Republican Glenn Youngkin defeats Democrat Terry McAuliffe in Virginia governor's elections

Discussion in 'Political Discussions' started by Lerner, Nov 3, 2021.

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  1. Lerner

    Lerner Well-Known Member

  2. Charles Fout

    Charles Fout Active Member

    This time around on Degree info, I fully intend to refrain from political commentary. That said, congratulations to Jason, Winsome, and Glenn.
     
  3. nosborne48

    nosborne48 Well-Known Member

    Yup he sure did. I've come to the conclusion that I am an infallible barometer for predicting elections so long as you believe the exact opposite of what I say!
     
    Charles Fout likes this.
  4. SteveFoerster

    SteveFoerster Resident Gadfly Staff Member

    Republicans swept the three statewide offices and retook the lower house of the state legislature too. Wow.
     
  5. Stanislav

    Stanislav Well-Known Member

    A businessman and a first-time candidate. What can go wrong?


    I'm beginning to suspect electorate's preferences in any given moment may not be all that rational. Who knew? (the answer to this last one is "everyone". Everyone knew. Duh).
     
    Charles Fout likes this.
  6. SteveFoerster

    SteveFoerster Resident Gadfly Staff Member

    The difference is that, whatever you may think of Youngkin, you can't say he's a senile doofus.
     
  7. Rich Douglas

    Rich Douglas Well-Known Member

    Democrats will try to play this off, but they shouldn't. They need to find a way to overcome their own inability to sway voters and to stop nominating recycled candidates.

    I would not have been very impressed with a McAuliffe win. I am very much impressed by a Youngkin win in a state like Virginia.
     
  8. SteveFoerster

    SteveFoerster Resident Gadfly Staff Member

    I'm already seeing the argument that the Republicans won because voters are "racist"... the same voters who just voted in a Black woman as Lieutenant Governor and a Latino man as Attorney General. That doesn't bode well for the sort of soul searching you're entirely right to suggest.
     
    Lerner likes this.
  9. nosborne48

    nosborne48 Well-Known Member

    Hm. I wonder if what we're seeing is a tentative "return to normal". Donald Trump wasn't on the ballot and traditionally Virginia votes for whichever Governor candidate is from the party the President isn't from.
     
  10. Rich Douglas

    Rich Douglas Well-Known Member

    Sorry, but a couple of tokens doesn't change the entire dynamic. Just look at the campaign Youngkin ran and you'll see it all.
     
  11. Charles Fout

    Charles Fout Active Member

    I have had conversations with Winsome Sears and Jason Miyares. I'm disappointed to read you refer to them as tokens. Both have incredible American Dream stories that should make each one of us proud to be American.
     
  12. Rich Douglas

    Rich Douglas Well-Known Member

    First, I doubt seriously I could disappoint you. I don't even know who you are.

    Second, when it's pointed out like that, it IS tokenism: the practice of making only a perfunctory or symbolic effort to do a particular thing, especially by recruiting a small number of people from underrepresented groups in order to give the appearance of sexual or racial equality within a workforce.

    So, yay for these individuals. But that's what they are: individuals. The vast majority of Republican elected officials are White and male, far more so than Democratic elected officials. Those examples are outliers.
     
  13. SteveFoerster

    SteveFoerster Resident Gadfly Staff Member

    "Outlier" is not a synonym for "token". Republican primary voters chose them. They didn't have to. If your claim is that they did so just so they could say, "Look, we're not racist!" then you're the one with a very heavy burden of proof.
     
    Charles Fout likes this.
  14. Rich Douglas

    Rich Douglas Well-Known Member

    Apples and oranges. These people are outliers, but they're being used as tokens, as we saw in this very thread. In other words, a few outliers are being used to "prove" something about the group as a whole. They do not.

    That said, it would be nice if this issue eventually became moot.
     
  15. Stanislav

    Stanislav Well-Known Member

    So that's our standard now?

    A public servant and a private equity businessperson are two very different occupations. I can't think of many other legitimate occupations that would be less compatible with an aptitude for elected office (maybe "spy", "oil tycoon", "weapons supplier", and "real estate developer").
     
  16. Stanislav

    Stanislav Well-Known Member

    I really wish people and the media would shake off the habit of assessing political candidates on their ability to win elections. Better criteria is how well can they do the job. I don't know much about McAuliffe, but I bet he's a much safer choice from this perspective.

    P. S. then again, I fail to see any rational reason, right now, to vote for anyone with an R next to their name. Even demonstrably capable ones (see Romney, Mitt. Not even him.)
     
  17. Rich Douglas

    Rich Douglas Well-Known Member

    You don't get to do the job if you don't win the election.
     
  18. nosborne48

    nosborne48 Well-Known Member

    Tip O'Neill wasn't wrong when he said that "All politics is local." Trumpism pushed us much further along the path of national tribalism but Trump wasn't on the ballot. I suspect we're just seeing a natural return to politics as usual.
     
  19. Rich Douglas

    Rich Douglas Well-Known Member

    Could be. On one hand, that's nice because Virginia and New Jersey typically go the opposite way the presidential election went the year before. But this year, one of the Democrats--Murphy in New Jersey--held on and kept his job despite historical precedent.

    On the other, I want to know why this country has decided to treat one party as if it is normal when it clearly is not.
     
  20. SteveFoerster

    SteveFoerster Resident Gadfly Staff Member

    Yes, although considering how well Biden did there last year I've seen this described as the 1992 Dream Team beating the Washington Generals at the buzzer.

    Not only that, but they may well retake Congress next year.
     
    Rich Douglas likes this.

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