For Democrats, the clearest message from Tuesday’s bruising election results is that bad things trickle down when a president from your own party confronts as much discontent as President Joe Biden faces now. The Republican victory in the Virginia gubernatorial race and the unexpectedly close result in New Jersey’s—both states […] Read more »
Voters don’t care about Donald Trump. They care about Joe Biden’s unpopularity
Democrats had hoped that former President Donald Trump could serve as a boogeyman. They wanted his continuing unpopularity to serve as a call to action to Democrats, even as President Joe Biden himself is unpopular. Tuesday night should serve as a warning that such a strategy doesn’t look like it’ll […] Read more »
Progressive fantasies hit political reality in Virginia
Republican Glenn Youngkin’s come-from-behind victory in the governor’s race proved the maxim that Virginia is for moderates. Throughout the campaign, Democrat Terry McAuliffe squandered his reputation as a business-friendly, centrist former governor who worked constructively with a Republican legislature. Instead, he became a Trump-obsessed attack dog who nationalized the race […] Read more »
Kamala Harris is right: Virginia result will resonate in 2022, 2024 and beyond
Tuesday’s off-off-year election was the vote heard round the world. Democrats were left reeling from what is a national rejection of progressive policies, from Virginia to New Jersey and Long Island, to Texas and even Minneapolis and Seattle. It is a defining loss for Democrats, who have been so convinced […] Read more »
One Lesson of Virginia? The Culture War Still Works.
… In the broadest sense, “cultural” matters have been challenging and bedeviling Democrats for well over half a century. The backlash to civil rights pulled the South away from the Democratic Party in the mid-’60s; crime, welfare, campus and urban violence eroded white working-class loyalties. These issues helped win Republicans […] Read more »
Terry McAuliffe Bet on Voters Hating Trump. Turns Out They Dislike Democrats More.
The Republican Party — populated with cranks, crooks, clowns, bigots and deranged conspiracy theorists — has spent five years alienating women, minorities and young voters. The party — and its entire leadership from the grassroots to Congress — remains in thrall to a disgraced, defeated, one-term president, who is reduced […] Read more »