Virginia governor: Youngkin win shows voters will reward Trump's dangerous Republican Party

If Republican Glenn Youngkin's win in the Virginia governor's race doesn’t put the fear of God into Democrats, nothing will. 

How could voters who are young, suburban, financially pressed or pandemic weary consider a party like today's Republicans, much less reward this GOP? It's beyond comprehension to many people, including me. And yet, according CNN's Virginia exit polls, many of them did consider it, and they did reward it. These are facts Democrats must face.

I am confident Democrats will pass their two transformative “Build Back Better” bills – one to improve rail, roads, broadband and other physical infrastructure, the other to invest in families, children, education, the “care” economy and curbs on climate change. They may even be able to sell these achievements and get some credit when they are signed into law by President Joe Biden.

But the chief task before Democrats must be saving America from former President Donald Trump's incendiary brand of corruption, lies and threats to democracy. And they aren't instilling much confidence so far, in either Congress or Virginia.

No reward for trying to help people

If you've ever been to Northern Virginia, you know it is a traffic nightmare. It might have boosted former Gov. Terry McAuliffe if Democrats had hustled to pass the bipartisan roads bill by Election Day. But it could be on its way to Biden this week, and where's the justice in penalizing McAuliffe, whose party and president are about to deliver on a promise Trump failed to keep?

Why penalize McAuliffe and his party for trying so hard and so publicly to improve so many people’s lives? For protecting abortion rights that Youngkin wants to roll back, and voting rights that this “election integrity” candidate endorsed by Trump would never have championed? For expanding Medicaid coverage to a half-million Virginians (which Virginia Republicans resisted for five years and Youngkin in April called a “sad thing”)? Why penalize McAuliffe for aggressively courting companies and jobs in his first term and leaving Virginia with an impressive 3.6% unemployment rate?

In the end, what seemed to matter more was whether parents would get to censor books and dictate how or even whether young people learn about slavery and racism. 

Democrats need to step it up. In an ideal world, they'd get rid of the Senate filibuster, reform the electoral counting process that the violent Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection nearly derailed, and pass what should be bipartisan bills to safeguard elections, standardize voting and rein in pardons and other presidential powers. Given the long odds against all of that, they must keep control of the House and Senate in the 2022 midterms. And that will clearly entail coming up with a better argument for teaching truth on race. 

I say all of this not because I’m a liberal who thinks the Supreme Court already resembles a religious and Second Amendment theocracy, with its 6-3 conservative majority perilously close to eliminating the right to an abortion and any or all limits on guns. I say this not because I worry about damage to health care or education access, more tax cuts for the rich, less investment in the non-rich, more money in politics and more callous or even punitive policies on race and immigration.

David Mastio: My heart is for Glenn Youngkin. But my vote is for Terry McAuliffe as Virginia governor.

I do believe the makeup of the Supreme Court is a travesty. And I do worry about all of those policies. But the worry that should keep Democrats up at night is what will happen if the only reality-based major party in America fails to take the dramatic steps necessary to protect and preserve our union.

This is not an easy ask. Democrats are not masters of messaging, for a start. They are policy wonks drawn to details rather than gut appeal. The 2010 Affordable Care Act (an awful name for a historic health law) now insures 31 million people and is on the brink of adding as many as 4 million more. Sounds good, right? And yet it helped Republicans sweep Congress in 2010 and did not win broad, durable support for years.

Furthermore, it’s unclear what if anything could cause Trump to lose his grip on his party. So far, he has slipped through the accountability net every time – from pre-presidential lawsuits to the Mueller investigation to two impeachments. He has even escaped consequences for lying about the 2020 election, trying to overturn it and fueling the deadly attack on the Capitol.

2022 stakes: Post-Trump democracy

As long as his power holds, we will see more candidates who, like Youngkin, reject COVID-19 vaccine mandates and sometimes even election legitimacy. We'll see more attacks on elections and threats to election officials. More trumped up fraud claims and more phony and expensive “audits.” More “fake news” about COVID-19 and more abuse of those who take it seriously. More people falling into a black hole of delusional conspiracy theories. More misbegotten "lawyers" enabling Trump’s plans to strong-arm his way back to power – and to hell with the Constitution and the will of the people.

Jill Lawrence: Legacy college admissions are peak white privilege. They should disappear faster.

“The political project of our time is to defend democracy,” Texas A&M rhetoric scholar Jennifer Mercieca said recently. She's right, and Democrats will need to hold Congress to do it.

That means overcoming both Republican obstacles to voting and their own instincts on the campaign trail. They should of course brag ceaselessly in relatable language about all the good they believe they've done. But over the next 12 months, above all, they must never let voters forget the real stakes: free, fair elections and a post-Trump American democracy rooted in reality, civility and opportunity for all.

Jill Lawrence is a columnist for Paste BN and author of "The Art of the Political Deal: How Congress Beat the Odds and Broke Through Gridlock." Follow her on Twitter: @JillDLawrence