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2020 Lingers Only for Those Out of Touch With Voters' March Forward
Townhall.com ^ | February 1, 2022 | Salena Zito

Posted on 02/01/2022 4:24:33 AM PST by Kaslin

More than a year after the 2020 presidential election cycle, signs for former President Donald Trump still graced the front lawns of homes across the country. And it wasn't just lawns. Front porches, sides of barns, boats and motorcycles all proudly flew Trump flags.

It was and remains a phenomenon that few outside of those who displayed that sentiment understood. The press saw it as a cult; Democrats believed that, and so did a lot of Republicans. So, instead of exploring it and asking voters the "whys," they spent 2021 running for or against Trump or writing endless stories about Trump.

What they missed was that these signs weren't necessarily about fealty to Trump himself. For most of those posting them, this was probably about reminding themselves and anyone else that they were still who they were. They were not going to disappear just because Trump lost.

In short, if you were a Trump supporter, you can still feel grateful for his policies yet be ready for someone new. You can be proud that he called out the press and the bureaucracy, and that he had official Washington's head exploding on a daily basis, yet still understand that the Trump era is over.

The press has had a very difficult time processing this nuance. In their mind's eye, these sentiments are inconsistent. You are either a member of the cult or you aren't.

This shortsighted view caused them to miss the massive shift rightward in states across the country ahead of the 2021 off-year election cycle -- not just in Virginia and New Jersey, but in down-ballot elections across the country for school boards, sheriffs' offices and municipal row offices in places where Republicans rarely compete, let alone win.

In New York state, Democrats conceded afterward that Republican wins in bedroom and suburban communities across the state had been a shellacking. Same in Pennsylvania, where Republicans won three of four statewide judicial races, retaining a seat on the state Supreme Court and at least gaining ground with voters in Democratic-leaning places such as Chester, Delaware and Bucks counties.

The press wasn't alone; the Democrats ran the bulk of their messaging tying Trump and Trump voters in with the riot of Jan. 6, 2021. What they missed is that, although voters understand the circumstances of that day, they moved on a long time ago. They are concerned now with the circumstances that actually affect their daily lives -- fanatical pandemic restrictions, inflation, crime, supply-chain disruptions, border insecurity, foreign policy weakness and the like. Many of them believe that the hundreds of hooligans who stormed the Capitol are less threatening to their well-being and prosperity today than the leaders who have allowed all of these problems to get out of control.

A recent Morning Consult survey suggests that Jan. 6 is far from voters' minds heading into this year's midterm contests. Nearly half of voters (47%) said they don't expect the events of last January to have any impact on their votes in November. And yes, two-thirds of them say it's important to investigate the riot.

In short, you can move on from the riot yet still find it disturbing and expect accountability for it.

You would think Democrats would have figured that out after trying to tie the two together throughout 2021. They haven't. Democrats' premier super PAC, Priorities USA, just launched a six-figure ad buy called "Coup." Its narrator opens with a dark and dire warning -- "Last time was just a test run" -- accompanied by scenes of Trump supporters flooding the Capitol.

Some Republicans have also failed to move on. Some believe that they need Trump's endorsement to win, so they at least pay lip service to the idea that the 2020 election was stolen. They are making a big mistake.

A special election held in North Texas last summer, for the 6th Congressional District, shows a path forward. A good candidate with a positive message defeated the Trump-endorsed widow of the incumbent, who had died from COVID-19. Most in the press doubted that Texas state Rep. Jake Ellzey could defeat Susan Wright, but he did just that, besting her by 6 points in a Republican-versus-Republican runoff.

Everyone saw it as an upset. But you have to wonder how much time they spent talking to voters about something other than Trump. They wanted to write a story about the cult of Trump, the story that dominates Twitter every day. But that story was not the real story.

Last week, Fox News anchor Bret Baier asked Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell about the GOP, and whether the Kentucky Republican believes Trump will be a help to him in the midterm elections.

McConnell's wisdom, a wisdom conservative populists often view as suspect, went largely undetected, but he was remarkably on-point about what voters are thinking.

"I think the midterm election almost certainly is going to be a referendum on the party in power," McConnell said. "This is an entirely Democratic government -- Democratic president, House and Senate. They are in charge of governing. And these midterm elections are always a report card on the performance of those who are in charge, those who are governing. I think the American people are about to send this administration a pretty big message, that they do not approve of all the things that are going wrong."

They should have all learned from 2021. Voters moved on long ago. If you obsess over Trump in 2022, it will kill you. Certainly, it is killing the Democrats and the media right now.

For his part, Trump could choose to run again in 2024. Whether he is running or not, he is only hurting himself by relitigating 2020. He, too, should be forward-looking because that is where the voters are. The voters, even the ones who still love Trump, are unlikely to make decisions about tomorrow looking through the rearview mirror.


TOPICS: Culture/Society
KEYWORDS: demonratparty; donaldtrump; election
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1 posted on 02/01/2022 4:24:33 AM PST by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin

I have a lot of respect for Salena Zito but I think she misses here.

When I think of 2020 I do think of how Trump was robbed of his victory. But even more, I think of how our elections are tainted and neither party sees this as a problem. 2022? 2024? What do they matter? Why should I think my vote counts? This is not — in essence — about Donald Trump. This is about how We The People no longer play a role in our government. If you have stopped caring about 2020, then you have stopped caring about tyranny.


2 posted on 02/01/2022 4:33:33 AM PST by ClearCase_guy ("If you see something, say something"? I see people dying from vaccines.)
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To: Kaslin

Zito scores Zero. Buh-bye.


3 posted on 02/01/2022 4:35:07 AM PST by Caipirabob (Communists...Socialists...Fascists & AntiFa...Democrats...Traitors... Who can tell the difference?)
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To: Kaslin

I have deep admiration for Zalena. This time she is dead wrong.
As a body politic we are finished with Washington and its corruption. There are a few, very few, who we trust to be honesty and brave. Trump still stands tallest among them.
Trump was hamstrung by evil during his presidency. His election by we the people was stolen from him and from us. We will not forgive this evil and we will not forget.
We demand our president and it is not foul Joe Biden and his criminals. It is Donald J. Trump and we want him back.


4 posted on 02/01/2022 4:37:07 AM PST by Louis Foxwell (Contempt is the essential tool of the tyrant.)
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To: Kaslin

Blah, blah, blah. Not one word about how a landslide election was STOLEN. Stolen with help from Communist China. Heads need to roll and election integrity restored.


5 posted on 02/01/2022 4:37:27 AM PST by Nateman (Xi Jinping is the most diabolical enemy America has ever had. 🍊)
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To: Kaslin

“In short, if you were a Trump supporter, you can still feel grateful for his policies yet be ready for someone new. You can be proud that he called out the press and the bureaucracy, and that he had official Washington’s head exploding on a daily basis, yet still understand that the Trump era is over.”

In your dreams. See you in 2024.


6 posted on 02/01/2022 4:37:37 AM PST by Eleutheria5 (Buck Foe Jiden!I)
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To: Kaslin
"...McConnell's wisdom, a wisdom conservative populists often view as suspect, went largely undetected, but he was remarkably on-point about what voters are thinking..."

Really?

Tying together the fraudulent election and the 1/6/2021 events and saying they are both in the past and we need to move on?

Really?

In one, we have people in jail for going on a year now, no bail, charged with insignificant crimes, and being portrayed as an outright insurrection by the Left, and in the case of an election, we have overwhelming evidence of fraud including millions of mail in ballots whose admission into the results is unconstitutional, never mind the newly released video of people proudly stuffing ballot boxes, even fanning them out so they could be counted for remuneration purposes.

Mich McConnell has wisdom, we should "understand that the Trump era is over", forget about about 11/4, and view the persistence of outrage at the election fraud as springing from the same place as the Leftists outrage at the events of 1/6/2021.

No thank you.

7 posted on 02/01/2022 4:39:06 AM PST by rlmorel (Nothing can foster principles of freedom more effectively than the imposition of tyranny.)
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To: Kaslin
Salena Zito:

In short, if you were a Trump supporter, you can still feel grateful for his policies yet be ready for someone new. You can be proud that he called out the press and the bureaucracy, and that he had official Washington's head exploding on a daily basis, yet still understand that the Trump era is over.


8 posted on 02/01/2022 4:40:35 AM PST by MarvinStinson
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To: ClearCase_guy; Louis Foxwell; Caipirabob; Nateman; Eleutheria5

Okay. It wasn’t just me who read this and wondered which of us was smoking crack, the author or myself.

And I don’t smoke crack.

The wisdom of Mich McConnell.


9 posted on 02/01/2022 4:41:54 AM PST by rlmorel (Nothing can foster principles of freedom more effectively than the imposition of tyranny.)
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To: rlmorel

Oxy-moronic.


10 posted on 02/01/2022 4:43:16 AM PST by Eleutheria5 (Buck Foe Jiden!I)
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To: Nateman
...Some Republicans have also failed to move on. Some believe that they need Trump's endorsement to win, so they at least pay lip service to the idea that the 2020 election was stolen. They are making a big mistake.

This writer is making the big mistake. Elections mean NOTHING if one side cheats to win and gets away with it. Without election integrity nothing else matters.

11 posted on 02/01/2022 4:43:28 AM PST by Nateman (Xi Jinping is the most diabolical enemy America has ever had. 🍊)
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To: Kaslin

She echoes what I’ve been saying for a long time. It doesn’t matter how you feel about it. Backward looking campaigns don’t win.


12 posted on 02/01/2022 4:44:15 AM PST by sam_whiskey (Peace through Strength. )
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To: Caipirabob

BTTT


13 posted on 02/01/2022 4:45:27 AM PST by nopardons
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To: ClearCase_guy

This is what it is all about. If its not pointed out there are still a great number of missing pieces to the 2020 election puzzle...then changes in policies regarding voting security, wont change and democrats will run the elections, achieving the outcome they want each time. The most telling piece of evidence is the lefts need to make voting as “easy” and convoluted as possible with their continued push for drop boxes and ballot harvesting...and the vilification of those who think voting already is easy and making it “easier” only invites more fraud. This is common sense.


14 posted on 02/01/2022 4:46:05 AM PST by MrRelevant
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To: Nateman

That is undeniably true.

Worse, the author, who I have no consideration for, wishes to equate conservatives refusing to let go of the election fraud with Leftists refusing to admit that the “insurrection” was nothing of the sort.

Her making or even implying that assertion magnifies the stupidity of this article.


15 posted on 02/01/2022 4:46:34 AM PST by rlmorel (Nothing can foster principles of freedom more effectively than the imposition of tyranny.)
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To: Kaslin
two-thirds of them say it's important to investigate the riot

After we investigate last night's landing of Martians, please. Oh wait. It didn't happen. Nor did a "riot".

Confederate white racists don't exist in Canada either.

I didn't know Salena Zito before this, but the next time I see her name, it will send a jolt through my brain the wattage of say Mika or Chrissy Wallace. She is now and forever a liar .

16 posted on 02/01/2022 4:48:27 AM PST by AndyJackson
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To: sam_whiskey

If that were all the MAGA crowd were looking at, you’d be right. But they’re looking South to the border, to the empty store shelves, to the Afghanistans to come, to the crime-ridden streets, and also to the stolen election of 2020 and the innocents languishing behind bars.

From California to the New York islands
This land is FUBAR totally.
MAGA.


17 posted on 02/01/2022 4:49:13 AM PST by Eleutheria5 (Buck Foe Jiden!I)
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To: MrRelevant

Yeah. The only sound emanating from the newly released footage of people stuffing ballot boxes with harvested (yeah, sure...harvested my ass) ballots is...crickets.

Like hell we should let that go.

The more I think of it, the more I despise this author and view her and people like her as as bad a problem as the people perpetrating the election fraud, and making political prisoners of the 1/6 protesters.


18 posted on 02/01/2022 4:49:59 AM PST by rlmorel (Nothing can foster principles of freedom more effectively than the imposition of tyranny.)
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To: AndyJackson

I know Townhall, which I enjoyed when it first came out, is now the home of people like this author.

People who believe in “the wisdom of Mich McConnell”.

There are still some good authors over at Townhall, but this reinforces in me the reasons I stopped reading over there regularly.

But is is people like this author who are enemies of this Republic.


19 posted on 02/01/2022 4:54:27 AM PST by rlmorel (Nothing can foster principles of freedom more effectively than the imposition of tyranny.)
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To: Kaslin
Why does someone who apparently in some circles has a lot of street cred blow herself up in one really stupid article. She writes:

In short, if you were a Trump supporter, you can still feel grateful for his policies... yet still understand that the Trump era is over. The press has had a very difficult time processing this nuance.

How can your write something so utterly self-destructive a few days after Trump's huuuggggee rally in Texas. Tain't over, babe. And I realize I am to dumb too see your nuance, so eff off. I am dumb unlike those like you and your GOPee pals who see these nuances, so to hell with the lot of you.

Please oh please oh please endorse your preferred candidate. I love it when RINOs out themselves and each other.

You claim to be on my side, or claim me for your side, and then you call me an ignorant deplorable. Lady, you blew yourself up real good.

20 posted on 02/01/2022 4:56:18 AM PST by AndyJackson
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