2024 WAKE-UP CALL

 

[Published on Newsmax. 2024 Wakeup Call | Newsmax.com]

Republicans are euphoric about Biden’s slump in the polls.  They must realize that their path to victory on November 5, 2024, is not assured.

Biden’s latest poll numbers are terrible, but not historic. They pale in comparison with other Presidential low points: Nixon (23%), Carter (28%), Bush 41 (29%), Bush 43 (19%), Trump (29%). A large plurality of the electorate remains loyal even with everything falling apart.

The 2023 elections should be a wake-up call.

Once again, Republicans under performed.  They lost both houses of the Virginia Legislature.  The parental revolt went nowhere.  Conservative, pro-parent Schools Board candidates made little headway.  No change in Loudoun County, the epicenter of the parents’ revolt.  A pick-up of one in Prince William County. A complete shut-out in Fairfax County.

Loudoun County’s Leftist Commonwealth Attorney, Buta Biberaj, was defeated, but only by 300 votes. Amazing given everything that was exposed about her ideological reign.

Across America, voters ignored parent rights candidates.  This raises the question as to whether Youngkin’s 2021 narrow upset victory over Terry McAuliffe had more to do with the Democrat ignoring calls to step aside and letting two African-American women compete for the Governorship.

The lessons of 2020, 2022, and now 2023 need to be understood if Republicans have any chance of retaking the White House and Senate, while maintaining their razor-thin majority in the House.

Money is one factor.  Republicans were out-raised and outspent.  While some candidates can overcome the money deficit with tireless door-to-door campaigning and imaginative social media, money remains a major determiner of success.

The biggest issue is abortion. 

Fear drives votes.  When fear goes away so does the fervor.  The Dobbs Decision turned fear for the unborn turned into fear for those seeking an abortion.  Republican turnout faded as Democrat turnout soared. 

Something similar happened after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. Legions of “Cold War” conservatives and “Captive Nations” activists declared victory and retired.  They won the war, but few remained to win the peace.  The Balkan wars and rise of Putin are just some of the results of those leaving the battle.

The same thing is happening in the wake of the Dobbs decision.

Justice Samuel Alito’s brilliant ruling should have ushered in conservative ascendancy. Unfortunately, pro-life activists bungled their messaging.  Even with a two-month head start from the leaked opinion, Republicans and their pro-life allies ceded the initiative to pro-abortion forces.

Fear became the message.  Leftist media and candidates declared Republicans would make the fictional totalitarian story of the “Handmaid’s Tale” a reality.

In Virginia, Democrats poured nearly $17 million on abortion-focused ads, warning that if Governor Youngkin won legislative majorities he would “ban” abortion. Republicans spent less than $2 million in counter ads.

Republicans undermined their cause.  Alito built a constitutional firewall around his decision.  He countered the dissenters by explicitly asserting Dobbs only applied to abortion not other rights. He established the threshold for reviewing future state abortion laws, “abortion is not a fundamental right, the lowest standard of review must apply to abortion laws, under which the laws must be sustained if they rationally relate to a legitimate state interest”. 

Unfortunately, Alito’s firewall vanished before the decision was officially released.  In his concurrence, Justice Clarance Thomas opened the door for challenging other rights granted under “substantive due process”, including contraception, gay marriage, and private sexual acts. 

Republicans in Congress introduced national abortion bills, completely misreading Alito’s decision.  Republican Governors and legislators pushed for severe abortion restrictions and hinted at pursuing Thomas’ concept of eradicating other “rights”.

This messaging disaster was a windfall for Democrats.  They will build on their 2022 and 2023 success by amplifying the “Handmaid’s Tale” theme in 2024.

Democrats are shaping the Republican apocalypse: Trump is a crook, Trump is dangerous, January 6 must be avenged, Republicans are racists, Republicans are coming for all your rights.

Republicans must fight back.  They will not get a perp walk for the Biden family, they will not get a Senate conviction if they impeach Alejandro Mayorkas or Joe Biden. 

Republicans need something huge to breakthrough the Left’s media wall.  While Fox News programs beat the competition one-on-one, the Left drowns it out 8-1 for total television news audience.  The Left’s margin among major print media is worse.  Biden corruption, crime stories, and economic woes are not even covered by most media outlets. 

Republicans confronting hate may trump Democrats promoting fear.  A few Democrats broke ranks on Rashida Tlaib’s pro-terrorist remarks.  Donors to some colleges and universities pulled their funds to protest religion-based assaults. 

Reacting to the Democrat’s reality is a recipe for failure.

Republicans must shape a resonant reality to gain victory in 2024. 

WHY 2020 IS SO IMPORTANT

 

[Published on Newsmax]

Anyone still doubting what will happen if the Democrats take the White House and the Senate this November need to look at what just happened in Virginia.

In November 2019, Democrats won the governorship and control of both houses of the state legislature for the first time since 1993. While they had a 10-seat majority in the House of Delegates, their margin in the State Senate was a razor thin two seats.

As 2020 dawned, the newly sworn-in Democrats moved with lightning speed on a broad legislative front. It was a relentless Leftist Juggernaut.

During the 60-day legislative session, Democrats passed 1,900 bills. The governor signed every one of them into law.

Every Leftist dream came true.

First came eviscerating gun rights. The gun control bills were so groundbreaking, Gov. Ralph Northam held a special signing ceremony. The bills expanded background checks to include private sales, created severe penalties for leaving firearms near children, including inside a private home, limited handgun sales to one a month, and created red flag laws.

More importantly, new laws empowered local governments, as Virginia is a "commonwealth," to regulate the possession, carrying, storage or transport of firearms, ammunition, components or any combination of those things, and to ban guns in public spaces, including public buildings, parks, recreation centers and during permitted events.

This included authorizing local governments to establish stricter gun laws than exist at the federal and state level.

A second wave assailed Virginia history and culture. Lee-Jackson Day was eliminated as a state holiday. All protections for Confederate monuments ended.

Then came social legislation. The Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), long past its ratification deadline, was ratified anyway, providing the 38th state needed for final adoption. A hoped-for court challenge will try to overturn precedent and force the ERA into the Constitution.

The "Virginia Values Act" added sexual orientation and gender identity to all Virginia anti-discrimination laws. It granted the attorney general the power to take action against anyone "engaged in a pattern or practice of resistance" to the rights guaranteed by the new laws.

Abortion rights were dramatically expanded, rolling back existing provisions including a 24-hour waiting period before an abortion, ending a requirement that women seeking an abortion to undergo an ultrasound and counseling, eliminating the requirement that abortions be provided by a physician, allowing nurse practitioners to perform them and ending building code requirements on facilities where abortions are performed.

Virginia's felony larceny threshold was raised from $500 to $1,000. Sponsors stated this will lead to fewer Virginians with felony convictions on their records.

Possession of marijuana was decriminalized and replaced with a $25 civil penalty.

The minimum wage went to $9.50 per hour. This will increase to $11 in 2022, $12 in 2023 and by another $1.50 in 2025 and 2026.

Virginia increased its gas tax 5 cents a year for two consecutive years.

A new tax on plastic bags was established.

Finally, they changed the rules for voting. Virginians no longer need to show a photo ID in order to vote, and they no longer need to provide an excuse to cast an absentee ballot.

Virginia became part of the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, awarding the state's electoral votes to the national winner of the presidential popular vote, instead of the state's own popular vote.

Democrats have an even longer wish list at the national level, including the "Green New Deal," raising taxes and the minimum wage, and national gun control measures.

They are invoking racism and atoning for the 1619-based "America is a slave nation," to promote reparations and other laws that will eliminate America as we know it. The Left wants to erase freedom of speech in favor of "woke" sensibilities and political correctness and, of course, erase the right to bear arms.

The biggest national movement is to end "institutional racism" and "white privilege" by eliminating the Electoral College, make U.S. Senate seats based on population, granting statehood to the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, and packing the Supreme Court. 

Every one of these "reforms" is designed to solidify the Left's power forever.

The only thing standing in the way of Democrats recreating the Virginia Juggernaut at the national level is the U.S. Senate's filibuster.

The crusade for ending the filibuster is already underway. Even though it has been integral to the Senate since its founding, it is being portrayed as a recent racist manifestation.

The filibuster is the only protection for minority rights in Congress. Both parties embrace it as they know one day they may be out of power and need it.

The Left is banking on the November election giving them eternal power.