It was the 2015 college football season when my alma matter, Georgia Southern University, had tied against the University of Georgia at the end of regulation when they went into overtime at 17-17. If you know another about Georgia football back then, Mark Richt, head football coach at UGA was seriously despised by almost all Bulldog fans. And it was typical of UGA fans. They only like someone until he out serves their purpose, i.e. one of the bigger bowl wins or a championship.
That being said, fans were celebrating the win in OT at 23-17 as if it was the Rose Bowl or the Super Bowl. UGA fans needed that win so bad. If they lost to Georgia Southern, which also defeated Florida, one of their rivals, two years earlier, they would live with that stigmata for years. It didn’t matter that two years had passed. If they lost to someone who defeated Florida, they were lower. That’s the way many football fans feel.
Republicans are cheering the election of Glenn Youngkin over Terry McAuliffe for the governor’s seat in Virginia. It wasn’t a blowout. Youngkin as of this posting only received 50.9 percent of the vote. The tally with 95 percent of the precinct is 1,658,691 over 1,579,403 with less than 80,000 votes for Youngkin.
It seems 80,000 votes in the Electoral College put Donald Trump in the White House. It’s not something to really celebrate especially since Phil Muprhy, a Democrat, won the New Jersey gubernatorial race with a 1,271,272 votes over incumbent Jack Ciatterelli, who received, 1,214,732, which is 56,540 votes. And Ciattarelli is taking a page from Trump’s notebook and refusing to concede.
As Yogi Beara said, it’s like deja vu all over again.
It seems we’re going to do this dance every time a Democrat wins and every time a Republican wins. When the Democrats win, they talk about fraud at the polls and call the Democrats cheaters. Whenever the Republicans win, they talk about how awful this means for the Democrats.
One win isn’t going to mean in 12 months that Republicans are going to coast through the next election and pick up more seats. Ciattarelli’s behavior may be hurt the party more. It might be the excessive celebration penalty that can cost the Republicans more seats.
The thing people don’t realize Youngkin and the Republicans in Virginia used critical race theory as their means of attracting voters. In other words, they use the notion of teaching Virginia youth that the Virginia elders may be racists. I’m sure a lot of people in Virginia who called their grandparents “Pepaw” and “Mamaw” already know just how racist their ancestors are. This is still part of Appalachia no matter how many Beltway people have chosen the northern area near D.C. as their home. You can spruce up any metropolitan area to erase any memories of men with no teeth telling Ned Beatty to squeal like a pig or families getting in bloodbath over a stolen pig for that matter.
But there are still a lot of people in Virginia scared shitless of the fears of communism, reverse racism and so forth. The last thing they want is Kamala Harris becoming President of the United States. Winning by bigotry, racism and white supremacy isn’t exactly a win. Youngkin was right to keep Trump as far away as fucking possible from his campaign, but the same bigots and racists that voted for Trump voted for him. And even though President Biden carried Virginia, a lot of them just wanted Trump gone.
So, what does this mean? Absolutely nothing. One Republican wins. One Democrat wins. Win some, lose some. That’s politics.
We’re not out of the woods yet with Covid and it’s highly likely for the next few years, this might become a seasonal thing like the flu. On the same day, the Republicans were celebrating in Virginia, they were being mocked as in Dealey Plaza in Dallas, many of them were expecting John F. Kennedy Jr. to rise from somewhere.
JFK Jr. is dead. There isn’t even a decomposing body in a coffin. He was cremated and his ashes were scattered at sea. He is long gone. May he rest in peace. I’m sure there’s not one single ash left of him.
At the same time, Republicans are screaming “Let’s go, Brandon!” which is a euphemism for “Fuck Joe Biden!” This was chanted on Oct. 2 at a NASCAR Xfinity Series race where Brandon Brown was being interviewed and people began to chant “Fuck Joe Biden!” The news reporter trying to change it up said they were saying, “Let’s go Brandon!”
So, they’re using a made-up chant to stand in for another made-in chant that was only said because someone didn’t want to cut the live feed. It’s not even creative as saying, “Sugar Honey Iced Tea” when you mean to curse, “Shit!” Even people who say “Shut the front door!” sound more creative than people who chant “Let’s go Brandon!” especially when a lot of people still don’t know what that means. And it doesn’t make sense. Try explaining it to someone.
It’s like The Simpsons episode where George H.W. and Barbara Bush move across the street and tensions rise that Bush puts up a Two Bad Neighbors sign and people don’t understand who it’s implying. It’s an in-joke that you have to explain to people who are supposed to be in on it. In other words, it makes no sense.
The more Ciattarelli contests the election and the more all these conspiracy QAnon people think JFK Jr. is going to magically appear in places with the authority to re-instate a President that was voted out, the less of a win Youngkin seems, especially since he ran on bigotry. How many people will be 18 by next November or didn’t get to vote in 2020 are shaking their heads eagerly hoping to put a stop to all this?
How may more people will die due to Covid over the next year which could have voted for Republicans or Democrats? We may never know. All I know is the next two or three general elections are the most important for Republicans. Their voters are dying, either due to Covid or old-age. They need to convince a younger generation that the Civil War WASN’T about slavery. Ironically, the more they talk about it, the more they’re going to get younger minds interested in the history they didn’t learn in school.
In conclusion, after that win, UGA got rid of Richt. Yes, he won. But he won a game just barely and people were expecting it to be a blowout. And as Beara also said, “It’s not over until it’s over.”
Zane Says 