Massachusetts Gets A Message of Hope From Sweden's Elections
The populist, Trump-esque party won a big victory in this weekend's Swedish elections. If it can happen there, it can happen in Massachusetts in November. Here's the why and how.
The political earth moved again yesterday. This time it was Sweden. The populists—the Trump Insurgency of Scandinavia if you will—was the biggest winner in Sunday’s parliamentary elections. As in the United States, the victorious movement is being labeled “right wing”, although I’m not well-versed enough in Swedish politics to know if “right wing” means anything more than believing men can’t get pregnant. But marketing labels aside, if the Insurgency can triumph in Sweden—the land of Greta Thunberg, with a deep socialist tradition—it can triumph anywhere in the United States. And that includes Massachusetts.
THE RACE
My home state went to the polls last week and nominated Geoff Diehl and Leah Cole Allen for governor and lieutenant governor. Diehl is the best GOP nominee for the Bay State governor’s chair in a long time. Massachusetts has had Republican governors—in fact, we have a retiring GOP incumbent right now. But they’ve always been close to indistinguishable from Democrats, save for the issue of fiscal restraint. Diehl is…well, he’s the real deal. He’s a Trump-backed insurgent aiming to knock off Democratic attorney general Maura Healey.
In terms of national perception, the Diehl-Healey race is not on anyone’s radar. Healey is heavily favored, with this being seen as the Democrats just restoring order in a state where every other notable office belongs to them. This view is supported by looking at primary turnout, where participation the Democratic primary exceeded that of the GOP primary by a margin of about 4-1.
But beneath the surface, the same tectonic plate shifts that just rattled Sweden show signs of breaking out in Massachusetts. New polling, while showing Healey with a comfortable lead, also shows that Diehl holds an advantage of 45 percent to 39 percent among voters who cite the economy as their key voting issue.
Let me repeat that—Diehl is ahead among voters who believe the economy is most important. This is not exactly an insignificant subject. Moreover, most voters will just now start to tune into the gubernatorial election. If there’s an upside to the underachieving Red Sox not being able to occupy our attention this October, it’s that maybe people can lock in on this race and not just let Healey coast in without scrutiny.
Even allowing that 4-1 edge in primary turnout, the far greater share of votes in November will come from independents who did not participate on September 6. To keep the math simple, if turnout is the same as the last gubernatorial election in 2018, if Diehl gets 60 percent of the vote from independents, this race is a dead heat. And if he can expand the electorate just a little bit, along the lines of what Trump did? That’s enough to win. The same poll linked to above shows Diehl with a lead among unenrolled voters.
I’m not saying it’s easy. I’m not saying he isn’t an underdog. What I am saying is that in this bluest of states—we’re the only state that doesn’t have a single red county—there is a path to victory. And that path is more doable than it might have been in other years.
THE ROAD MAP TO WINNING
Let’s start with Joe Biden. His approval rating among independents consistently clocks in at 30 percent and even lower. Suddenly, getting 60 percent of that voting bloc to turn on the nominee of Biden’s party—a threshold that would be virtually impossible in a normal year—suddenly looks doable. Joe Biden is truly the gift that doesn’t stop giving to Republican candidates.
But the work still has to be done. Maura Healey must be held accountable for everything Joe Biden does. Like today, Biden was in Boston and he declared that the United States was in the midst of “economic resurgence”. Maura Healey needs to be asked if she believes that. In the same way that Healey’s corporate media backers make sure to ask Diehl what he thinks on all things Trump, Healey needs to have Biden hung around her neck like the millstone that he is.
Then it’s time to talk about some very practical reasons why so many people in the Bay State, regardless of political philosophy, will be better off…
*Diehl has vowed an end to vaccine mandates and the rehiring of those who were lost jobs because of the mandates. He can only control government workers, but this kind of strong action from the governor will send a clear message to the private sector that enough is enough. It’s time to usher in the end of the COVID-19 era.
*Diehl believes parents should be the ones in charge of their children’s education, not the teacher’s unions. That’s a message that’s resonating even in blue states, after so many previously loyal Democratic voters watched the teachers union abandon them and their children during COVID-19. The power of parental control in education was underscored in Virginia’s 2021 governor’s race. While admittedly not as Blue as Massachusetts, the Republican candidate there still did very well in the moderately liberal suburbs of northern VA. Diehl can use the same issue to make inroads in Massachusetts.
*Furthermore, parental control of education and real school choice can be used to appeal to parents who might not be as flush with cash as Healey’s voting base in the immediate suburbs of Boston are (a very wealthy area, driven by the technology sector, and very into the “woke” agenda).
On Labor Day, we marched in a parade in nearby Marlboro to support the Diehl/Allen ticket. Marlboro is a middle-to-working class town and even on a day that unfortunately poured rain, you could see some of the Hispanic folks in the apartment complexes coming out to see the parade. Diehl and Allen, both present, went over to shake their hands. Those are people that might not be voting at all, if they are, they certainly haven’t been voting Republican. We need to reach them. We want them to be in charge of where their kids to go school.
*That brings us to another big point about the schools. The Diehl ticket is the one that can put an end to the “transgender” nonsense of boys pretending to be girls and strolling into their locker rooms or onto their sports teams. Parents of the middle and working classes have seen their kids thrust into schools, given no choice in which schools they go to, and then subjected to lunacy like this. Enough is enough.
And make no mistake—this is not only right morally, it’s a winning issue politically. A sizeable number of otherwise loyal Democrats think boys in girls locker rooms is obscene and boys on girls sports teams is insane and unfair. Maura Healey is completely wedded to the lunacy position on this issue. Geoff Diehl needs to make sure everyone in the state of Massachusetts knows it by November 8.
*Finally, we come down to the classic reason that Massachusetts voters have been curiously open to voting Republican in governor’s elections—fiscal restraint. Paying for what you spend is common sense under any circumstances. It’s even more of an imperative now, when increased spending threatens to pour gas on the fire of an inflationary economy.
Hammering all of this home—vaccine mandates, schools, protecting girls’ locker rooms and sports, and fiscal restraint can be a winning combination. If Diehl can get the message across, 60 percent of the independent vote, plus some new voters, is well within reach.
Dealing With Predictable Objections
Suffice it to say, Maura Healey and her virtually unanimous support from corporate media in the state aren’t going to let Diehl just make this case unchallenged. There are two issues that they will pound him on. Here’s how to handle them…
*The tie to Trump is the big one. He’s not popular here and on a personal level, I doubt he ever will be. His endorsement was key to winning the primary, but it has to be finessed in the general election. I think Allen handled this exceptionally well in an interview this past summer when she said that whatever you think of Trump personally, we were all better off under the Trump policy. That’s the right way to split the middle between people who might not like the Man from Mar-a-Lago the way some of us do, but do miss being able to afford groceries.
Directly related to the question of Trump are the questions about the legitimacy of the 2020 election. Every Republican candidate everywhere in the country better have their answer ready and better stick to their guns, whatever they may be. Diehl was asked about this just yesterday in an interview. He started off pretty well, citing the problems with mail-in ballots. But when his questioners pressed for a yes or no answer, you could see him getting pushed onto his back foot.
Look, regular readers know my answer to this question is easy—Heck yes, it was rigged. But the right answer in these interviews—and a perfectly legitimate one—is to say the following…
“I don’t know if it was rigged. I do know there were a lot of problems that started with mass mail-in balloting and at least the potential for fraud. Did enough fraud happen to change the outcome? I don’t know. That’s a question that has to be settled in the states that were at issue. Massachusetts isn’t one of those states, and I’ve been more interested in how to make life more affordable for people in this state rather than focus on voting issues in another state.”
If the candidate is pressed (which they will be), you follow up by saying the following…
“Look, if people are asking questions about the election, I think that’s fair. In fact, I seem to recall a whole lot of people just like you (the reporter) asking questions about the veracity of the vote in 2016. Nobody tried to shut you up. People have the right to ask questions. I have the responsibility, if elected as your governor, to promote a voting system that will make those questions unnecessary. That starts with getting rid of mail-in balloting.”
If the candidate is still further pressed (which they will be), it’s time to drop the hammer…
“I’m here to talk about issues affecting Massachusetts. Now, I’ve answered your question about 2020 and if you’re not satisfied with that answer I don’t know what to tell you. But there are people out there hurting right now. The cost of living is too high. From the grocery store to the gas station and back home again to turn on the heat, it just costs too much to live. I’ll be talking about that. You can talk about 2020. “
And then we’re done.
The other subject Diehl will be pressed in is abortion. He is pro-life. Maura Healey is pro-abortion. And just to be crystal clear, Healey is not pro-choice. The pro-choice position is that government should be neutral on the subject. I think that’s carrying libertarian thought much too far, as regular readers know. Healey is something different, something most modern-day Democrats have evolved into—she is openly in favor of putting government’s thumb on the scale and at least nudging woman towards having an abortion.
She’s openly attacked crisis pregnancy centers—places that do no political work at all, and simply provide clothing and other resources to pregnant women so they can afford, if they so desire, to choose life. Healey has backed subsidizing abortions with government money. There’s a difference between pro-choice and pro-abortion. Maura Healey is most definitely the latter.
Healey will seek to paint Diehl as the extremist. And let’s be honest, our views as pro-lifers are not (yet) the mainstream in Massachusetts. But even pro-choice people recoil at the idea of abortions in the third trimester. Even pro-choice people don’t necessarily think the government has to be using tax money that could go for roads and bridges--our roads here are terrible and I’m a guy who once lived in Pittsburgh—to pay for abortions. And even pro-choice people have a more edifying vision for their home state besides making it an abortion destination for people flying in from red states in the post-Roe era.
Leah Cole Allen provided the template for handling questions about abortion in the interview linked above. She was unequivocal that she was pro-life, while acknowledging the political realities of Massachusetts. You start there and then move into reminding voters of just how extreme Healey is, how outside even the pro-choice mainstream that she is. As pro-lifers, we have nothing to fear. We’re trying to work within the system and save as many lives as the current political climate will allow, while also using the power of persuasion to try and change that climate. Let’s not be defensive.
And in the big picture, let’s not be defensive about supporting the candidate of the Trump Insurgency right here in Massachusetts. To paraphrase Frank Sinatra, if we can win in Sweden then we can win right here.
WE CAN DO THIS
We are a state that is built on underdogs and seemingly hopeless causes winning. It was here that a band of colonists fired the first shots at the mighty British Empire. It was here that the abolitionist movement and Underground Railroad thrived and undermined slavery. It was right here in Massachusetts that the Irish, after centuries of poverty and oppression, found the way to prosperity.
And it wouldn’t be me if I didn’t also add this—we are the state where the Red Sox rallied from a 3-0 series deficit against the Yankees in 2004 and won a historic World Series title.
Now it’s time to do it again. Let’s put Geoff Diehl and Leah Cole Allen in the governor and lieutenant governor’s offices. Once the Blue Regime falls in Massachusetts, it’s finished everywhere in the United States.