OPINION:
This past week Democrat Florida gubernatorial hopeful and current U.S. Rep. Charlie Crist shot himself in the foot.
Echoing Hillary Clinton’s disparaging of “deplorables,” Mr. Crist trashed backers of popular Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, saying, “those who support the governor should stay with him and vote for him, and I don’t want your vote. If you have that hate in your heart, keep it there.” Hate?
Given that more than half of Florida voters strongly support Mr. DeSantis, Mr. Crist called millions of people haters. Disparaged citizens just might take his advice, joined by Democrats horrified by the party’s hard-left turn.
In the 2021 Virginia gubernatorial race, Terry McAuliffe committed a similar blunder.
Running for a second, nonconcurrent term, the former Virginia governor trashed parents of school-aged children. This came during a parents’ revolt in the Old Dominion, triggered by sordid incidents in Loudoun County’s schools and parents seeing online the vile stuff schools dish out to their children.
“I’m not going to let parents come into schools and actually take books out and make their own decision,” Mr. McAuliffe said during a debate with now-Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin. “I don’t think parents should be telling schools what they should teach.” Unlike President Biden’s Justice Department, he stopped short of identifying the parents as potential terrorists. But the damage was done.
Mr. Youngkin’s campaign promptly rolled out ads quoting Mr. McAuliffe. Republicans flipped all three statewide offices and the House.
In Florida, Gov. DeSantis’ ad designers must be relishing the task at hand for their already formidable candidate.
Mr. DeSantis talks back to the media with bluntness and precision. He has fostered a pro-business climate that attracts companies fleeing high-tax states. He refused to lock down Florida during the COVID-19 hysteria and preserved the economy and jobs without an alarming uptick in cases.
He signed the “Parental Rights in Education Act,” which prohibits teachers from discussing gender identity and sexual orientation in kindergarten through third grade.
After the ridiculously “woke” Walt Disney Company came out in opposition, Mr. DeSantis signed a bill removing a tax break the Mouse House had enjoyed for decades.
This past week, Florida voters overturned liberal school boards in Clay, Duval, Sarasota, Martin and Miami-Dade counties, electing candidates backed by Mr. DeSantis. Miami-Dade is now the largest conservative-run school board in the nation.
You won’t hear much about this. The media are too busy trying to sow doom and gloom among Republicans over the special election last Tuesday in a New York State congressional district, where Democrat Pat Ryan defeated Republican Marc Molinaro.
You’d think the seat had flipped, but it didn’t. The incumbent was a Democrat who left to become lieutenant governor.
Nonetheless, the media breathlessly informed us that this “swing district” outcome could be a “bellwether for November.” Speaking of telltale signs, did you know former President Donald Trump defeated Mr. Biden in 18 of 19 bellwether counties and all bellwether states (Ohio, Iowa and North Carolina, plus Florida) in 2020 and yet still somehow lost? That never happens.
The media predict that voters will obsess over abortion and keep Democrats in control of the House and Senate. Voters will forget all about 10% inflation, record food and gas prices, an estimated 5 million illegal immigrants pouring over the border since Mr. Biden took office, and a massive expansion of the IRS.
They’ll be thrilled about the ongoing crime wave in the nation’s cities, Mr. Biden’s shifting well-off children’s college tuition debt to unwashed taxpayers, the Gestapo-like raid on Mr. Trump’s Florida home, foreign policy disasters like Afghanistan, and the criminalization of dissent.
That’s a lot to put on the backs of dead babies.
As for Mr. Crist, a charter member of the Baal-worshiping cult that sacrifices unborn children to appease deep-pocketed Planned Parenthood, his “hate” statement is not all that shocking. He’s following the script of his party’s leader.
On Thursday, Mr. Biden accused Republicans of “semi-fascism.” Is that when 18-wheeler truck drivers salute Mussolini or what? Mr. Biden needs to look in the mirror. Fascism is Big Government on steroids, the Democrat Party’s relentless goal.
Mr. Biden promised to unify America. But upon taking office, he immediately vilified opponents as “white supremacists” or “white nationalists,” something he still does when these terms pop up on the Teleprompter.
If parents of all races have a big say in the upcoming election, and the GOP can find a way to minimize the vote fraud, Mr. Crist, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Sen. Chuck Schumer and Mr. Biden might be using even more colorful language in private.
• Robert Knight is a columnist for The Washington Times. His new book “Crooked: What Really Happened in the 2020 Election and How to Stop the Fraud” (D. James Kennedy Ministries, September 2022) is available at his website roberthknight.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.