{"id":364265,"date":"2021-11-09T03:35:53","date_gmt":"2021-11-09T00:35:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/dems-failure-to-be-more-radical-didnt-cost-them-elections\/"},"modified":"2021-11-09T03:35:53","modified_gmt":"2021-11-09T00:35:53","slug":"dems-failure-to-be-more-radical-didnt-cost-them-elections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/dems-failure-to-be-more-radical-didnt-cost-them-elections\/","title":{"rendered":"#Dems&#8217; failure to be more radical didn&#8217;t cost them elections"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;<strong>#Dems&#8217; failure to be more radical didn&#8217;t cost them elections<\/strong>&#8221;<\/p>\n<div>\n<aside class=\"single__inline-module alignleft\">\n<\/aside>\n<p>Tuesday\u2019s election did not go well for Democrats. Democrat Terry McAuliffe lost the marquee governor\u2019s race in heavily blue-trending Virginia, where Biden beat Trump by 10 points. And in dark blue New Jersey, where Biden won by 16 points, incumbent Democrat Phil Murphy just squeaked by GOP challenger Jack Ciatterelli. Dems did poorly in many other races, too.<\/p>\n<p>Progressives blamed the Democratic Party\u2019s failure to move further left, which they say would\u2019ve triggered a tsunami of turnout from the progressive base.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think that the [Virginia] results show the limits of trying to run a fully 100 percent super-moderated campaign that does not excite, speak to or energize a progressive base,\u201d argued Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.<\/p>\n<p>Indeed, no myth is stronger in progressive circles than the magical, wonder-working powers of voter turnout. Just one problem: Virginia\u2019s 2021 gubernatorial contest was actually a very high-turnout election.<\/p>\n<p>Under the state\u2019s newly liberalized voting laws, the number of votes cast in this race was 25 percent higher than in any previous governor\u2019s race. Turnout was strong everywhere, including in important Democratic areas like northern Virginia, black precincts and college towns. It also surged in redder areas of the state.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1024\" height=\"682\" src=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/11\/Youngkin-7.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1024\" alt=\"Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin\" class=\"wp-image-20077065\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/11\/Youngkin-7.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1535 1536w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/11\/Youngkin-7.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all 1024w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/11\/Youngkin-7.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=512 512w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\"\/><figcaption>Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin beat Democratic nominee Terry McAuliffe in a state Biden won by ten points.<\/figcaption><figcaption><span class=\"credit\">AP<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>This reveals the logical flaw in progressive Democrats\u2019 high-turnout strategy. The assumption is that if they highlight progressive issues, \u201ctheir\u201d nonvoters will show up at the polls, but none of the nonvoters from the other side will. It\u2019s obviously magical thinking.<\/p>\n<p>It also leaves out the role of persuasion. A significant number of voters really do switch from election to election, and we saw that in Virginia. You simply cannot explain how Virginia voters went from +10 for Joe Biden in 2020 to +2 for Glenn Youngkin this year without many voters switching parties \u2014 in this case independents, soft Democratic partisans, moderates and so on.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"633\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/11\/aoc-mcauliffe-moderate-campaign-06.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=633\" alt=\"Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez\" class=\"wp-image-20077117\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/11\/aoc-mcauliffe-moderate-campaign-06.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=950 949w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/11\/aoc-mcauliffe-moderate-campaign-06.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=633 633w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/11\/aoc-mcauliffe-moderate-campaign-06.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=317 316w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/11\/aoc-mcauliffe-moderate-campaign-06.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 633px) 100vw, 633px\"\/><figcaption>Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez claimed that Republican Glenn Youngkin won the Virginia gubernatorial election because Democratic candidate Terry McAuliffe ran a \u201c100% super moderated campaign.\u201d <\/figcaption><figcaption><span class=\"credit\">Instagram \/ @AOC<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>These shifts among persuadable voters manifested themselves within many areas and groups. Loudoun County, where the struggle was particularly fierce around education issues, saw the Democratic advantage drop from +25 in the 2020 presidential race to +11 in this year\u2019s race for governor. According to the AP-NORC VoteCast survey (which is more reliable than the highly flawed exit polls), McAuliffe may actually have lost the Latino vote and also lost ground among blacks and voters of other races (chiefly Asians). This deterioration of nonwhite support also can be seen in precinct-level results.<\/p>\n<p>The VoteCast survey also indicates an 11-point shift away from Democrats among white college-graduate voters, the prototypical suburban demographic among whom Democrats have made tremendous progress in recent years. Precinct-level analysis indicates that McAuliffe may have underperformed even more in areas dominated by these voters than in white working-class areas.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1024\" height=\"682\" src=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/11\/Terry-McAuliffe-484.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1024\" alt=\"Terry McAuliffe\" class=\"wp-image-20077197\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/11\/Terry-McAuliffe-484.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1535 1536w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/11\/Terry-McAuliffe-484.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all 1024w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/11\/Terry-McAuliffe-484.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=512 512w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\"\/><figcaption>Terry McAuliffe may actually have lost the Latino vote and also lost ground among blacks and voters of other races (chiefly Asians). <\/figcaption><figcaption><span class=\"credit\">Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>One wonders how AOC\u2019s more-progressive-than-thou <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/download-scripts-themes-apps\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"9\" title=\"Download Scripts &amp; Themes &amp; Apps\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">app<\/a>roach would have reversed these trends. On education, after all, McAuliffe <em>did <\/em>attack Youngkin for objecting to race-essentialist and anti-meritocratic ideology (i.e., \u201ccritical race theory\u201d) in schools. McAuliffe repeated the progressive talking point that CRT in a narrow technical sense (it was originally an obscure legal doctrine) is not actually taught in Virginia schools and therefore any reference to it was simply a \u201cracist dog whistle\u201d by Youngkin to racist voters who don\u2019t want their kids to learn about slavery and the dark side of American history.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1024\" height=\"682\" src=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/11\/Terry-McAuliffe-483.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1024\" alt=\"Terry McAuliffe election Party\" class=\"wp-image-20077238\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/11\/Terry-McAuliffe-483.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1535 1536w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/11\/Terry-McAuliffe-483.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all 1024w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/11\/Terry-McAuliffe-483.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=512 512w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\"\/><figcaption>A VoteCast survey indicates an 11-point shift away from Democrats among white college-graduate voters.<\/figcaption><figcaption><span class=\"credit\">Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Voters didn\u2019t buy it. But they did embrace Youngkin\u2019s point: \u201cWe will teach all history, the good and the bad. America has fabulous chapters, and it\u2019s the greatest country in the world, but we also have some abhorrent chapters in our history, we must teach them. We can\u2019t know where we are going if we don\u2019t know where we came from,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat we won\u2019t do is teach our children to view everything through the lens of race, where we divide them into buckets: One group\u2019s an oppressor, and another group is the victim \u2014 and we pitch them against each other. . . . We\u2019re trying so hard to live up to those immortal words of Martin Luther King Jr., who implored us . . . to judge one another based on the content of our character and not the color of\u00a0our skin.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"570\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/11\/aoc-mcauliffe-moderate-campaign-08.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=570\" alt=\"Rep. Ocasio-Cortez said McAuliffe did not &quot;excite, speak to or energize a progressive base.\u201d\" class=\"wp-image-20034401\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/11\/aoc-mcauliffe-moderate-campaign-08.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=855 855w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/11\/aoc-mcauliffe-moderate-campaign-08.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=570 570w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/11\/aoc-mcauliffe-moderate-campaign-08.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=285 285w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/11\/aoc-mcauliffe-moderate-campaign-08.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 570px) 100vw, 570px\"\/><figcaption>Rep. Ocasio-Cortez said McAuliffe did not \u201cexcite, speak to or energize a progressive base.\u201d<\/figcaption><figcaption><span class=\"credit\">Instagram \/@AOC<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>This sounds like vintage Barack Obama, not David Duke. Would AOC have had McAuliffe attack this Obama-style rhetoric even more harshly than he did? And if he had, would it have been effective? The question answers itself.<\/p>\n<p><em>Ruy Teixeira is co-editor of the Substack <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/news\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"2\" title=\"News\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">news<\/a>letter The Liberal Patriot.<\/em>\n                        <\/div>\n<blockquote><p><strong><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">If you liked the article, do not forget to share it with your friends. Follow us on\u00a0<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><a style=\"color: #ff0000;\" href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/publications\/CAAqBwgKMLG0nwswvr63Aw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">Google News<\/a><\/span>\u00a0too, click on the star and choose us from your favorites.<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">For forums sites go to <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/forum.buradabiliyorum.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Forum.BuradaBiliyorum.Com<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>If you want to read more News articles, you can visit our <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/news\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">News category.<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"color: black;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2021\/11\/08\/sorry-aoc-dems-failure-to-be-more-radical-didnt-cost-them-elections\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;#Dems&#8217; failure to be more radical didn&#8217;t cost them elections&#8221; Tuesday\u2019s election did not go well for Democrats. Democrat Terry McAuliffe lost the marquee governor\u2019s race in heavily blue-trending Virginia, where Biden beat Trump by 10 points. And in dark blue New Jersey, where Biden won by 16 points, incumbent Democrat Phil Murphy just squeaked&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":364266,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/11\/aoc-01-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=1024","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[70897],"tags":[118618,4997,118657,118259,71670],"class_list":["post-364265","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-11-8-21","tag-alexandria-ocasio-cortez","tag-democrat","tag-glenn-youngkin","tag-voters"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364265","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=364265"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364265\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/364266"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=364265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=364265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=364265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}