Posted on 11/08/2017 6:46:12 AM PST by beejaa
Four years ago, Virginia conservatives were told you couldn’t win with a candidate who excited the Republican base. Conservatives were told that candidates like Ken Cuccinelli spelled certain doom, that the answer was a moderate establishment candidate. Tonight we now know that that candidate Ed Gillespie did worse than Ken Cuccinelli did. And Cuccinelli performed better without the support of the Virginia GOP establishment.
Ed Gillespie is certainly a good fellow. But his campaign used messages from 2004 and tactics from 1996. It seemed to exist outside of the ferocious upheavals of the modern polarized political world.
Let’s take a look at a few pieces of mail I received. Put aside the woeful electronic media campaign, and the nearly non-existent social media effort. Let’s just look at the mail.
The messaging was almost nostalgic, longing for a political world pre-Trump, pre-Obama, pre-polarization. It's as if President Bush was running for reelection in 2004, and it was no accident we seemed to get the same campaign. To the mail pieces.
You know when a Republican cites MSNBC there’s trouble. When I received this, I assumed it was a mailing from a Democrat: “MSNBC – The Tone of Negative Politics Has to Change.”
Great Scott, MSNBC?! A Republican? When MSNBC says the “tone of negative politics has to change,” I know exactly who and what they are talking about: Trump, conservatives, anyone with a principle, anyone who believes in the Constitution. What was it doing in my mailbox?
But it got worse.
Other material in support of Gillespie cited the loathsome Richmond Times and the even more loathsome DNC public relations firm known as the Washington Post.
“Many who have known him for years regard Mr. Gillespie as a centrist and a pragmatist,” announced the Washington Post. “Gillespie Urges Compassion,” hailed the Richmond Times.
Pinch me. Am I awake? Am I dreaming I am back in Philadelphia in the summer of 2000? Is this the GOP convention? The “torn newspaper” clip art was from the age of Motorola flip-phones. Is the mailing a spoof, a well-targeted Northam effort to depress turnout among conservatives?
But it wasn’t. It was real.
Let’s be clear. Unlike plenty of other candidates, Gillespie is a good fellow. But Gillespie ran a Jeb campaign in a Trump world. In fact, he avoided the president and the president’s supporters noticed.
Equally gracious is Gillespie’s wife Cathy. But when I got a campaign letter from her in support of her husband, I could only think – some consultant needs to lose their job for writing this and sending it to me. Let’s do the time warp, back to 1996 and the Dole campaign:
“Ed and I first met playing in a Congressional softball league….” Again, there is nothing inherently wrong with this. But this is a political season where the electorate isn’t enamored by lifelong College Republicans, or even worse, TARs, otherwise known as Teenage Republicans.
But it gets worse: “we were young staffers just starting out.” Oh. My. Most Virginians rank congressional staffers right up there with swindlers and telemarketers, rightly or wrongly. In this political climate, highlighting a long life in politics seems like a colossal blunder.
But it gets even worse. “Ed and I have devoted most of our lives to service – working for and helping elected officials…” Again, there is nothing wrong with working for an elected official, but in this political climate?
And in case there was any ambiguity, the letter continued, “Ed started his career on Capitol Hill in college, parking cars in the Senate Parking Lot.” At this point I wondered if this, too, was a well thought out Northam mailer, but alas it was not. It was real.
Some will read this and ask, well what’s wrong with any of that? In fairness, nothing — and everything.
There’s nothing wrong with honest work parking cars at the Senate. But it betrays a complete and unrecoverable disconnect with what is happening in the country. Either you get that, or you don’t.
Trump won the presidency because he got it. Trump defeated plenty of candidates who didn’t, who thought the messages and tactics from decades ago still worked. They don’t, and Republicans need to adapt to this new rough environment of smashmouth ideological politics, at least if they want to win.
The government has gotten bigger since the 1930’s and this ended up making northern Virginia very liberal and Democrat leaning.
The Republican don’t want to dismantle big government so they have sown their own demise in statewide elections.
When that campaign started I opined here on FR that Gillespie would lose. He’s low energy like Jeb. He badmouthed the Trump philosophy. And according to Laura Ingraham this morning he ran on a 21 Point Program. I can see eyes glazing over just thinking about him droning on about his 21 points!
Gillespie was a moderate Republican who lost big in a Blue State.
The kind of milquetoast Republican who doesn’t offend any one. No one was excited by him.
In a state Trump lost by 5 points, he got trounced by 8.
I can just imagine what a rally with the guy was like - the ushers would go around at the end and wake everybody up.
Gillespie apparently saw what happened in the presidential election and figured he would bring together the campaign strategies of Jeb Bush, John Kasich, and Kelly Ayotte.
“It was like a different country. Restaurants jammed, people well dressed seemingly without a care in the world. It was like the Eloi world.”
More evidence billions of dollars in federal spending can be cut without negatively impacting essential services. The GOP has controlled the House of Representatives and the purse since 2011, yet nothing has been cut. Notice in the tax debate this year, the concept of paying for tax cuts with spending cuts is being totally ignored by the GOP Congress and the GOP president.
“Conservatives and Christians didn’t show up”
I am one of them (but a VOTING Christian and conservative). So many are so self-righteous about these elections. It’s like they think everybody is watching them to give them a clap for being so principled to not vote for a RINO or less than perfect Republican.
Welcome to Free Republic!
You are correct on all points. I see many here who want to dismiss the Gillespie loss on his failure to fully embrace Trump. They are whistling past the graveyard since the pro Trump Lt Gov candidate lost her race by the same margin.
Virginia used to be 1/3 GOP,1/3 dem, and 1/3 moderate swing voters. In 2009 the year after barry, McDonnell won with 58% of the vote. I think now the moderates have been polarized with most going to the dems.
Gillespie is DOA now. Expect Corey Stewart to get slaughtered by timmy kaine in 2018.
Virginia is gone now. Those of you still in free districts need to avoid complacency or else wind up like Virginia.
Gillespie didn’t try to persuade anyone. He just tried to get people to like him. Trump took bold positions on things that persuaded people to get off their back side and go campaign and vote. Much like the Gipper did.
The Republican Party is in the process of splintering. The good news is that the Democratic Party is also in the process of splintering. Two new parties will emerge out of this chaos, but probably not until after the Second Civil War.
The GOP wants to lose every election so they can say “Trumpism is dead.”
I’ll be frank, I didn’t know much about the race. But since the election I’ve noticed the establishment elite has been working hard to seize control back from the populist grassroots Trump voters.
The media is willingly making the mistake that simply because Trump endorses someone he is a “Trump” candidate. They aren’t, and the grassroots voters are onto this and simply don’t turn out. In a Democrat state like VA, that was taken over by the bureaucrats in DC in the North, this makes a BIG difference.
I noticed on election night 2016 the MSM anchors kept saying the reason VA was Democrat was because of “latinos”. No.
VA has gone Democrat because since 1980 the DC bureaucracy and regulatory agencies have grown so astronomically that most of these people have relocated to northern VA, and these are the most stalwart Democrat, unionist, protectionist of their job voters you can imagine. They are also ethnic in every way, but they know who signs their checks - Democrat tax and spenders. And they vote that way. The heck with anyone else.
Not just nominated candidates but those who are elected.
My friend and neighbor won a seat in the VA House of Delegates. He is very conservative and a very good man. When he showed up in Richmond the entrenched GOPe idiots who run everything refused to put him on committees and told him to just shut up as they had ways of doing things that had been around for decades and they were not going to change anything.
Heck, there are many in the VA GOP who were Democrats until the Republican wave hit in the 90s and they just changed parties and kept getting reelected. Nothing changed but the letter after their name.
Hopefully the Gillespie loss will drive a stake through the “Vote for the candidate because he has an ‘R’ after his name.” meme.
The more the merrier!
Yet they can't drag their carcass down to their precinct and vote: which means they will fold like a lawn chair when the moment of truth comes.
Absolutely disgusting VIRGINIA. Shameful. Disgraceful. You get the government you deserve.
Gillespie lost by 8.9%; Vogel lost by 5.37%. She received 49,837 more votes than Gillespie.
That means that nearly 50,000 voters voted for Vogel but did NOT vote for Gillespie.
Not being the prime candidate, she was caught by the Democratic sweep.
“I noticed on election night 2016 the MSM anchors kept saying the reason VA was Democrat was because of “latinos”. No.”
Actually, that’s true.
Northern Virginia is Vote Fraud Central.
No, not rigged machines and hackers and cemetery precincts.
It is the huge number of illegal aliens (Hispanic) and green card aliens (South Asia and the Middle East) who have been registered by the democrats and their agents like the SEIU and vote in the tens of thousands.
There are no checks in Virginia on citizenship. If you show up with a driver’s license and you are registered, you vote.
Spend a few hours as a pollwatcher and you will be amazed at the number of voters who can’t speak English (a naturalization requirement) and a democrat sample ballot.
The ballots themselves are printed in 4 languages (with Arabic soon to be added) so that the illegals and green carders can read where to place their marks.
And don’t blame the democrats.
For years the establishment Republicans, like Gillespie and his donors) have refused to stop it. They are really just agents for the Chamber of Commerce and the cheap labor businesses. They refused to support Trump last year, many even going over to Hillary, just like they stabbed Cuccinelli earlier. They treat the Republican base as Deplorables like Hillary did.
Yesterday, the Deplorables told them to go to hell.
Virginia is now like California, permanently democrat.
Don’t worry - Trump won without Virginia, so he won’t need it in 2020.
Down-ticket candidates and issues win or lose dependent upon who's at the top of the ticket. Conservatives and Christians stifled yawns over Gillespie, so this other nonsense went through. It happens every time.
The GOP at least got a chance to be gentlemanly losers again, so there's that. I can just see Bill Kristol, George Will, and John Boehner smirking with pride and gently clinking wine glasses at such a good showing!
Gillespie ran a Jeb campaign in a Trump world. In fact, he avoided the president and the president’s supporters noticed.
This wasn’t a loss for Trump or the “Trump Train”.
This was GOPe getting its sh** shoved in as is usual because they’re stupid, weak, feckless and incompetent.
Note to GOPe. You don’t figure this out real quick you’re done. Permanently. You provide candidates acceptable to the mindset that voted for Trump or you’re finished.
Your years of playing the punk for the DNC, of lying through your teeth to us then dropping trousers and bending over for them is over.
You are them. Voting for any of your degenerate ilk is no different from voting for a D.
The Tea Party was a shot across your bow. Trump was a full broadside amidships and your boilers are busted, magazines on fire and you’re sinking fast. Every time you put one of your usual suspects up for office, we load a torpedo and send it.
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