Good morning, everybody, and welcome to another edition of the TNR Daily. Iâm Jason Linkins, editor of The Soapbox, TNRâs political vertical, filling in for editor Michael Tomasky, who did late-night duty watching the Virginia gubernatorial election last night and deserves a break.  Letâs jump in. Obviously, the aforementioned election in Virginia is going to be the top political story of the day, if not for weeks to come. Last night, fleece-vested Republican plutocrat Glenn Youngkin rather handily dispatched Democratic candidate Terry McAuliffe in a state that Joe Biden won going away in 2020. The stock prices of corporations involved in the manufacture of adult pee pads spiked overnight in anticipation of Beltway Democrats returning to their natural state: lying in a prone position as they slowly unburden themselves of their bladdersâ contents.  Democratic despondency isnât entirely unjustified. McAuliffe was essentially the ne plus ultra of establishment Democratdom, designed in a lab to be the safe, center-left political candidate; sent from Clintonlandâs gilded capital to be the adult in the room. And while there are apparently already natterings about the progressive left being responsible for McAuliffeâs downfall, that dog wonât hunt: The left doesnât have any meaningful control over the Democratic campaign infrastructure, in Virginia or anywhere else. Sorry to say, the so-called adults need to go back to the drawing board.  What theyâll find, in terms of guidance for the midterm elections, may be troubling. McAuliffeâs approach in the late stages of the campaign was to relentlessly tie Youngkin to Trump in an effort to rekindle the forces of negative partisanship that delivered Bidenâs win in 2020. The attempted connection clearly failed to stick. And with Trump nowhere near a ballot in 2022, Democrats need an alternative plan. The passage of a transformative legislative agenda might do the trickâthough one immediate impact of McAuliffeâs loss is that Democrats may grow even more skittish about passing it than they already are.  But affluent career politicians are not really the ones who will suffer from last nightâs loss. The big losers in Virginia are public school teachers, who became Youngkinâs bête noire in the last few weeks of the campaign. Youngkinâs promotion of the âcritical race theoryâ con likely means that Republican candidates across the country will try to replicate last nightâs results. That doesnât mean theyâll be successful: Voters in Wisconsin rejected the entreaties of CRT fearmongers last night, despite a campaign that was every bit as furious as the one mounted in the Old Dominion. Still, Virginia teachers have reason to worry: The mob that Youngkin ginned up is going to demand its pound of flesh.  In other news, the future of Bidenâs legislative agenda actually got a little brighter, as Democrats seem to be nearing a deal that would provide lower drug prices for average Americans, after several days in which prospects seemed to have decidedly dimmed. With an agreement in hand, itâs possible that the end is in sight. As The New York Times reports: âThe completion of the prescription drug section could be among the final major changes to the sprawling climate change and social safety net bill that Democratic leaders hope to bring to a House vote this week.â  Meanwhile, if youâre looking for some perspective on the state of our democracy, The Washington Post reports that the latest Pew Global Attitudes Survey, in which â18,850 adults in 17 advanced economies, including the United Statesâ were asked âabout their views of American society and politics,â found that very few respondents âview American democracy as an example for the rest of the world to follow.â As President Biden prepares to lead next monthâs virtual âSummit on Democracyâ with other leaders from around the globe, he may want to spend some time considering whether he has much to teach the rest of the world, or if he should instead seek out their advice.  Today at NewRepublic.com: Tomasky offers his own verdict on Virginiaâs governor race: âIf weâre worrying about the ramifications of McAuliffeâs defeat for the midterms, we should worry about the frightening paradox this drubbing confronts them with: McAuliffeâs defeat could increase the chance that Joe Manchin and/or Kyrsten Sinema (or now maybe a few nervous House moderates) throw in the towel on the Biden agenda, at the very moment when passing that agenda becomes mission critical.â Chris Lehmann reviews Leigh Eric Schmidtâs new book, The Church of Saint Thomas Paine, and finds that the âgolden ageâ that the secular movement promised ânever got off the ground,â owing to its vast underestimation of the devout. And Alex Shephard explains how the core of the GOPâs new Trumpian ideology revolves almost entirely around spectral ravings of nonexistent election fraud.
Jason Linkins, deputy editor |
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