Projection is defined as “the process of displacing one’s feelings onto another person, animal, or object.” For example, if someone continuously bullies and ridicules someone else about his or her insecurities, the bully more than likely is projecting their own struggle with self-esteem onto the other person. Projection subconsciously allows the difficult trait(s) of the one projecting to be addressed without the individual recognizing that it resides in themselves.
For years, as a member of the Republican Party, I have been called everything from a “deplorable,” “garbage,” but perhaps the one that offends me the most is the accusation that my political party and I, by association, are “Fascist.” Having been in the military and traveled behind the former Iron Curtain, those who throw around the term fascism have no concept or clue of what constitutes true Fascism. Sort of like the Supreme Court’s longstanding definition of pornography, e.g., “you know it when you see it,” until you have experienced true Fascism, those that flippantly throw around the term have no clue of what they are talking about.
In a true fascistic state, you are often imprisoned without the writ of habeas corpus e.g. requiring a person under arrest to be brought before a judge or into court to secure the person’s release unless lawful grounds are shown for their detention; you have no freedom of speech and anything you say against the state could result in your indefinite incarceration; and the state owns the means of production.
Well, back to projection and its continued use by those who call those on my side of the aisle, “Fascists.” Historically, the power of projection has been utilized not to merely malign the opposition but to condition acceptance among the populace. By denouncing certain actions or ideologies of the opposition, the accuser may actually normalize the immoral behavior for his or her political party.
While Joseph Goebbels is often credited with the mastering the art propaganda, the persuasive power of projection is embedded in Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf – “denounce in your opponent what you intend to do yourself.” Hitler recognized early on that projection is a highly effective tool to distract, manipulate, and shape public perception of an enemy either actual or perceived.
The effectiveness of projection underscores the importance of critical thinking in our society, a function that was once performed by our mass media or “fourth estate” but sadly no longer. Projection, unfortunately, is highly effective in today’s 24 hours plugged in society because we have been conditioned to allow others to think for us and apply little to no intellectual rigor to the information that is constantly fed into our psyche.
So how effective is the power of projection? I would say pretty convincing – one only look at New York city where the political party who constantly calls me a “Fascist” just elected a socialist and I would contend a border line Communist to be its next mayor. Beware Socialism NOT Fascism is coming to a neighborhood near you.
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Virginia Republicans in disarray, pointing fingers, snapping at each other like a pack of hyenas.
In Virginia, it’s Republicans’ turn to be lost in the wilderness, and they’re spreading blame for their drubbing.
Many say lackluster gubernatorial candidate Winsome Earle-Sears was deeply flawed and didn’t focus enough on the economy. Some accuse popular GOP Gov. Glenn Youngkin of failing to use more of his war chest to boost candidates. Others complain that the state party failed to employ an aggressive strategy — and a group of county party chairs is considering calling for the resignation of the Virginia Republican Party chair.
Basically, they blame everyone but President Donald Trump.
“They just smoked us. I mean, gosh, they wiped us off the map,” said Tim Anderson, a Republican who lost a House of Delegates race in the battleground Virginia Beach. “It’s going to take four years to rebuild what happened on Tuesday.”
Anderson, who was elected to the House in 2021, said Earle-Sears’ lack of a “motivational message that excited voters to get off the couch” doomed Republicans running at every level, who were already facing political headwinds caused by DOGE-inflicted federal job losses, along with the government shutdown.
It’s a warning sign for Republicans across the nation ahead of the 2026 races, especially without Trump atop the ballot. The GOP lost decisively Tuesday in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, California and Georgia, including in some reliably red areas — a shellacking that signals problems for the party as Democrats turn out in droves against Trump and his policies. Democrats are simultaneously trying to move past their own intraparty turmoil and continue hammering America’s affordability problem.
“The economy was the No. 1 issue,” said former Virginia Rep. Tom Davis, a Republican. “And having people talking about trans rights and the like isn’t what was moving the needle. [The message] needed to address the economy at this point, and I think the administration and Republican Congress need to give that focus to get this midterm under control.”
In the final weeks of the campaign, Earle-Sears blanketed the airwaves with ads characterizing Spanberger as being for “they/them”, echoing messaging from Trump’s 2024 campaign.
“The majority of Virginia voters don’t like the president, and many of them have a visceral hatred for him and his governing style,” said DJ Jordan, a GOP strategist referring to Democratic voters who served as chief of staff for Jason Miyares, the attorney general who lost to a scandal-clad Democrat on Tuesday. Jordan was referring to Democratic voters.
Republicans are still unwilling to criticize Trump or his policies, but some conceded that the Democratic base was energized in opposition to the president.
“The state is a blue state, and the fact that we were running while Republicans are in the White House, history shows that that is not a recipe for success,” said a Republican strategist who was involved in the races and was granted anonymity to speak freely.
But Tuesday’s results dealt a deeper blow to the party than anticipated. Earle-Sears, who lagged in fundraising and never earned Trump’s direct endorsement, lost to Abigail Spanberger by 15 points, the largest victory by a Democrat in Virginia in decades and a bigger margin than most polls predicted. Though he fell short of victory, Miyares — the party’s best hope at pulling off an upset — brought in some ticket-splitters after Democrat Jay Jones was dragged down by a texting scandal.
“This blew past our worst case scenario of everything,” said a Republican who worked on some of the races.
In perhaps the biggest setback for the party’s long-term future, the GOP lost 13 seats in the House of Delegates, putting Democrats on a glide path to enact their agenda in Richmond — including mid-cycle redistricting to counter Trump’s push to make congressional maps more favorable to Republicans. Five of those state seats won by Democrats went for Trump in 2024, a sign of dissatisfaction among some Republican voters.
“They should have seen this coming,” said Loudoun County GOP Chair Scott Pio, who believes the party should have focused more on converting new voters than simply turning out the base. “Their strategy was quite ineffective and it shows. Now Virginia is a terribly blue state.”
Loudoun County is often considered an exurban swing county in the state.