The Republicans Lost Last Night

BREAKING: First African-American Wins Kentucky AG Race. He’s A Republican.https://t.co/WjnFsf0pCO

— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) November 6, 2019

I won’t pretend to know why that happened last night.

I’ve been disengaged from following state politics and writing about the Groyper War. I think it is fair to say that the Joker movie, the Groyper War and overseas elections have generated far more commentary in October and November than mainstream politics.

Supposedly, Gov. Matt Bevin was the most unpopular governor in the country and the GOP elected a black guy as Attorney General in Kentucky last night. The victory of the black guy is being touted as a huge victory for mainstream conservatism right now.

The Washington Post:

“Republicans awoke Wednesday to a stark new political reality in Virginia after losing majorities in both chambers of the General Assembly, a sweeping defeat that solidifies Democratic control over the state capital for the first time in a generation.

Depleted by President Trump’s floundering approval rating in Virginia, the Republicans’ defeat was a new low for a party that has not won a statewide race since Bob McDonnell became governor in 2009.

“If you didn’t see this coming, you’ve been living under a rock,” said Dan Scandling, who was chief of staff to former congressman Frank Wolf (R-Virginia). “Virginia has been trending this way for years. …”

FOX News:

“Republican Daniel Cameron made history Tuesday with his victory over former Kentucky House Speaker Greg Stumbo, becoming the first African-American to be elected the state’s attorney general — and offering a silver lining to the GOP amid drama over the state’s gubernatorial race.

Further, Cameron will be the first Republican attorney general in the state in more than 70 years, a significant achievement as GOP Gov. Matt Bevin trails Democrat Andy Beshear in a tight race in which Bevin has not conceded but Democrats have declared victory. …”

Politico:

“LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Democrat Andy Beshear narrowly led incumbent Gov. Matt Bevin late Tuesday night with all precincts reporting — an apparent Democratic triumph in a conservative Southern state that came after a last-minute effort by President Donald Trump to pull Bevin over the finish line.

The close result, with Beshear taking 49.2 percent of the vote and Bevin taking 48.8 percent, isn’t necessarily a sign of Democratic ascendancy in one of Trump’s strongest states in 2016. Bevin antagonized voters across the political spectrum throughout his term. But it still could represent an embarrassing moment for the president, who touted his strong record in rallies held the night before elections and predicted that the media would blame him if Bevin lost. …”

GOP incumbent lost in Kentucky (which Trump won by 30 points in 2016) ran a Charlie Kirk style campaign, calling his opponent a “SOCIALIST”.

Bevin has blocked Medicaid expansion and destroyed worker’s rights in Kentucky with “right to work” laws. Good riddance.

— DSA Striker Is Amazing (@AarickStriger) November 6, 2019

There aren’t enough people over 70 to win elections on this platform. https://t.co/coXNXQJCzW

— DSA Striker Is Amazing (@AarickStriger) November 6, 2019

Questioner asks Walsh if America should retain its European heritage and traditions. Walsh rejects the premise, claiming that America is unique because of its ideas, not its ancestral demography. #CultureWar pic.twitter.com/Zkx84ZxKSZ

— Catholic Groyper ?? ?? (@catholic_goy) November 6, 2019

Eric Striker is saying that Matt Bevin ran against socialism. He said that his opponent Andy Beshear was a communist waging class warfare. My impression is that voters felt there wasn’t much at stake in the race with such a stale conservative message.

In related news, Peter Beinart in The Atlantic is pointing out the vacuousness of the MAGA movement and Trump’s populism:

“President Donald Trump is a big fan of Poland’s ruling Law and Justice party, which, like him, demonizes immigrants and the press. Trump traveled to Warsaw to meet the party’s leaders less than six months after taking office, before he visited Britain, Germany, or France. In September 2018, one day after the European Commission sued Andrzej Duda’s government for undermining the Polish judiciary, Trump praised the Polish people for “standing up for their independence, their security, and their sovereignty.” And when Duda visited the White House this June, Trump offered what The New York Times called “an elaborate show of support,” including “a rare and showy F-35 jet flyover.” What Duda’s government has done “over the last five years,” Trump effused, “has been something that the world has watched and the world has marveled at.” …

But far from boding well for the current occupant of the White House, the success of Duda’s party in Poland helps explain why Trump’s approval rating is stuck at about 40 percent. Law and Justice has built a political majority by doing more than just playing on public fears and resentments. Unlike Trump, it has offered its working-class supporters genuine material benefits, too. …

The single biggest reason for Law and Justice’s popularity, Aleks Szczerbiak, an expert on Polish politics at the University of Sussex, argued in a blog post last year, is that “the government has delivered on several of the high-profile social spending pledges” it made when first elected, including an initiative that offers every family a monthly subsidy of roughly $125 a child. This program has helped cut Poland’s rate of extreme child poverty from almost 12 percent to less than 3 percent. …

Business groups have grumbled, but as the Times notes, Duda’s government has “built a floor under low- and middle-income families” that is “wildly popular.” It has established a political majority by doing what Trump has not: going right on culture but left on economics. “

This has been our central complaint for years now.

Trumpism in practice turned out to be mainstream conservatism with a new set of dog whistles. Blompf runs the Twitter account and holds rallies. Conservatives run the government and make the policies. As long as this continues, more people will continue to disengage from politics.