If you are running for Governor or the state legislature and want to nationalize the election, you should bear in mind that independents do not pay much attention to politics or they would not be independents. Furthermore, most voters have a difficult time understanding and connecting the dots in regard to how the federal government works and how it impacts their lives. Although Trump is a toxic bag of crap to anyone with a triple digit IQ, his connection to a local candidate has to be patently obvious before an independent will acknowledge it and/or react to it. By not kissing Trump's vertical smile in public, Mr. Youngkin was able to avoid carrying the Trump albatross into Virginia's gubernatorial election, and all of Mr. McAuliffe's efforts to make the voters aware of Youngkin's support of Trump were for naught.
I think a much better way to nationalize the race would have been for Mr. McAuliffe to simply ask his fellow Virginians whether they “want to make Virginia another Texas, where voter suppression keeps the 'right people' in power, and sanctimonious fascists use the courts to terrorize women who dare to exercise the right guaranteed to them by the constitution as affirmed by Roe v. Wade.” Democratic candidates for state offices should make all Republicans run on Roe v. Wade and a woman's right to choose. They should also counteract the Republican lies designed to foster fear and loathing with true statements that will make people aware of the dangers posed by fascist Republicans such as Youngkin! Democrats should draw a contrast between protecting our children from the very real threat of Republicans who want to ban books children should be allowed to read and the imagined threat of critical race theory, which is not even taught to children in our schools. Let the voters know that a politician saying he will protect the children from the critical race theory is like a politician saying he will protect the children from saber toothed tigers!
In regard to the election next year, I was really struck by something someone on MSNBC (probably Claire McCaskill) said about Moscow Mitch McConnell being the most unpopular man in America. I think senatorial candidates and congressional candidates should all run against the body politic's malignant bowel obstruction, Moscow Mitch McConnell, and Trumpism. Make it personal for the voters: here is what the obstructionists are cheating you out of – the right to vote, child tax credit refunds, affordable medications, affordable child care so women can work again, expanded Medicare coverage, etc. Not a single Republican voted for those things, so do not blame Biden or the Democratic Party for not passing that legislation. Granted, that the Koch Bros' Manchin and big pharma's Kyrsten Synema are a problem, but if the Democrats had a larger majority, Manchin, Synema, and the Republicans could not deprive you of the legislation you need and deserve.
All right, I cannot resist throwing in this caveat: Manchin and Synema are coming close to being as obstructive and destructive as Moscow Mitch, and if they cross that line, we will have absolutely nothing to lose by shedding them like a snake's dead skin! The punditry is wrong; all of the things in the build back better plan are very popular, and it is the corporate Democrats who are refusing to compromise on any bill that will deliver what the people want and need! The angst is real! The obscene disparity in wealth is real! People have not been this angry or desperate since the great depression! This is no time for half measures. It will take something like the build back better plan (AKA the reconciliation bill) to restore the faith of the people in the promise of this country and its political system!
