Any sane person realizes that the Virginia gubernatorial election was in effect a referendum on the gallop toward socialism that Old Joe Biden and his handlers have taken the country on since Jan. 20 and knows that race-baiting and the repudiation of parental authority are not a winning formula. But when we’re talking about rational and reality-based assessments, that leaves out Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-Trotsky), who has her own analysis of why the socialist, authoritarian Democrats crashed and burned in Virginia on Tuesday: they weren’t Leftist enough.
.@AOC finds a silver lining in Virginia election losses.
“I think that the results show the limits of trying to run a fully 100% super moderated campaign” pic.twitter.com/NjjiQQ5uU7
— John Gage (@johnrobertgage) November 4, 2021
With a straight face, the erudite Congresswoman explained: “I know that Virginia was a huge bummer. And honestly, if anything, I think that the results show the limits of trying to run a fully 100% super-moderated campaign that does not excite, speak to, or energize a progressive base. And frankly, we weren’t even really invited to contribute on that race.”
Wait a minute. If McAuliffe didn’t “speak to or energize a progressive base,” it certainly wasn’t for want of trying. He called for teachers to be hired not on merit, but to satisfy the requirements of “diversity.” As parents in Virginia and elsewhere are rightfully outraged over Critical Race Theory and all of today’s fashionable sexual madness being taught in public schools, McAuliffe argued against a parental role in education and declared that only “experts,” not parents, should approve textbooks. McAuliffe claimed last Sunday that Youngkin was “ending his campaign on a racist dog whistle.” Meanwhile, his supporters worked hard to smear supporters of his opponent Glenn Youngkin as white supremacists.
Even as he conceded defeat, McAuliffe sounded what are standard contemporary Leftist talking points: “While last night we came up short, I am proud that we spent this campaign fighting for the values we so deeply believe in. We must protect Virginia’s great public schools and invest in our students. We must protect affordable health care coverage, raise the minimum wage faster and expand paid leave so working families have a fighting shot. We must protect voting rights, protect a woman’s right to choose, and, above all else, we must protect our democracy. While there will be setbacks along the way, I am confident that the long-term path of Virginia is toward inclusion, openness, and tolerance for all.”
The implication was clear: Virginia voted on Tuesday against “inclusion, openness, and tolerance for all,” as well as against “voting rights,” and “a woman’s right to choose,” and even against “our democracy.” Even his clichés were Leftist, as pious faux-concern about “our democracy,” and sometimes even “our sacred democracy,” has become a commonplace of Leftist rhetoric ever since Donald Trump first entered politics.
It’s hard to imagine McAuliffe presenting a more Leftist message: preserving our failed and corrupt public schools as centers of Leftist indoctrination of our children, higher taxes, more government control, abortion, racial divisiveness, and massive election fraud, all couched in cynical rhetoric about “democracy.” To be more to the Left, McAuliffe would have had to break out a hammer-and-sickle flag and start screaming, “Workers of the world unite!”
Related: ‘People Don’t Like Them’: James Carville Has a Stern Warning for Woke Democrats
None of that was enough for AOC, however. She (of course) only saw race-baiting on the other side, in the efforts of parents to reject the racial divisiveness, mythologizing, and propaganda of Critical Race Theory: “Historically,” the renowned scholar informed us, “moderate Democrats have believed the best way to respond to race-baiting by the right is to say little/nothing. We see how that demoralizes the base you’re supposed to protect and turn out while also ceeding [sic] white swing voters to the right w/ inadequate responses or silence.”
Chris Queen observed on Monday that if McAuliffe won, Democrats would misinterpret the results and overplay their hand. Chris also noted that “Democrats always overplay their hand,” and here we are: McAuliffe lost, and Democrats are misinterpreting the results and overplaying their hand anyway.
Surprisingly, there were a few isolated voices of sanity on the Left after the election. James Carville correctly noted that “what went wrong is stupid wokeness. Don’t just look at Virginia and New Jersey. Look at Long Island, Buffalo, look at Minneapolis, even look at Seattle, Washington. I mean, this ‘defund the police’ lunacy, this take Abraham Lincoln’s name off of schools; people see that. And it really has a suppressive effect all across the country on Democrats. Some of these people need to go to a woke detox center or something. We got to change this and not be about changing dictionaries and change laws.”
Van Jones also saw things clearly, saying: “Democrats are coming across as annoying and offensive and out-of-touch. I think there is a message here.”
Indeed. But whose advice are the Democrats more likely to follow: that of Carville and Jones, or of AOC? You know the answer. The Democrats’ long march leftward has only just begun.