Yesterday’s Earthquake

 

Though it feels like forever, we are still in the first year of Biden’s term. And while he has been busy shrinking the presidency and avoiding the press, Vice President Kamala Harris has pulled a total disappearing act. Perhaps America can go on like this for four years. But I don’t see how.

— Michael Goodwin (NY Post), Writing Two Days Before the Quake

Shane Goldmacher, with his “5 Takeaways: How Youngkin’s Win Makes Democrats Squirm About 2022,” seeks to ease the pain NY Times readers feel from the Virginia defeat’s aftershock:

1. Youngkin’s success across the state offers a G.O.P. pathway.

    Message: We have one year to counter GOP’s education pitch to Mama Bears. Get going!

2. All politics are presidential. But Biden loomed larger than Trump.

    Message: When we scream “Trump!” and let Biden speak, we lose.

3. The G.O.P. margins make it even more worrisome for Democrats in 2022.

    Message: A 12-point shift to GOP is “worrisome,” but media + money should win next time.

4. The political middle still matters.

    Message: Yees.

5. Democratic ideological factions face off in cities.

    Message: Hey look, progressives won in Boston and Cleveland! (but lost elsewhere)

Here are actual reasons quake aftershocks should cause Democrats much pain:

1. Education overreach.

Democrats made a mess of schools, allowed teachers’ unions to keep them closed far too long, demanded children under 12 — a group to whom Covid is no more serious than the flu — wear masks, enabled students of any sex use the bathroom of their choice, infiltrated, while denying having done so, a curriculum into schools — Critical Race Theory now re-branded “Diversity Equity Inclusion” — that treats “white privilege” as a skin-fixed original sin to be corrected by eliminating merit-based tests, classes, and schools.  

Note: Separating students by race violates the Constitution, the law, and “all are created equal.”

2. Kitchen table concerns.

Inflation is eating away at people’s income; they see empty shelves, they don’t see $3 trillion government programs making things better; they would rather have a job than the dole.

3. Unsafe communities.

The single most ridiculous action imaginable just happened: Biden’s people agreed to pay $450,000 to each illegal immigrant family member forcibly separated during the Trump administration. $450,000 is more than the government gives spouses of service people killed in war. The entire open border situation is completely whacko — allowing in 2 million untested for Covid, unvaccinated people including criminals, mules carrying drugs, and sex traffickers, flying them in secret around the country, settling them in communities that may not want them, with all this illegal activity leading to taxpayer-supported medical care, free schooling, and relief from the legal requirement to have a proper social security number before working. This Democratic criminal enterprise occurs against the backdrop of the progressives' Black Lives Matter support for “defunding the police” that triggered riots across America in 2020 and rising murder and major crime rates since. Who welcomes this nonsense? Youngkin won 54% of Virginia’s Hispanic vote!

4. New Jersey issues.

While Virginia saw a 12-point shift toward Republicans in one year, that spread in New Jersey was 15 points! And the unknown, almost-successful Republican was outspent 5:1! Re-elected Gov. Murphy bragged about raising taxes while instituting ineffective, draconian Covid-justified mandates and restrictions that hurt business and employment.

5. Afghanistan. 

Our hasty, totally-mismanaged withdrawal from Afghanistan hangs over Democrats. 13 U.S. service members died during the evacuation, even as Americans accidentally killed 7 innocent Afghan children. We flew unscreened criminals to U.S. but left behind 439 Americans, along with $83 billion worth of American military equipment for Taliban future use. Few can comprehend the sheer stupidity of abandoning the gigantic Bagram Airbase in advance of any U.S. withdrawal.

Americans have figured out Biden is incompetent. There’s no recovery from that judgment.