This week, reality struck back against Democratic electoral utopianism. Since 2012, Democrats have been convinced that a new, durable, near-unbeatable political coalition was in the making: a coalition largely comprised of college-educated white voters, women, younger Americans and racial minorities. This coalition would overtake the demographically shrinking "old, white majority" and win victory after victory. As Ruy Teixeira and John Halpin wrote for the Center for American Progress in the aftermath of Obama's reelection, "Obama's strong progressive majority -- built on a multi-racial, multi-ethnic, cross-class coalition in support of an activist ... is real and growing and it reflects the face and beliefs of the United States in the early part of the 21st Century." CAP called this new strategy "the culmination of a decades-long project to build an electorally viable and ideologically coherent progressive coalition in national politics."
Ever since 2012, Democrats have been chasing that chimera. Instead of seeing Obama's 2012 victory as a testament to Obama's unique political skill, they have doubled down on the CAP strategy: more progressivism, more race-based politics. When that strategy failed in 2016, they chalked it up to Russian election interference and Facebook propaganda. When President Joe Biden won election in 2020, they announced that their strategy had been vindicated -- even though the election was rather obviously a referendum on former President Donald Trump personally, not proof of their strategic brilliance.
And so, Democrats misread the tea leaves. Biden was elected to do two things: be Not Trump and restore a sense of moderation and stability to the White House. He has succeeded in the first, mainly because nobody is Trump. He has utterly failed in the second. That's because Biden rejected the central premise of his own candidacy, calling for more social spending than any president in history, abandoning Afghanistan to the Taliban for no apparent geostrategic reason, embracing the radical language of anti-racist activists, cramming down the restrictive COVID-19 policies via the administrative state and characterizing his opponents as bigots and Jan. 6-adjacent domestic terrorists. Biden Mini-Me's like Terry McAuliffe in Virginia have imitated the strategy.
The result, predictably, was disaster -- not just in Virginia, but across the country. In Virginia, a state Biden won by 10 points, McAuliffe went down in flames, a black female Republican became lieutenant governor, a Cuban American became attorney general, and the GOP took the House of Delegates; in New Jersey, a no-name candidate ran dead even with media-feted Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy; in Buffalo, New York, Sen. Chuck Schumer-endorsed democratic socialist India Walton imploded against a write-in candidate; in Minneapolis, the "defund the police" movement shattered on the rocks of reality, with voters overwhelmingly rejecting the dismantling of the police department; in New York City, Eric Adams became mayor and quickly pledged to work with new Republican city council members.
Now, Democrats have a choice. They can either tack back to the center -- stop pushing a "Build Back Better" grab bag of spending that is unpopular and unnecessary -- or they can push forward. They can stop pressing the language of the 1619 Project in public school education -- or they can demand that parents shut up. They can double down on progressivism or try to find a Clintonian third way.
Right now, it looks like they'll embrace more cowbell. The media and Democratic response to Virginia seems to be more spending; more labeling parental opposition to radicalism as racist and homophobic; more jabbering about Trump and Jan. 6 to distract from their own failures.
It's a bold strategy, Cotton. We'll see how it works out for them.
But for Democrats, a serious appraisal of the political landscape -- an appraisal that might end with the realistic assessment that Obama's coalition is not inevitable, that there are swing voters in America, that policy ought to be directed toward every voter -- might just be too difficult. Better to live in a fantasy world in which Obama is president forever, his coalition is durable and stable, and more progressivism is always the answer.
But 2022 is coming. And fantasy will meet reality once again for a Democratic Party committed to fundamental untruths about the American public.
Ben Shapiro, 37, is a graduate of UCLA and Harvard Law School, host of "The Ben Shapiro Show," and editor-in-chief of DailyWire.com. He is the author of the New York Times bestsellers "How To Destroy America In Three Easy Steps," "The Right Side Of History," and "Bullies." To find out more about Ben Shapiro and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.
COPYRIGHT 2021 CREATORS.COM
17 comments:
Correct
We all, sometimes, stay up late for one reason or another. Kingfish stayed up until 9:00 p.m. just to post this.
@9:21pm
These bizarre posts from "creators.com" appear to be paid promotions that are posted on an automated schedule. Just disregard them as paid advertisements.
Democrat strategy= flood Texas with illegals, give them money and voter IDs. Do everything you can to turn Texas blue.
Get money from China, Russia, and any other US hating entity and funnel that to every media outlet and corrupt politician in order to get their assistance with your cause of One Party Rule.
After you obtain, one party rule, you can then continue to blame rich, white, 1%, Republicans for ANYTHING that goes wrong in the country, while you simultaneously dismantle it off camera.
PRESTO! Third world utopia run by a small group of tyrants, easily taken over by Chinese infiltrators. No shots fired ( except those fired on January 6th).
@10:25, WTF are you talking about?
@10:25:
Pigressive socialists, (with whom you are possibly affiliated?), while attempting perversion of both children and Constitutional government, were sucker punched by Virginia voters.
The Chinese virus enabled parents to "Zoom in" on abusive, Chinese style re-education of their kids. God works in mysterious ways: have courage,be patient.
Good Lord, Ben, what has happened to you?
You really think loss had nothing to do with an extremely good campaign against a really poorly run campaign and that issues aren't local?
That the MIDDLE often gets fed up with whatever party is given the chance to do better and doesn't?
The article appears to suggest that Democrats had a bad night because they've veered too far from the center. I disagree that was the cause of their loss. Right now, the Right has its base fired up because they believe the lie that the national election was anything other than free and fair and because they think Democrats have nothing better to do than to strip parents of all authority to make decisions for their children. In other words, the Right has been fired up by Fox News and other right-wing media outlets.
Democrats, on the other hand, spent the last four years watching the Right actually accomplish their goals. Now, that Democrats have the White House, as well as both chambers of Congress, they cannot seem to get anything done. This isn't because Democrats aren't bi-partisan enough. The issue is the opposite. Manchin and Sinema appear to think that working with Republicans is worthwhile. During most of my lifetime, they probably would have been right. But, today's Republican party is not open to efforts from Democrats to work together. They are out for blood and will happily burn this country down if they get to rule over the ashes (by themselves). So, Manchin and Sinema have put the Democratic Party in the situation of just not being able to pass bills because they are tone deaf enough to think bi-partisanship will get them anywhere (Republicans are just not going to work with them, no matter what). As a result, Democrats are scratching their heads and wondering what the use is in even voting if their elected leaders will not get anything done.
What happened in Virginia was a matter of whose base was more fired up. That's nothing new. The party in control of the White House typically loses big in Virginia. That's what happened here, plus the added fact that Republicans are more energized than Democrats right now because Democrats just have not been delivering nationally.
And while the slim margins in the New Jersey gubernatorial race indicate that this isn't just a Virginia issue, a Democrat is still in the Governor's mansion in Trenton, so I'm not sure you can classify New Jersey as being part of a "red wave." Same thing for Rochester. Same thing in Minneapolis. Also, the proposal that failed in Minneapolis (abolishing the police department) is fringe even on the left (despite what Fox News will lie to you). That failing is no more indicative of a "wave" than the Personhood Amendment failing in MS.
So, there is no "red wave," Ben. And the Republican-friendly results from the other night are a result of national Democrats not being able to get anything done, not because Democrats have gone too far left.
In short, there is no "red wave." Republicans are fired up right now, and Democrats are not (or, at least, they weren't before they lost the Governor's mansion in VA). Therefore, the Republican base showed up in higher numbers than the Democratic base in Virginia. Nothing more, nothing less.
You actually believe all that? Too bad Carville doesn't agree with you.
Yes, I believe it. I cannot think of another reason why I would have written it. Republicans are better about consistently showing up to the ballot box. Democrats (or at least enough of them), on the other hand, insist on being inspired. And now, they just aren’t inspired by what they see as a gridlocked and ineffective national party.
And how could they be? How are democrats to be fired up to vote for politicians who cannot deliver on what they were sent to the Capital City to do. Nationally, that’s where we are at, largely because of a handful of Senators who blindly think there is a universe where Republicans will work with them in any capacity. So, enough Democrats stay at home for the Democrats to lose elections. That’s what we saw in the elections referenced in this article.
If Carville speaks gospel truth that is incontrovertible, then I’m sure you are free to occasionally post his material as well. It doesn’t always have to D.L. Garner and the like. In the meantime, Carville and I still have to agree to disagree.
And, finally, I’ll note that the VA gubernatorial candidate that won is not nearly far enough to the right to get elected Governor in MS. He would have gotten primaried out as a RINO here in seconds. Don’t think his election is evidence that Trumpism is making inroads in blue and purple states.
@6:30 is nothing but a cut-and-paste from any number of other far-left pundits dished up here completely without attribution.
Don't worry @6:30, your leaders are working on the next talking points for you to parrot as I write.
6:30 - Please allow me to boil down your post for you, as follows:
Legal Voters in Virginia went to the polls pissed off at what socialists are promoting in their state. Those voters are neither willing to sacrifice the lives and futures of their children, nor their own.
Thanks for the opportunity, 6:30.
I am a Democrat. My only wish is that you Republicans keep Donald Trump in the forefront of your party.
Not nearly as much as WE wish 'you people' keep Biden in the forefront of yours. The other difference is that we're praying hard for 'you people' to do that while realizing you don't pray.
There is no reason to be surprised or disappointed by Joe Biden. He has always been an empty suit and a shill for the Democratic establishment which is now dominated by northern California socialists. He was advised to give the appearance of an older traditional Democrat to give voters the false impression that there was an actual alternative to the myriad slate of socialist progressives pushing for the Democratic nomination. The strong anti-Trump sentiment kept the media and most voters from questioning his
bona fides as a true moderate and this puppet won the White House. The socialists will now try to dismantle the social economic structure of our country before the majority can block this blitz. They are close. All they need is for the Republicans to spend all their time defending the train wreck Trump as if he sees anything but self-interest. They are close.
11:37 - Here's what's wrong with your assessment: Trump never wrecked a train and Biden never drove one.
@4:52
Did you not understand what 11:37 wrote? He clearly states that Biden is an empty suit being puppeteered by his masters, and Trump is personally just garbage who seemed to get his ideas from right wing media.
It is sad that these two men were elected as president of this great country. And here we are as a country at each others' throats while the elites "fight" over which ones get to profit the most for the next 4-8 years. If they are lucky, the winning elites may even get policies passed to make money/be in control for much longer. Meanwhile, the masses continue on as wage slaves while elites continue with their obscene wealth lording over their fiefdoms. We need a revolution. "Kill" your masters, so that we can have government by the people and for the people, and not for the whim of the elites.
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