Messages Sent, Is Anyone Listening?
Voters in Virginia and Minneapolis sent a message to Progressives with the election of Republican Glenn Youngkin over Terry McAuliffe. But that message will not be heard.
Nor will progressives heed the message in Minneapolis where a proposal to Replace Police with Peace Officers went down in flames by a 57:44 margin.
Socialist Candidate and Only Person On Ballot Loses in Buffalo
Another hoot for the day happened in the Buffalo New York Mayoral race.
Self-described Progressive Socialist India Walton was the only person on the ballot and lost.
The setup for the Buffalo race pitted Incumbent Mayor Byron Brown against Walton. He lost the primary and no Republicans were on the ballot. That made Walton the only official candidate for Mayor.
Brown ran a write-in campaign and defeated Walton with help of independents and Republicans.
Hello Socialists
Sensible people are fed up with “free” Socialist programs that turn out to not be “free”.
Don’t expect that message to be heard. Instead, Progressives will whine about Senators Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema.
Expect Bernie Sanders to double down on Medicare expansion, free school, etc., even though the system is broke.
But that’s not the only important message.
The second key message is Youngkin distanced himself from Trump and won a race many expected him to lose outright, but especially with the huge turnout.
Turnout
Who Let This Happen?
Hello Republicans
The “Entirely plausible scenario is that GOP has a bunch of good outcomes in 2021/2022 without Trump but then nominates Trump anyway and has a bad 2024.”
That’s plausible but I stick with my opinion Trump will not run.
Instead, expect Trump to say something like this “I would win easily but …..[insert excuse not to run here].”
Two Key Messages
- Voters are sick of progressive issues including CRT, education, and other “free” programs.
- Republicans are far better off ignoring Trump
Youngkin smartly distanced himself from Trump, refusing to be seen with him.
Terry McAuliffe had nothing to offer but a fake message attempting to tie Youngkin to Trump. Voters smartly saw through it.
TDS Type I and Type II
Half the country, if not more, has TDS of some kind.
In TDS Type I, Trump can do no right. In Type II, Trump can do no wrong.
Those with Type I TDS widely believe Russia stole the election for Trump in 2016. Those afflicted with Type II still believe Trump won in 2020.
Hillary blames Russia, not herself. Trump blames the media and election fraud. Both need to blame themselves. Neither is capable.
There were small irregularities in both elections but neither amounted to anything. The 2020 irregularities were not enough to turn a single state, let alone the number needed.
Yet, a huge number of people will believe anything Trump says just as huge numbers of Democrats believe nonsense from Rachel Maddow, CNN, the Slate, the New York Times or wherever.
With that, I’ve now taken a pot shot at both parties and fully expect inane rebuttal from those afflicted with Type I and Type II TDS.
Trump’s Revenge Tactics May Harm Republicans For Many Years
On January 25, I proposed Trump’s Revenge Tactics May Harm Republicans For Many Years
“The pro-Trump faction is out for revenge. It will do Republicans no good.”
If that message did not resonate when I said it, It sure should now.
Hostage Politics, Trump’s Ego Is All That Matter to Him
On October 17, I commented Hostage Politics, Trump’s Ego Is All That Matter to Him.
“If we don’t solve the Presidential Election Fraud of 2020 (which we have thoroughly and conclusively documented),” Mr. Trump said in a statement Wednesday, “Republicans will not be voting in ‘22 or ‘24. It is the single most important thing for Republicans to do.”
How seriously stupid is that?
For starters, Trump conclusively and with zero reasonable doubt, lost.
Second, even if one engages in election fantasies, sitting out elections in protest would cost Republicans including the state of Virginia yesterday.
Election Fantasies
The Wall Street Journal accurately commented on October 14 …
Mr. Trump’s escalation is that he is now explicitly tying Republican acceptance of his election fantasy to a threat of electing Democrats as retribution. The message to Republicans is that if they don’t loudly pretend that he won the last election, Mr. Trump will make sure the GOP loses the next one, too.
With the Biden Administration’s polarizing overreach, the 2022 elections are an opportunity for the GOP to retake Congress and check the divisive progressive assault on the U.S. economy and law. But that was also true of the 2021 Georgia races. Mr. Trump may not be finished making his supporters pay for his narcissism.
Youngkin, Not Trump, Paves the Way
The single most important thing for Republicans to do is to ignore Trump.
Trump demands loyalty to him over traditional Republican values. It’s a losing message.
The base is going nowhere. There is no need to appeal to them. Nor is there any reason to appeal to those who seriously believe Trump won.
However, there is a huge need for Republicans to appeal to independents and swing voters.
Top Message of the Day
The top message of the day, thanks to Youngkin is simple:
Ignore Trump, stick to traditional Republican values, and win in unexpected places.
Had Youngkin embraced Trump, I believe he would have lost.
Ignore means just that. Pretend Trump does not exist. Don’t engage him, encourage him, or mock him. Don’t appear on the stage with him. Walk around Trump as you would a homeless beggar in LA.
Youngkin did that and unexpectedly won a race he was trailing by 9 points after McAuliffe made a stupid statement on education.
Republicans, please pay attention. Stick to winning messages and just let Trump be.
Thanks for Tuning In!
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Mish
Thank you Mish! Best post I’ve read lately.
Republicans celebrating victory – go ahead and celebrate but tomorrow let’s please get back to the real work of repairing the Republican Party from the damage done by Trump. That’s not to say Trump didn’t enact some great policies – sadly his odious personality drowned out achievements – alas topic for another day. As my Dad says “You cannot influence and antagonize at the same time.”
As a PR professional I’ve long said that Republican’s biggest issue is messaging. Who ever is leading communications for the RNC should be fired – zero communications strategy as far as I can tell.
Newsflash: your Indians are running around like chickens with their heads cut off. And most Americans are no longer listening. I consider myself a conservative (albeit with a working brain) tuned into Fox the other day – 10 minutes and I couldn’t take it anymore.
I believe myself to be a Christian. But I want to say to the Christian Right: Continue focusing on social issues and lose elections. Period. Take care of this stuff in your families, your churches, your communities, etc. Use your common sense: If a woman wants an abortion, she’ll figure out to get one regardless of whatever laws you enact (here’s looking at the stupidity of Texas.) And since homosexuality has existed since Jesus walked earth, it’s highly doubtful any legislation will prevent a gay couple from being gay. You are keeping the party from focusing on topics that win elections and thus far Dems do a phenomenal job of making you play defense.
To the “Never Biden” – Continue focusing on the past election and continue getting tuned out by key independent voters critical to rectifying all the wrongs of Biden’s administration. It’s been decided – no one likes listening to a poor loser.
To the confused – Continue fighting masks, vaccines, etc. (such tiny topics all considering) and continue to look dumber by the day.
To Republicans who want to win elections: Focus on economic issues. Arm your Indians with non-hysterical, factual talking points about Biden’s proposals and the costs and/or waste, and his administration will implode all by itself. Paying off illegal immigrants who got separated at the border and had to suffer the consequences – give us break. Seriously?! For every illegal Biden pays off, let’s donate same to an inner city public school.
Focus on the inane and costly proposals of Progressives while reminding American voters of the huge deficit we are running and win elections.
Focus on messaging regarding healthcare and the rising costs of insurance. Continue the great work of the Trump administration: Focus on the costs of pharmaceuticals. Close the loopholes that allow hospitals to not list prices.
Focus on Biden’s plans to raise taxes. And remind Americans how much they already pay in taxes – Federal tax, state tax, personal property tax, sales tax on most things you buy, tax on every gallon of gasoline put in your car, taxes on your monthly Internet, cell phone and landline bills, taxes on social security, alimony, scholarships and the list goes on and in some cases estate taxes on money your parents already paid taxes on.
Ignore $600/now $10k income – insight into your bank accounts as that casts a net where the problem doesn’t exist – Join Joe Biden and close loopholes that allow the uber wealthy to evade taxes and win elections.
He has a facebook page and spent about$2000 but what he did
was spend hours every day knocking on doors and talking to people and it paid
off. That is how campaigns were run in the old days. You meet enough people and
word get around.
I think that today money is too plentiful and if you throw
too much money into a campaigns most of it gets wasted and worse some gets into
the hands of truly stupid operatives that hurt rather than help. Take the
example of the Lincoln project people. They had been paid so they had to do
something to justify their salaries so they did something really stupid. The
same thing could be said of the Chinese army of consultants, experts and
speechwriters all having to come up with ideas even if they haven’t a clue.
When resources are scarce you have to choose wisely and look carefully who get
your money. Good ideas are very rare but when money is overabundant the good ideas
get smothered by the tidal wave of pure bullsheet most people on your staff
come up with.
an early vote of no-confidence in the Biden presidency, Republicans
made inroads among suburban and Hispanic voters, while expanding their
already long reach into rural precincts. https://www.governing.com/now/its-not-that-democrats-lost-its-that-they-lost-everywhere
Winning both the Georgia Senate seats in Jan 2021 was the worst thing that could have happened to the right-wing DONORcrats. It exposed them for what they really are on economic issues.
And the reason that McAuliffe was ahead a few months ago was that the voters still had hopes that the Ds would pass something that would help the average Americans.
“Now we must change course,” https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/29/opinion/hawley-supply-chain-trade-policy.html. “We can rebuild what made this nation great in the first place by making things in America again.” As Bob Dylan once said, it doesn’t take a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.”
Youngkin ran on repealing the state’s grocery tax, which is a highly regressive tax. McAuliffe has never done anything about it. So, who is the populist among the two?
(Also remember, corporations are special people).
Seriously, CRT is everywhere, promoted by Progressive teachers, by the media, by universities.
It’s everywhere.
It’s in the media, the schools, my tenants all believe it, companies around me are making policies promoting it.
You don’t have to promote it in schools. The media is doing a pretty good job already.
You’ve got CRT Derangement Syndrome. It’s under every rock, and behind every tree!
but he by pointing out the obvious made it became fully formed like water supercooled
to below freezing requires just one tiny movement to suddenly transform into
ice. The ice is set now and there is no need for Trump to spearhead the resistance against the woke and the other asinine policies of the Democrats because there are many others now picking up the torch. Does Trump know this? Yes he does. He won’t run because he doesn’t need to.
Yes, he will gracefully step aside now, like Washington. Country first, as always. No doubt Trump’s concern about the election must have been before he experienced the epiphany that His Work Here Is Done. BTW, your use of metaphor “picking up the torch” is, under the circumstances, ill-advised.
So that means Joe Biden’s promise that “Nothing would fundamentally change” has been successfully accomplished?!