REPUBLICAN PRACTICE UNPOPULARISM IN VIRGINIA

Virginia Republicans won the governorship and control of the lower house of the legislature in the November elections, and their plan is to do what Republicans always do: pursue policies that matter exclusively to Republican voters, many of which are wildly unpopular with everyone else.

The Washingon Post reports:

After two years in the political wilderness in Richmond, the state’s long-dominant GOP will reclaim control of a House of Delegates it lost two years ago. Come Saturday, Republicans will also retake the executive branch they’ve been locked out of since early 2014, as Gov.-elect Glenn Youngkin, Lt. Gov.-elect Winsome E. Sears and Attorney General-elect Jason S. Miyares are sworn in....

Now only the state Senate, which was not on the ballot in November, will remain under Democratic control — and narrowly at that, with a 21-to-19 majority....

With hundreds of bills already filed, Republicans were clearly hoping to roll back much of what Democrats muscled through in the past two years, looking well beyond the “kitchen-table” issues that Youngkin and incoming House Speaker Todd Gilbert (R-Shenandoah) have called priorities.

Among the GOP bills are those to: prohibit local governments from banning guns from parks and government buildings; cancel a minimum wage hike — from $11 an hour to $12 — that’s scheduled to take effect next year; require women seeking an abortion to sign a written consent; require voters to show photo ID at the polls; cut the early-voting period from 45 days to 14 days; and repeal a state law requiring local school boards to follow the state’s lead on transgender-rights policies.

We all know that David Shor, the politcal consultant, recommends that Democrats practice "popularism."

... this comes down to a simple prescription: Democrats should do a lot of polling to figure out which of their views are popular and which are not popular, and then they should talk about the popular stuff and shut up about the unpopular stuff.... This theory is often short-handed as “popularism.”

At times, the "popularism" advice sounds like advice on how to stay alive in the world of the movie A Quiet Place. In that movie, murderous beasts kill people as soon as they're aware of their presence, which they discover through all but the slighest sounds. Step on a twig or speak above a whisper and you could be instantly killed. That's the way Shor and his admirers talk about Democrats who say anything that isn't wildly popular. Use the word "Latinx" (which hardly any Democrat does)? You could be killing the party!

But Republicans just do whatever the hell they want, and they never worry. Youngkin won the governor's race by less than 2 points, and the Republican majority in the House of Delegates is only 52 to 48. Under those circumstances, Democrats would be regularly admonished not to assume that the general public supports their agenda. But Republicans don't care if the general public supports their agenda. They just pursue it, no matter what. And they never worry that the monsters will get them.