If we really want to talk about "messaging", look to Virginia

[maxrandb]

Elections send messages!

There was no more damaging message sent, than the one from the Virginia 2021 off-year election. In fact, you can thank 2021 Virginia voters for the resuscitation of Donnie Dipshit.

Just about EVERY atrocity we are currently seeing has come from this one, off-year election.

Critical Race Theory, DEI, Trans Bathroom Shit, the excusing of violent Insurrection, the normalizing of Donnie Dipshit...it can all be traced to the "message" Virginia voters sent to the MAGAts.

The 2021 Virginia election sent a terrible message to the MAGAts.

We had just witnessed an attempted violent coup in Washington DC. Virginia, you could still smell the smoke, teargas and blood of January 6 waifting across the Potomac. Despite that, Virginians went to the polls and elected 3 straight-up fascists to the highest statewide offices. Democrats were able to hold a slim majority in the Statehouse, which was the ONLY thing that prevented Virginia from becoming Northern Florida.

Make no mistake. The message sent was that the Retrumplican Party could overcome the stench of a violent coup attempt, as long as you demonized the right people. Those people were, once again, our friends in the LGBTQ community.

The Dem candidate for governor made a dumb statement about "we don't want parents controlling what is taught in schools". Of course, we had just seen screaming and threats of violence at School Board meetings, where the Mom's for Liberty groups were trying to take over.

McColough's gaff should not have mattered.

You should have been able to run a ham-sandwich against the PARTY OF VIOLENT INSURRECTION and won with 70% of the vote.

Instead, the Retrumplican Party got the message that THEY WOULD PAY NO ELECTORAL CONSEQUENCE for trying to overthrow American Democracy.

There was 1 trans kid in Louden County, and he became the whipping boy for the entire state. The ads in Virginia 2021 were a primer for the PA, MI, WI, NC and GA ads of 2024.

If you want to know why trans kids in school became such a major national issue, look no further than the message the MAGAts took from the Virginia 2021, Governor, Lieutenant Governor and Attorney General races.

Let's send a different message to them this time.

[spooky3]

1. I think this is somewhat of an overreach. Virginia is

Purple, having fairly recently shifted from red as the population shifted to more urban relative to rural and exurban. There is no way that Dems would win statewide with 70 percent of the vote, without extreme economic and other problems. No one ever has.

The best piece of evidence that McAuliffe wasn’t the problem is that the NJ election was extremely close the same year, and NJ is much more consistently blue than is VA.

The second best piece of evidence is that the offices of lieutenant governor and attorney general, who are not connected electorally to each other or the governor, were also swung to Rs.

Messaging can be improved as can other things that Dems do.

[maxrandb]

3. Can you define a more "extreme" problem than a violent coup?

I think you are wrong. The fact that, in the first election since the violent attempt to destroy American democracy, the Retrumplican Party didn't get their asses handed to them, sent the message that all the shit that has come since, is NORMAL.

If Retrumplicans had been crushed like they should have been, Donnie Dipshit wouldn't be trying to take over Greenland...he'd be living there.

[TnDem]

6. Here's the problem with that message

Americans heard it ad-nauseum for months before this election and it made not a squat of difference....I thought it would make more of a difference than it did, and I was wrong. Trump won every single battleground state and both house of Congress.

I have come to realize, that Jan 6th was, (and is), a much bigger deal to us on the left than the average US voter.

[maxrandb]

7. And that is the problem

It should be THE ONLY ISSUE.

It should be "the deal" that breaks all other deals.

[TnDem]

8. But it isn't and that's the fact

You can't force people to buy what they don't want to continually hear and expect different results...Reflections of history will take care of January 6th.

We all know what happened four years ago and we have talked about it till the cows come home, but the voters are asking what can we do NOW and going forward?

[Mysterian]

2. McAuliffe was Dominion Energy's do-boy

People are tired of corporate Dems.

[maxrandb]

4. They seem to love corporate Retrumplicans though

Thanks for proving my point.

Any guess as to whether a "corporate" Dem would be better than the violent, evil, fascist, racist fuckstick we currently have?

We need to stop punishing Democrats for not passing some "purity" test. Because everytime we do, the entire free world gets punished....and innocent people get slaughtered and murdered.

[Mysterian]

5. McAuliffe did everything he could to kiss Dominion's ass during his gubernatorial campaign

including wholeheartedly endorsing the insane Atlantic Coast Pipeline, ignoring a massive upswelling of opposition from the entire commonwealth. The pipeline would have caused massive environmental damage and was so insane even Dominion scrapped the plan. Shit like this is why people stay home on election day. Purity? LMAO. How about some actual concern for people, not corporations. Be better than the fucking republicans and we might do better for a change.