With 5 Days to Go Until State and Local Elections, Virginia Republicans’ Closing Argument Is…STOP THE TRUMP IMPEACHMENT

Devoid of positive ideas, a vision for Virginia, or anything whatsoever to offer on education, health care, gun violence prevention, the climate crisis, you name it, Virginia Republicans have gone with a two-pronged strategy:

1. On the one hand, they’ve gone with the wildly dishonest, ultra-cynical strategy of pretending they’ve never heard of Trump or the word “Republican.” Instead, they’re pretending to be “moderates” or even Democrats, in order to diminish the harm of being associate with the toxic Trump Republican brand. Clever, eh?
2. Simultaneously, they’ve gone completely hysterical and hard right in their paid communications and right-wing radio interviews, “invoking hot-button issues such as abortion and immigration that Republicans had largely avoided as they attempted to soften their connection to an unpopular President Trump,” and engaging in an unhinged campaign of xenophobia, demonization against Democrats (or as they call us, “SOCIALISTS!”).

As an example of the second prong of Virginia Republicans’ strategy, check out the following mailer by the VA GOP, which frames the 11/5 election as all about “Stop[ping] The Impeachment Witch Hunt.” Note the GOP’s continued demonization of two powerful Democratic WOMEN – Hillary Clinton and Nancy Pelosi – with the mailer putting them in, what else?, witches’ hats. As for the image of Rep. Adam Schiff, that’s just weird, as I doubt the vast majority of people receiving this mailer even recognize who he is.

Note, by the way, that none of the people featured in this mailer are on the ballot in Virginia next Tuesday, nor is impeachment, as these are all state legislative/local elections. But it *is* very telling that the Virginia GOP thinks the top issue Virginians care about is whether or not Trump is impeached, and that they actually think that voting Republican for House of Delegates or State Senate will have any bearing whatsoever on that.  Again, though, if you’re a party with nothing positive to offer, certainly nothing that’s popular with voters, I suppose you don’t have a lot of good options. Ha. Seriously, though, this coming Tuesday, make sure you tell the Virginia GOP what to do with trash mailers like this…by a) voting and b) voting Democratic up and down the ballot!