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What Went Wrong in Virginia? One Word - ABORTION!
Hotair ^ | 11/08/23 | Jazz Shaw

Posted on 11/08/2023 7:43:17 AM PST by SeekAndFind

Going into yesterday’s elections in Virginia, all of the pollsters had the legislative races running neck and neck. Governor Glenn Youngkin had talked himself hoarse at campaign stops and countless television interviews across the state for weeks on end, pushing people to embrace early voting and then working to drive every last Republican to the polls that he could. I’d heard his speech so often that I could recite it in my sleep. ‘We need to hold the House, flip the Senate, and save our state!’ It was a good plan, but when the dust settled, the opposite had happened. The Democrats held the Senate, flipped the House, and drove a stake through the heart of Youngkin’s vision. Despite much progress having been made in Virginia under his leadership, Virginia Democrats kept a death grip on a single message that got them over the finish line. If you turn the state over to the “MAGA Republicans,” they’re going to outlaw abortion. And it worked. (AP)

Virginia Democrats who campaigned on protecting abortion rights swept Tuesday’s legislative elections, retaking full control of the General Assembly after two years of divided power.

The outcome is a sharp loss for Gov. Glenn Youngkin and his fellow Republicans, who exerted a great deal of energy, money and political capital on their effort to secure a GOP trifecta.

“It’s official: there will be absolutely no abortion ban legislation sent to Glenn Youngkin’s desk for the duration of his term in office, period, as we have thwarted MAGA Republicans’ attempt to take total control of our government and our bodies,” Virginia Senate Democratic Caucus Chair Mamie Locke said in a statement referencing Donald Trump’s “Make America Great Again” slogan.

It wasn’t as if Virginia’s voters were unable to see the progress that had been achieved under Youngkin’s leadership. Job growth has been steady, private sector wealth increased, and crime rates have been coming down. But in the end, none of that mattered. The Democrats kept repeating their mantra about the Republicans passing an abortion ban and that was enough to get their people and many persuadable independents out to the voting booths.

This is precisely the sort of thing I was warning about back in April when I wrote, ‘Don’t let the Democrats make the next election about abortion.’ In the end, that’s what the races in Virginia came down to. As you can see above, the very first words out of the state Senate Democratic Caucus Chair last night were a promise that no abortion ban would make it to Youngkin’s desk for the rest of his term.

This is the strategy they will employ all across the nation next year as well. Just look at the results in Ohio last night. Issue 1, creating a constitutional right to abortion, sailed through and it really wasn’t even close. The ‘yes’ votes carried the night by more than ten points. (They also legalized marijuana by the same margin.)

This albatross will still be hanging around the necks of Republicans next year and if they’re not careful, the same pattern could and very likely will carry over at the national level. For a certain percentage of voters, the border crisis, rising crime rates, inflation, and a foreign policy situation that is inching toward a world war can all be set aside if Democrats dangle the threat of an abortion bad in front of them. Don’t be fooled into believing that Virginia and Ohio were just outliers in an off-year election.

This remains an intractable puzzle for the GOP. Most of the base is pro-life to one degree or another and the party can’t abandon that position without gutting its own core. Polling has repeatedly shown that a solid majority of the country is open to limited bans on late-term abortions, but support for full bans starting anywhere in the first trimester is a distinctly minority position today. And it’s hard to have a conversation with voters explaining that you’re only supporting “a partial ban” under specific circumstances when a Democrat immediately comes rushing up with a bullhorn screaming, ‘You heard him! He said ban! Burn the witch!’

If I had a perfect solution to offer the GOP today I would gladly put it forward, but I don’t. This is the Democrats’ Golden Ticket and at least for now, it doesn’t appear to have an expiration date. Republicans were dancing in the streets when the Dobbs ruling was handed down, but it might turn out to be the best thing to happen to Democrats in a generation.



TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections; US: Virginia
KEYWORDS: abortion; elections; stopshoutingann; virginia
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1 posted on 11/08/2023 7:43:17 AM PST by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind

I AM ABOUT TO THE POINT OF SAYING....GO MURDER AS MANY OF YOUR KIDS YOU WANT !
They will be awful because you’re their parent!


2 posted on 11/08/2023 7:46:23 AM PST by Ann Archy (Abortion....... The HUMAN Sacrifice to the god of Convenience.)
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To: Ann Archy

That’s what I’ve been saying.

Let liberals abort all they want, they’re rotten parents anyway.


3 posted on 11/08/2023 7:46:55 AM PST by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: SeekAndFind

All bow before the high holy church of child murder


4 posted on 11/08/2023 7:48:31 AM PST by PGR88
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To: Ann Archy

Is it possible you are wrong? My mom makes Hilary look centric and I was ever on that bandwagon.


5 posted on 11/08/2023 7:49:44 AM PST by momincombatboots (BQEphesians 6... who you are really at war with. )
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To: SeekAndFind

That’s what Trey want us to come away with

This was the anti Trump republicans

The republicans who ran these races hate trump

They refuse to take a win like overturn in roe v Wade and go with it

Younkin is actively running against Trump

Fox News we hate trump is wringingbtheir hands

None of this is a reflection on maga.

It’s ronna McDaniel. The wimp romney (mcdaniels relative btw) wing of republicans.

They’re inauthentic and voters won’t come out for them

Now fox has to grab the leg of yet another anti trump donor class candidate


6 posted on 11/08/2023 7:50:33 AM PST by stanne
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To: SeekAndFind

1) I think abortion should be a state decision, so I am glad that Roe was overturned.
2) I’d like states to outlaw abortion.
3) It seems that some states want to vote in favor of abortion. They can do that. That’s the point of making it a state decision. This is 10th Amendment stuff.
4) Once a state has made that decision, it should be over. Don’t keep fighting the battle. Don’t keep giving the Democrats a reason to get out the vote. They win a round? The issue is settled. Let’s move on to other areas where the next election ISN’T about abortion.

This is a pretty short-term problem unless we decide to keep shooting ourselves in the foot.


7 posted on 11/08/2023 7:50:45 AM PST by ClearCase_guy (They say "Our Democracy" but they mean Cosa Nostra.)
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To: SeekAndFind

The majority of American women are whores.
Drunk, tattoos, nose rings, and serial spreaders.
But I’m supposed to give a shit about girls swimming…


8 posted on 11/08/2023 7:51:05 AM PST by EEGator
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To: SeekAndFind

Every state and nation that chooses to make abortion a casual free and legal thing shall become an economic wasteland.....................


9 posted on 11/08/2023 7:51:32 AM PST by Red Badger (Homeless veterans camp in the streets while illegal aliens are put up in hotels.....................)
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To: SeekAndFind

Well golly gee whillickers Jazz… it’d help if the GOP actually campaigned on the evils of abortion instead of saying “we’re only doing it to pander to our base”


10 posted on 11/08/2023 7:54:03 AM PST by Skywise
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To: EEGator
The majority of American women are whores.

Sure. And they get pregnant all by themselves. No whorish men needed.


11 posted on 11/08/2023 7:54:56 AM PST by Cinnamontea
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To: Ann Archy

Although it’s not as if only liberals get abortions.


12 posted on 11/08/2023 7:55:37 AM PST by Dilbert San Diego
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To: SeekAndFind

The intention of LBJ’s “Great Society” was to break up the home so that an entire generation could be enslaved by an expanding government.

The dirty democrat WHORES that use their private parts as an amusement park and are reliant on government support are convinced it is important by their masters because the drain on government resources was getting too large to maintain.

Anyone who supports the democrat party platform of murdering the unborn does not support the constitution or this country and is the enabler of a ruthless mob entrenched in the ideas of sedition, slavery, socialism, and surrender.

“Our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” ― John Adams

“Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters.” ― Benjamin Franklin


13 posted on 11/08/2023 7:56:43 AM PST by RasterMaster ("Towering genius disdains a beaten path." - Abraham Lincoln)
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To: Dilbert San Diego

YEAH RIGHT!


14 posted on 11/08/2023 7:56:50 AM PST by Ann Archy (Abortion....... The HUMAN Sacrifice to the god of Convenience.)
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To: SeekAndFind

Absolutely unfriggin’ believeable... dumbassed white female suburban dimwits are more supportive of killing babies than wars, inability to feed their families, inflation, crime-ridden cities, influx of third-world filth, etc. This country is beyond help as long as these $hit-for-brains idiots vote...


15 posted on 11/08/2023 7:56:54 AM PST by Common Sense 101
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To: ClearCase_guy
They win a round? The issue is settled.

Ah ... the old democrat ratchet.

When they win, it's settled law.

When we win, it's a controversial result that needs to be corrected.

16 posted on 11/08/2023 7:57:36 AM PST by NorthMountain (... the right of the peopIe to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed)
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To: dfwgator

‘Let liberals abort all they want, they’re rotten parents anyway.’

it’s not the actual killing that drives them; if they had to do it themselves they’d become pro life immediately...

it’s because they were able to frame abortion as a female right, and were able to convince young women that their rights were under attack because of the evil patriarchy, which plays well to ‘liberated’ females of today...


17 posted on 11/08/2023 7:58:34 AM PST by IrishBrigade
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To: SeekAndFind

Republicans are killing their party over the abortion issue. They need to drop it.


18 posted on 11/08/2023 7:58:35 AM PST by rexthecat
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To: All

“Few men have virtue to withstand the highest bidder.” ― George Washington


19 posted on 11/08/2023 7:59:06 AM PST by RasterMaster ("Towering genius disdains a beaten path." - Abraham Lincoln)
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To: SeekAndFind

When the voters figure out that the Democrats want to abort them as well, then they will realize that the life they destroyed was their own. Stupid people have to hit bottom before they wake up. Well, enjoy your awakening process, it won’t be enjoyable.


20 posted on 11/08/2023 8:01:41 AM PST by Robert DeLong
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