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Gov. Abigail Spanberger, D-Va. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)

Jarrett Stepman / @JarrettStepman

Jarrett Stepman is a columnist for The Daily Signal. He is also the author of "The War on History: The Conspiracy to Rewrite America's Past." Send an email to Jarrett

Democrats run on “affordability,” spend their early days in power feverishly working to make sure they can never lose again, then rule like Mao.

It’s become clear that despite the deep unpopularity of the Left’s cultural and political agenda, Democrats have no intention of pivoting from peak wokeness. The activist class that the party depends on simply won’t allow it.

They want retribution, they want blood, they want to go back to all that fun persecution of political enemies that was so easy during the Biden years. A few Democrat officials have even admitted it.

Illinois’ Democrat Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s plan for 2029 is pretty openly just to arrest political enemies.

But some of his fellow party members are a little cleverer than this. They can’t just run on exacting retribution or the “I’m a democratic socialist and PROUD of it!” platform outside of blue bastions.

So, instead of yelling about how they will out-Stalin the old USSR, they’ve opted for a subtler approach that’s already paid dividends.

The first step is to campaign on the idea that they are moderates, an approach eagerly buttressed by the media that will label them as such.

Then, once in office, they’ll ruthlessly change the system to squelch popular backlash to far-Left policies, making the inevitable popular backlash irrelevant.

Longtime Democrat political strategist James Carville explained this approach in a recent, telling moment on his podcast.

“If the Democrats win the presidency and both houses of Congress, I think on day one, they should make Puerto Rico [and] D.C. a state, and they should expand the Supreme Court to 13. F— it. Eat our dust,” he said.

In case you wondered what the whole “D.C. Statehood” movement has been about from the beginning, there it is. To make up for Democrat states bleeding electoral votes because so many Americans have had enough of their ironically unaffordable policies, they need to add a few more to bail themselves out.

Then they’ll pack the Supreme Court so it’s filled with more Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson types who will ensure that the courts side with the Left no matter what the Constitution says.

Carville acknowledged that raw power grabs and telling voters to “eat our dust” isn’t exactly a winning campaign message. But there’s a way around this.

“Don’t run on it. Don’t talk about it. Just do it,” he said.

Just give the people the old bait and switch. It’s for “democracy,” of course. Congratulations, your somewhat purple city/state/country now is run like California.

Whether Democrats are listening to Carville or not, a few of them appear to have absorbed the message.

The “I’m a moderate focused on ‘X’ issue voters say they care about right now” schtick has worked well so far. It delivered big wins in New Jersey and Virginia, where the “affordability” message and a voter enthusiasm gap paid dividends.

Did Democrats actually have a plan to address affordability? LOL, of course not. Have you seen how they run the states they control? Affordability means they will shovel other people’s money at their loyal party supporters while everything becomes more expensive and less functional.

Oh, and let’s not forget the free transgender surgeries for homeless illegal aliens. That’s the blue state model.

With those early returns you won’t be able to say we couldn’t see what’s coming.

Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger and her new Democrat majority in the state have been relentlessly passing every leftist policy they can get away with, wiping out much of what former Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin did (or leaving things in place that don’t interfere with their agenda and taking credit for them).

They are doing so while producing the most absurdly gerrymandered political map in the country that will essentially disenfranchise the Republican voters who make up half the state.

Their only justification for doing this thing they said they were totally against until a moment ago is that they need to do it to stop President Donald Trump.

Virginia Senator Tim Kaine: ‘Our redistricting map does not represent Virginians, we just need it to stop Trump.’ pic.twitter.com/AO6g0qwSxX— Wall Street Mav (@WallStreetMav) April 19, 2026

Virginia Senator Tim Kaine: ‘Our redistricting map does not represent Virginians, we just need it to stop Trump.’ pic.twitter.com/AO6g0qwSxX

And if you think Virginia’s problems will stay in Virginia, Spanberger has signed the commonwealth up for the unconstitutional National Popular Vote. They don’t just care about what happens within state borders, they are looking ahead to grab what they hope will be unassailable national power in the future, too.

Their intentions couldn’t be clearer. And, in a way, that’s a blessing.

Democrats are giving the country an early warning sign that what they say on the campaign trail has little relation to what they do in office.

They intend to say whatever is necessary to win, hand governance off to their rabid left-flank, then pull the ladder up behind them so you can’t stop them now or in the future.

Don’t say you weren’t warned.

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Read the first chapter of The Woketopus right now for FREE

Today, even with President Trump’s victory, leftist elites have their tentacles in every aspect of our government.

The Daily Signal’s own Tyler O’Neil exposes this leftist cabal in his new book, The Woketopus: The Dark Money Cabal Manipulating the Federal Government.

In this book, O’Neil reveals how the Left’s NGO apparatus pursues its woke agenda, maneuvering like an octopus by circumventing Congress and entrenching its interests in the federal government.

You can read the first chapter of this new book for FREE in this eBook, The Woketopus: Chapter One using the secure link below.

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