Play Moderate, Rule Progressive: The New Dem Playbook

On Virginia’s gubernatorial campaign trail, Abigail Spanberger showed real acting chops.

The former CIA spook and congresswoman made a great show of how moderate she was in the face of withering attacks from Republican Winsome Earle-Sears. Spanberger trotted out her cop dad to tout her law-and-order credentials, claimed she would be a bipartisan governor for all Virginians, and (mostly) avoided stepping into electoral landmines like transgenderism and illegal immigration.

But the second Spanberger took office, the mask fell off. The true extent of her liberal views immediately became clear.

One of Spanberger’s first official acts as governor was to enmesh the state in a blatantly unconstitutional Electoral College runaround. By joining the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, Spanberger proved immediately her disdain for the Founding Fathers and the electoral system that has helped keep this country together for two and a half centuries.

Not content to simply trample the Constitution, Spanberger then attempted to end political representation for her rural residents by endorsing a gerrymandered congressional map that would remove all but one of the state’s Republican national representatives. Despite explicitly stating on the campaign trail she had “no plans” to redistrict Virginia were she to become governor, she was quick to approve and then campaign for a hyper-partisan map.

Spanberger isn’t much better when it comes to domestic affairs, deciding that authoritarian gun control bills from the Virginia House of Delegates weren’t tyrannical enough. The bills contained the normal Democratic priorities: “assault weapons” bans, magazine limits, and raising the age to buy a handgun from 18 to 21. But those weren’t enough for Spanberger, who sent the bills back to the House with several stricter amendments.

How about Spanberger’s decision to cut state ties with federal immigration enforcement? Was that the action of a moderate?

But then again, Spanberger has always been a radical. During her three terms in Congress, she consistently aligned with the most far-left elements of the Democratic Party. Heritage Action for America consistently placed her with progressives on its annual Congressional Scorecard.

She’s against any limits on abortion; called climate change “one of the greatest and most imminent threats to our economy, our national security, and our way of life”; and supports men in women’s locker rooms and sports.

Yet, she was able to coast to victory in the gubernatorial election by hiding her radical views behind a smokescreen of centrist language.

In Spanberger, Democrats see a clear strategy going forward: play moderate, rule progressive.

Americans hate the leftist policies popular with Democrat activists. Indeed, following the litany of radical policies enacted by Spanberger, her popularity with Virginia voters tanked. She currently sits at a measly +1 approval rating, making her the Old Dominion’s least popular governor in nearly three decades. 45% of voters think her views are too liberal.

But it doesn’t really matter; Spanberger already has what she wants. She’s in the governor’s mansion until 2030, giving her plenty of time to shove through radical legislation. It will be difficult to decouple Virginia from the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, rescind the draconian gun control laws, and un-gerrymander the congressional map.

The new Democrat strategy is to pretend to be a moderate, then make as many radical changes as possible before the pendulum swings back to give Republicans power. They’re not particularly subtle about this plan, either.

Infamous Democrat consultant James Carville said as much on his podcast earlier this month, arguing that if Democrats take power in 2028, they should make Puerto Rico and D.C. states as well as pack the court. But rather than openly campaign on that plan, Carville advised, “Don’t run on it. Don’t talk about it. Just do it.”

The American public cannot trust the Democratic Party when its members claim to be moderates. They have proven time and again that, regardless of the promises made on the campaign trail, it is radical activists who dictate the policy when they take power. Unconstitutional power grabs, trampling civil rights, wildly degenerate social policy. These are the fruits of Democrat governance.

Virginia was the testing ground. Now the strategy goes national.

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