OPINION:
Vice President Kamala Harris finally got something half right when she recently said on the campaign trail in Norfolk that “what happens in Virginia will in large part determine what happens in 2022, 2024, and on.” Indeed, Ms. Harris was spot on in her assessment about the importance of the elections in the Commonwealth of Virginia, and the outcome was crystal clear. Republicans won the races for Governor, Lieutenant Governor, and Attorney General while also picking up seven seats in the House of Delegates on their way to capturing a 52 - 48 seat majority.
The brutal reality for Democrats today is that the ultimate takeaway from the 2021 elections is that throughout many regions of the country, in constituencies of all shapes, sizes and demographics, Republicans carried the day with common sense, America first, anti-critical race theory, pro-law and order, low tax, pro-competency message. Amid the Biden-caused crises and socialist insanity swirling around us, it’s no surprise that it worked like a charm.
In addition to the cataclysmic event for Democrats in Virginia, cable news banners stating that the governor’s race in deep-blue New Jersey is still “too close to call” - days after the fact - is inflicting damage that will be long felt on the left. Even if incumbent Democrat Governor Phil Murphy narrowly escapes a humiliating defeat by a few thousand votes, this overarching narrative will have already taken hold: People are disgusted with what President Joe Biden and the Democrats have done over the past ten months, and these election results make clear that President Donald J. Trump was right when he declared, “America will never be a socialist country.”
For example, in Texas, the Democrats’ pipedream of turning the Lone Star State blue continued to be dashed as Republican Jon Lujan flipped a State House seat carried by President Biden one year ago by 14 points. The New York Times described the situation on the ground in the 70 percent Hispanic district in stark terms: “A Democratic stronghold in San Antonio flipped to a Republican in a runoff on Tuesday, further eroding a Latino electorate that until recently favored Democrats.”
On bellwether Long Island, Republicans appeared headed to victories in Nassau’s County Executive and District Attorney races, respectively, as well as out east in the Suffolk County District Attorney race. Local news reports described the Nassau County elections in a historical context: “If the Republican victories are confirmed, it will be the first time the party has controlled Nassau County’s leadership across the board in nearly two decades.”
Out in the Midwest in liberal Minneapolis - the home of the George Floyd riots from the summer of 2020 that catalyzed the defund police movement - voters chose not to further destroy their city by replacing their police department with a “Public Safety Department” by a commanding 56 percent to 44 percent margin. And this headline in the Bucks County Courier Times in Pennsylvania surely gave national Democrats heartburn, “GOP sweeps county row office races, ousting three incumbents.” There’s simply no way to sugarcoat it - the Democrats’ first election test as the party in total control of the federal government was devastating.
This cross-section of races around the country made something clear. President Joe Biden, Ms. Harris, and the radicalized left gambled on nationalizing the 2021 election by making it about Trump, Trump, Trump, and lost. While some people may not have enjoyed all of Mr. Trump’s tweets, they now realize that the former president’s policies were working, and it would have been much better for our country if he had been re-elected. Americans are an intuitive bunch, and when they observe you undoing a president’s successful agenda just because you hate him, it raises eyebrows - and not in a good way.
Before the coronavirus from Wuhan, China, hit us without warning, the Trump economy was humming along, growing jobs, and the unemployment rate was at historic lows. Then Mr. Biden took office, and all hell broke loose. He spent irresponsibly, overheated the economy, caused massive inflation, ushered in an enhanced welfare state, and threatened to raise taxes. Under President Donald Trump, the border was secure, the wall was being built, and immigration laws were being enforced.
Then Mr. Biden walked into the Oval Office, opened the border, and created a crisis. Under Mr. Trump, America became energy independent. Then Mr. Biden came to power, shut down pipelines and domestic energy production, killed jobs, and exploded gas prices. And the list goes on and on, from a spike in violent crime and disdain for police to the Afghanistan debacle to the supply chain crisis and vaccine mandates.
That being said, socialist leaders in Washington are so arrogant and tone-deaf and so tied to their special interest groups that the overwhelming election results appear to have fallen on deaf ears. No matter how many emergency flares Senators Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema shoot into the sky, Mr. Biden, Mrs. Pelosi, and Mr. Schumer appear poised to plow ahead with the radical agenda that voters just thoroughly rejected.
This is bad for the American people but good news for Republican prospects in 2022 and beyond. Ms. Harris was onto something.
• David N. Bossie is president of Citizens United, and he served as deputy campaign manager for Donald J. Trump for President.
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