Post-Election Day Hobbservations
The Hump Day Hot Topics
Nobody asked me bit…
***Unlike some of my fellow pundits, I will refrain from the doomsday dialogue about yesterday's off-year election, in general, and Republican Glenn Youngkin's strong win over Democrat Terry McAuliffe in Virginia's governor's race, specifically. Over the past few months, the race between McAuliffe, the commonwealth's former governor, and Youngkin was billed in the mainstream media as a proxy battle between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump, and while there was some Democratic “sky is falling" histrionics being purveyed on air and social media last night, there is some truth to the results potentially serving as a "coming attractions" for 2022 if Democrats do not take heed.
It is important to note that in American politics, as the lovely Janet Jackson once sang, "what have you done for me, lately" is ALWAYS the primary driving force for the majority of voters. This time last year, Democrats were dancing in the streets—literally—as Biden soundly defeated Trump in both the popular vote and the Electoral College. But even with all of the bitter feelings of that election season and the wild post-election aftermath that culminated with MAGA riots at the Capitol Complex that left six dead and millions of dollars in property damage, that deplorable period did not signal the death of the Republican Party or the permanent exile of the Trump brand as some prematurely surmised.
As I have warned in these pages (and frustrated some Democrats who suggested that I was "too negative" about the first months of the Biden administration), winning an election is one thing—presiding is something altogether different. And while Mr. Biden has made some significant strides with regards to Covid-19 and re-ingratiating our nation with global allies who detested Trump and his brusque style and bombastic rhetoric, the following issues from this past year led to my concerns that Democrats would soon take a whack at the polls:
A. The party out of the White House usually does well in the first off-year and mid-term races;
B. Biden's mishandling of the Afghanistan withdrawal—and stubborn refusal to concede that it was handled poorly—was a bad look;
C. Democrats inability to get the budget deal passed in both chambers of Congress is a lingering bad look;
D. Democrats inability to get Biden's proposed Infrastructure Bill passed is also a lingering bad look;
E. Concerns that the economy is stagnant amid perceptions that it is in decline, regardless of external factors like Covid and the shipping delays from overseas, is ALWAYS a bad look.
Still, as the axiom "what have you done for me, lately" will apply next November the same as it did last night, there is time for Biden and Democrats to get their heads out of the sand and get things done—but as the elders in my church used to sing every Sunday, "time is winding up."
***I know that there is a fear among many Democrats and Independents who voted for Joe Biden that Donald Trump will soon return from his political exile in Mar-a-Lago in the same way that the Little Corporal, Napoleon Bonaparte, returned from his exile on Elba in his unsuccessful quest to wrest back control of France. And while Trump just may seek to run for president again in 2024 in hopes of joining Grover Cleveland as the only American presidents to serve non-consecutive terms, I will don my Hobbstradamus hat and predict that Trump will more likely follow in the footsteps of Republican Teddy Roosevelt, a similarly bombastic figure who tried to make a presidential comeback as head of the "Bull Moose" Party in 1912—only to see Democrat Woodrow Wilson defeat him and Republican incumbent William Howard Taft in the general election.
Why do I predict such a 2024 loss for Trump? Look no further than Virginia's Governor-elect Glenn Youngkin, a calm acting businessman who brings the same politics to the table as Trump—without the anger, personal attacks, and "what has he Tweeted now" frustrations that even some Republicans had for the former President. In fact, Youngkin arguably is the early master of what I consider to be "Willie Horton 2.0" with his focus on crime (read-"The Blacks") and Critical Race Theory (read-"The Blacks").
For those who have forgotten, the late Republican strategist Lee Atwater helped make Willie Horton a household name during the 1988 election between Republican nominee George H.W. Bush and Democratic nominee Michael Dukakis after then Tennessee Sen. Al Gore initially raised the issue in the Democratic primaries that year. Horton was a Black inmate in Massachusetts who benefited from then Gov. Dukakis's furlough program and while on furlough, raped a white woman in Maryland. The ads that year played on the age-old white fear of Blacks committing violent crimes against white people, a move that helped rule the day that November as Bush won convincingly.
Similarly, candidates like Youngkin have railed against Critical Race Theory, one that was a somewhat obscure law/graduate school course of study that analyzes history, economics, and public policy from the lenses of racial minorities who have been impacted by systemic racism from the founding of America to today. Or, as I prefer to call it, the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth being told about issues that rarely are accurately noted in schools or the public square.
By taking up this position, Youngkin and all of the conservatives who couldn't tell you what CRT really is if there very lives depended on it, know just enough to conclude that anything that finds "The Blacks" or other demographic minorities calling out white supremacy and systemic racism is something that they deem an attack on themselves—and their quality of living.
Thus, my conclusion that while Trump used to loudly and proudly refer to Neo-Confederate Klansmen in Virginia as "good people," protesting NFL players as "ungrateful Black SOB's," or "African sh*t-hole" nations in his crude manner, Youngkin essentially believes some of the same things—albeit with a smile and the support of a Black Lt. Governor-elect, Winsome Sears, whose skin color allows him to throw his hands up and say, "see, Virginia Republicans are far from racist."
***So, the sun came up this morning right on schedule and, accordingly, not all of the news was doom and gloom for Democrats yesterday.
Consider:
*Boston elected Asian-American candidate Michelle Wu as mayor. Wu, who defeated fellow Democrat Annissa George, becomes the first woman and first person of color to take the post.
*Democrat Eric Adams won New York City's mayoral election to replace his party colleague Bill de Blasio, defeating Republican challenger Curtis Sliwa in the process.
*Pittsburgh elected its first Black mayor, Democrat Ed Gainey, who soundly defeated Republican Tony Moreno.
*Cincinnati elected Democrat Aftab Pureval, as he becomes the city's first Asian Pacific mayor. Pureval defeated former Democratic Congressman and Cincinnati Mayor David Mann.
I note these victories because lest we forget that the all important "Democratic bench," individuals who could become national candidates some day, often starts on the local and state levels!
***30 years ago, my very first solo article debuted in Morehouse College's The Maroon Tiger newspaper, the same organ of expression in which legendary Morehouse graduates like Martin Luther King and Lerone Bennett used to wax philosophically during their school days.
I've been blessed to run off at the word processor, typewriter, computer, I-pad, and Android ever since...
Thank you for subscribing to the Hobbservation Point—have a wonderful Wednesday!!!
And we are forever grateful and enlightened by your words!
✅