Inconveniently, I have some things to get done early today before trying to digest the … Good News! Two points about the VA election. First, the Culture Wars are back, and this time it’s fracturing the Dems. That’s the message from McAuliffe under performing where he needed to max his votes.
No one has mentioned, but the forever asleep at the wheel Republican Party got "woke" for this election, both the VAGOP & on high from National. Imo, it wouldn't have happened had the grassroots everyday people of VA not insisted thru their activism in the precincts & as poll watchers, but VAGOP & the NRP got on on board enthusiastically. We had an election/poll query hotline staffed w/an army of lawyers. Instances where election rules weren't followed, were addressed immediately. That is a BIG difference from what we've seen in the past! Used to be, only the other side made voting & election challenges while our side sat quietly by. The NRP poobahs are saying VA will serve as a template for GOP election management going forward. WIN!
So, the Dems could try what they always do, but they weren't/aren't gonna just bulldoze over a bunch of helpless Virginians who voted R. I think that's a game changer. Also, it's very difficult to make everyone believe your statewide nominees won when your local delegates are dropping like sprayed flies.
Youngkin - he probably won't be as perfectly conservative as I'd like, but two things come across clearly when he speaks - 1) he listens to God 2) he loves Virginia & Virginians. That'll do for this SW Virginian.
The Gop Establishment was Deliberately Asleep at best on Election Fraud in 2020. They wanted to get rid of Trump by any means possible, including impeachment.
The only people that seem to care about election integrity are Gop Voters. And that is applying pressure to the GOP Establishment. Until the gop party leadership starts admitting fraud 99% probably elected Biden, their statements have little credibility with me. All smoke, no fire.
New Jersey gov Election is probably going to get stolen due to the lack of a Gop effort to combat fraud. Gop party leadership has a history of words on fraud, but I’m not seeing the effort needed to do much. Sounds like Va Gop state level did something.
Florida making fraud criminal is a good development. I hope that spreads.
I'm pretty sure the GOP/RNC was legally banned from doing those things before. Banned for 40 years like Moses. Banned until some judge died and couldn't renew his order anymore.
As one of the foremost "cant vote our way out of this" promoters i am only too happy to see some contrary evidence here in my home state of Virginia. I am still puzzling over why-- with the cheat machine used so effectively in VA in 2020-- they seemingly didn't use it fully in this election. The stink in Fairfax county smells just like 2020 late vote recounting and dumping but apparently even that wasn't enough to overcome the strong election day Republican votes. Alls well that ends well? It may be the Criminals made a tactical decision that using the fraud nukes must be reserved for Trump and his ilk, and they may well believe that Youngkin is a Romney they can manipulate so not worth the fallout. Plus...McAuliffe is a doofus. It may also be that the obvious dastardly agreement in 2020 between Rs and Ds to collaborate on the Steal no longer holds so the level of theft was less here. Whatever the reason, i am glad that my state has been spared McAuliffe and his marxist administration. Whether Youngkin is a Romney or Hogan or Desantis...we'll see.
It's been said before, but Dems signed their own death certificate the instant jumped in bed with the Marxist radical Left masquerading as 'Progressives'. There wasn't any way to maneuver, strategically.
Move toward the center, alienate the Leftists in the base (& 'The Squad'). Or do what they've done to date, and lurch hard Left, alienating those inside and outside their own party.
But with this beat down across the US - especially so at local school board level- and with this much time before a potentially extinction-level event for Demtards in the next primaries?
It will be entertaining to watch which way Biden and all his Flying Marxist Monkeys go.
Will they double-triple down with their current 'America Last' disastrous strategy, and finish this bizzaro, schizophrenic flight pattern, ending with a smoking crater on the side of the mountain?
Or will they pull back, sacrifice 'The Squad' and attempt to move to the more moderate center?
I am betting on the former because...power, corruption and money have rendered them (and most of the DC Swamp) incapable of introspection, let alone the ability to see beyond the dirty sides of their glass terrarium.
I wouldn't count those Virginia chickens just yet, Mark. I have seen this movie before- Youngkin's lead continues to shrink this morning. I don't think the Democrats have conceded this race yet in reality- absentee ballots can continue to "arrive" until midnight tomorrow, and this election isn't certified until the 15th. I note for the record that the Lt. Governor's race is being uncheck-marked this morning in place it was called last night, and the AG race is still uncalled everywhere I have looked, and those races are only marginally closer than the governor's race. I think the Democrats on the ground are in the process of harvesting more ballots everywhere in the state.
And if memory serves, didn't Northern and the Dems get a flurry of election law changes last year? I think they did - ALL of which were aimed at ensuring Dems prevailed, but may well have been leveraged by the grass roots GOP movements.
1. They repealed voter ID requirements
2. Allow same-day voter registration (this one is huge and likely what they're doing right now)
3. Automatic voter registration (another huge one, pulled through by the DMV)
4. Allow absentee voting for any/all reasons - no excuse is now needed
He had no choice but to concede as a symbol, CTD- to have not conceded would have upset the narrative of Orange Man Bad. However, my contention is that the Democrats haven't yet conceded this on the ground- I expect the Youngkin
s (and the Republican AG candidate) lead to shrink in 10K increments over the next 3-4 days. At some point, stories will start to be written about how there are far more absentee ballots to count than than the margin. I note for the record that everywere it is reported that the VA vote is 95% complete. That number never seems to change even with the totals getting higher in the tabulated vote. I saw this exact same behavior in 2020- the vote tabulated gets stuck at 95% for days on end even though the added vote is far greater than the 5% originally supposed to be untabulated.
Yancey, I wouldn't claim for a second that Dems have necessarily given up hope on trying to pull this thing out, nor even that they may actually even try to do what you say. But what I will say is that it would be probably be such a huge boon to that side which swears that systematic voter fraud is real and that laws must be changed to combat it, that this would be an enormous risk the Dems know they'd be taking and that they'd be loath TO take.
Now that all the relevant sources have called the race and done the post-mortems, and after even McCauliff himself has conceded, to then come up with all these harvested ballots and ensure the nasty legal brawl that would follow - one the Dems would by no means be guaranteed to win and that could easily reveal to Joe Q. Public much of how this putrid sausage is made - would absolutely put very much in play with Joe Q. the idea that not just current but past elections (can you say "2020"?) were won by fraud.
So for all that, I think the Dems will decide that discretion is the better part of valor in this case, take their lumps, and move on.
That is assuming the Dems have valor, of course ;)
According to speculation on Instapundit (as noted by a commenter on the Market Ticker blog), "the Dems lost VA because they had their vote fraud ballots printed in China and they're still stuck at the bottom of a container on a ship off of Long Beach..." :) That would be a wonderful example of instant karma if only it were true. But it is good for a laugh at least!
Ha! I know what you mean. I totally paused before writing "valor" and considered alternatives, but I was dead tired and just wanted to finish, so I just said hell with it and left it there.
And the container ship hypothesis strikes me as eminently plausible ;^>
"it would be probably be" Oops. One too many "be"s there.
Also, short version of above reply: trying to fraud this thing out by late-harvested ballots would be such horrendously bad politics that I can't imagine they'd fail to see this reality and so not bow to it.
I suspect some Dems will learn the right lessons about what the voters want. Since the House and Senate are so evenly divided, that will empower those few remaining moderates to hold back the progressives.
I predict the progressives will learn nothing, and instead take the message that their failure to pass their crazy agenda disheartened their fervent supporters. There is a good chance that they will double down on crazy. As a result, I think fracturing of the Democratic coalition is a more likely outcome than not. As long as there is a viable explanation for their failure other than their policies (i.e. Biden/Schumer/Pelosi failed to cram through their extreme agenda), then partisans tend to latch onto that rather than turn to introspection.
A few more observations. Calling more than half of Virginians racist didn't work and will not work in the future there after electing the first black female to state-wide office. I read somewhere last night that exit polls indicated 52% of Virginia voters were voting against Biden and his policies when they voted for Youngkin. That should further empower Manchin and Sinema while likely causing any donkey senators in contestable 2022 states to step back from the brink. If and when that happens, the leftists will lose their ever-loving minds as the Biden 'agenda' goes down in flames.
That makes complete sense, with 71% in polls saying the country is on the wrong track. It's an amalgam of issues but cultural issues have to be at the forefront with such a broad statement as "on the wrong track". However, when you're "on the wrong track" and the economy keeps getting worse, everything looks worse.
But Youngkin did win and McAuliffe didn’t Youngkin is said, by Those Who Know All About Such Things, to be looking forward to bigger things than governor of Virginia. He’ll have to deal with his Uniparty enthusiasms then, especially if Ron DeSantis runs.
If it was rigged then, and there's plenty of reason to believe it was, then why wouldn't it be rigged now? If the rigging is no longer sufficient... well, that's a big enough victory in itself. On the other hand, you don't really need to rig an election when you control both contenders. So, we shall see.
No one has mentioned, but the forever asleep at the wheel Republican Party got "woke" for this election, both the VAGOP & on high from National. Imo, it wouldn't have happened had the grassroots everyday people of VA not insisted thru their activism in the precincts & as poll watchers, but VAGOP & the NRP got on on board enthusiastically. We had an election/poll query hotline staffed w/an army of lawyers. Instances where election rules weren't followed, were addressed immediately. That is a BIG difference from what we've seen in the past! Used to be, only the other side made voting & election challenges while our side sat quietly by. The NRP poobahs are saying VA will serve as a template for GOP election management going forward. WIN!
So, the Dems could try what they always do, but they weren't/aren't gonna just bulldoze over a bunch of helpless Virginians who voted R. I think that's a game changer. Also, it's very difficult to make everyone believe your statewide nominees won when your local delegates are dropping like sprayed flies.
Youngkin - he probably won't be as perfectly conservative as I'd like, but two things come across clearly when he speaks - 1) he listens to God 2) he loves Virginia & Virginians. That'll do for this SW Virginian.
Hopefully!
The Gop Establishment was Deliberately Asleep at best on Election Fraud in 2020. They wanted to get rid of Trump by any means possible, including impeachment.
The only people that seem to care about election integrity are Gop Voters. And that is applying pressure to the GOP Establishment. Until the gop party leadership starts admitting fraud 99% probably elected Biden, their statements have little credibility with me. All smoke, no fire.
New Jersey gov Election is probably going to get stolen due to the lack of a Gop effort to combat fraud. Gop party leadership has a history of words on fraud, but I’m not seeing the effort needed to do much. Sounds like Va Gop state level did something.
Florida making fraud criminal is a good development. I hope that spreads.
https://www.investmentwatchblog.com/end-of-1982-consent-decree-gop-finally-can-contest-vote-fraud-after-36-years/
Ok so it expired before the last election and the RNC was flat footed with no game. Maybe they are learning now.
It expired in 2018.
One excuse the Gop was afraid to challenge fraud even after the Consent decree expired.
I'm pretty sure the GOP/RNC was legally banned from doing those things before. Banned for 40 years like Moses. Banned until some judge died and couldn't renew his order anymore.
Sahil Kapur
@sahilkapur
Replying to
@sahilkapur
Digging a little deeper on this 
WHITE WOMEN COLLEGE GRADS
VA 2020: 58% Biden, 41% Trump
VA 2021: 62% McAuliffe, 38% Youngkin
WHITE WOMEN NON-COLLEGE
VA 2020: 56% Trump, 44% Biden
VA 2021: 75% Youngkin, 25% McAuliffe
(via @NBCNews Exit Polls)
As one of the foremost "cant vote our way out of this" promoters i am only too happy to see some contrary evidence here in my home state of Virginia. I am still puzzling over why-- with the cheat machine used so effectively in VA in 2020-- they seemingly didn't use it fully in this election. The stink in Fairfax county smells just like 2020 late vote recounting and dumping but apparently even that wasn't enough to overcome the strong election day Republican votes. Alls well that ends well? It may be the Criminals made a tactical decision that using the fraud nukes must be reserved for Trump and his ilk, and they may well believe that Youngkin is a Romney they can manipulate so not worth the fallout. Plus...McAuliffe is a doofus. It may also be that the obvious dastardly agreement in 2020 between Rs and Ds to collaborate on the Steal no longer holds so the level of theft was less here. Whatever the reason, i am glad that my state has been spared McAuliffe and his marxist administration. Whether Youngkin is a Romney or Hogan or Desantis...we'll see.
I hate to point out that the sun is shining today, for those scanning the skies for dark clouds, but ...
The House of Delegates flipped Red, too.
It's been said before, but Dems signed their own death certificate the instant jumped in bed with the Marxist radical Left masquerading as 'Progressives'. There wasn't any way to maneuver, strategically.
Move toward the center, alienate the Leftists in the base (& 'The Squad'). Or do what they've done to date, and lurch hard Left, alienating those inside and outside their own party.
But with this beat down across the US - especially so at local school board level- and with this much time before a potentially extinction-level event for Demtards in the next primaries?
It will be entertaining to watch which way Biden and all his Flying Marxist Monkeys go.
Will they double-triple down with their current 'America Last' disastrous strategy, and finish this bizzaro, schizophrenic flight pattern, ending with a smoking crater on the side of the mountain?
Or will they pull back, sacrifice 'The Squad' and attempt to move to the more moderate center?
I am betting on the former because...power, corruption and money have rendered them (and most of the DC Swamp) incapable of introspection, let alone the ability to see beyond the dirty sides of their glass terrarium.
I'm not sure this is really a victory but more of a perception of a change in guard, which I think is more of the point.
Democrats can continue to be liberal victims and the republicans can continue to be conservative saviors, neither are based in any reality.
In the end we have a different set of progressive talking points from leaders that will in the end only seek further expansion.
Just my 2 cents but that's not really something to cheer.
Wait- that is midnight Thursday for absentee ballots.
I wouldn't count those Virginia chickens just yet, Mark. I have seen this movie before- Youngkin's lead continues to shrink this morning. I don't think the Democrats have conceded this race yet in reality- absentee ballots can continue to "arrive" until midnight tomorrow, and this election isn't certified until the 15th. I note for the record that the Lt. Governor's race is being uncheck-marked this morning in place it was called last night, and the AG race is still uncalled everywhere I have looked, and those races are only marginally closer than the governor's race. I think the Democrats on the ground are in the process of harvesting more ballots everywhere in the state.
And if memory serves, didn't Northern and the Dems get a flurry of election law changes last year? I think they did - ALL of which were aimed at ensuring Dems prevailed, but may well have been leveraged by the grass roots GOP movements.
1. They repealed voter ID requirements
2. Allow same-day voter registration (this one is huge and likely what they're doing right now)
3. Automatic voter registration (another huge one, pulled through by the DMV)
4. Allow absentee voting for any/all reasons - no excuse is now needed
Those are just off the top of my head...
He had no choice but to concede as a symbol, CTD- to have not conceded would have upset the narrative of Orange Man Bad. However, my contention is that the Democrats haven't yet conceded this on the ground- I expect the Youngkin
s (and the Republican AG candidate) lead to shrink in 10K increments over the next 3-4 days. At some point, stories will start to be written about how there are far more absentee ballots to count than than the margin. I note for the record that everywere it is reported that the VA vote is 95% complete. That number never seems to change even with the totals getting higher in the tabulated vote. I saw this exact same behavior in 2020- the vote tabulated gets stuck at 95% for days on end even though the added vote is far greater than the 5% originally supposed to be untabulated.
Yancey, I wouldn't claim for a second that Dems have necessarily given up hope on trying to pull this thing out, nor even that they may actually even try to do what you say. But what I will say is that it would be probably be such a huge boon to that side which swears that systematic voter fraud is real and that laws must be changed to combat it, that this would be an enormous risk the Dems know they'd be taking and that they'd be loath TO take.
Now that all the relevant sources have called the race and done the post-mortems, and after even McCauliff himself has conceded, to then come up with all these harvested ballots and ensure the nasty legal brawl that would follow - one the Dems would by no means be guaranteed to win and that could easily reveal to Joe Q. Public much of how this putrid sausage is made - would absolutely put very much in play with Joe Q. the idea that not just current but past elections (can you say "2020"?) were won by fraud.
So for all that, I think the Dems will decide that discretion is the better part of valor in this case, take their lumps, and move on.
I guess we'll all know pretty soon.
That is assuming the Dems have valor, of course ;)
According to speculation on Instapundit (as noted by a commenter on the Market Ticker blog), "the Dems lost VA because they had their vote fraud ballots printed in China and they're still stuck at the bottom of a container on a ship off of Long Beach..." :) That would be a wonderful example of instant karma if only it were true. But it is good for a laugh at least!
Ha! I know what you mean. I totally paused before writing "valor" and considered alternatives, but I was dead tired and just wanted to finish, so I just said hell with it and left it there.
And the container ship hypothesis strikes me as eminently plausible ;^>
"it would be probably be" Oops. One too many "be"s there.
Also, short version of above reply: trying to fraud this thing out by late-harvested ballots would be such horrendously bad politics that I can't imagine they'd fail to see this reality and so not bow to it.
I suspect some Dems will learn the right lessons about what the voters want. Since the House and Senate are so evenly divided, that will empower those few remaining moderates to hold back the progressives.
I predict the progressives will learn nothing, and instead take the message that their failure to pass their crazy agenda disheartened their fervent supporters. There is a good chance that they will double down on crazy. As a result, I think fracturing of the Democratic coalition is a more likely outcome than not. As long as there is a viable explanation for their failure other than their policies (i.e. Biden/Schumer/Pelosi failed to cram through their extreme agenda), then partisans tend to latch onto that rather than turn to introspection.
A few more observations. Calling more than half of Virginians racist didn't work and will not work in the future there after electing the first black female to state-wide office. I read somewhere last night that exit polls indicated 52% of Virginia voters were voting against Biden and his policies when they voted for Youngkin. That should further empower Manchin and Sinema while likely causing any donkey senators in contestable 2022 states to step back from the brink. If and when that happens, the leftists will lose their ever-loving minds as the Biden 'agenda' goes down in flames.
How does that racism thingy work when this happens?:
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2021/11/02/virginia-exit-poll-youngkin-wins-big-hispanic-voters/
Or are the Dems going to start calling hispanic Republican voters racists, too?
I heard rumblings about that last night. This has to have Dems shaking.
Trump made big inroads in the Hispanic vote, and it appears that that is carrying over to the state level.
That makes complete sense, with 71% in polls saying the country is on the wrong track. It's an amalgam of issues but cultural issues have to be at the forefront with such a broad statement as "on the wrong track". However, when you're "on the wrong track" and the economy keeps getting worse, everything looks worse.
But Youngkin did win and McAuliffe didn’t Youngkin is said, by Those Who Know All About Such Things, to be looking forward to bigger things than governor of Virginia. He’ll have to deal with his Uniparty enthusiasms then, especially if Ron DeSantis runs.
If it was rigged then, and there's plenty of reason to believe it was, then why wouldn't it be rigged now? If the rigging is no longer sufficient... well, that's a big enough victory in itself. On the other hand, you don't really need to rig an election when you control both contenders. So, we shall see.
It is much harder to rig. Fairfax is only so big.
Well, Loudoun county is riggable. And the Tidewater area and Richmond are fertile fields for fraud too.