Democratic candidates won all 30 of Northern Virginia’s seats in the Virginia House of Delegates on Tuesday as the party was set to significantly expand its 51-49 majority in the state’s lower chamber.
As of 11 p.m., Democrats had picked up 13 seats statewide, according to the Virginia Public Access Project. With only one race undecided, the Democrats will hold at least 64 of the 100 seats, the most they have held in nearly 40 years.
Half of NoVa is on furlough, so I imagine that influenced their voting a bit.
sometimes you just gotta be thankful that despite the ignorance and stupidity of the masses, cons really aren’t that smart beyond the most surface level propaganda
despite the ignorance and stupidity of the masses
:-/
I see this tossed out casually, as though we live in a world of correct answers that people aren’t picking rather than trade-offs that people aren’t agreeing on.
This rings very “bOtH sIdEs” to me. What are the trade-offs of slowing/stopping climate change? Ending racial discrimination? Unlimited corporate spending on political campaigns? These issues and many others have clear moral imperatives attached, and one side is completely morally bankrupt.
What are the trade-offs of slowing/stopping climate change?
Too numerous to list. You’re talking about fundamental changes to agriculture, transportation - both consumer and commercial, mining, construction, and energy production. Entire industries need to stop what they’re doing. Labor forces need to be fully repurposed. Whole new industries need to be developed to change how our post-industrial society functions.
And because the current state of play is designed to maximize private profits for a central group of very influential stakeholders, what we’re talking about isn’t a simple matter of consumer choices. Its a class conflict that echoes with some of the bloodest acts of state violence committed over the last 200 years.
Ending racial discrimination? Unlimited corporate spending on political campaigns?
You talk like the Civil Rights Movement isn’t over sixty years old. Or that there’s national political leadership that isn’t tainted in one way or another by corporate spending. This is obviously not a matter of individual consumerist choice (unless that individual is a trillionaire, and they’ve got some very strong incentives to continue both of the above).
These issues and many others have clear moral imperatives attached
But they still require enormous economic structural changes. Vanishingly few people in positions of authority seem interested in pursuing these changes.
Good. Now do what you were hired to do and serve and protect your people.
nah, they’ll just do fuck all until ten years from now when people change back to the turd sandwiches
10? Your optimistic. I dont even give it to the midterms before some voters forget, especially if trump starts a war, gives tax refunds or some other bullshit
This is obviously “good” but can someone help me understand how meaningful this is?
I presume this is a good indicator that the happenings in recent month have “activated” voters?
This is obviously “good” but can someone help me understand how meaningful this is?
Trump’s shutdown has fucked federal workers, and half of NoVa is either a federal worker, a contractor, or someone whose livelihood hinges on the above getting their next paychecks. This has royally fucked Northern Virginia specifically. So it would signal the GOP is eating shit for their national policy platform of “Eliminate the federal bureaucracy at all costs”.
But when you asking what kind of politicians are replacing the outgoing GOP reps? Well… consider the new Virginia Governor - Abigail Spanberger - spent the last week of her campaign condemning “Defund the Police” despite nobody asking her about it. These are still going to be Ivy League educated, ultra-nationalist, neoliberal hacks. And they’re going to be governing a population that gets its paychecks based on how many high explosive devices we ship to Israel and Saudi Arabia.
You’re getting the kind of politician that wants to put a Rainbow Flag sticker on the B-2 bombers that struck Iran. Folks who think school vouchers need to be means tested, but don’t instantly recoil at the idea of both a Christian and Muslim private school cashing the checks.
Virginia’s trading out a long and ugly legacy of Strom Thurmond-ism for a bright refreshing cup of Joe Biden-ism. Yay…
It’s amazing how mild of a statement has sparked 5 years of bipartisan backlash. Like, defund the police was the alternative to keeping letting them kill people or abolishing them or even holding them accountable for murders they commit. Just don’t give them a reward for highway robbery and murder
Maybe this turns out to be baby steps? We’ve seen the power of creeping change, maybe creeping progress is the antidote to the accumulated regressive rot.
That’s what I was promised under Obama. shrug I guess Americans are taking another bite at the apple.
Maybe if we didn’t elect Trump immediately after Obama, we would still be creeping in the right direction
Might be worth interrogating why Obama’s popularity tanked following his election.
We’ve seen the power of creeping change,
Uh… when, exactly? The past half century of American politics has been an unmitigated disaster on all fronts other than maybe LGBT rights.
That is exactly what I mean: The creeping erosion of rights and protections. Sudden change can lead to backlash by people who hate change, but slow change can dig far deeper hooks with less resistance. My pr-hope-osition is that this could work the other way too. If people aren’t ready for a full swing-around to progressive politics, maybe an iterative “slightly better” can ease them in.
Obviously, slow progress is agonising and we’d like things to get better quickly, but if it means coaxing formerly reactionary regressives out of their hole, maybe it’s a sensible approach for deep red areas.
If people aren’t ready for a full swing-around to progressive politics
Umm… they absolutely are. Almost every progressive policy position you can think of is supported by the majority of Americans. You’ll piss off reactionaries, but you’ll always piss off reactionaries; that’s why they’re reactionaries.
Sudden change can lead to backlash by people who hate change, but slow change can dig far deeper hooks with less resistance.
Realistically this only works one way. You can trick your average person into being the frog in the boiling pot, but the rich and powerful (aka the people you’re actually pissing off with progressive politics)? Absolutely not. They’re on to that stuff, that’s why progress always comes (or at least starts) with large movements and flashy acts of resistance; slow progress will simply fizzle into nothing or be rolled back faster than yuu can push for it. Also “you can have human rights but you have to Wait™” is always going to piss off people, who will flock to whoever promises (truthfully or not) to get them what they want now. People can tolerate incompetent leaders, but not ineffectual leaders.
It means that voting still matters. Even if intimidation, lying, and fear tactics from the other side steal some votes away… we can still win next November, and hopefully, November 2028.
You forget the ones who encourage sitting it out as a means of protest. Even if the candidates are both shit, your country needs you to pick a side. Remember: sometimes it’s not about endorsing the candidate, so much as it is to deny the other a seat in power. The system will function as it normally does, but the choice is very much yours. You don’t get to sit it out because you disagree with one or two bullet points, then whine about the next 4 years.
You don’t get to sit it out because you disagree with one or two bullet points, then whine about the next 4 years.
Oh fuck off. Some people dont want to take part in a political system that directly equates to genocide overseas
Ah, a “trump supporter by inaction”. You got us here.
In a winner-take-all election, anything less than a vote for the runner up is an endorsement of the winner.
You’re not “refusing to take part” in the election, you’re just voting “either is fine by me.”
anything less than a vote for the runner up is an endorsement of the winner
That’s not how elections work. You don’t know who the winner is going to be in advance, so there’s no way to knowingly vote for “the runner up” before the polls close. Nevermind the simple math of 50%+1, making your choice of Cuomo or Sliwa or a write-in for Eric Adams irrelevant once Mamdani’s crested half the voting pool.
And in Virginia? When Dems just took the map in a landslide? Being angry at someone who didn’t vote when your favorite Democrat just crossed the line with a 15-pt margin is deranged.
Essentially every winner-take-all election comes down to the establishment and the opposition. Either you like the team in charge and vote for them, want them replaced and vote for the most likely challenger, or find both choices equivalent and do something else with your vote.
NYC’s mayor election is a great example. Every adult who looked at polling knew that it would either be Mamdani or Cuomo, and those who still voted for someone else were communicating very effectively that both choices were equivalent to them.
Look, you can do whatever the hell you want to with your vote. Spoil it, waste it on a “third party” vanity campaign, or just skip the election. Just don’t pretend that your wasted vote is somehow not a declaration that whomever wins is as good to you as the runner up.
Essentially every winner-take-all election comes down to the establishment and the opposition.
Okay, so who filled these rolls in the NYC Mayor’s Race?
Every adult who looked at polling knew that it would either be Mamdani or Cuomo
That’s not what happened in the primary. And even in the general, Sliwa and Cuomo polled neck and neck after Adams dropped out.
Look, you can do whatever the hell you want to with your vote.
And then when your candidate loses you’re going to come back here and yell at me for voting wrong. Hell, even when you win, you’re yelling that I’ve voted wrong.
All I have to say is “I don’t like Dem Candidate X”. I don’t even need to tell you who I voted for. Somehow I’ve single handled ruined your favorite candidate’s election odds.
I know people who were convinced Sliwa was going to be the next NYC mayor, because Mamdani was in the primary ruining Cuomo’s chances.
I mean, I feel you. But you’re in this political system whether or not you pull the voting lever. Abstaining from elections doesn’t spare anyone’s life overseas.
Find the folks you can support and support them how you can. Hope for a brighter future. Hug your parents, your spouse, your kids, and your friends. That’s all anyone can be expected to do.
Your inaction is hurting people here. It’s hurting people like me. LGBTQ folks. By “not taking part” you’re sending a message to people trying to kill me that you don’t care if I die and they should just go for it…
So they should just hand it to the people that want to expand the genocide to their own country as well?
I care about the genocide in other parts of the world.
I also care about feeding our own people, having due process for everyone here, women’s rights, lgbt rights, immigration rights, Healthcare, government spending, employee rights, free speech rights, climate change etc etc etc
I care about the world, but I also know which candidates will fuck myself, friends, family and neighbors over. I have to vote for a nonperfect candidate sometimes to protect those around me. Until we have another alternative to first past the pole, it’s the system we have.
I also care about feeding our own people, having due process for everyone here, women’s rights, lgbt rights, immigration rights, Healthcare, government spending, employee rights, free speech rights, climate change etc etc etc
And you’ll never get these things by throwing Palestinians under the bus; that’s how solidarity works. Remember Abandon Harris? I mean, hello, Obama and Biden both deported millions of people throughout their terms, and Democrats are certainly not going to give you healthcare or do shit about climate change. If they don’t care about brown kids on the other side of the world, they don’t care about you. The people who do care about you tend to also care about brown kids on the other side of the world, so it’s either take on injustice at home and abroad or surrender to injustice both at home and abroad.
Do you ever listen to the flight safety briefings on planes? Mask yourself before anyone else during a crash. You have to be alive and conscious to help others.
Myself, family, friends, and neighbors in that order need to be protected and safe before I can put my full attention on other groups. That doesn’t mean I don’t care, I donate to orgs that can do those things. I will pick a less perfect candidate that will help protect those around me.
Would you vote for someone who calls out the genocide of the Palestinian people but would also destroy social services where you live that you might rely on?
I will pick a less perfect candidate that will help protect those around me.
And uh… are those around you protected now, or are they at the mercy of the Gestapo like everyone else in America? See my point now? There’s nothing such as protecting people in order; either everyone is protected or no one is. For example since we’re talking about Palestine, according to post-election polling Gaza playing a major role in costing Harris the election. You’re simply not special enough to be protected before everyone else; either you scratch others’ backs so they scratch yours or both you and others end up with itchy backs in a concentration camp. Genocidal warmongers are not going to protect you.
Would you vote for someone who calls out the genocide of the Palestinian people but would also destroy social services where you live that you might rely on?
First, I don’t want someone who calls out the genocide; I want someone who does something about it. Second, did you miss the part where I said injustice everywhere needs to be opposed? If such a person existed, I’d pressure them to change their position (before voting for them).
Another butt hurt tankie who still takes no ownership of the shit show they made 2025.
Lol.
Explanation please?
Bill Dukakis. Lol
And the Dearborn Michigan protest vote did what good exactly? Fuck everyone who did that
This. If the ones in power now were sane, they’d take this as an obvious signal that they should engage with their voters in order to re-consider their agendas and policies.
Hahahahahahahahahaha
Wait, let me breathe for a moment…
Bwahahahahahahahahahahahahahah
Yeah, this is just a start, and it’ll take a massive push to force those fascists out following this, since they’ll just double and triple-down until/unless they’re forcefully ejected from all seats of power.
Frankly voting at this point is more about getting committed progressives into positions of power where they can resist MAGA fascism. There’s no way the fascists will actually let you vote them out.
See? Liberals and leftists can work together.
Progressives and liberals can absolutely work together to rally against a common enemy. The fascists clearly are the bigger problem, if you’re not a fan of authoritarian oppression.
That “if” there is a big issue though, because “leftists” as such aren’t a single unified force. There is a vocal portion that evidently has no issue with authoritarian control. We don’t need to dig into reasons here, but I think it’s important to acknowledge that distinction.
All the more critical then is the visibility and unity of the democratic strains of leftism, standing shoulder to shoulder with other enemies of authoritarianism.
This is fairly meaningful for Virginia. There are only a few blue islands (major cities) in the state and last night we saw Dems sweeping votes in very red traditional Republican areas. I was looking at the maps last night astounded. Virginia is an old time type of prude/conservative but the fact that we also hold a lot of federal jobs played into this sweep in my opinion. People here are very pissed off and the younger folks really turned out.
Yeah, my dad is from there originally and moved back with my mom when they retired. A 15 point gap in the governor’s race is crazy. Democrats really expanded their map in the southeast around Norfolk and the lower peninsula. Some of those areas are rapidly developing, so I wonder how much it has to do with demographic shifts. Judging by the huge swings, I can’t see how Republican insanity isn’t driving some significant portion of this.
Vote like your life depends on it, cos it does.
Yeah Yeah Yeah
Nice.
