Tell me I'm wrong about the messages Virginia voters sent

[Apollo Zeus]

75. I think you would have to look at exit polling to reach any conclusions

CRT seems to have been a factor and what that points to is something that has been a problem for Dems since at least 2016.

"You can't reason a person out of a position they didn't reason themselves into." IOW, people take positions based on emotions and the longer they hold those positions the more it seems true to them.

Real CRT:
- is graduate level college cirriculuum
- is primarily focused on law and race, not "history"
- seeks to link cause and effect through careful study

Virginia CRT:
- was created as a wedge issue
- means (to those voters) 'teach white kids to feel guilty'
- is fear-based (emotion, not reason)
- fits perfectly into white paranoia, especially in southern states where statues are coming down

The issue was designed to rally the GOP base and put Dems on the defensive. The Dems did not effectively counter the fake-CRT issue -- they tried to counter it with "Trump bad" and "racism bad." Both of which are true but the 2 mistakes are 1) not using a similar tactic and appropriate issue to put the GOP on defense, and 2) not messaging in a way that engages voter's emotions including fear.

A basic marketing technique that works even better in politics than in sales is "Listen to the customer (voter) and then speak back to them using the words and phrases they used." So you can't engage with those voters and give them a college-level lecture on what CRT really is. They won't sit still for it and even if they did it doesn't counter the emotion-based messaging they are getting from the other side.