The midterm election is 11/3. Early voting started in September and ends on Halloween. A slogan floating around: “make your plan to vote,” as if you’re running a gauntlet. I’ve been voting since I was 18. There is no gauntlet. Register to vote, find your polling place, and go vote. It’s not hard. Now… elections today are more like UFC or Roman games. So let’s get ready to rumble and go through the DC Fight Card for District 4.
Covering every race across all 470 seats on the ballot is too much work. I live in RVA, District 4. Jennifer McClellan is up for reelection. Her opponents are Robert Murray, Jr. and Joan Bell. Mark Warner is up for reelection. His opponent is Bert Mizusawa. The DC Fight Card for District 4 has two fights: McClellan v. Murray and Warner v. Mizusawa. McClellan and Warner are both incumbents in solid Blue districts. Both are favored to win. Wins for them are more political machine misery.
Two seats on the ballot and something else: three state constitution amendments, reproductive freedom, marriage equality, and voting rights restoration. Reproductive freedom is a clever way to say legalized abortion through the first two trimesters. Marriage equality repeals the ban on same sex marriage passed in 2006, and voting rights restoration would restore voting rights to convicted felons upon release.
Roman Octogan
Virginia is a Democratic machine stronghold. McClellan is seeking a third term in Congress. She won the special election to replace Donald McEachin in Feb. 2023 and won reelection in 2024. She was a member of the state legislature and senate before that. McClellan sits on the progressive side of the Democratic spectrum. She is a member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus.
Mark Warner’s highlights: he cofounded the company that became Nextel, worked for Senator Chris Dodd, became governor in 2002, won election to the US Senate in 2008 where he is the incumbent seeking a fourth term. Warner was a decent governor with a good head on his shoulders. I liked him as governor. Then he went to the swamp and lost his damned mind. When he surfaces in my feed, he tends to show up chanting the liturgy of the scolds. He is a reliable soprano in their choir.
McClellan is a phantom to me. News of her doesn’t surface in my feed. Scraped from her campaign page, “During her 16 years in the Virginia legislature, Congresswoman McClellan earned a reputation as a strong legislative champion for Virginians. She passed landmark laws to protect voting rights, safeguard abortion access, tackle climate change, rebuild crumbling schools, expand Obamacare in Virginia, protect workers rights, and reform Virginia’s criminal justice system.” Yuck.
Different Election Year, Same Hymnal
I’m tired of the old progressive hymnal. Every election it’s the same set list. Those Reds want to take your rights away, make it harder to vote, increase the cost of living, deny you health care, and make grandma live on cat food. They want to force women to use coat hangers when solving the problem of an unwanted pregnancy. MAGA Nazis want to spy on you in your bedroom and pass judgment on who you have sex with. How about letting consenting adults make their own choices? They never forgive or forget. Ex-offenders can never vote again. Have a criminal record? You are marked for life and can’t get an apartment or a job.
Campaign rhetoric is only somewhat facty. The paragraph above is in campaign voice. Is it true? Kind of. It may feel true to some, and that’s all that matters. I’m voting Red, voting Republican, because the Democrats have no soul. The soulless husk that’s left worships at a shrine to Mao Zedong. Mao unleashed hell on China. Today’s progressive political machine wants the same hell for us.
Spanberger won her election on the same progressive litany chanted by McClellan and Warner. She promised to make the Commonwealth affordable again. Her reasons to vote for her instead of Earle-Sears were, well, y’know, MAGA and Sunkist Stalin. I did notice that the lyrics haven’t changed. Vote Blue because voting Red means you are an existential threat to the peace and welfare of the Commonwealth.
New Coke
I moved to the Commonwealth on 9-11-2001. I’ve had a quarter century to observe the DNC political machine. There is a cycle we traverse. Election season rolls around; the DNC machine tells us again the horrible shape of our state, the existential threats facing us, and makes glowing promises to fix things. Someone from the old guard gets themselves on the ballot; there is a dutiful Republican who plays the heel, and the VA DNC machine wins again.
This time the threats are AI, rebranded SI by HRH Cheeto-in-Chief, and data centers. The robots are taking over, and we will all get rich because of robots. The state government will make things more affordable by changes in regulation and new laws, obviously. What changes? Tax the rich, of course. I’m sorry. I’ve heard a version of this hymn for over twenty-five years. The world and those MAGAts are scary and want to ruin us. Trust us, say the Blues, we’ll take care of you.
I voted for Trump. Twice. Because the machine politicians who keep getting elected sound too much like that drunk who says he’s going to quit drinking after he finishes this next drink. We know someone like that drunk. And we know how the story ends. The drunk will either start recovery or cycle through the hospital, jail, and another six months drying out in rehab, only to relapse. You can repeat the same promises of hope and change only so many times before I stop believing you. The machine is getting old and losing charisma. A vote for the machine is a vote to continue the downward spiral.
Throw the Bums Out
The old guard lost to Trump twice. I voted for him both times. I knew that a true conquering hero as president would spend his first term battling the DC political machine.
In his first term, Trump fought the Russia investigation and Mueller probe (including the firing of FBI Director James Comey), the Ukraine pressure campaign that led to his first impeachment (abuse of power and obstruction of Congress), and the longest government shutdown in history over border-wall funding. He also fought the family-separation policy at the southern border, the Muslim travel ban, and the COVID-19 response.
Ultimately, he challenged the 2020 election results, which culminated in the January 6 Capitol attack and his second impeachment for incitement of insurrection. He fought Congress, the intelligence community, the media, and large parts of his own party on trade (especially China tariffs), immigration, and judicial appointments. He was acquitted both times in the Senate.
So this time, in 2024, Trump was ready for round two. He spent the time while Biden did his 15 minutes of fame getting ready for battle. He’s been busy, taking full advantage of Congress’ willingness to delegate most of its power to the Executive Branch. To date, he’s signed 289 Executive Orders. The man has been busy.
Round Two
In his second term Trump has focused on sharp reductions in illegal border crossings (including stretches of zero releases and negative net migration), large-scale deportations and visa revocations, passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill with permanent tax cuts, no tax on tips/overtime/Social Security, and Trump Accounts, DOGE-driven federal workforce and spending cuts, broad tariffs aimed at reshoring manufacturing and raising revenue, the capture of Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela, strikes that set back Iran’s nuclear program, a Gaza ceasefire that returned hostages, NATO allies agreeing to higher defense spending, and regulatory rollbacks on energy, DEI, and climate rules, while claiming investment commitments in the trillions and declining violent crime.
Heresy
The way the machine likes things: make a lot of noise in the election, win, then shut the fuck up and sit down. K-Street will give you a couple issues to campaign on and leave office as accomplishments. Other than that, be a good boy and do as you are told.
Trump stood up and talked back. He fights. This you must not do in the hallowed halls of the Executive Branch or in the Capitol Building. Our actual government is on K Street in DC, where all the expensive lobbyists work. “Promises made, promises kept” is heresy of the highest order. It is what Trump does, and I am so here for it.
But… what does that have to do with Richmond, VA (District 4)? A lot. If you look at the election results for Spanberger, she won in Northern Virginia, Tappahannock, and Richmond. Earle-Sears won in the rest of the Commonwealth. Spanberger won where the machine was strong. I interpret the results this way: the machine’s hold on us is weakening. More leaders are standing up and talking back.
The election is in a few weeks. Majorities often shift in the midterms. Unrelated, maybe, the monomyth beats the snot out of the hero right up to the victory. Trump may be existential evil for you. I see him as a symptom of hope and change that started with Reagan. I’m not a prophet. I don’t know what will happen next. But the social winds I feel aren’t blowing toward the DNC machine.