Even before the results of Virginia’s gubernatorial election were decided, it seemed clear that the Democrats were headed towards disaster in the 2022 midterm elections. But now that Glenn Youngkin has been declared the winner, the Democrats’ fate is essentially sealed.

Even though President Joe Biden won Virginia by 10 points in 2020, both Youngkin and Lt. Governor-elect Winsome Sears managed to eke out significant victories. Anyone paying attention to politics over the past few years will not be surprised by these results.

However, it is not just Youngkin’s victory that serves as a preview for what we can expect this time next year. In New Jersey, the gubernatorial race has not yet been decided despite the fact that incumbent Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy was favored to win the race. Even if he retains his seat, the closeness of this particular race is not a great sign for Democratic Party.

However, the results in Virginia cannot be ignored. The Associated Press noted:

In Virginia, governors are limited to a single term and elections are held in odd-numbered years, making it the go-to gauge of voter sentiment before midterms. It usually is a warning for the party in power in Washington and this year was no different.

The author of the piece also seems to realize that McAuliffe’s loss is an indicator of what will happen next year. He wrote:

Democrats have only a five-vote margin in the House and a single-vote margin in the Senate. Historically, the party in power almost always loses seats in Congress. But if 2022 nationally is anything like Virginia 2021, Democrats will lose a lot more than normal.

What this particular race reveals about the overall political landscape is that the Democrats’ usual line of attack is no longer effective. It exposed serious flaws in the left’s approach to winning over the public.

During the campaign, McAuliffe, like his fellow Democrats in Congress and the White House, attempted to make Trump the issue. He constantly attempted to connect Youngkin to Trump and the type of fringe elements who participated in the riot at the U.S. Capitol. It seems at least some on the left recognize that this is a mistake. A Democratic operative told CNN that “McAuliffe relied too much on Trump in absence of anything else” and that this “was a mistake.”

However, there is another element of yesterday’s results that is flying under the radar. One of the issues on which people voted demonstrated that the hard left’s anti-police agenda is not popular with the American public. In Minneapolis, voters voted against a measure that would abolish the city’s police department and replace it with whatever folderol the hard left would come up with.

Indeed, since the city council voted to defund the police, crime rates have climbed precipitously, placing residents in danger. It can be no wonder that the people most affected by this voted against a further dismantling of the city’s law enforcement agency. But this trend was not just present in Minneapolis.

In New York City, Eric Adams handily defeated his opponent in the mayor’s race. But the real story behind this is that Adams was even nominated in the first place. He ran on an unapologetically law and order platform and promised to clean up crime in the city. It was a stark contrast to the progressives who also sought the mayoral nomination.

The reality is that America is not on board with decreasing the number of police officers in their neighborhoods. They do not favor injecting far-left wokeism into the nation’s classrooms. Moreover, many are beginning to grow weary of onerous COVID-19 restrictions.

These are only a few of the issues on which the Democrats have proven they are out of touch with what the public wants. This, combined with the fact that President Joe Biden continues to botch every crisis he attracts, portends that next year’s elections might go even worse for the left than what people previously believed. The fact that Democratic lawmakers have failed to pass meaningful legislation is not helping either.

If this trend continues, the Republicans could be set to make massive gains in the House and could even retake the Senate. This would be the proverbial death blow to Biden’s radical agenda and would prevent the Democrats from moving the country further left. Moreover, it would also set the GOP up for a return to the White House in 2024. Indeed, it might get to the point that the Republicans could run Bugs Bunny for president and still win.

The question is: What will Republicans do once they take office?