Virginia election: Democrats left listless without Donald Trump

[marmar]

Virginia election: Democrats left listless without Donald Trump
Youngkin didn't need Trump for a bigotry-based campaign, but McAuliffe couldn't get out deflated voters without him

By AMANDA MARCOTTE
PUBLISHED NOVEMBER 3, 2021 12:52PM


(Salon) Tuesday's Virginia race is the fertile soil from which a thousand hot takes will bloom, but in the end, it really did come down to voter enthusiasm. People who voted for Donald Trump in 2020 were fired up and ready to vote for Glenn Youngkin. It's not because they are infatuated with the milquetoast mini-Trump in a sweater vest. It's because they were drunk on racist hysterics and eager to stick it to the Democrats. A lot of people who voted for Joe Biden in 2020 — 33% — however, stayed home. Meanwhile, Republicans only saw a 15% drop-off in turnout.

In the end, Youngkin got 85% of the vote share Trump got the year before, and Democratic candidate Terry McAuliffe only 66% of Biden's 2020 share. Swing voters exist, but they are a small percentage of voters. This election came down — as they often do — to turnout. Republicans turned out and Democrats, about a third of them, did not.

This was all entirely predictable.

Republicans are reliably easy to rile up with two main weapons: bigotry and resentment of liberals. The performative freakout over trans rights and "critical race theory" in public schools was built on easily debunked lies, and will be dropped the second it's no longer electorally useful. But none of that matters, because Republicans live in a cloistered media ecosystem where kids reading "Beloved" in high school and imaginary rapists-in-dresses jumping strangers in the bathroom are treated like far more pressing threats to society than climate change or wealth inequality.

One thing the Virginia race does end is the debate over whether there can be a Trumpism without Trump. The answer is a very definitive "yes." ...............(more)

https://www.salon.com/2021/11/03/virginia-election-democrats-left-listless-without-donald/

[frazzled]

1. And this is what is wrong with grievance politics

Many people are motivated to become politically engaged only to the extent that they have something to rail against. A bogey man (or woman) so to speak, something to fight. We Democrats already have a problem with low voter turnout in non-presidential elections, especially among the younger voters. Add to this that we have no bogey man ... well, it's just sad. Why can't we get people to go out and vote?

I suppose it's always been the case that the youth vote has been lower. I'm not sure why. I've voted in every local, state, and federal election since I was legally able to at age 21 (which indicates how old I am: the age was lowered to 18 just months after my 21st birthday, in 1971). But I think it's worse today, among a populace (especially a younger one) attuned to instant gratification in their digital lives, who just can't be bothered to do anything as laborious as walking across the room to turn up the thermostat, much less go out somewhere to vote, or even mail in a ballot. Add to that that people probably don't pay much attention to their state and local news as they once did, now that there's all kinds of wonderfully distracting content to stream instead. We're distracted, we only hear the national headlines fed to us, we're not much in the real world. It's a recipe for civic apathy.

Elections are all about one thing: turnout. It should be our main focus, although how to achieve it among a tuned-out population is beyond me at the moment.