So the Democrats are proclaiming this huge victory… Mostly on the strength of having won the Democrat strongholds of New Jersey and Virgina. They’re currently trying to make the whole thing a referendum on the presidency of Donald Trump.
But the facts are a little different than the news media and the leftists, (but I repeat myself), claim.
Let’s ponder that the Republican candidate for governor in the state of Virginia was Ed Gillespie. To begin with I can’t think of a more establishment candidate then Ed Gillespie other than perhaps Mitt Romney. The entire movement has since the beginning been against the Republican establishment and the Democrat establishment for that matter. That’s where the tea party came from. As I keep saying, the presidential election last year was not about Donald Trump. It has always been about eliminating the establishment.
The voters who started that movement saw the GOP establishment forever leaning increasingly left and moved to put a stop to it. Trump just happened to ride that movement’s coattails.
Now, Gillespie, far from embracing that movement, did everything he could during his campaign to separate himself from Trump and from the Tea Party and for that matter, anything and everything conservative. He spent most of his time trying to make himself relevant to a group which will never vote Republican regardless of how much they kowtow to the demands of the left. It’s no surprise then that his effort failed to engender trust amongst the already establishment -hating GOP electorate.
Combine with the idea that the Democrats were energized by the butt-kicking they took a year ago, and it’s a wonder that Gillespie did as well as he did.
The reasoning for the loss in New Jersey is of the same vein. Chris Christie on his best days could never be considered conservative, and no more is his lieutenant governor. They each spent copious amounts of time and effort to try and be relevant to the left wing. That effort also was doomed to failure before it began.
The lesson from the losses in New Jersey and Virginia are simple, Direct, and everlasting. You’re not going to win elections by trying to appease the Looney left. The only way that Republicans are going to be winners is to actually be conservative consistently foundationally and fundamentally.
Alas, it’s a lesson they still haven’t learned.