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EJ Dionne: Northam-Gillespie election is once in a lifetime.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-northam-gillespie-election-is-once-in-a-lifetime/2017/11/05/383680a4-c0d6-11e7-97d9-bdab5a0ab381_story.html?Will cross-post in "Editorials and Other Articles, " too. Excerpt:
. .
The contest between Democratic Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam and Republican Ed Gillespie matters for the state, of course, but its implications will be even larger for the nation. A Northam victory would send a signal to the country that President Trump is a severe drag on the GOP, especially if it were combined with Democratic pickups in the legislature. This would bolster the forces trying to contain Trump’s abuses and give heart to those doing the organizing work against him at the grass roots. It would tell Republicans in Congress that coddling and imitating Trump carry a high cost while strengthening Democratic efforts to recruit strong candidates for the 2018 midterms.
A win by Gillespie would convey exactly the opposite message. It would ratify the Republican candidate’s vile and dishonest campaign tying Northam to felons and criminal gangs. This, in turn, would lead to more ugly racial and anti-immigrant appeals by GOP candidates next year. The party would decide that playing around with a few of Trump’s more hateful themes was the way to go. The race to the bottom would continue. A Northam defeat would also demoralize Democrats, who up to now have had grounds for believing that anti-Trump sentiment has energized their side. Mobilization is the key, both on Tuesday and in 2018. A mediocre Democratic turnout in Virginia would bode ill for next year.
If Gillespie prevails, Trump will, for all these reasons, be very, very happy. Independents and Democrats who are thinking of staying home should ponder whether they really want to put a big smile on the face of a president who is busily tearing apart political norms and undermining a legitimate investigation into his campaign. . . This competition might have been a more congenial affair. Northam is a middle-of-the-road Democrat in a long Virginia tradition who inspires great loyalty among those who have worked with him. Gillespie is a former lobbyist and GOP operative who can be quite amiable and almost lost the GOP primary because he was not in the Trump mold.But Gillespie decided he could win only by injecting Trump’s poison into his campaign. The antidote to noxious politics of this sort is to defeat it.
A win by Gillespie would convey exactly the opposite message. It would ratify the Republican candidate’s vile and dishonest campaign tying Northam to felons and criminal gangs. This, in turn, would lead to more ugly racial and anti-immigrant appeals by GOP candidates next year. The party would decide that playing around with a few of Trump’s more hateful themes was the way to go. The race to the bottom would continue. A Northam defeat would also demoralize Democrats, who up to now have had grounds for believing that anti-Trump sentiment has energized their side. Mobilization is the key, both on Tuesday and in 2018. A mediocre Democratic turnout in Virginia would bode ill for next year.
If Gillespie prevails, Trump will, for all these reasons, be very, very happy. Independents and Democrats who are thinking of staying home should ponder whether they really want to put a big smile on the face of a president who is busily tearing apart political norms and undermining a legitimate investigation into his campaign. . . This competition might have been a more congenial affair. Northam is a middle-of-the-road Democrat in a long Virginia tradition who inspires great loyalty among those who have worked with him. Gillespie is a former lobbyist and GOP operative who can be quite amiable and almost lost the GOP primary because he was not in the Trump mold.But Gillespie decided he could win only by injecting Trump’s poison into his campaign. The antidote to noxious politics of this sort is to defeat it.
