of course her company affiliation, is not as her important as her part in the management of the islamic saudi academy, a very tony madrassa in northern virginia, which was a font of islamism

jay jones is a fish of a different color, a pure marxist with nihilistic traits

in so far he is reflecting of the larger democratic electorate, he is deeply troubling,

Three factors contributed to Spanberger’s win, IMO:

1. Government employees in northern Virginia.
2. AWFLs, especially if young and/or single.
3. Northern Virginia foreign born population now at 30% and climbing.

— Sgt. Joe Friday

What Sgt. joe Friday said. Plus she ran as law and order. One ad had her doing handgun training with cops.

I believe she’s former CIA.

— rbj1

That’s part of why they picked her in particular to run as a pretend-moderate. They backed Joe Biden over the other Democratic contenders in 2020 for the precise same reason, he could at least cosplay as a moderate Democrat.

There’s a fundamental problem the GOP has that has haunted it for decades. It’s why these ‘faux moderates’ Dems keep winning, election after election, in the 90s, the 2000s, the 2010s, and now.

J.D. Vance put his finger on it when he observed that ‘most Republicans are former Democrats’. (Not a perfect quote, but close.)

There are a lot of GOP voters who came over because the Dems became too radical for them. A big bunch crossed under Carter. Another bunch under Obama, yet another bunch under Biden. These crossovers turned the GOP from a permanent-minority party (which it was from 1932 to 1994) into a real contender for national power.

The problem is that these voters never really changed much, the Democratic Party was what changed. Deep down, a lot of them still long desperately for an ‘old Democrat’, pro-labor, nationalist, socially conservative, pro-law and order. Given their choice for President, or Governor, or Mayor, what they really truly want is a genuinely moderate, pre-1972 Democrat.

This makes them suckers for a lefty Dem who convincingly pretends to be a moderate Dem, because they want to believe it and have never been entirely comfortable with the GOP elites or their preferred policies.

Richard Nixon won a landslide victory against George McGovern on the fact that the Dems under McGovern were getting weird (that was when the weirdness really got going in the Democrats). A few years later they came home to Carter, because Carter compaigned as a moderate, sensible ‘southern Democrat’, and he had some track record to back it up.

Of course once in power, he governed as a McGovernite liberal, exactly what the returning Dems thought he was supposed to be the antidote for. So once again a wave of Democrats was driven out to vote for Reagan in 1980 and 1984.

They returned for Bill Clinton, who ran as, yes, a moderate southern Democrat. Once in power, Hillary ran the show, the McGovernites took the wheel…and voters were driven over to the GOP in 1994. The Dems lost the House of Representatives for the first time in decades that year.

This cycle repeats itself over and over, because the GOP requires the support of a group of voters who are ‘old Dems’ at heart to be competitive.

That group has been shrinking steadily as it has become ever more obvious that there just aren’t any ‘old Dem politicians’ left in reality. But there are still a few of that group of voter. A few Trump voters from 2016 went back to the Dems for Biden because he had a false reputation as ‘a moderate’. ‘Lunch pail Joe’. Etc. It wasn’t a lot…but Trump did not lose by a lot, either (assuming he really lost at all).

I strongly suspect that along with other factors, there were some people who voted for Youngkin because the Dems had gotten too weird for them (esp. after McAuliffe’s infamous comment about parents and schools), but who breathed a sigh of relief when Spanberger appeared.

“Finally, a normal sensible Democrat again!”

There’s a reason why so many former Dems long to return, too.

Back in the days of total Democratic dominance (1932 to 1994), the parties had the reputations of Dems being the party of the working man, and the GOP the party of the rich. That was nonsense on its face, of course, both parties then and now were dominated by wealthy people. But it reflected something real. It was much more valid if you express it as: The Dems are the party of the employees and the GOP are the party of the employer. There was a lot of truth in that latter form.

The GOP used to be the internationalist party, the Dems the nationalist. The GOP wanted cheap labor, the Dems wanted protection for workers. Their policies really did reflect the interests of their supporting factions. The Dems were not much for foreign intervention but usually supported a strong defense. They had their dreamy lefty fringe, but also figures like Scoop Jackson. The head of the United Auto Workers used to actively work to screen out Communists from his ranks. It was a different world back then.

That conflict of economic interests made the Dems the absolutely dominant party for decades. The Democratic Party was captured by upper class liberals and became what it is now, but the GOP was much slower to change,

As Andrew Codevilla has observed, the Republican Party is dichotomous. At street level it looks like Ronald Reagan. At the top it looks like Nelson Rockefeller. Which is why so many former Dems can not get comfortable with the GOP. What the GOP elites really want is anathema to them, and vice versa. The ‘business agenda’ is electoral poison.

Which leaves the GOP ever-vulnerable to fake-moderate Dem candidates.

Does anyone else here see the asymmetry I think I’m seeing?

It’s definitely not true in all cases, but I do think I see something of a trend.

As a generality and with many exceptions, Dems run as moderates and then govern as hard ideologues, whereas Reps run as right-leaners and then govern as moderates.

Plus, the former is becoming more and more the case, whereas the latter actually seems to have been becoming less and less the case over the past few years.

Any takers?

— M J R

It’s not your imagination.

Between 1968 and 1972, the former dominant elite of the Democratic Party, the one that had come in with FDR, began to be displaced by a new class of activists and wealthy or upper middle class professional types with radically different interests and agendas. As they gained dominance, the former total dominance of the Democratic Party began to fracture because what they wanted was out of step with the rank and file.

The GOP, on the other hand, was much slower to change. The GOP elites tolerated Ronald Reagan from necessity, but they privately detested him and what he stood for. GWHB was more to their taste, but under him the former success of the GOP began to fall apart again because the same former Dems who hated the McGovernite agenda still hated the GOP business agenda, too.

In fact, the elite class of both parties, by the 1990s, had come into alignment on most subjects, and were increasingly out of step with the general electorate. NAFTA was unpopular, but it passed. Chinese membership in the WTO was unpopular, but it passed. The Dem social agenda was very unpopular, but it was steadily enacted and the GOP would not oppose it (except in words). Open borders immigration amnesty was very unpopular, but the bipartisan elite class tried desperately and repeatedly to pass it.

The uniparty elite has dealt with it by pretending. Dems know their social agenda is unpopular, so they pretend to be moderate pro-worker law and order types. The GOP know their business/corporate agenda is unpopular, so they pretend by cultural warriors and nationalist patriots. Then both parties pursue variations on the same common agenda in power.

Yeah, the GOP is finally changing, under Trump, out of sheer necessity. But the elite class is doing it kicking and screaming.

How good a candidate do you have to be to beat a psychopath?

Like remember how much caterwauling there was over project 2025 and all the stuff Trump was “planning” to do? Where was any equivalent for Spanberger?

The media has really mastered that their power isn’t in what they cover, it’s in what they ignore.

I worked for the federal government in DC and lived in NOVA. The offices were filled with democrats. It was a bit of kabuki theater. When Trump was in office, we would get Hatch Act warnings weekly and lists of people prosecuted under said Act. When democrats were in office, nada.

I can’t get over that one. So outrageous and discouraging, it makes you wonder if there is any hope for the country.