This morning, following yet another special election defeat, chastised Democrats are doing a lot of soul searching as to why voters keep rejecting their message.
Ha, just kidding! They’re calling voters “toxic bigots.”
First up: Feminist Jill Filipovic, who is not happy at all that Karen Handel has shattered a “glass ceiling” by becoming the first woman from Georgia elected [Correction: First Republican woman] to the U.S. House of Representatives:
Reactions:
A few random tweets on the subject:
Jim Geraghty wonders exactly where Democrats can win:
Democrats and progressives were convinced they had a chance to win this race, and the fact that they didn’t suggests that their real problem is that they don’t actually know where they can win. They’re walking around with a false sense of their own electability — just seven months after they were convinced Hillary Clinton would win the 2016 election easily.
Yes, there’s a lot of road ahead, and there will be easier districts for Democrats to win in 2018. But when you add up all the spending and use the most recent numbers reported in the New York Times, it calculates to a $9 million advantage for the Democrats. ($23.6 million raised by Ossoff + $7.6 million spent by outside groups preferring him = $31.2 million; $4.5 million spent by Handel + $18.2 million spent by outside groups preferring her = $22.7 million.)
If you fall short in an open-seat special election, in a district Trump barely carried, with a candidate who avoids gaffes and with a giant spending advantage . . . just where the heck are you going to win?
Democrats show show no sign of learning a lesson from this defeat: “I don’t think Democrats understand that their *Resistance* strategy is not working. But they are so emotionally invested in it, they can’t see their way out.”
Another big loser from last night: Planned Parenthood. “By tacking a $735,000 price tag onto Ossoff’s failed effort, Planned Parenthood has revealed its own futility at influencing elections.”
Six reasons Democrats lost GA-6. Including carpetbagging and nationalizing the race with outside money. “Ossoff received more money from California than Georgia. Voters took it as an insult, and acted accordingly.” Also: “The GA-6 may be an upscale, suburban district, but voters there still aren’t interested in Alyssa Milano’s take on politics.” (Hat tip: Big Gator 5’s twitter feed.)
Will the harsh glare of reality finally penetrate Democrats’ elaborate fantasy world? “Our Brand Is Worse Than Trump.” That’s from Democratic Rep. Tim Ryan of Ohio.
Mr. Ryan, who tried to unseat Ms. Pelosi, Democrat of California, as House minority leader after the November elections, said she remained a political drag on other Democrats. Ms. Handel and Republican outside groups tied Mr. Ossoff to Ms. Pelosi in campaign events and television ads, casting him as a puppet for what they described as her liberal agenda and “San Francisco values.”
“They’re still running against her and still winning races, and it’s still a problem,” Mr. Ryan said.
More on the same theme: “Republican operatives say that 98 percent of voters in the 6th District already had an impression of Pelosi when they conducted their first internal poll, and she was 35 points underwater. When presented with the choice of whether they wanted a representative who would work with Paul Ryan or Pelosi, six in 10 picked the Speaker and three in 10 picked the minority leader.” (Hat tip: Stephen Green at Instapundit.)
As long as Democrats’ desire to win elections takes a backseat to their need for moral preening over their own “tolerance” and their emotional need to label voters who reject their policies as racists and bigots, expect them to continue losing elections…