Tuesday, November 2, 2021
To: Friends & Supporters
From: Gary Bauer
Election Day
Voters are headed to the polls in New Jersey and Virginia today. Both states are known for their "off-year" elections for governor and the state legislature. The results often carry national significance because they are seen as an early measurement of the national mood and a referendum on the party controlling the White House heading into the midterm elections the following year.
Both New Jersey and Virginia are considered Blue states, so Democrat victories would be the most likely outcome. But the Virginia contest in particular has become very competitive in the past few weeks, with some polls showing Republican Glenn Youngkin in the lead.
The momentum certainly seems to be in Youngkin's favor. His closing campaign events yesterday were heavily attended, while Democrat Terry McAuliffe canceled an event.
If Youngkin wins by a substantial margin, it could set off an earthquake on the political left. He has run hard on local control of education and made critical race theory a major focus of the campaign. (See below.)
But even if he falls short, a close loss will cause a tremor on the left because Terry McAuliffe, a former governor who is widely viewed as the de facto incumbent, just wasn't supposed to have a close race at all in a state that Joe Biden won by 10 points.
While Youngkin may have momentum, there are disturbing signs that the left may be up to its well-established tricks of vote manipulation and fraud.
It's imperative that every Virginian votes today. If you haven't voted yet, you still have time. Polls close at 7:00 PM.
In addition, we're watching a number of local races around the country, including several ballot initiatives related to funding for law enforcement. We will provide a thorough update on the results tomorrow.
Progressive Priorities
There are two things that define the modern-day progressive movement. The first is its total commitment to abortion on demand during all nine months of pregnancy.
During the 2016 presidential debates, Donald Trump exposed Hillary Clinton's pro-abortion extremism. In 2019, Joe Biden infamously reversed his long-held position on the Hyde Amendment, so that he now supports forcing taxpayers to subsidize abortions. Throughout both campaigns, I don't recall either Clinton or Biden ever saying there was any abortion – even just one, single abortion – that they would prevent.
There is no issue that unites so-called "progressives" more than the "right" to destroy an innocent, unborn life.
The second defining issue is tribalism. Progressives are committed to making race and the color of our skin the most important thing about us all.
They are committed to demolishing the dream of Martin Luther King Jr. Reverend King gave his life to achieving the exact opposite -- making race the least important thing and character the most important thing about each of us.
These so-called "progressives" are addicted to race baiting, and they're not happy unless half of America is at the throats of the other half of America. There were two glaring examples of this in the last 24 hours.
As we reported, Sen. Joe Manchin is having trouble accepting the massive big government reconciliation bill that is designed to complete the fundamental transformation of America into a European-style socialist state. He called out the left's "budget gimmicks" that are hiding the real costs of the bill.
Why are only two Senate Democrats (Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema) concerned about their party's socialist impulses?
But what did one of the leaders of the Progressive Squad do yesterday in response to Manchin's reasonable and principled objections? Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO) called Manchin a bigot. Bush declared:
"Joe Manchin's opposition to the [reconciliation bill] is anti-Black, anti-child, anti-woman, and anti-immigrant. When we talk about transformative change, we are talking about a bill that will benefit Black, brown, and Indigenous communities."
I know Senator Manchin, and I know his wife, Gayle, very well. I served with Mrs. Manchin for three years on the U.S. Commission for International Religious Freedom. While we disagree on a number of issues, there is not a racist bone in their bodies.
But now they are being subjected to the same demonization from progressives that conservatives deal with all the time. And there's not a word of defense that I am aware of from Joe Biden or Chuck Schumer against this disgusting smear of Joe Manchin.
The second example comes from the closing arguments in the Virginia governor's race. One candidate, already reeling from his repeated false claims about critical race theory, doubled down on his race baiting.
He complained yesterday that too many Virginia teachers are white, saying, "Fifty percent of students in Virginia schools, K-12, 50 percent are students of color and yet 80 percent of teachers are white. We all know what we have to do to make everybody feel comfortable in school, so let's diversify."
He doesn't care that children of all races are being taught racism through the use of critical race theory in the classroom. But he is concerned about the skin color of teachers and whether it is proportionate to the skin color of their students.
This radical mindset is destroying our country!
The only thing that parents care about is whether the teacher is qualified, and are they teaching their child how to think, not what to think.
It's always easy to test the left's insane ideas. For example, suppose a school system was 80% white but only 40% of the teachers were white. Now imagine a politician saying, "We need more white teachers to make our white students feel more comfortable in school."
Everyone would think that was racist. Because it is. And it is racist to suggest that only black teachers can teach black students, and that white teachers cannot teach minority children.
By the way, this left-wing nonsense is why Virginia is losing its reputation for having some of the finest schools in the country.
"Let's Go Brandon!"
A few weeks ago, a crowd at a NASCAR race started chanting a vulgar phrase about Joe Biden. I don't endorse that kind of language. It's unfortunate that our politics has become so coarse that such things are said about our presidents.
But an NBC sports reporter did her best to cover for the president and told the viewing audience that the crowd was chanting, "Let's Go Brandon!" for driver Brandon Brown who had just won the race.
It was the epitome of fake news. The phrase "Let's Go Brandon!" quickly went viral as many Americans embraced the reporter's lie and turned it into a weapon in the culture war.
I have watched a number of videos when huge crowds at college football games are chanting, "Let's Go Brandon!" It's all being done with a great deal of humor, not anger, and the cultural phenomena is growing.
Of course, humorless liberals can't stand it. Their heads are exploding. Liberal media commentators are melting down on air. Other leftists are trying to get "Let's Go Brandon!" merchandise banned.
Why are they reacting with such anxiety and emotion now? Well, it's just another example of the left's totalitarian impulse.
I suspect another explanation is that the whole point of the leftist juggernaut is control and conformity. It wants you to feel alone and isolated in the new America they're trying to create.
But there are more of us than there are of them. And they know that when a chant at a football game becomes a chart-topping hit, conservatives are discovering that there is strength in numbers and there are more of us than we thought.
That's just my theory. I can't prove it. But the left's reaction to a silly phrase is way over-the-top.
