Democrats might treat Republicans this way
On Tuesday night, Glenn Youngkin defeated Terry McAuliffe to become the Virginia Governor-elect. While the race was very close (just over a two percent margin), by most accounts, McAuliffe ran a poor campaign. In particular, Youngkin raised right wing conspiracy theories regarding schools (so-called Critical Race Theory, imaginary Trans bathroom worries, etc.), and McAuliffe failed to bat them down or talk forcefully about his own agenda. Instead, McAuliffe focused on how he isn’t Donald Trump, someone who does not even hold elective office at this time, and that Youngkin is merely a Trump stand-in. It didn’t help McAuliffe that the mainstream media elevated Youngkin’s conspiracy theories as if they were serious subjects, which automatically turned them into meaningful political issues.
The Virginia Gubernatorial election is in many ways a precursor to the 2022 midterm elections and the 2024 presidential election. It’s virtually guaranteed that Republicans will continue to toss out false, nutty or obscure Culture War conspiracy theories, and that the media will lap them up. Remember the Caravan? Fast N Furious? How about flag burning? PizzaGate? Jewish space lasers? The list of these made-up Republican shiny object distractions is endless.
With the election loss in Virginia (including not just Governor but Lieutenant Governor, Attorney General and possibly the House of Delegates)Democrats have now received their wake-up call. The Democrats can no longer afford to laugh with each other over their wine or beer about those crazy Republicans and their loonie conspiracy theories.
The big question going forward is: how will Democrats deal with these conspiratorial, election-winning Republicans?
One answer might be to treat Republicans like everyone’s crazy aunt. Many families have such a member. They might be friendly, or they might be mean and argumentative, but either way, they’re downright wacky. They say someone stole their slippers. They think radio signals are coming in through their dental work. They poison your bed-ridden grandma.
What other family members often do in such situations is to treat their crazy aunt like the feeble-minded person she is. That means call and visit regularly, bring some soup, make sure she has a nice blanket and is as comfortable as possible, humor her, feel sorry for her, but never, ever, let your crazy aunt make big decisions for the family. To do so would be wildly irresponsible and damaging.
In the same way, Democrats could treat Republicans like their crazy aunt. They could make clear that the Republican conspiracy theories are cuckoo. They could show pity for the Republicans, and demonstrate that they, the Democrats, are the only rational adults in the room who can be trusted to make the big decisions for our country. Indeed, this posture worked well for the Democrats during Donald Trump’s term in the White House.
The lesson for 2022 and 2024 is that Republicans will raise crazy Culture War red herrings, the media will treat these as serious issues, so Democrats will need to find a way to knock down the GOP attacks and advance their own very popular agenda in a dynamic way. Treating the Republicans as the crazy aunt in the family may be a path towards success.
Photo by Eli Christman, used under Creative Commons license. https://is.gd/KRA4KI
