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      Trump call to ‘find’ votes was threat to my safety, Georgia elections official says

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      Donald TrumpTrump call to ‘find’ votes was threat to my safety, Georgia elections official saysBrad Raffensperger urged by Trump in early January to ‘find 11,780 votes’ to overturn Joe Biden’s victory in the state Martin Pengelly in New York@MartinPengellyTue 2 Nov 2021 10.13 EDTLast modified on Tue 2 Nov 2021 11.12 EDTThe Georgia Republican responsible for running elections considered an infamous call in which Donald Trump told him to “find” enough votes to overturn Joe Biden’s victory in the state a “threat” to his safety and that of his family.Virginia governor’s race: Glenn Youngkin may win due to ‘white backlash’, expert saysRead moreBiden’s victory in Georgia was a narrow but vital part of his national win. No Democratic presidential candidate had taken the state since Bill Clinton in 1992.Trump called Brad Raffensperger, the Georgia secretary of state, nearly two months after election day, on Saturday 2 January. Telling him “it’s pretty clear we won”, the then president said: “I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have [to get]” to surpass Biden’s total.Raffensperger, a conservative who supported Trump, resisted the president’s demands. That prompted Trump to suggest the refusal to expose mass voter fraud in Georgia – on which Trump insisted but which did not exist, as in all other states – could be a “criminal offense”.“That’s a big risk to you,” Trump said. “That’s a big risk.”In Integrity Counts, a book published on Tuesday, Raffensperger writes: “I felt then – and still believe today – that this was a threat. Others obviously thought so, too, because some of Trump’s more radical followers have responded as if it was their duty to carry out this threat.”Raffensperger details death threats texted to his wife, an encounter with men who may have been staking out his home, and being escorted out of the Georgia state capitol on 6 January as rightwing protesters entered.A recording of Trump’s call was released to the Washington Post and became a key exhibit in Trump’s second impeachment trial, for inciting the deadly attack on the US Capitol on 6 January, by supporters seeking to overturn the election.Trump was acquitted when only seven Republican senators could be persuaded to vote for his guilt. He remains free to run for president again and dominates the Republican party but his attempts to overturn his defeat in Georgia have contributed to his extensive legal jeopardy.The Fulton county district attorney, Fani Willis, is investigating. Raffensperger told the Associated Press investigators “talked to some of our folks here. We sent all the documents and she can now buy the book online”.The Associated Press contributed to this reportTopicsDonald TrumpUS elections 2020US politicsRepublicansnewsReuse this content More

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      Republican contender in Virginia avoids Trump’s campaign event

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      VirginiaRepublican contender in Virginia avoids Trump’s campaign event
      Glenn Youngkin to give Trump’s ‘tele rally’ a wide berth
      Opinion: Republican racial culture war reaches new heights
      Martin Pengelly@MartinPengellyMon 1 Nov 2021 14.36 EDTFirst published on Mon 1 Nov 2021 10.39 EDTDonald Trump was to host a Virginia campaign event on Monday for Glenn Youngkin, the Republican candidate for governor in a race headed down to the wire. But Youngkin was not planning to participate, as he attempted to balance appeals to the former president’s supporters with a semblance of independence.Why this governor’s race is shaping up as a referendum on the Biden presidencyRead moreTrump hoped a phone-in “tele rally” would hoist Youngkin past his Democratic opponent, the former governor Terry McAuliffe.The contest is seen by many as a referendum on the Biden presidency and a bellwether for midterm elections next year. On the day before polling day, the realclearpolitics.com polling average had Youngkin ahead by less than two points. Fivethirtyeight.com put the Republican up by one.McAuliffe had scheduled rallies in Roanoke, Virginia Beach and Richmond and in northern Virginia. Youngkin was to rally in Roanoke, Richmond, Virginia Beach and Loudon county.In Richmond, Youngkin addressed “an energetic crowd of what his campaign said was around 800 people” at a small airport, the Associated Press reported.“This is a moment for Virginians to push back on this left, liberal progressive agenda and take our commonwealth back,” he said.McAuliffe, who has called himself a “pro-business pro-progressive”, is a close ally of Bill and Hillary Clinton and has campaigned with President Joe Biden, Vice-President Kamala Harris, former president Barack Obama and other high-profile Democrats. Nonetheless he has struggled to generate enthusiasm in a state Biden won by 10 points.Youngkin, a businessman, has not appeared with Trump. On Saturday, he told reporters: “I’m not going to be engaged in the tele-town hall. The teams are talking, I’m sure.”Youngkin has however comfortably dealt in Trump-esque attack lines, most prominently and potentially fruitfully focusing on how race is taught in schools. In return McAuliffe has sought to tie Youngkin firmly to Trump, not a tough task in the debate over education.Youngkin has repeatedly raised the subject of critical race theory, an academic discipline turned into a bogeyman by Republicans nationwide. CRT examines the ways in which racism operates in US laws and society. It is not taught in Virginia public schools. Regardless, Youngkin has treated it as a genuine threat, stoking anger on the right, and has promised to ban it.Speaking to NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday, McAuliffe said Youngkin had gone too far. Citing a meeting with a voter in Hampton, he said the former school board member told him “our school boards were fine. Soon as Glenn Youngkin got nominated, all of a sudden, these people started showing up, creating such a ruckus, calling such obscene things”.“This was an African American woman,” McAuliffe said. “I can’t repeat on air what they’ve said about her. This was last night, up here in northern Virginia … we just lost a school board member … She said, ‘I was getting death threats. But when they said they were going to rape my children, I can’t take it anymore.’“That’s what Glenn Youngkin has done here in Virginia. He’s created hatred and division just like Donald Trump, and that’s why Donald Trump, his final campaign is going to be for Glenn Youngkin here in Virginia.“We don’t want Trump. We don’t want Youngkin. We don’t want the hatred and division.”In a statement on Monday, Trump freely demonstrated his willingness to exploit hatred and division.Lincoln Project members pose as white supremacists at Virginia GOP eventRead moreTaking barely veiled shots at the Lincoln Project – anti-Trump Republicans who have campaigned against him in Virginia, sometimes controversially, and who Trump referred to only as “perverts” – the former president said his enemies were “trying to create an impression that Glenn Youngkin and I are at odds and don’t like each other.“Importantly, this is not true. We get along very well together and strongly believe in many of the same policies, especially when it comes to the important subject of education.”Trump reiterated the need for Republicans to vote. He also sought to thread the needle between his insistence on mass voter fraud against him and the need for high Republican turnout – a trick he failed to pull off in Georgia in January, when Democrats won two Senate runoffs.If enough of his supporters voted, Trump said, they would overcome the fact that he was “not a believer in the integrity of Virginia’s elections”.TopicsVirginiaUS politicsRepublicansDemocratsRaceUS educationnewsReuse this content More

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      Republican senator Josh Hawley worries feminism has driven men to ‘pornography and video games’

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      RepublicansRepublican senator Josh Hawley worries feminism has driven men to ‘pornography and video games’Far-right senator from Missouri ridiculed for his homilies on ‘manly virtues’ Adam Gabbatt@adamgabbattMon 1 Nov 2021 13.14 EDTLast modified on Mon 1 Nov 2021 14.03 EDTThe effort to combat toxic masculinity in the US has led men to consume more pornography and play more video games, the Missouri senator Josh Hawley claimed in a speech to a group of Republicans.Speaking at the National Conservatism Conference in Orlando, Florida, Hawley addressed the issue of “manhood”, which he said was under attack, and called for men to return to traditional masculine roles.The Donald Trump supporter who notoriously raised a fist in support of a mob outside the US Capitol on 6 January appeared to echo talking points made by the likes of the Proud Boys, a far-right group that opposes feminism and believes men are under attack from liberal elites.“Can we be surprised that after years of being told that they are the problem, that their manhood is the problem, more and more men are withdrawing into the enclave of idleness and pornography and video games?” Hawley said.“While the left may celebrate this decline of men, I for one cannot join them. No one should.”Hawley, 41, did not cite sources for his belief that men were watching pornography more frequently. Nonetheless, on Monday his speech was republished by the Federalist, a rightwing outlet. In the address, Hawley said he wanted to discuss “the left’s attempt to give us a world beyond men”.“The left want to define traditional masculinity as toxic,” he said. “They want to define the traditional masculine virtues – things like courage, and independence, and assertiveness – as a danger to society.”Hawley is the son of a banker who attended private school before studying at Stanford and Yale. He clerked for the supreme court’s chief justice, John Roberts, and later became a law professor.Given his background, he has repeatedly raised eyebrows for railing against elites. Hawley’s apparent claim to speak for all men, in the name of a return to a vaguely defined masculinity of old, swiftly became a new subject of ridicule on Twitter.If Josh Hawley is an expert on masculinity then I’d like to take a few minutes to share my thoughts on quantum physics.— Jason Kander (@JasonKander) November 1, 2021
      In the good old days, uncriticized American men fucked real top-heavy silicone queens and machine-gunned their way through actual space aliens on a daily basis. Also, don’t shake the junior Missouri senator’s hand until you see him wash it. https://t.co/VrN3irWqKy— David Simon (@AoDespair) November 1, 2021
      Josh Hawley says American men are “watching porn and playing video games because their masculinity is being criticized.” Mostly by their parents who keep asking, “Josh, when are you going to move out of our basement, stop picking your nose and get a job?” pic.twitter.com/NSY6sbo2aP— Paul Rudnick (@PaulRudnickNY) November 1, 2021
      Hawley, who was a staunch defender of Brett Kavanaugh when he was accused of sexual assault during his supreme court nomination hearings in 2018, claimed: “Boys are increasingly treated like an illness in search of a cure.”“Hollywood delivers the toxic masculinity theme ad nauseum in television and film,” he said, going on to link traditional masculinity as “vital to self-government”.“Observers from the ancient Romans to our forefathers identified the manly virtues as indispensable for political liberty,” Hawley said.As well as pornography, Hawley tied the supposed decline in masculinity to issues including unemployment, people marrying at a later age and the preservation of liberty.Hawley said: “For centuries, lovers of liberty have praised these qualities as the highest standard of manhood. That’s not to say that women don’t possess them. But it is to say that these virtues are the bright side of the aggression and competitiveness and independence that psychologists, no less than philosophers, have long observed in men.“Assertiveness and independence are strengths when used to protect and empower others.”Hawley offered few solutions to the problems he claimed to present. On Monday, he used Twitter to promote his new podcast, co-hosted with his wife.“In the second episode of This is Living, Josh and Erin Hawley share the story of how they met, what drew them to each other, and how two people so different decided to get married,” a blurb for the podcast reads.The Hawleys met while studying law at Yale. Erin Hawley also clerked for Roberts and became a law professor.TopicsRepublicansThe far rightFeminismGenderUS politicsnewsReuse this content More

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      Almost one in three of Republicans say violence may be necessary to ‘save’ US

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      RepublicansAlmost one in three of Republicans say violence may be necessary to ‘save’ USTroubling statistics show the post-election rancor that led to the US Capitol attack on 6 January is still very much in place Adam Gabbatt@adamgabbattMon 1 Nov 2021 09.14 EDTLast modified on Mon 1 Nov 2021 09.16 EDTAlmost a third of Republicans believe violence may be necessary to “save” the US, according to a new poll.Southwest Airlines investigates pilot’s use of ‘Let’s go Brandon’ anti-Biden jibeRead moreResearchers at the Public Religion Research Institute, a nonprofit, found that 30% of Republicans agreed with the statement “Because things have gotten so far off track, true American patriots may have to resort to violence in order to save our country”.Among Americans who believe the 2020 election was “stolen” from Donald Trump, which it was not, 39% believe violence may be required.The troubling statistics show the post-election rancour that led to the violent insurrection at the US Capitol on 6 January is still very much in place.Republicans are most likely to believe “true American patriots may have to resort to violence”, PRRI found, with just 11% of Democrats and 17% of independents agreeing with the statement. Among all Americans, 18% agreed.PRRI said 2,508 adults, living in all 50 states, were interviewed for the survey between 16 and 29 September.“It is an alarming finding,” Robert Jones, chief executive and founder of PRRI, told Yahoo News. “I’ve been doing this a while, for decades, and it’s not the kind of finding that as a sociologist, a public opinion pollster, that you’re used to seeing.”Jones said the responses illustrate the “significant and rapidly increasing polarisation in the United States”.“As we’ve gotten some distance [from the 6 January], one might hope cooler heads would prevail, but we really haven’t seen that,” Jones said. “If anything, it looks like people are doubling down and views are getting kind of locked in.”The PRRI poll is not the first to discover an apparent readiness for violence among Republican voters.FBI failed to act on tips of likely violence ahead of Capitol attack – report Read moreIn February a survey by the American Enterprise Institute found that 39% of Republicans thought that “if elected leaders will not protect America, the people must do it themselves, even if it requires violent actions”.Among all Americans, 29% agreed with that statement. Some 31% of independent voters and 17% of Democrats thought violent action might be required.More than 650 people have been criminally charged for their role in the Capitol attack, in which five people died.Trump is resisting attempts to investigate from a House select committee, most recently suing the national archives to stop the release of White House documents.TopicsRepublicansUS politicsUS Capitol attacknewsReuse this content More

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      Southwest Airlines investigates pilot’s use of ‘Let’s go Brandon’ anti-Biden jibe

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      US politicsSouthwest Airlines investigates pilot’s use of ‘Let’s go Brandon’ anti-Biden jibeAirline says it does not condone political expression on jobRightwing meme has been repeated in Congress and by Trump Martin Pengelly and agencies@MartinPengellyMon 1 Nov 2021 00.01 EDTSouthwest Airlines announced an internal investigation after a pilot was reported to have signed off a message to passengers by saying: “Let’s go Brandon.”Republican Adam Kinzinger: I’ll fight Trumpism ‘cancer’ outside CongressRead moreThe apparent non-sequitur is in fact a rightwing meme, based on a NBC sportscaster’s apparent mishearing of a chant of “Fuck Joe Biden” by a crowd at a Nascar circuit in Alabama at the start of October.On a Southwest flight from Houston, Texas to Albuquerque, New Mexico on Friday morning, an Associated Press reporter heard the pilot end a message over the public address system with the phrase, prompting gasps from some passengers.The reporter, Colleen Long, said she tried to ask the pilot about his comment but was “almost removed from [the] plane”.As discussion of the incident proliferated online, Southwest said in a statement it “takes pride in providing a welcoming, comfortable, safe and respectful environment for the millions of customers who fly with us each year.“Southwest does not condone employees sharing their personal political opinions while on the job, serving our customers. And one employee’s individual perspective should not be interpreted as the viewpoint of Southwest and its collective 54,000 employees.“Southwest is conducting an internal investigation into the recently reported event.”Predictably popular among supporters of Donald Trump, the man Joe Biden soundly beat for the White House last year, “Let’s go Brandon” swiftly reached the halls of Congress.Among uses by House Republicans, the Florida representative Bill Posey ended a floor speech with a fist pump and the phrase while Jeff Duncan, from South Carolina, wore a “Let’s Go Brandon” mask at the Capitol.In the Senate, Ted Cruz of Texas posed with a sign at a World Series game while the press secretary for Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Senate minority leader, retweeted a photo of the phrase on a construction sign in Virginia.FBI failed to act on tips of likely violence ahead of Capitol attack – report Read moreTrump’s fundraising committee now sells a $45 T-shirt featuring “Let’s go Brandon” above an American flag. One message to supporters read: “#FJB or LET’S GO BRANDON? Either way, President Trump wants YOU to have our ICONIC new shirt.”Southwest said it would “address the situation directly with any employee involved while continuing to remind all employees that public expression of personal opinions while on duty is unacceptable.“Southwest does not tolerate any behavior that encourages divisiveness as it does not reflect the Southwest hospitality and inclusiveness for which we are known and strive to provide each day on every flight.”TopicsUS politicsAir transportJoe BidenRepublicansnewsReuse this content More

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      Republican Adam Kinzinger: I’ll fight Trumpism ‘cancer’ outside Congress

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      RepublicansRepublican Adam Kinzinger: I’ll fight Trumpism ‘cancer’ outside Congress
      One of two GOP members of 6 January panel will retire next year
      ‘Roadmap for a coup’: inside Trump plot to steal the presidency
      Martin Pengelly in New York@MartinPengellySun 31 Oct 2021 11.08 EDTLast modified on Sun 31 Oct 2021 11.10 EDTThe Republican congressman Adam Kinzinger said on Sunday he would fight the “cancer” of Trumpism outside the congressional GOP, after he retires from the House next year. Trump seeking to block call logs and notes from Capitol attack panelRead more“In the House you can fight to try to tell the truth,” the Illinois representative said, speaking to ABC’s This Week. “You can fight against the cancer in the Republican party of lies, of conspiracy, of dishonesty.“And you ultimately come to the realisation that basically it’d be Liz Cheney and a few others that are telling the truth and there are about 190 people in the Republican party that aren’t going to say a word, and there’s a leader of the Republican caucus [Kevin McCarthy, the House minority leader] that is embracing Donald Trump with all he can.”Asked if he had handed Trump a “win” by quitting, he said he “potentially” had but added: “It’s not really handing a win as much to Donald Trump as it is to the cancerous kind of lie and conspiracy, not just wing anymore, but mainstream argument of the Republican party.”Kinzinger and Cheney were among 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump for inciting supporters to attack the Capitol on 6 January, in an attempt to overturn the election.That made Trump’s second impeachment the most bipartisan ever. Seven Republican senators voted to convict, not enough for a required super-majority, ensuring Trump’s acquittal.Another House Republican who voted for impeachment, Anthony Gonzalez of Ohio, has announced his retirement. Trump greeted Kinzinger’s announcement by saying: “Two down, eight to go.” Others including Cheney have attracted challengers.Kinzinger and Cheney are the only Republican members of the House select committee investigating 6 January. McCarthy withdrew co-operation when the speaker, Nancy Pelosi, rejected an attempt to put Trump allies on the panel.Kinzinger told ABC Trump’s lawsuit to stop the committee accessing presidential records held in the National Archives was an attempt to drag proceedings out long enough for Republicans to retake the House next year and thereby kill the investigation.“Look, they killed an independent commission,” he said. “They’ve killed any attempt to get to the truth. [But] we have sources beyond just those that are kind of making the news, the Steve Bannons, you know, the Archives. We have people coming in and talking to the committee every day.“I think if you look at that archive request and what the former president is trying to block, it is very telling when you look at things like call logs, etc … We are going to fight as hard as we can to get that, and the president has no grounds to claim executive privilege as he is today.”Trump supporters, dominant in a GOP fully under the former president’s control, greeted Kinzinger’s retirement announcement with glee and abuse – despite the fact that as a strong conservative, he mostly voted with Trump during Trump’s time in office. Kinzinger told ABC he intended to stay in politics.“The point is there’s a lot of people that feel politically homeless, there’s a lot of people that feel like something has to change in our politics, and I think it’s important to jump in with both feet and see where that goes. See if there’s that market out there because what’s happening, we’re failing the American people right now.“The political system is failing. And the Republicans in particular.”Tucker Carlson condemned over ‘false flag’ claim about deadly Capitol attackRead moreKinzinger admitted that redistricting by Illinois Democrats that would affect his chances of re-election was part of his decision, saying: “I’m not complaining, it’s redistricting, I get it, it’s being done and abused everywhere. But when Democrats do say they want Republican partners to tell the truth, and then they specifically target me, it makes me wonder.”But he said a stronger push to retire had come from the direction of his party under Trump.“It’s sitting back and saying, ‘OK, what happens if I win again? I go back, probably Republicans will probably be in the majority. I’m going to be fighting even harder … and I haven’t seen any momentum in the party to move away from lies and towards truth.”TopicsRepublicansUS politicsDonald TrumpUS Capitol attacknewsReuse this content More

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      Why this governor’s race is shaping up as a referendum on the Biden presidency

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      The ObserverVirginiaWhy this governor’s race is shaping up as a referendum on the Biden presidency The president won the state by 10 points but Democratic candidate Terry McAuliffe has acknowledged Washington politics could hurt his campaignDavid Smith in Arlington, Virginia@smithinamericaSun 31 Oct 2021 02.00 EDTScott Knuth was dwarfed by the 16ft x 10ft flag that he waved to and fro on a street corner in Arlington, Virginia. “Trump won,” it falsely proclaimed, “Save America.”But Donald Trump was not coming to town. Instead his successor, Joe Biden, was about to take the stage in a campaign rally at a dangerous inflection point in his young presidency.Biden’s agenda remains unrealized as Democrats fail to close deal againRead moreBiden was speaking on behalf of Democrat Terry McAuliffe who this Tuesday takes on Republican Glenn Youngkin to become governor of Virginia. But he was keenly aware that the race will represent the first referendum on his White House tenure and a potential preview of next year’s crucial midterm elections for Congress.The Virginia contest also takes place against the backdrop of Biden’s ambitious, would-be historic legislative agenda stalling in Washington as his Democratic party goes to bitter war with itself over a huge social and environmental spending bill.The president reportedly told Democratic members of Congress on Thursday: “I don’t think it’s hyperbole to say that the House and Senate majorities and my presidency will be determined by what happens in the next week.”With his approval rating sagging after a coronavirus surge and chaotic retreat from Afghanistan, Biden is badly in need of a win or two. Failure in Virginia, where no Democrat has lost a statewide election for 12 years, and continued paralysis on Capitol Hill would represent a crushing double blow.Protesting outside last Tuesday’s McAuliffe rally in Arlington, Trump supporters were eager for signs of weakness and confident of a Republican fightback.Carrie Johnson, 45, a merchandiser clutching a Stars and Stripes flag, said: “The Biden presidency has been an absolute dumpster fire. Our borders are wide open. Inflation is running wild. He’s trying to strip us of our freedoms. His approval rating is falling by the day.”About 2,500 people attended the rally, according to the White House, far fewer than a typical Trump event. Supporters of McAuliffe, 64, were aware that the closely and bitterly contested race has national implications.Lisa Soronen, 46, a lawyer who brought with her eight-year-old daughter Sasha despite the evening chill, said: “If McAuliffe loses, it will be seen as a victory for Donald Trump, whether it is or not. A lot can happen between now and the midterms but this is seen as the bellwether.”Evidently aware of this, Biden used an 18-minute speech to directly compare his record against that of his predecessor on coronavirus vaccinations, the stock market and jobs growth. Then he sought to tie Trump to Youngkin, a 54-year-old businessman and political neophyte.“Terry’s opponent has made all of his private pledges of loyalty to Donald Trump,” Biden told the crowd. “But what’s really interesting to me: he won’t stand next to Donald Trump now that the campaign is on. Think about it. He won’t allow Donald Trump to campaign for him in this state. And he’s willing to pledge his loyalty to Trump in private, why not in public? What’s he trying to hide? Is there a problem with Trump being here? Is he embarrassed?”Indeed, if the McAuliffe campaign has one message in this race, it is that Youngkin, for all his his fleece jacket suburban dad demeanor, is a mini-Trump and therefore anathema to the most liberal state in the south. In one of the Democrat’s ads, Trump is heard endorsing the candidate, then Youngkin says Trump “represents so much of why I’m running”; no further comment is required.Republicans insist the effort is doomed. Patti Hidalgo Menders, president of the Loudoun County Republican Women’s Club in Ashburn, said: “Donald Trump is no longer in office. I think that’s a lost cause for McAuliffe.”For his part, Youngkin has relentlessly pushed a culture wars message that Virginia’s schools are under existential threat from “critical race theory”. The fact that critical race theory – an analytic framework through which academics discern the ways that racial disparities are reproduced by the law – is not taught in Virginia does not seem to matter to him.One Youngkin ad features a mother who once sought to ban Beloved, a classic novel by the African American author Toni Morrison, from classrooms. Her effort led to state legislation that would have let parents opt out of their children studying classroom materials with sexually explicit content; it was vetoed by McAuliffe when he was governor. Democrats seized on the issue to accuse Youngkin of trying to ban books and “silence” Black authors.What these very different campaign pitches have in common is a laser focus on the suburbs, where Trump fared poorly against Biden in last year’s presidential election but where parental anxiety over school curriculums and virus precautions is seen as ripe for exploitation. Both parties are monitoring closely which message will prevail as they prepare to campaign for the November 2022 midterms.The Virginia election may well be won and lost in the suburbs of the state capital, Richmond, once the seat of the slave-owning Confederacy where a statue of Gen Robert E Lee was last month removed after 131 years. Yard signs for both McAuliffe and Youngkin are visible in the suburb of Short Pump, which has a lively shopping mall, well-regarded restaurants and excellent government schools.Resident Beth O’Hara, 46, a lawyer, said: “I think the suburbs are really going to make the difference and there are people I know who really distrusted Trump and did not vote for his re-election but are planning to vote for Youngkin. That tells me people view him in a much more moderate way.”But O’Hara will vote for McAuliffe. “It’s difficult for me to imagine, after some progress over the last couple of years in Virginia, going back to a place where we have a Republican governor who has at least suggested further restrictions of abortion. I’m kind of done seeing us backslide on that particular issue.”Seventy miles away is Charlottesville, where a white supremacist march in 2017 galvanised Biden to run for president in what he called a battle for the soul of the nation. Now Charlottesville will render its own verdict: McAuliffe has acknowledged that Biden’s dip in the polls, and Democrats’ inertia in Washington, could hurt his campaign.Larry Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, said: “This is going to be a test case that Republicans will use in 2022, whether Youngkin wins or not, because it’s clearly going to be close. The fact that he could turn a +10 Biden state, with Biden’s help and the congressional Democrats’ help, into a close contest tells you that some of the social and cultural issues, however outrageous they are, are working.”Sabato added: “Critical race theory doesn’t even exist in this state. We don’t teach it. I just can’t tell you how many people come up to me, in stores and gas stations and so on, and say, ‘Why are we teaching this race thing?’ I tell them it’s not taught. They say, ‘Well, that can’t be because I heard Mr Youngkin talk about it.’ He talks about it every day about 10 times. You can create an issue out of nothing.”Democratic voters in Charlottesville are appalled by Youngkin’s reversion to dog-whistle politics in a state that has been trending Democratic in recent years with strict gun laws, loose abortion restrictions, protections for LGBTQ+ people, the abolition of the death penalty and the legalisation of marijuana for adult recreational use.Andrea Douglas, executive director of the Jefferson School African American Heritage Center, said: “If Virginia becomes a Republican state, all of the work that we have done over the course of the last few years in Charlottesville and just generally trying to move Virginia towards being a progressive state, all of that will be turned back.“Seeing the kind of work that has been done in the state to re-engage our students with African American history in the face of critical race theory backlash, the last thing we need is a Republican governor. From the perspective of not just being a person of color, but being a woman of color, he is a dangerous, dangerous person. His positions on abortion, his positions on education.”Youngkin has been walking a political tightrope, seeking to play down his links to Trump in Democratic-held cities while embracing the former president in his old strongholds in the hope of reactivating his base of support.Meanwhile, McAuliffe has rallied with Vice-President Kamala Harris and former president Barack Obama in an attempt to whip up enthusiasm in an election-weary electorate. One of the biggest challenges facing Democrats is apathy from young voters, and voters of color, disenchanted by Biden’s failure to deliver on promises on the climate crisis, immigration reform, racial justice in policing and voting rights.There is also frustration over his stalled legislative agenda. This week Biden announced a pared down social and environmental spending package worth $1.75tn, which was half his original proposal and dropped paid family leave, lower prescription drug prices and free community college.As.the president flew off to Europe for Cop26 and meetings with Boris Johnson and other world leaders, it remained unclear whether progressives in the House, or the conservative Democratic senators Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema, would explicitly back the new framework.This could leave Biden in a damaging limbo, with Republicans likely to claim a moral victory even if they narrowly lose Virginia, paving the way for success in the midterms and then for another Trump presidential run in 2024.Democrat Juli Briskman, a district supervisor in Loudon county who is campaigning for McAuliffe, said: “If we don’t win, unfortunately, that will give the right their playbook because they have been trying hard to confuse parents and confuse voters with false narratives over our school system and false narratives over our voting system. If those false narratives succeed then that gives them a playbook for the ’22 and ’24 elections.”She warned: “We are the testing ground, we are the proving ground, and we just simply have to hold the line.”TopicsVirginiaThe ObserverUS politicsDemocratsRepublicansJoe BidenfeaturesReuse this content More

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      Resilience: the one word progressives need in the face of Trump, Covid and more | Robert Reich

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      OpinionUS politicsResilience: the one word progressives need in the face of Trump, Covid and moreRobert ReichThe climate crisis, the economy, Biden’s struggle to enact his spending agenda. The list goes on. The lesson? Be strong Sun 31 Oct 2021 01.00 EDTLast modified on Sun 31 Oct 2021 01.09 EDTI often tell my students that if they strive to achieve full and meaningful lives, they should expect failures and disappointments. We learn to walk by falling down again and again. We learn to ride a bicycle by crashing into things. We learn to make good friends by being disappointed in friendship. Failure and disappointment are prerequisites to growth.‘A deliberate, orchestrated campaign’: the real story behind Trump’s attempted coupRead moreThe real test of character comes after failures and disappointments. It is resilience: how easily you take failures, what you learn from them, how you bounce back.This is a hard lesson for high-achievers used to jumping over every hoop put in front of them. It’s also a hard lesson for people who haven’t had all the support and love they might have needed when growing up. In fact, it’s a hard lesson for almost everyone in a culture such as ours, that worships success and is embarrassed by failure and is inherently impatient.Why am I telling you this now? Because we have gone through a few very difficult years: Donald Trump’s racist nationalism and his attacks on our democracy, a painful reckoning with systemic racism, angry political divisions, a deadly pandemic accompanied by a recession, and climate hazards such as floods and wildfires.We assumed everything would be fine again once these were behind us. But we now find ourselves in a disorienting limbo. There is no clearly demarcated “behind us”. The pandemic still lurks. The economy is still worrisome. Americans continue to be deeply angry with each other. The climate crisis still poses an existential threat. Trump and other insurrectionists have not yet been brought to justice. Democracy is still threatened.And Biden and the Democrats have been unable to achieve the scale of change many of us wanted and expected.If you’re not at least a bit disappointed, you’re not human. To some, it feels like America is failing.But bear with me. I’ve learned a few things in my half-century in and around politics, and my many years teaching young people. One is that things often look worse than they really are. The media (including social media) sells subscriptions and advertising with stories that generate anger and disappointment. The same goes for the views of pundits and commentators. Pessimists always appear wiser than optimists.Another thing I’ve learned is that expectations for a new president and administration are always much higher than they can possibly deliver. Our political system was designed to make it difficult to get much done, at least in the short run. So the elation that comes with the election of someone we admire almost inevitably gives way to disappointment.A third thing: in addition to normal political constraints, positive social change comes painfully slowly. It can take years, decades, sometimes a century or longer for a society to become more inclusive, more just, more democratic, more aware of its shortcomings and more determined to remedy them. And such positive changes are often punctuated by lurches backward. I believe in progress because I’ve seen so much of it in my lifetime, but I’m also aware of the regressive forces that constantly threaten it. The lesson here is tenacity – playing the long game.The US should cut the Pentagon budget to fund social | Emma Claire FoleyRead moreWhich brings me back to resilience. We have been through a difficult time. We wanted and expected it to be over: challenges overcome, perpetrators brought to justice, pandemic ended, nation healed, climate saved, politics transformed. But none of it is over. The larger goals we are fighting for continue to elude us.Yet we must continue the fight. If we allow ourselves to fall into fatalism, or wallow in disappointment, or become resigned to what is rather than what should be, we will lose the long game. The greatest enemy of positive social change is cynicism about what can be changed.
      Robert Reich, a former US secretary of labor, is professor of public policy at the University of California at Berkeley and the author of Saving Capitalism: For the Many, Not the Few and The Common Good. His new book, The System: Who Rigged It, How We Fix It, is out now. He is a Guardian US columnist. His newsletter is at robertreich.substack.com
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