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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Brumar89 who wrote (1176080)

11/6/2019 12:30:56 PM

From: Brumar89

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Read Replies (2) | Respond to of 1573711

Virginia

If you are a Republican political professional, someone who takes the mechanics of elections seriously, then the results from Virginia last night ought to scare the bejeezus out of you.

Because this is what a wipeout looks like.

Republicans lost control of the state Senate and the state House for the first time in a generation. The GOP went from holding majorities in both to being in a deep hole. This morning Democrats control the state Senate 21-18 and the House of Delegates 53-42. Three years ago Republicans held 21 seats in the Senate and 66 seats in the House.

This loss occurred while the sitting Democratic governor was clinging to power following his blackface scandal and the economy in the state was thriving. None of the Republican incumbents who lost were scandal-plagued.

Would you care to guess what's changed since 2016?

This morning a lot of Republicans are trying to talk themselves into believing that the realignment in Virginia politics is the inevitable result of demographic changes. That the real problem is simply that Virginia is a blue state now. As if there was nothing the party could have done to stop it.

This is silly.

Mitt Romney got 47 percent of the vote in Virginia in 2012. Donald Trump got 44 percent in 2016. If Trump's presidency had been successful, then Virginia would be one of the battleground states that Trump was looking to flip a year from now.

Instead, Trump's approval rating is under 30 percent in the state. And voters came out and punished the Republican party for it.

When Judgment Day hits like this, it isn't just the state Republicans who get hit. Allow me to give you a little bit of detail on the local races where I live.

I'm in an exurban Virginia county, far outside the Beltway, that is firmly middle-middle class. As I look around the houses in my little cul-de-sac, my neighbors are: a retired couple; a truck driver and hygenist; two accountants; a man who runs a small business repairing furniture out of his house; a plumber and public school teacher; an immigrant family from Afghanistan. You get the picture: I do not live in an area full of doctors and lawyers and the dreaded "Beltway elites."

For the decade I've lived here, Republicans have, on balance, controlled most of the local offices: school board, district supervisors, sheriff, that sort of thing.

Last night every one of these local Republicans lost. Every. Single. One.

Republicans ought to look at Donald Trump right now. Really look at him, objectively. And ask themselves how things can get better over the next 12 months.

Let me answer the question for you: They can't.

If the Democrats nominate a candidate who is broadly acceptable to the country, this is what is going to happen to the Republican party across the entire country.

It will be nuclear winter for the GOP.

When that happens, they can try to talk themselves into believing that it's not their fault, that forces beyond their control made the realignment inevitable. But that won't be the truth.

The truth is that Republicans chose this.

thebulwark