Excellent podcast from Politico from youngkin strategists on how they won — must read/listen

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am so sick of the whining over "they closed the schools!!!" The schools were re-opened long before election day. The worst that could be said was that the Democrats were too cautious in responding to a 100-year pandemic that was killing thousands of people. And because of that you stick us with Youngkin?

You're a bunch of Karens.

And you are an idiot who will watch as the Democrats lose the presidency.

So you are saying it’s time for Ds to go low if they want to win?

how is understanding that schools should be prioritized going low?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Dems blew it by keeping schools closed for an unreasonably long time, losing suburban women swing voters. They lost me too, and im a lifelong democrat in DC who hates Trump. Wheres the alternative in our party? Do better, Dems.

You're selfish and pathetic. There's a great big world out there, and not everything revolves around your snowflakes.

And you think this kind of reaction represents a good electoral strategy???

I don't care. No so-called "lifelong democrat" turns on the party and supports Youngkin on the single issue of schools being closed for too long WHEN THEY WERE LONG AGO REOPENED.

Many of us will never forget that year and all that was lost for our kids. I didn't vote Youngkin but that year made a lasting impression on me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Dems blew it by keeping schools closed for an unreasonably long time, losing suburban women swing voters. They lost me too, and im a lifelong democrat in DC who hates Trump. Wheres the alternative in our party? Do better, Dems.

You're selfish and pathetic. There's a great big world out there, and not everything revolves around your snowflakes.

And you think this kind of reaction represents a good electoral strategy???

I don't care. No so-called "lifelong democrat" turns on the party and supports Youngkin on the single issue of schools being closed for too long WHEN THEY WERE LONG AGO REOPENED.

You really, really don't get it. Many Democratic voters value education and have voted for Democrats in the past specifically because of education, in many cases understanding that they are voting in tax hikes, more onerous regulations on business, and probably less competent foreign policy when they did so. They value education and are willing to take the hit on other areas for the sake of education.

Then the pandemic happened and suddenly it became glaringly obvious that the Democrats do not value education, but instead only value the money and votes that the education complex reliably deliver to Democratic candidates. People who trusted that Democratic candidates would prioritize the education of children saw the truth of the matter, and saw just how little the Democrats care about the education of children. And with that, one of the big reasons to vote Democrat disappeared.

That now means that voters need to evaluate the rest of the equation. For a lot of voters, that calculation still results in a Democrat: things like access to abortion, climate change, etc. But for many voters, they voted Democrat because of education, and without faith in Democrats on education, they find themselves without a real political home. This also figured in the low Democrat turnout. McAuliffe lost because core voters didn't bother voting. Why? They probably could not bring themselves to vote Republican but they couldn't stomach voting for the Democrats either, after watching the very clear messages the Democrats sent on how much the Democratic establishment does not care about educating children.

You can deride all of this if you want. But if the Democrats don't stop shaking their fists impotently at the sky at how voters don't trust them with education matters, they're going to lose again and again. Education is a core driver of Democrat voters. If you as a candidate signal over and over and over again that you do not care about educating kids and you only value the political money and votes of the education complex, you will lose a lot of voters. They might not vote Republican. But they won't vote for you, either.

2+. I will never vote R personally but it is amazing to me how many of the D party faithful are blind to how much closures hurt Ds locally. The party (and teachers/unions) completely lost their credibility on education.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Dems blew it by keeping schools closed for an unreasonably long time, losing suburban women swing voters. They lost me too, and im a lifelong democrat in DC who hates Trump. Wheres the alternative in our party? Do better, Dems.

You're selfish and pathetic. There's a great big world out there, and not everything revolves around your snowflakes.

And you think this kind of reaction represents a good electoral strategy???

I don't care. No so-called "lifelong democrat" turns on the party and supports Youngkin on the single issue of schools being closed for too long WHEN THEY WERE LONG AGO REOPENED.

Many of us will never forget that year and all that was lost for our kids. I didn't vote Youngkin but that year made a lasting impression on me.

Yep - many are not understanding how traumatic having schools closed were on regular MC/UMC families. Most of these families did not have a parent loose a job or have a family member die of covid. Their world came crushing down when schools closed and they were expected to work from home like nothing happened. Any complaining that schools need to reopen was met with claims that you were a trump supporter or a covid denier. Families are still dealing with kids being dramatically behind and still missing a lot of schools due to exposed and quarantine requirements. Saying schools were long ago reopened in naïve. Schools are open but they are nothing like they were precovid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Dems blew it by keeping schools closed for an unreasonably long time, losing suburban women swing voters. They lost me too, and im a lifelong democrat in DC who hates Trump. Wheres the alternative in our party? Do better, Dems.

You're selfish and pathetic. There's a great big world out there, and not everything revolves around your snowflakes.

And you think this kind of reaction represents a good electoral strategy???

I don't care. No so-called "lifelong democrat" turns on the party and supports Youngkin on the single issue of schools being closed for too long WHEN THEY WERE LONG AGO REOPENED.

You really, really don't get it. Many Democratic voters value education and have voted for Democrats in the past specifically because of education, in many cases understanding that they are voting in tax hikes, more onerous regulations on business, and probably less competent foreign policy when they did so. They value education and are willing to take the hit on other areas for the sake of education.

Then the pandemic happened and suddenly it became glaringly obvious that the Democrats do not value education, but instead only value the money and votes that the education complex reliably deliver to Democratic candidates. People who trusted that Democratic candidates would prioritize the education of children saw the truth of the matter, and saw just how little the Democrats care about the education of children. And with that, one of the big reasons to vote Democrat disappeared.

That now means that voters need to evaluate the rest of the equation. For a lot of voters, that calculation still results in a Democrat: things like access to abortion, climate change, etc. But for many voters, they voted Democrat because of education, and without faith in Democrats on education, they find themselves without a real political home. This also figured in the low Democrat turnout. McAuliffe lost because core voters didn't bother voting. Why? They probably could not bring themselves to vote Republican but they couldn't stomach voting for the Democrats either, after watching the very clear messages the Democrats sent on how much the Democratic establishment does not care about educating children.

You can deride all of this if you want. But if the Democrats don't stop shaking their fists impotently at the sky at how voters don't trust them with education matters, they're going to lose again and again. Education is a core driver of Democrat voters. If you as a candidate signal over and over and over again that you do not care about educating kids and you only value the political money and votes of the education complex, you will lose a lot of voters. They might not vote Republican. But they won't vote for you, either.

2+. I will never vote R personally but it is amazing to me how many of the D party faithful are blind to how much closures hurt Ds locally. The party (and teachers/unions) completely lost their credibility on education.

Yes, the blindness of the Democratic establishment on this point is really something to see.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Youngkin’s win was due to good old fashioned Southern Strategy. They can try to dress it up all that want, but it doesn’t change reality.

I have no doubt this makes you feel better about the terrible campaign McAuliffe waged, but it is both delusional and self-defeating. Wise up.

+100
Excuse after ridiculous excuse... when are Dems going to simply admit no one wanted what they were selling? People are on to them.

You're right -- why WOULD racists want to become actual decent human beings with real morals & ethics, rather than that weaponized version they use touting out God in every argument? 🤔

And there’s the race card on cue. A lot of what the Dems have done makes it hard to believe they support brown children. The messaging is that those kids are too dumb to succeed so we’ll lower the bars and demoralizes the kids. When my kids was in first grade he came home telling me that all the positivity project type stuff was done because teachers don’t think he and his schoolmates can get into college. SMH.

FYI - making CRT a main pillar of your campaign is playing the race card & stoking identity politics. Youngkin still ran a Southern Strategy campaign.

+1

Winsome Sears says hold my beer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Dems blew it by keeping schools closed for an unreasonably long time, losing suburban women swing voters. They lost me too, and im a lifelong democrat in DC who hates Trump. Wheres the alternative in our party? Do better, Dems.

You're selfish and pathetic. There's a great big world out there, and not everything revolves around your snowflakes.

And you think this kind of reaction represents a good electoral strategy???

I don't care. No so-called "lifelong democrat" turns on the party and supports Youngkin on the single issue of schools being closed for too long WHEN THEY WERE LONG AGO REOPENED.

Many of us will never forget that year and all that was lost for our kids. I didn't vote Youngkin but that year made a lasting impression on me.

Me too. I still believe the Democrats are less bad. But I don’t believe in their fundamental integrity anymore.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Youngkin’s win was due to good old fashioned Southern Strategy. They can try to dress it up all that want, but it doesn’t change reality.

I have no doubt this makes you feel better about the terrible campaign McAuliffe waged, but it is both delusional and self-defeating. Wise up.

+100
Excuse after ridiculous excuse... when are Dems going to simply admit no one wanted what they were selling? People are on to them.

You're right -- why WOULD racists want to become actual decent human beings with real morals & ethics, rather than that weaponized version they use touting out God in every argument? 🤔

And there’s the race card on cue. A lot of what the Dems have done makes it hard to believe they support brown children. The messaging is that those kids are too dumb to succeed so we’ll lower the bars and demoralizes the kids. When my kids was in first grade he came home telling me that all the positivity project type stuff was done because teachers don’t think he and his schoolmates can get into college. SMH.

FYI - making CRT a main pillar of your campaign is playing the race card & stoking identity politics. Youngkin still ran a Southern Strategy campaign.

+1

Winsome Sears says hold my beer.

Out of curiosity, do you think voters have forgotten entirely about the school closures?

[Anonymous]

Some nuances I'm not seeing reflected here - as the working parent of a young child, I definitely was told that by wanting in-person school, I "just wanted free daycare"...but usually that sentiment was expressed by people of conservative political persuasions who probably thought women should be SAHMs anyway ("if you can't/don't want to take care of your own kids you shouldn't have had them!"). From teachers/teacher advocacy groups, I mostly heard a lot of "not [reopening] until it's safe", which seemed to be unclear at best and a constantly moving goalpost at worst. I was incensed by teachers who took full advantage of priority vaccination and then still refused to return to in-person teaching.

All that said...the majority of APS and FCPS parents chose remote learning in the fall of 2020 (not sure about other counties). You can split hairs and say it's because the proposed in-person offerings weren't workable (staggered starts, alternate days), but looking back 15 months ago, we didn't know what we do now, and most people erred on the side of keeping kids home.

The "OpenFCPS" crowd was an uneasy alliance of Covid deniers, parents who wanted/needed their kids out of the house, and people with serious concerns about their children's educational needs being met (or not)...while they were loud, they were never able to formulate a cogent "Plan B" that included CDC-compliant risk mitigation measures.

I can understand being mad at local school boards, at teachers, at teachers unions. Some of the stuff that was done (remote school from within school facilities, for a fee?!) was the antithesis of equity. And the fact that working parents got the rawest deal of the pandemic has been broadly documented. All fair points.

But to go from there to...voting in the party that opposes paid family and medical leave, dispenses with public health mitigation measures like masks and vaccinations, and siphons off public school money to private schools and corporate-helmed charters (while simultaneously decreasing overall incoming tax revenue) seems to me to be textbook cutting off one's nose to spite one's face. I won't go so far as to say flipping one's vote to Youngkin was racist, but I absolutely believe that the people who did so en masse (college-educated white women) acted in an effort to preserve their own privilege in shaping public schools to best serve their own interests. Just because Youngkin was smart enough to largely keep his mouth shut during the campaign doesn't mean he's not the policy equivalent of Trump et al.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Youngkin’s win was due to good old fashioned Southern Strategy. They can try to dress it up all that want, but it doesn’t change reality.

I have no doubt this makes you feel better about the terrible campaign McAuliffe waged, but it is both delusional and self-defeating. Wise up.

+100
Excuse after ridiculous excuse... when are Dems going to simply admit no one wanted what they were selling? People are on to them.

You're right -- why WOULD racists want to become actual decent human beings with real morals & ethics, rather than that weaponized version they use touting out God in every argument? 🤔

And there’s the race card on cue. A lot of what the Dems have done makes it hard to believe they support brown children. The messaging is that those kids are too dumb to succeed so we’ll lower the bars and demoralizes the kids. When my kids was in first grade he came home telling me that all the positivity project type stuff was done because teachers don’t think he and his schoolmates can get into college. SMH.

FYI - making CRT a main pillar of your campaign is playing the race card & stoking identity politics. Youngkin still ran a Southern Strategy campaign.

+1

Winsome Sears says hold my beer.

Out of curiosity, do you think voters have forgotten entirely about the school closures?

Of course not! I’m saying that those who are screaming racism haven’t ‘noticed’ that we also elected an R AA and an R Cuban

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Some nuances I'm not seeing reflected here - as the working parent of a young child, I definitely was told that by wanting in-person school, I "just wanted free daycare"...but usually that sentiment was expressed by people of conservative political persuasions who probably thought women should be SAHMs anyway ("if you can't/don't want to take care of your own kids you shouldn't have had them!"). From teachers/teacher advocacy groups, I mostly heard a lot of "not [reopening] until it's safe", which seemed to be unclear at best and a constantly moving goalpost at worst. I was incensed by teachers who took full advantage of priority vaccination and then still refused to return to in-person teaching.

All that said...the majority of APS and FCPS parents chose remote learning in the fall of 2020 (not sure about other counties). You can split hairs and say it's because the proposed in-person offerings weren't workable (staggered starts, alternate days), but looking back 15 months ago, we didn't know what we do now, and most people erred on the side of keeping kids home.

The "OpenFCPS" crowd was an uneasy alliance of Covid deniers, parents who wanted/needed their kids out of the house, and people with serious concerns about their children's educational needs being met (or not)...while they were loud, they were never able to formulate a cogent "Plan B" that included CDC-compliant risk mitigation measures.

I can understand being mad at local school boards, at teachers, at teachers unions. Some of the stuff that was done (remote school from within school facilities, for a fee?!) was the antithesis of equity. And the fact that working parents got the rawest deal of the pandemic has been broadly documented. All fair points.

But to go from there to...voting in the party that opposes paid family and medical leave, dispenses with public health mitigation measures like masks and vaccinations, and siphons off public school money to private schools and corporate-helmed charters (while simultaneously decreasing overall incoming tax revenue) seems to me to be textbook cutting off one's nose to spite one's face. I won't go so far as to say flipping one's vote to Youngkin was racist, but I absolutely believe that the people who did so en masse (college-educated white women) acted in an effort to preserve their own privilege in shaping public schools to best serve their own interests. Just because Youngkin was smart enough to largely keep his mouth shut during the campaign doesn't mean he's not the policy equivalent of Trump et al.

So your point is, that it’s a white college-educated woman’s responsibility to shut up, pay taxes, and not expect a thing for them?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Youngkin’s win was due to good old fashioned Southern Strategy. They can try to dress it up all that want, but it doesn’t change reality.

I have no doubt this makes you feel better about the terrible campaign McAuliffe waged, but it is both delusional and self-defeating. Wise up.

+100
Excuse after ridiculous excuse... when are Dems going to simply admit no one wanted what they were selling? People are on to them.

You're right -- why WOULD racists want to become actual decent human beings with real morals & ethics, rather than that weaponized version they use touting out God in every argument? 🤔

And there’s the race card on cue. A lot of what the Dems have done makes it hard to believe they support brown children. The messaging is that those kids are too dumb to succeed so we’ll lower the bars and demoralizes the kids. When my kids was in first grade he came home telling me that all the positivity project type stuff was done because teachers don’t think he and his schoolmates can get into college. SMH.

Didn’t happen.

It absolutely did happen. I was stunned. You don’t know my kid. That was 6 years ago. You should ask his former teachers. Heck, you can ask his current teachers.

Sure, just let us know in what school system a first grade teacher told students they wouldn’t be able to go college because of the color of their skin.

DP. Are you actually disbelieving that a teacher could be overtly racist? Wtf?

Man, Democrat true believers are wild.

Nice deflection. I’ll believe it happened when pp names the school system. Her child wasn’t the only one in the class (and pp didn’t even say when this happened), so naming the system wouldn’t be identifying.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some nuances I'm not seeing reflected here - as the working parent of a young child, I definitely was told that by wanting in-person school, I "just wanted free daycare"...but usually that sentiment was expressed by people of conservative political persuasions who probably thought women should be SAHMs anyway ("if you can't/don't want to take care of your own kids you shouldn't have had them!"). From teachers/teacher advocacy groups, I mostly heard a lot of "not [reopening] until it's safe", which seemed to be unclear at best and a constantly moving goalpost at worst. I was incensed by teachers who took full advantage of priority vaccination and then still refused to return to in-person teaching.

All that said...the majority of APS and FCPS parents chose remote learning in the fall of 2020 (not sure about other counties). You can split hairs and say it's because the proposed in-person offerings weren't workable (staggered starts, alternate days), but looking back 15 months ago, we didn't know what we do now, and most people erred on the side of keeping kids home.

The "OpenFCPS" crowd was an uneasy alliance of Covid deniers, parents who wanted/needed their kids out of the house, and people with serious concerns about their children's educational needs being met (or not)...while they were loud, they were never able to formulate a cogent "Plan B" that included CDC-compliant risk mitigation measures.

I can understand being mad at local school boards, at teachers, at teachers unions. Some of the stuff that was done (remote school from within school facilities, for a fee?!) was the antithesis of equity. And the fact that working parents got the rawest deal of the pandemic has been broadly documented. All fair points.

But to go from there to...voting in the party that opposes paid family and medical leave, dispenses with public health mitigation measures like masks and vaccinations, and siphons off public school money to private schools and corporate-helmed charters (while simultaneously decreasing overall incoming tax revenue) seems to me to be textbook cutting off one's nose to spite one's face. I won't go so far as to say flipping one's vote to Youngkin was racist, but I absolutely believe that the people who did so en masse (college-educated white women) acted in an effort to preserve their own privilege in shaping public schools to best serve their own interests. Just because Youngkin was smart enough to largely keep his mouth shut during the campaign doesn't mean he's not the policy equivalent of Trump et al.

So your point is, that it’s a white college-educated woman’s responsibility to shut up, pay taxes, and not expect a thing for them?

Wait...what?! That's quite a leap. If high-quality, safe, continuously open public schools are your goal, don't you think it's a bit short-sighted to think you'll get that from the party that consistently denigrates public health measures and either directly or indirectly defunds public education? Seems rather like expecting Rs to do something about gun control because Democrats moved too slowly on the issue for your taste...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Youngkin’s win was due to good old fashioned Southern Strategy. They can try to dress it up all that want, but it doesn’t change reality.

I have no doubt this makes you feel better about the terrible campaign McAuliffe waged, but it is both delusional and self-defeating. Wise up.

+100
Excuse after ridiculous excuse... when are Dems going to simply admit no one wanted what they were selling? People are on to them.

You're right -- why WOULD racists want to become actual decent human beings with real morals & ethics, rather than that weaponized version they use touting out God in every argument? 🤔

And there’s the race card on cue. A lot of what the Dems have done makes it hard to believe they support brown children. The messaging is that those kids are too dumb to succeed so we’ll lower the bars and demoralizes the kids. When my kids was in first grade he came home telling me that all the positivity project type stuff was done because teachers don’t think he and his schoolmates can get into college. SMH.

FYI - making CRT a main pillar of your campaign is playing the race card & stoking identity politics. Youngkin still ran a Southern Strategy campaign.

+1

Winsome Sears says hold my beer.

Out of curiosity, do you think voters have forgotten entirely about the school closures?

Of course not! I’m saying that those who are screaming racism haven’t ‘noticed’ that we also elected an R AA and an R Cuban

DP. I don’t think you know what “hold my beer” means.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Youngkin’s win was due to good old fashioned Southern Strategy. They can try to dress it up all that want, but it doesn’t change reality.

I have no doubt this makes you feel better about the terrible campaign McAuliffe waged, but it is both delusional and self-defeating. Wise up.

+100
Excuse after ridiculous excuse... when are Dems going to simply admit no one wanted what they were selling? People are on to them.

You're right -- why WOULD racists want to become actual decent human beings with real morals & ethics, rather than that weaponized version they use touting out God in every argument? 🤔

And there’s the race card on cue. A lot of what the Dems have done makes it hard to believe they support brown children. The messaging is that those kids are too dumb to succeed so we’ll lower the bars and demoralizes the kids. When my kids was in first grade he came home telling me that all the positivity project type stuff was done because teachers don’t think he and his schoolmates can get into college. SMH.

Didn’t happen.

It absolutely did happen. I was stunned. You don’t know my kid. That was 6 years ago. You should ask his former teachers. Heck, you can ask his current teachers.

Sure, just let us know in what school system a first grade teacher told students they wouldn’t be able to go college because of the color of their skin.

DP. Are you actually disbelieving that a teacher could be overtly racist? Wtf?

Man, Democrat true believers are wild.

Nice deflection. I’ll believe it happened when pp names the school system. Her child wasn’t the only one in the class (and pp didn’t even say when this happened), so naming the system wouldn’t be identifying.

+1

BS