Youngkin should not waste his moment

The GOP took a broom to Virginia Democrats. Now that Youngkin—briefly—has the ear of America, he should say something very important about stolen elections.

Screen capture, Youtube, CBS News

Glenn Youngkin pulled it off, and will be governor of Virginia. Democrat talking heads will be left to amuse social media pundits by trying to explain why this happened; how suddenly a few hundred thousand previously reliable blue voters suddenly became rabid white supremacist, stupid rubes.

Jonah Goldberg @JonahDispatch

All of the people on MSNBC convincing themselves that all of these VA voters — who voted for Biden a year ago! — are idiots, racists, and/or dupes is pretty wild.

Youngkin gave a decent victory speech, as victory speeches go. He thanked the proper people, didn’t drone on, and stuck to his campaign planks of education and liberty and the economy. Virginia voters propelled him to office not because of his magnetic personality, however. The fact that the GOP swept the governor, lieutenant governor, and attorney general positions with a broom to the Democrat incumbents is not because Republicans have some mandate. It would be a mistake to think that. Rather, the voters reacted because the Democrats believed they had a mandate they didn’t possess.

In Youngkin’s speech, he didn’t mention that Winsome Sears will become Virginia’s first Black woman lieutenant governor. Also unmentioned is Jason Miyares, the first hispanic to win a term as Virginia’s attorney general. Both are Republicans, and both reflect the fact that minority voters were as sick of officious snobbish Democrats enabling other officious snobs serving on school boards, as educational administrators, and in various positions of narrow but effective power all over the state. They say personnel is policy, and voters expect to get some return on their investment—their vote.

But that’s not the big thing Youngkin didn’t say.

Now that he—briefly—has the ear of America, Glenn Youngkin should not waste the moment. The GOP needs to hear that the election in Virginia was not stolen. It was not stolen in November 2021, and also, the elections in Arizona, Michigan, Georgia, Wisconsin were not stolen in November 2020.

The GOP that Glenn Youngkin represents in Virginia must repudiate and eliminate talk of stolen elections, from both parties. It’s very important that Youngkin say this, because the Republican Party in other states is tearing itself apart over a horrendous grift and lies.

It’s important that Republicans in Georgia hear this message and hear it from Youngkin. Right now, Democrats are “practically popping popcorn” according to Patricia Murphy at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Sources close to former Senator David Perdue are telling Murphy and Greg Bluestein that Perdue is thinking hard about taking on Governor Brian Kemp in a red-on-red primary that will surely leave the field soaked in blood and treasure. Perdue would represent the “stolen election” Trumpist view, and Kemp would be left to defend the state’s position—tied to Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan (who is not running again).

In state after state, Republicans who oppose the Trumpist conspiracy drumbeat are withdrawing from public service. The latest is Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, who called out a “cancer in the Republican Party.” But voices like Kinzinger don’t tickle the ears of voters, only the talking heads on left-leaning television, like ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos. They all nod in agreement, and privately share smiles that useful Republicans are out so Democrats can move in.

Virginia gave the leftist pundits a splash of ice water, and they’re very willing to throw Youngkin and the entire crew of Republicans who will be taking over the commonwealth just south of D.C. in with the Trumpist horde. Youngkin has an opportunity to say what Kinzinger said, but to say it on Fox News, as well as in the liberal media.

The voters in Virginia are not racist, stupid, or rubes. They are the same people who voted for Barack Obama, and Joe Biden. Democrats mistook their success in defenestrating Donald Trump as some geological shift in American politics—a mandate. Republicans are quickly sinking under the weight of a poisonous blanket of conspiracies and lies. Even good Republicans like David Perdue.

Youngkin has the chance to tell America that he won because the election wasn’t rigged, and to offer support for all candidates who win elections, from either party, because America’s elections are more secure, more accurate, and more trustworthy than ever in our history. He has an opportunity to actually be heard, and Youngkin should not waste it.

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