The 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference, also known as COP26, is underway right now in Glasgow, Scotland. It began on Sunday, October 31, and will last until Friday, November 12. (COP stands for “Conference of the Parties” and this is the 26th meeting. The “parties” are the countries that signed the 1994 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.)
"[Glenn Youngkin] won, largely thanks to the votes of non-college-educated white voters, 76% of whom backed him rather than McAuliffe."
I'm a retired construction/building trades worker. I spent my working life along side the non-college-educated white voter. Hell, I am one. How I became a far left progressive liberal Democrat is a story for another day. It made for some "energetic" political/historical discussions at work. I know all about the willful ignorance, the prideful stupidity, and the clinging to comfotable myths, all of which are re-enforced daily by various "news" outlets.
Democrats are not going to make a lot of inroads with NCEWV's without abandoning much of what we've gained in the last forty years. Stacey Abrams is our future. Leave the shrinking NCEWV demographic to the Republicans; it's all they have.
More importantly, all of this illustrates the fundamental importance of education as an essential pillar of a healthy democracy. Education is not a luxury; it's a necessity. This should be a permanent plank in the platform of the Democratic Party.
Seventy six percent of non college educated voters supported Youngkin, the Republican, in the Virginia race for Governor. 76%!
My late husband was a middle school shop teacher- yes they call it Industrial technology teacher now but shop teacher is what he called himself.
Glen ranted against the defunding of Industrial education that happened over his 30 year career because he understood that “his kids” would not likely graduate college. That they could, in fact, be good plumbers, carpenters and even wind turbine technicians and make good money that would support their families didn’t make much difference to his principal(s) nor to many school board members. Those folks wanted lower taxes so programs had to be cut. Music, Art, Theater and Industrial Tech were always on the chopping block and got smaller and smaller and smaller.
Looking at the results in Virginia makes me want to drill down in that white non college educated voter demographic and find out what they do or did for a living. The one thing I’m certain of is that the stories I would hear would include the idea that they feel entitled to all the toys and lifestyle “stuff” they see in the media - and they didn’t get it and someone else is responsible. They feel “left out,” and don’t want black and brown people taking their share through higher taxes. Climate crisis? Don’t you dare try to take away my big ass truck, or my boat/RV/weekends at NASCAR races. Yup, pretty certain we are talking racism and an abiding sense of entitlement- along with a huge streak of snobbery from highly educated white dems stupid enough to use the phrase deplorable. I voted for Clinton but that phrasing was the singular most tone deaf comment ever. They already feel left out so let’s insult them and push them off a cliff. So incredibly damaging!
Locally, we voted in three excellent school board members and turned away the anti vaxxer/anti mandates/defund education BS. The top vote getter was Sakawdin Mohamed, a Somali-born man, Muslim, with a career in public service and six kids in the district. Yes!
I love my little bubble of democracy. How the hell do we make it so appealing that we can expand and replicate it in places like Outstate Virginia?
"America is[not]back" and I'm sure Biden understands this in his bones, because the Bush and Trump Administrations-in particular-mangled domestic and foreign policy.
Frankly, I don't want an America that constantly militarily interferes when other countries choose other paths.
Throughout the 20th and 21st Centuries American administrations have wreaked havoc in nations where policy goals have clashed, like Central and South America, the Middle East, and etcetera.
I'm not an isolationist, but if Democrats don't respond more proactively to the assault on voting rights, climate change (and other rights) at home, other nations will begin to chart their own paths (which some have already done and more will do).
Succesive U.S. governments haven't treated our own population with the dignity we deserve (and other nations see this), so why does our government just assume other countries will tow the U.S. government's line?
Cincinnati elected its first Asian American mayor, Aftab Pureval. His father was born in India and mother was born in Tibet. Cincinnati also elected majority of Democrats to City Council. I'm optimistic for our future. Dems ran a good slate.
"The best argument against democracy is a five minute conversation with the average voter." - Winston Churchill
I think tonight pretty much demonstrated the truth of Churchill's observation. The average American has never been 1,000 miles from where they were born, and has no actual clue there is a world out there. And as I have made my way through the average Americans during my time on the planet, I have come to the realization that people like those who gather here are a pretty distinct minority. Thank goodness they exist, and that I have been able to spend a very active life with a very minimal contact with the average Americans while I spend my time with the descendants of the 5% of the apes in Africa who didn't "descend from the trees" - they were pushed.
"One result we can say with assurance is historic is that, for the first time in 199 years, Boston voters have chosen a mayor who is not a white man. They have elected progressive former city councilor Michelle Wu, a graduate of Harvard University and Harvard Law School. Black, Latino, and Asian residents now make up more than half of Boston’s population, and voters saw Wu as a move into the future."
Dear Heather,
Thank you for ending with the most uplifting news. I can't think of a better "move into the future!"
While the news from VA was not the best, I appreciate that you've looked at results around the country. You have a knack for looking at the overall political vista, making everything look less dreary. Your hermeneutics are a godsend, and most gratefully devoured!
McAuliffe told to The New York Times in 1999, "I've met all of my business contacts through politics. It's all interrelated."
As a Clinton advisor and DNC Chair, Terry McAuliffe was one of the architects of rebranding the Democratic party as the party of big money. If his defeat is the last nail in coffin of Clinton neoliberalism then it may prove to be worth it. But that McAuliffe, like Hillary Clinton before him, was the party's anointed candidate at all, is an indication of larger problems within the DNC and the party.
To ensure 'Hillary's turn' the DNC suppressed the development of a deep bench of talent. This has turned off potential candidates and potential voters. It's come back to bite the party more than once.
McAuliffe's 2013 win was a one off, not a precedent. In 2021, on the stump and in comparison with the fortuitously named Youngkin, McAuliffe appeared washed up and grasping at the straws of past glory.
Yes, peel back the fresh new face of Youngkin and you see the indelible orange stain and right wing extremist sneer of Trump - but that is not what voters saw on stage.
The Democratic party has the talent. Hopefully McAuliffe's defeat will be a final purge of Clintonism and a prod to move the party forward.
Good morning all. I think that the racist and homophobic dog whistles have won this one. One reason why is that voter turnout--which seems to have been low all over--really has an effect on who wins and Dems are notoriously bad at getting out the vote until AFTER the apocalypse has happened. Maybe this will be a needed wake-up call to Dems that they need to get in gear for 2022.
The changes I am seeing as positive are in mayoral races, where some very interesting people have been elected, in cities both large and small--including Kansas City, Kansas, which elected its first Black mayor ever. KCK has the largest minority population in the state of Kansas, and it is just north of the wealthiest county in the state. In said wealthy county, the mayoral election of the largest municipality, Overland Park, was super close, but the leftier candidate won--someone who has been vocal in support of more mixed housing development in OP. School boards in the suburbs went wild for the racist dog whistle candidates, which just shows how ignorant white people who want to hide their racism behind a shield of anti "CRT" are. Unfortunately, people who run for school boards often do so because they have a single issue they flog, and racist dog whistles are the ones getting media attention these days. NPR is finally (FINALLY) pointing out in their reporting that what people are calling CRT is not actually anything like CRT. It took a while, like the refusal to refer to TFG's speech as lies until it was too late.
So maybe these election results will actually energize Democratic voters who might be thinking about sitting out 2022: Dems are fragile flowers a lot of the time, so maybe this will scare them into action. Pull the damn levers, folks.
P.S.: Why the heck doesn't substack figure out how to have an edit function?!?!? This is so stupid.
I have to feel that if Biden just had two more dependable votes in the senate, none of this(disappointing results in Virginia and New Jersey) would be happening. Why the forces that would cater to authoritarianism are able to mobilize such unity and why the democrats can not is a mystery that I wish some one would explain.
Please try to ignore the breathless media postings about the Youngkin “victory” and focus on this. As of 11/1/2021, the Commonwealth of Virginia has 5,951,353 registered voters. Vote count is 3,287,600. that’s a lousy lousy turnout for something so important.
While I'm rooting for Pres. Biden's efforts to prove that a liberal democracy is the best form of government, Republican cynicism has identified the weak spot and created a work around. Liberal democracy requires a populace working from a base of understanding the issues facing the country, and the range of responses available to government to manage them. It's an old strategy, but by hyping jingoist/nationalist rhetoric, and portraying every move by their opposition as an attack on freedom, or patriotism, or christian values, they inflame peoples' autonomic response systems and poison the water for reasonable debate. It stinks, but it's pretty damn effective.
What today's elections seem to show is that tfg does not have the strangle hold on the GOP that people think. Terry Mcauliffe's campaign invoking tfg as much as he could didn't work especially when he had plenty to taut in the great things Virginia Democrats have done over the past two years. And, Youngkin did not want tfg to be visible in his campaign. Yes, the dog whistles of tfg were there but not tfg himself. It was effectively in getting Republicans who had voted for Biden to get rid of tfg back to voting Republican. Is there any hope that means the Republicans may return to a more normal moderate party? Probably not, but maybe its a crack at least.
# Dominated by his mother, he wasn’t permitted to bathe himself until 81/2;
# Brought up with adults and learned not to express his personal feelings;
# Tutored in America and abroad until sent to exclusive boarding school, where, despite his cheerful letters to Mama, he was treated as a snobbish outsider;
# Did rather well at Harvard, but was devastated when he was blackballed by prestigious Porcellian Club;
# Hid secret romance from Mama until his engagement;
# Mama considered Eleanor, whose uncle was Teddy Roosevelt, an intrusion on her relationship with Franklin;
# Mama’s wedding present was a NYC brownstone next to hers, with sliding doors on all five floors;
# Franklin, lawyer, despite flunking two law school courses, was bored with practicing law;
# At age 25 he told a colleague that he sought to emulate Teddy as 1) state legislator; 2) assistant. Secretary of the Navy; 3) NY governor; and 4) president;
# He squeaked into the state legislature, where he impressed his colleagues as a superficial snob;
# Spent 1913-1920 as assistant secretary of the Navy;
# Eleanor came across love letters between Franklin and Lucy Mercer, Eleanor’s social secretary;
# Mama told Franklin that if he divorced and then married Lucy, she would cut off his significant trust fund;
# Eleanor agreed to stay on (in separate bedrooms) for their five children;
# (This event propelled Eleanor to launch her own extraordinary life);
# Franklin contracted polio in 1921. Despite heroic efforts, he would never be able to walk again unassisted;
# Louie Howe, a smelly savvy political pro, got Eleanor increasingly involved in Democratic politics;
# Franklin, from 1921-1928, experienced his ‘wilderness’ years—continuing his correspondence with Democrat politicians he had encountered during his 1920 Vice President candidacy, yachting, and establishing his beloved Warm Springs polio center;
# For the first time Eleanor had a showdown with Mama, who wanted Franklin to retire to Hyde Park with his stamp collection;
# Franklin had to appear to walk ‘unassisted’ at the 1928 Democratic presidential convention;
# He successfully nominated Alfred Smith, who Franklin succeeded as governor o NY;
# With a prolonged Great Depression, Franklin initiated innovative and successful government assistance;
# After trouncing President Herbert Hoover, he kept a low profile until March 4, 1933 inauguration;
Then commenced the 15 New Deal laws in the first hundred days, ups and downs, and World War II.
Charismatic, unprincipled, masterful politician, devious, supremely pragmatic, magnificent actor unruffled under stress, untroubled by policy contradictions, ruthless, robust sense of humor, positive image, vindictive, charming, resilient, arrogant, expedient, visionary.
At age 63 Franklin died at Warm Springs on April 12, 1945 with Lucy Mercer by his side.
Perhaps FDR saved both American democracy and Western civilization.,
I'm thinking about people in my family who vote Republican. It seems that, for some specific reason (probably low taxes and business deregulation), they are on the GOP team. Then, they just trust that team regardless or ignore the riffraff as unimportant/inconsequential. They explain it away as hysteria on the part of the Dems. "Oh that won't happen." "That's not happening." "The Dems are just trying to scare us."
"[Glenn Youngkin] won, largely thanks to the votes of non-college-educated white voters, 76% of whom backed him rather than McAuliffe."
I'm a retired construction/building trades worker. I spent my working life along side the non-college-educated white voter. Hell, I am one. How I became a far left progressive liberal Democrat is a story for another day. It made for some "energetic" political/historical discussions at work. I know all about the willful ignorance, the prideful stupidity, and the clinging to comfotable myths, all of which are re-enforced daily by various "news" outlets.
Democrats are not going to make a lot of inroads with NCEWV's without abandoning much of what we've gained in the last forty years. Stacey Abrams is our future. Leave the shrinking NCEWV demographic to the Republicans; it's all they have.
More importantly, all of this illustrates the fundamental importance of education as an essential pillar of a healthy democracy. Education is not a luxury; it's a necessity. This should be a permanent plank in the platform of the Democratic Party.
Seventy six percent of non college educated voters supported Youngkin, the Republican, in the Virginia race for Governor. 76%!
My late husband was a middle school shop teacher- yes they call it Industrial technology teacher now but shop teacher is what he called himself.
Glen ranted against the defunding of Industrial education that happened over his 30 year career because he understood that “his kids” would not likely graduate college. That they could, in fact, be good plumbers, carpenters and even wind turbine technicians and make good money that would support their families didn’t make much difference to his principal(s) nor to many school board members. Those folks wanted lower taxes so programs had to be cut. Music, Art, Theater and Industrial Tech were always on the chopping block and got smaller and smaller and smaller.
Looking at the results in Virginia makes me want to drill down in that white non college educated voter demographic and find out what they do or did for a living. The one thing I’m certain of is that the stories I would hear would include the idea that they feel entitled to all the toys and lifestyle “stuff” they see in the media - and they didn’t get it and someone else is responsible. They feel “left out,” and don’t want black and brown people taking their share through higher taxes. Climate crisis? Don’t you dare try to take away my big ass truck, or my boat/RV/weekends at NASCAR races. Yup, pretty certain we are talking racism and an abiding sense of entitlement- along with a huge streak of snobbery from highly educated white dems stupid enough to use the phrase deplorable. I voted for Clinton but that phrasing was the singular most tone deaf comment ever. They already feel left out so let’s insult them and push them off a cliff. So incredibly damaging!
Locally, we voted in three excellent school board members and turned away the anti vaxxer/anti mandates/defund education BS. The top vote getter was Sakawdin Mohamed, a Somali-born man, Muslim, with a career in public service and six kids in the district. Yes!
I love my little bubble of democracy. How the hell do we make it so appealing that we can expand and replicate it in places like Outstate Virginia?
"America is[not]back" and I'm sure Biden understands this in his bones, because the Bush and Trump Administrations-in particular-mangled domestic and foreign policy.
Frankly, I don't want an America that constantly militarily interferes when other countries choose other paths.
Throughout the 20th and 21st Centuries American administrations have wreaked havoc in nations where policy goals have clashed, like Central and South America, the Middle East, and etcetera.
I'm not an isolationist, but if Democrats don't respond more proactively to the assault on voting rights, climate change (and other rights) at home, other nations will begin to chart their own paths (which some have already done and more will do).
Succesive U.S. governments haven't treated our own population with the dignity we deserve (and other nations see this), so why does our government just assume other countries will tow the U.S. government's line?
Thanks for the post.
Cincinnati elected its first Asian American mayor, Aftab Pureval. His father was born in India and mother was born in Tibet. Cincinnati also elected majority of Democrats to City Council. I'm optimistic for our future. Dems ran a good slate.
"The best argument against democracy is a five minute conversation with the average voter." - Winston Churchill
I think tonight pretty much demonstrated the truth of Churchill's observation. The average American has never been 1,000 miles from where they were born, and has no actual clue there is a world out there. And as I have made my way through the average Americans during my time on the planet, I have come to the realization that people like those who gather here are a pretty distinct minority. Thank goodness they exist, and that I have been able to spend a very active life with a very minimal contact with the average Americans while I spend my time with the descendants of the 5% of the apes in Africa who didn't "descend from the trees" - they were pushed.
All I can do is think about the video of the guy in Virginia who said when asked what was the most important issue was.
CRT, however, he doesn't know anything about it, he just knows it's bad.
This is what you get when you go with emotions instead of policy.
In some ways, I'm hoping my daughter in law decides to move back to Canada, because I will be joining them.
Which, sadly looks better than moving to freaking TX.
Morning, all!! Morning, Dr. R!! Reporting from Virginia: Double Dang.
"One result we can say with assurance is historic is that, for the first time in 199 years, Boston voters have chosen a mayor who is not a white man. They have elected progressive former city councilor Michelle Wu, a graduate of Harvard University and Harvard Law School. Black, Latino, and Asian residents now make up more than half of Boston’s population, and voters saw Wu as a move into the future."
Dear Heather,
Thank you for ending with the most uplifting news. I can't think of a better "move into the future!"
While the news from VA was not the best, I appreciate that you've looked at results around the country. You have a knack for looking at the overall political vista, making everything look less dreary. Your hermeneutics are a godsend, and most gratefully devoured!
McAuliffe told to The New York Times in 1999, "I've met all of my business contacts through politics. It's all interrelated."
As a Clinton advisor and DNC Chair, Terry McAuliffe was one of the architects of rebranding the Democratic party as the party of big money. If his defeat is the last nail in coffin of Clinton neoliberalism then it may prove to be worth it. But that McAuliffe, like Hillary Clinton before him, was the party's anointed candidate at all, is an indication of larger problems within the DNC and the party.
To ensure 'Hillary's turn' the DNC suppressed the development of a deep bench of talent. This has turned off potential candidates and potential voters. It's come back to bite the party more than once.
McAuliffe's 2013 win was a one off, not a precedent. In 2021, on the stump and in comparison with the fortuitously named Youngkin, McAuliffe appeared washed up and grasping at the straws of past glory.
Yes, peel back the fresh new face of Youngkin and you see the indelible orange stain and right wing extremist sneer of Trump - but that is not what voters saw on stage.
The Democratic party has the talent. Hopefully McAuliffe's defeat will be a final purge of Clintonism and a prod to move the party forward.
Good morning all. I think that the racist and homophobic dog whistles have won this one. One reason why is that voter turnout--which seems to have been low all over--really has an effect on who wins and Dems are notoriously bad at getting out the vote until AFTER the apocalypse has happened. Maybe this will be a needed wake-up call to Dems that they need to get in gear for 2022.
The changes I am seeing as positive are in mayoral races, where some very interesting people have been elected, in cities both large and small--including Kansas City, Kansas, which elected its first Black mayor ever. KCK has the largest minority population in the state of Kansas, and it is just north of the wealthiest county in the state. In said wealthy county, the mayoral election of the largest municipality, Overland Park, was super close, but the leftier candidate won--someone who has been vocal in support of more mixed housing development in OP. School boards in the suburbs went wild for the racist dog whistle candidates, which just shows how ignorant white people who want to hide their racism behind a shield of anti "CRT" are. Unfortunately, people who run for school boards often do so because they have a single issue they flog, and racist dog whistles are the ones getting media attention these days. NPR is finally (FINALLY) pointing out in their reporting that what people are calling CRT is not actually anything like CRT. It took a while, like the refusal to refer to TFG's speech as lies until it was too late.
So maybe these election results will actually energize Democratic voters who might be thinking about sitting out 2022: Dems are fragile flowers a lot of the time, so maybe this will scare them into action. Pull the damn levers, folks.
P.S.: Why the heck doesn't substack figure out how to have an edit function?!?!? This is so stupid.
I have to feel that if Biden just had two more dependable votes in the senate, none of this(disappointing results in Virginia and New Jersey) would be happening. Why the forces that would cater to authoritarianism are able to mobilize such unity and why the democrats can not is a mystery that I wish some one would explain.
Please try to ignore the breathless media postings about the Youngkin “victory” and focus on this. As of 11/1/2021, the Commonwealth of Virginia has 5,951,353 registered voters. Vote count is 3,287,600. that’s a lousy lousy turnout for something so important.
https://www.elections.virginia.gov/resultsreports/registration-statistics/
While I'm rooting for Pres. Biden's efforts to prove that a liberal democracy is the best form of government, Republican cynicism has identified the weak spot and created a work around. Liberal democracy requires a populace working from a base of understanding the issues facing the country, and the range of responses available to government to manage them. It's an old strategy, but by hyping jingoist/nationalist rhetoric, and portraying every move by their opposition as an attack on freedom, or patriotism, or christian values, they inflame peoples' autonomic response systems and poison the water for reasonable debate. It stinks, but it's pretty damn effective.
What today's elections seem to show is that tfg does not have the strangle hold on the GOP that people think. Terry Mcauliffe's campaign invoking tfg as much as he could didn't work especially when he had plenty to taut in the great things Virginia Democrats have done over the past two years. And, Youngkin did not want tfg to be visible in his campaign. Yes, the dog whistles of tfg were there but not tfg himself. It was effectively in getting Republicans who had voted for Biden to get rid of tfg back to voting Republican. Is there any hope that means the Republicans may return to a more normal moderate party? Probably not, but maybe its a crack at least.
FRANKLIN DELANO ROOSEVELT
# Born on an estate in patrician Duchess County’
# Dominated by his mother, he wasn’t permitted to bathe himself until 81/2;
# Brought up with adults and learned not to express his personal feelings;
# Tutored in America and abroad until sent to exclusive boarding school, where, despite his cheerful letters to Mama, he was treated as a snobbish outsider;
# Did rather well at Harvard, but was devastated when he was blackballed by prestigious Porcellian Club;
# Hid secret romance from Mama until his engagement;
# Mama considered Eleanor, whose uncle was Teddy Roosevelt, an intrusion on her relationship with Franklin;
# Mama’s wedding present was a NYC brownstone next to hers, with sliding doors on all five floors;
# Franklin, lawyer, despite flunking two law school courses, was bored with practicing law;
# At age 25 he told a colleague that he sought to emulate Teddy as 1) state legislator; 2) assistant. Secretary of the Navy; 3) NY governor; and 4) president;
# He squeaked into the state legislature, where he impressed his colleagues as a superficial snob;
# Spent 1913-1920 as assistant secretary of the Navy;
# Eleanor came across love letters between Franklin and Lucy Mercer, Eleanor’s social secretary;
# Mama told Franklin that if he divorced and then married Lucy, she would cut off his significant trust fund;
# Eleanor agreed to stay on (in separate bedrooms) for their five children;
# (This event propelled Eleanor to launch her own extraordinary life);
# Franklin contracted polio in 1921. Despite heroic efforts, he would never be able to walk again unassisted;
# Louie Howe, a smelly savvy political pro, got Eleanor increasingly involved in Democratic politics;
# Franklin, from 1921-1928, experienced his ‘wilderness’ years—continuing his correspondence with Democrat politicians he had encountered during his 1920 Vice President candidacy, yachting, and establishing his beloved Warm Springs polio center;
# For the first time Eleanor had a showdown with Mama, who wanted Franklin to retire to Hyde Park with his stamp collection;
# Franklin had to appear to walk ‘unassisted’ at the 1928 Democratic presidential convention;
# He successfully nominated Alfred Smith, who Franklin succeeded as governor o NY;
# With a prolonged Great Depression, Franklin initiated innovative and successful government assistance;
# After trouncing President Herbert Hoover, he kept a low profile until March 4, 1933 inauguration;
Then commenced the 15 New Deal laws in the first hundred days, ups and downs, and World War II.
Charismatic, unprincipled, masterful politician, devious, supremely pragmatic, magnificent actor unruffled under stress, untroubled by policy contradictions, ruthless, robust sense of humor, positive image, vindictive, charming, resilient, arrogant, expedient, visionary.
At age 63 Franklin died at Warm Springs on April 12, 1945 with Lucy Mercer by his side.
Perhaps FDR saved both American democracy and Western civilization.,
I'm thinking about people in my family who vote Republican. It seems that, for some specific reason (probably low taxes and business deregulation), they are on the GOP team. Then, they just trust that team regardless or ignore the riffraff as unimportant/inconsequential. They explain it away as hysteria on the part of the Dems. "Oh that won't happen." "That's not happening." "The Dems are just trying to scare us."