Here’s the real reason we lost Virginia – and you’re not going to like it
Most liberal media pundits (on TV and online) have spent this entire election cycle whining about the Democrats and insisting all hope is lost because Trump is going to magically regain power in 2024. I’ve spent this entire election cycle trying to warn you all how dangerous this kind of defeatist messaging is. And sadly, on Tuesday night I was proven correct.
Virginia was a highly winnable election for the Democrats, who had a solid candidate, well organized messaging, and a strong anti-Trump sentiment at their backs. But most of you probably don’t even know that, because the pundits spent the cycle painting a very different picture. Incessant complaining about Merrick Garland. Conspiracy theories about Joe Manchin. Whining about how the Democrats should be getting things done instantly by magic wand. Insistence that Trump has already somehow secured the 2024 election for himself.
These doomsday narratives, which media pundits specifically crafted in order to scare and outrage you into staying tuned in, served to distract far too many of you from what every close election really comes down to: voter registration, phone banking, amplifying your own party’s message so swing voters hear it, and so on. I hate to say this, but far too many of you just didn’t bother to do anything.
I know this because I’ve had conversation after conversation these past few months with liberal activists who have allowed the media to browbeat them into believing that all hope is lost and that there’s no point in even trying to fight. Spoiler alert: once you sink into this kind of mindset, it’s impossible to motivate yourself to put in the kind of work required to win a close election. In fact, once you start amplifying the defeatist narratives, you make it that much harder for those activists who are trying to fight and win.
And so we lost. We had no business losing. Sure, you can (and should) blame Fox News for amplifying the false narratives about Critical Race Theory and such. And yes, you can (and should) blame major liberal-leaning media outlets like MSNBC for spending the entire election cycle agreeing to play footsie with Fox News over these false narratives, while totally ignoring the real narratives. But that’s the point: right wing pundits activists are really good at dutifully amplifying the false narratives coming out of the Republican Party, while most liberal activists and pundits have no interest in amplifying the true narratives coming out of the Democratic Party.
So yeah, the media (on the left and right) has been stacking the deck against us in 2021. But they’re facing a ratings crunch in the post-Trump era, and their business model requires them to do anything possible to try to get their ratings to rebound. They’re too busy trying to avoid layoffs to bother caring about the right and wrong of it. And the media isn’t going to change its defeatist tune unless we, the audience, decide to force the media to change its tune by only giving it ratings and page views when it’s not pushing defeatist hysteria.
Virginia should serve as a devastating wake up call. If you’ve spent all year whining about the Democrats and insisting that Trump is on his way to a magic comeback, hopefully you can now see that the narratives you’ve been pushing are a disaster. The defeatist whiners tried it their way, and it cost us an entire state. Now’s the time to try it my way, which is to get behind the Democratic Party, amplify its messaging, put in the work, and fight like you’re going to win. Otherwise, all hope really will be lost.
