A Conservative Thank-You Note to the Democrats - The American Spectator | USA News and Politics
A Conservative Thank-You Note to the Democrats
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Dear Democrats: I will not try to speak for all conservatives, but I think I most would agree when I send a sincere thank you for November 2. To paraphrase Hillary Clinton, it takes a village to create a debacle. I apologize if I leave anyone out, but some of you deserve special attention.

First, none of this would have been possible without Bernie Sanders, the squad (Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib, and Ayanna Pressley), and all the far-left caucus in Congress who tied the president’s sure win bipartisan infrastructure bill to the incomprehensible Build Back Better legislation. Many of their moderate critics are blaming them solely for the Virginia defeat. That’s probably unfair. Most voters would like infrastructure improvements, but it is not at the top of their priority list. Hardly anybody knows what is in Build Back Better. However, kudos for convincing many voters that the Democratic Party doesn’t know what it is doing. The infrastructure bill has now passed, and some watered-down form of Build Back Better will eventually. However, few will remember them in 2022 when voters will ask: “What have you done for me, or to me, today?” Leftists continue to believe they won in 2020 on policy issues when swing and dissident voters were actually angry at Trump.

Terry McAuliffe gets his fair share of the credit for the Virginia defeat. Running against someone, Donald Trump, who was not on the ticket was a good start. But the coup de grace was telling parents that they should have no say in their children’s curriculum at a time when education was a top priority for Virginia voters. The only way McAuliffe could have topped that would be to promise to kick the Navy out of Hampton Roads. While considering Virginia, we should not forget the contributions of the professional education establishment, particularly the teachers unions. Through their undying efforts to push a progressive race-based curriculum, they did conservative and moderate voters a great service by throwing dissenting parents out of school board meetings and sometimes having them arrested. The fact that teachers unions are primary donors to the Democratic Party helped many previously apathetic voters in the Old Dominion over to our side. Education professionals were key Democratic contributors to November 2 by keeping children out of the classroom for nearly a year.

A shout-out should also go to Black Lives Matter and Defund the Police groups. Not content to point out that young African Americans are disproportionately killed by police, these groups pushed for the defunding and disestablishment of police forces throughout the country. Of course, lost in this imbroglio is the fact that most shootings of young Black men are committed by other young Black men. Meanwhile, urban police departments were decimated by early retirements and a lack of recruits. Special recognition for the rejection of a Minneapolis ballot initiative to disband its police goes to the street thugs in cities like Portland, Rochester, Buffalo, and New York City as well as Minneapolis itself, which took advantage of the war on cops. They are primarily responsible for record gun sales among law-abiding African American citizens eager to protect their homes and families. It also helped that citizens who supported the police were labeled as racists. Conservatives could not have received better public relations. 

Special recognition goes to Andrew Cuomo and Bill de Blasio. Without their unfailing efforts to undermine faith in the state’s Democratic Party rule, we might have had a socialist mayor in Buffalo, and would we would not have seen a law-and-order mayor elected in New York City. Bill and Andrew won’t be around to see it, but state Republicans are daring to think the unthinkable: a red New York in 2022.

We should not forget the contributions made by the media, particularly the Washington Post and New York Times. Not only did they help the push to the right on November 2, but they are cheerleading Democrats to redouble their efforts going into the midterms. Post columnist Eugene Robinson urged Democrats to keep on trucking. While his colleague Dana Milbank excoriates Democratic voters for not supporting their incompetent candidates more enthusiastically, the New York Times extolls McAuliffe for a graceful concession speech and lectures Republicans that they should learn to be good losers. Democratic candidates are well-advised to take heed as they will likely be making many such speeches in the next year.

Last, but not least, we cannot forget Joe Biden. Without him, November 2 would not have been possible. The president sets the tone for his party, and Biden has certainly done that. The ineffectual handling of his two signature pieces of legislation (tying infrastructure and Build Back Batter together) are only exceeded by the chaos he is signaling on the COVID-19 front. His energy policies are a leading cause of inflation, and the continuing supply chain crisis is about to ruin Christmas. Instead of revising his priorities, Biden is doubling down. The Misery Index consists of two indicators: unemployment and inflation. Regarding unemployment, we are in an unusual situation. We have more jobs than people willing to fill them. We also have a significant portion of the population not wanting to get the COVID vaccine. A Reagan, Clinton, Obama, or any of the Bush presidents would do everything to fill those jobs before the holidays; not Joe. He expanded the vaccine mandates into the private sector, and by January, wants to fine up to $14,000 any company with over 100 employees for each worker not vaccinated.

Regarding inflation, Biden will continue his war on carbon-based energy, further driving gas and heating fuels prices up. As in the book Misery, the American public will be held hostage for the winter by an individual who has clearly lost touch with reality. Frederick the Great allegedly said that his lead mule had been in a hundred battles but was still a mule. That is an apt analogy. Joe Biden has been in Washington for over a half-century, and he is now the lead donkey.

After November 2, I was a little concerned that the Democrats would reevaluate their strategy by concentrating on lessons learned. Not to worry. The Democrats immediately formed a circular firing squad with each interest group blaming the others and all hardening their respective positions.

At any rate Democrats, heck of a job. Whatever you are doing, keep on doing it. As a conservative, I can’t thank you enough.

Gary Anderson served as a Special Advisor to the Deputy Secretary of Defense during the George W. Bush Administration.

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