High Noon in Virginia

I received this post from a person who wants to be identified as a “Trump Voter in Virginia” and I find it eloquent and thought-provoking so here it is:

HIGH NOON IN VIRGINIA

In looking at the election numbers, and I know that off-year elections have lower turn outs, if the Gillespie campaign had run solid on the Trump ideas could the Republican candidate have attracted significant numbers to his side? I would like to believe he would have.

In 2016, Trump received 1,769,443 votes in Virginia. In this year’s governor’s election, Gillespie received 1,174,650 a difference of 594,793 (Trump difference). Northam defeated Gillespie by a total of 233,179 votes. So, on the theory that there were more votes out there – from the Trump voters, all Gillespie needed was approximately 40% of the Trump difference. Since the Republican sweep in 2009, there has not been a Republican in state wide office at either the state or federal level. Maybe, as an aside, the 3^rd party persons ruined a few elections in the past, but not this year; so now, what, if anything, since 2009 has been shown from the Republicans that they have grown the electorate in their favor (assuming illegal voters and former felons don’t vote overwhelmingly Republican)?

Like it or not, believe it or not, Mr. Trump, President Trump I should say, has forever changed politics, especially in Virginia. Perhaps Republicans got shellacked this year because of the Trump presidential victory, but the Democrats did not keep it a secret that they despised him and were motivated to beat back any and all things Republican. Republicans at every level will need to not take any election for granted anymore that they are safe.

But now it is high noon in Virginia.

It is not a showdown between Republicans and Democrats but between the heart and soul of the Republican Party. In the last year, with the trifecta hold on both Houses of Congress and the White House, the Republican Party itself appeared to thwart the ideas of the Trump presidency. It appeared that Gillespie ran his campaign in accord with that national Republican “thwartation” by shunning the Trump image and the Trump supporters (he made it clear) across the board that he was “A governor for all Virginians” except Trump Virginians. It appears that 594,793 Trump voters did not want to reward the party of thwartation. Reflectively, I would like to believe that a vast portion of those 594,793 voters were just as motivated as the democrats this year – but they were personally put off due to the lack of a promise of anything that resembled something worth to vote for.

Gillespie didn’t need to promise to Make Virginia Great Again – but he should have made it clear that he could have made it a lot better than it has been and to have shown us the ways that it would look like by at least showing respect for the President of his Party. Unfortunately, the big blue darkness that has crept up on the steps of the State House in Richmond will soon open the door to a majority if at one minute past high noon the heart, soul and will of the Virginia Republican Party is lying dead in the dust. I hope that that is not the case.