A seminal event in history is one in which future developments are generated. The circumstances of the incident may at the time seem benign or even hopeful. Yet, a more comprehensive review of history will conclude that the occurrence was instrumental to a greater outcome.
The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife on June 28, 1914, sparked the beginning of World War I. The Austria-Hungary government believed that the Serbians had orchestrated the attack with Bosnian terrorists. Austria reacted to the killing of the royal couple as a direct attack on their country. This led to Austria declaring war on Serbia. Peace in Europe collapsed.
On September 30, 1938, to appease the demands of Adolph Hitler and German aggression, Neville Chamberlain, Prime Minister of Great Britain, negotiated the Munich Agreement by which Czechoslovakia was forced to surrender the Sudeten region to Nazi Germany. Prime Minister Chamberlain returned to London and declared the famous line, “Peace for our time.” Less than a year later on September 3, 1939, Great Britain and France declared war on Germany in response to Nazi advances on Poland.
The Cuban Missile Crisis began on October 16, 1962. Upon the discovery of Soviet missiles on Cuban soil, John F. Kennedy, President of the United States, ordered a naval blockade of the island. In direct confrontation with the Soviet Union, an international crisis was avoided when both nation-states agreed to de-escalation and a new nuclear treaty agreement.
Today, November 2, 2021, the sovereign state of Virginia is holding elections for governor. Vying for the chair are Democratic veteran Terry McAuliffe and Republican newcomer Glenn Youngkin. It is the next fateful seminal event in U.S. history. The unfolding events in the aftermath of this election, are yet to be recorded. But its impact on the 2022 U.S. election cycle will affect America and the rest of the world through systemic and cultural results.
Seminal events are normally the culminating factor resulting from societal pressures that have been building for years. These events are the “straw that breaks the camel’s back” allowing the pressure of one component force to find its equilibrium option of power in the natural societal order. In the case of the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand, royal bloodlines in conflict reacted personally. In the case of the Munich Agreement, a disingenuous Hitler used the accord to buy time to prepare for war. In the case of the Cuban Missile Crisis, cooler heads prevailed and defaulted to a Cold War recognizing the futility of nuclear conflict. In the case of the Virginia gubernatorial election, posturing has begun for advantage in the 2022 federal elections.
The cause, effect, and reaction to seminal events change the course of history.
Starting tomorrow morning, history will capture the determinative actions taken by government officials and political party operatives that will dramatically impact America’s constitutional government.
Most Americans see today’s Virginia election as a typical off-year election. It is not. There are three raging debates in Congress currently at the point of combustion. The subjects of debate are a $3.5 trillion social infrastructure bill that will redesign American society, a $1.1 trillion physical infrastructure bill to fix roads, bridges and airports, and a voting rights bill to fundamentally revamp the authority for the conduct of federal elections. The only one of these pieces of legislation that has bipartisan support is the physical infrastructure bill.
Progressives see this election cycle as life or death for the ideology in which they believe: government management of all national resources, including financial, and redistribution of wealth pursuant to their vision of equality. They are willing to sacrifice, on the altar of socialism, any compromise for incremental bipartisan success. Purity of principle is the mission. Why? Because they believe their time is now to exert power for the future tends to reflect dimly on their philosophy.
The latest NBC-Wall Street Journal poll finds that 71% of the American public believes the country is on the wrong track. What is unprecedented in this number is that a majority (54%) of Democrats agree. What’s most alarming according to Meet the Press is that, by a plurality of 21%, Americans believe that Republicans are better at getting things done. President Biden did something last week that was startling to political scientists. He went on national TV, presented his scaled-down social infrastructure bill of $1.85 trillion, and begged his own party to pass it before he attended the climate summit in Scotland. Democrats in Congress failed to act. It is one thing for a President to use the bully pulpit to strongarm Congress or the opposing party. It is rare for a President to plead for mercy from his own party.
Two things stand as obstacles to Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s agenda. One is a moderate Senator by the name of Joe Manchin of West Virginia, and the other is the rule of filibuster (60 vote rule) in the United States Senate. Both impediments may actually hinge on Senator Manchin.
Back to the Virginia election and its role as a seminal event.
If Mr. McAuliffe loses today, the national news media will declare the results a referendum on President Biden’s administration. Activists will declare that, because Virginia did not have universal mailout ballots with no signature verification, the election was unfair.
If Mr. McAuliffe wins, the rift between moderates and progressives in the Democratic party will continue to be the fulcrum on which the balance of power in Congress teeters.
The Democratic candidate for governor, Terry McAuliffe, is not the usual candidate. He chaired both Bill Clinton’s and Hillary Clinton’s campaign for President. He is a businessman. He was the Governor of Virginia in 2014. He represents an image for the Democratic party that links the past to former President Obama before the emergence of the Bernie Sanders progressives came into such a position of prominence. He is the bridge that gives the party emblematic standing for the elections in 2022.
Mr. McAuliffe is likely to lose today because of his doubling down on the policy that parents should not be the paramount influence on the curriculum taught in public schools. A new political term is emerging, “school board moms.” If he loses, as is expected, campaign operatives have nowhere to turn for a sustaining theme and message to carry progressive candidates in the off-year elections. Their only hope is to break filibuster and pass the voting rights act (H.R. 1).
Discussions are underway behind the scenes to carve out an exception from filibuster on the protocol that no constitutional right can be abridged by filibuster restraints. H.R. 1 eliminates U.S. citizenship as a requirement to vote for federal offices. Every citizen’s vote should be cast, not just for themselves, but for the good of their country. Non-citizens, depending on their length of time in the country, will be challenged in meeting this dual moral imperative.
The strategy being proffered is to pass an infrastructure bill in exchange for the one-time exception of filibuster to pass H.R. 1.
Taking away the authority from the states to determine qualifications and process to vote for federal office will wreak havoc in our democracy and the relationship between the federal government and the states as a republic. Red states will push back to the point of ignoring certain laws, placing the country in potential constitutional crisis.
We are living in a time where great pressures behind the scenes are building to the point of explosive destruction. The ideological forces generating the pressures must be defused through respect of the Constitution and the determinative “compromise of the ballot box.” If the respect for the will of the people is denied through subterfuge, then one force will become dominant over the other, destroying national common purpose. War may ensue if righteousness is to be protected.
We are living in a time of seminal events. The United States must not ever be confused in its obligation to protect the integrity of its election system as the model for the world.
My name is Marc Nuttle and this is what I believe.
What do you believe?
