One: Tying every Republican to Trump doesn’t work. Donald Trump was an outlier in many ways — and everyone knows this. The widespread attitude in the media and among Democrats that Trump was a uniquely pernicious threat to the Constitutional order and to other norms can not, a year after Trump’s defeat, be turned inside out. “Oh, did we say Trump was uniquely dangerous? Actually he’s just like every other Republican. They’re all the same. Our Republic is in danger if you don’t vote Democrat.” Youngkin is a normal suburban-friendly Republican, and yet McAuliffe built his campaign around hysterical suggestions that Youngkin was Trump in fleece. This fooled no one. President Biden came to McAuliffe’s aid to argue, “Extremism can come in many forms. It can come in the rage of a mob driven to assault the Capitol. It can come in a smile and a fleece vest.” So: all Republicans are like the Capitol Hill mob.” Uh-huh.

Two: the Democrats’ strategy of pumping up turnout in the base by tarring Republicans as racists doesn’t appear to be a great idea going forward. The more you cry racism, the less potent the charge becomes. Democrats should acknowledge that Critical Race Theory and related teachings about the supposed ultra-prevalence of white supremacy are themselves extremist, and racist, approaches to American history and culture.