No wonder the Commonwealth of Virginia turned more blue

It seems appropriate to pass on Diana Butler Bass' observations on what her Fairfax County suburban DC neighbors did yesterday. They have very good reason to hate the MAGA/Trump regime and they showed it.

Inside the tidy houses on my leafy street, they are ANGRY. They are hurt, furious, mad, distressed, and distraught. Because, in nearly every house on my street, Elon Musk, Russell Vought, Mike Johnson, and Donald Trump came calling — and destroyed their family’s sense of vocation, purpose, and well-being. These nice, middle-class families, committed to things like patriotism and service and the common good, had their work and incomes ripped from them in a fury of gleeful destruction. And the very government that once benefited from their labor, now laughs at their trauma.

The leafy suburbs have been, in effect, one more victim of political cruelty and a revenge crusade.

Some of my neighbors hang out signs. Some go to protests and “No Kings” rallies. But mostly, they are an introverted suburban lot. They protest by voting.

And on Tuesday, they turned out in droves to vote.

They voted against Donald Trump. They voted as if their lives and livelihoods — and those of their neighbors — depended on it. (Because they do.)

And they voted up and down tickets, in nearly every hamlet across the Commonwealth for Democrats. Governor, Lt. Governor, and Attorney General (and yes, he had made some awful mistakes in his political career).

The really surprising thing? The people of Virginia handed the House of Delegates to the Democrats. Right now, it appears that Democrats will win 64 house seats, just shy of creating a Democratic supermajority in state government.

I don’t think the Democrats have won this many seats since the Jim Crow era — and things were very, very different back then (and those Jim Crow Democrats were definitely not good for democracy). 

Awaiting Virginia results (Charlotte Rene Woods/Virginia Mercury)

The Washington DC suburbs are not the country. 

But Trump and his Republican enablers have another 12 months largely unhindered by effectual Democratic opposition to tear up the rest of the country as they have these suburbs. Most especially they'll gleefully harm the parts of the country which are the antithesis of MAGA -- racially and ethnically diverse, educated, serious people intent on building a serious future for themselves and their children. 

It will be a struggle. But most of us don't want what MAGA is doing to the country and we intend to take it back.

Voter suppression update

With the Republican Party choosing to serve as the political vehicle for swindles, mob violence, and cultish devotion to a crook, it's natural to look around for someone -- anyone -- among it's leading figures who looks to be a "normie." Glenn Youngkin passed as such a one long enough to be elected Republican governor of Virginia last year; he seemed not enough of a crackpot to repel voters looking for a change.

But it turns out he joins the rest of his party in pushing back access to voting, undoing the reforms that previous Democratic administrations put in it. Can't let those Black people vote so much ...

Virginia Jim Crow laws dating back to 1902 permanently disenfranchised anyone with a felony conviction. That's a lot of Virginians, most of them Black. The two recent Democratic governors restored voting rights by executive action to over 300,000 felons who had completed their sentences. A state court ruled that the clemency power of the governor required individual consideration before these grants should be effective, so people who had been barred had to fill out a form to get their rights. But the Democrats made it work.

Youngkin's administration has complicated the form -- and now seems to be neglecting to process them. The struggle to restore full citizenship goes on ...

• • •

On the other side of the country, the former swing state of New Mexico, now with a Democratic Governor and legislative majority, is moving in the opposite direction.

New Mexico has become the 26th state, plus D.C., where at least anyone who is not in prison can vote. And new voting reforms include much more: 

[The legislation] contains a flurry of other measures that are meant to strengthen voting rights in the state, including the establishment of Election Day as a state holiday and the expansion of ballot access on Native land. Native people living on reservations in New Mexico did not gain the right to vote until 1948, and HB 4 addresses continued hurdles by requiring language translation at the polls, reducing the distance people on reservations must travel to cast a ballot, and allowing input from tribes on where voting precinct boundaries are set. 

“This is a huge step in the right direction,” said Ahtza Chavez, executive director of NM Native Vote, an organization that advocates for the rights of Native people. “Tribes, Pueblos, and Nation will now have a Native American Voting Rights Act section in the [New Mexico] election code to build upon.” 

The bill would also further automate the state’s registration system. Under the new program, the state would automatically register eligible New Mexicans when they interact with the Motor Vehicle Division, for instance while renewing a license; these new voters would later receive a mailer at home enabling them to opt out if they choose. Currently, people are asked to decide immediately, while they are still at the MVD. 

Colorado made this same switch in 2019—delaying the stage at which people are asked if they want to opt out—and that resulted in a dramatic jump in the number of registrations.

When I worked on the election in 2004 in New Mexico, under a far too bipartisan consensus, state officials actively worked to prevent Native Americans living on the pueblos from becoming part of the process. Time and organizing can make change ...

Running against the party of COVID-19 is a winning strategy

That's nice to know -- and a good portent. Newsom survived and a path to future Democratic victories has been clarified. Republicans have hitched themselves to a minority of vaccine resisters who are spreading death where they can get away with their folly. Heck of a dumb pitch, one would think. Thanks Donald for unleashing the crazy -- and now it even bites the former guy when he suggests getting shots.

We seldom get to see the guv looking this close to authentically happy.

I'll give the day's punditry to Perry Bacon Jr., one of my favorite commentators liberated by the Washington Post from the constrained platform at 538.

Mask-wearing and vaccinations ... are easy to understand. And Newsom’s covid policies demonstrated, in a clearer way than tax credits would, the governor’s broader values, which I think is what actually drives people’s votes. Newsom was essentially arguing that he is a rational, common-sense person who cares about saving people’s lives during a deadly pandemic, while Elder is an out-of-control ideologue.

Newsom’s values are of course much more popular than Elder’s in a blue state such as California. But nationally the 2018 and 2020 elections also featured Democrats running against Trumpism and portraying themselves as the party with normal values — and they won control of the House, Senate and the presidency. Newsom’s victory suggests that running as the anti-Trumpism party still has real political value, even with Trump no longer in the White House.

As my more skeptical friends know, I never thought Newsom that endangered. It's really hard to beat something with nothing. I wondered, in fact, whether Dems promoted some bad summer polls to goose their base. Maybe. Whatever -- it worked.

And the California GOPers have revealed they have no one of substance to run against Newsom in the real re-election campaign in 2022. Their recall stunt just killed that opportunity as well.

On to Virginia, where slightly used Democratic governor Terry McAuliffe (he's seeking to return after being term-limited) aims to ride the same anti-pandemic strategy to victory over a Trumpy GOPer in November. It ought to be possible to run against a killer disease. The Newsom romp says it's the way to go.