formal curriculum for K-12. But what has been raised the author in article above is, in a word, disingenuous. Parents Defending Education is a group that is working to privatize public education and expand school voucher programs which pulls badly needed tax dollars away from public schools. In the article you state all the outside activities are content provided to teachers...but has not impacted curriculum. All are beholden to the Commonwealth of Virginia's Standards of Learning which provides THE curriculum for all Virginia schools and is tested in annual SOL tests. Schools which do poorly on SOL results can cause real consequences to a school/school district which is why schools hone tight to the standards. CRT is not in that curriculum.

But if the author is upset by the comment that our history is about the "white men who owned property" that is exactly what our American history is about in our public schools.

Nothing about the role of Native Americans and their life and culture...which was rich and diverse pre-Columbian & Jamestown. Very little about the evils of slavery and how slavery was the deciding factor for the Civil War. A lot of blind eyes have been turned to our history...and groups like PDE are fighting against the truths about our history.

[zraver]

By all means tell the truth about American history, but tell the truth. Truth is not what the Left is pushing. They are using a false narrative about race

[Albany Rifles]

By all means tell the truth about American history, but tell the truth. Truth is not what the Left is pushing. They are using a false narrative about race

So what is "the Left" pushing?

[zraver]

A false narrative about race. When was the last time you heard about Union dead, Freedom Riders, the Arkansas Peace Society, lynched Republicans, that most white people in American are not descended from slave owners, that every single major piece of racist law making was Democrat and every major civil rights advanced was enabled by the GoP. That the founder of PP wanted to control black reproduction, that Jim Crow was my ade nationwide by NE Progressives Wilson and FDR.

The Left's narrative is ahistorical and promotes tribalism based on color. We should be past color but instead it is of increasing importance and our society is segregating and divided.

Hell when was the last time you saw anything mainstream about black success that wasn't related to entertainment or sports, black contributions to our history etc. It's all negative all the time.