The Cost of Deception: Lessons from the November 4, 2025, Democratic Sweep in New York City, New Jersey, and Virginia

To counter the Democrats’ 4GW/5GW mastery and Cultural Marxist grip, Republicans must adopt a maneuver warfare mindset infused with mission command. They must make this their Schwerpunkt!

Despite the sweeping victories by Communist Democrats, in largely already dominated “Blue” states, in the New York City mayoral race, the New Jersey gubernatorial contest, and Virginia’s congressional and state legislative elections on November 4, 2025, these results serve as a critical wake-up call for Republicans ahead of the pivotal 2026 midterms. The Democratic Party, particularly its far-left wing, (supported by information dominance by the Main Stream Media or MSM) orchestrated a masterclass in fourth- and fifth-generation warfare, seamlessly integrating the Cultural Marxist playbook to manipulate voter perceptions and secure a clean sweep.

This wasn’t merely a political win; it was a triumph of illusion over reality, where fear, deception, and narrative control outpaced facts and arithmetic. As we dissect these events, drawing on the strategic insights of William S. Lind’s generations of war, Michael Walsh’s critique of Cultural Marxism, and the economic deceptions exposed in Virginia’s recent shift, Republicans must recognize this as a constructive setback—one that demands urgent adaptation if we are to reclaim the narrative and deliver on the MAGA agenda by 2026.

To understand this sweep, we must first frame it through the lens of modern conflict. William S. Lind, in his seminal work on the generations of warfare, describes fourth-generation warfare (4GW) as a decentralized, non-linear struggle that blurs the lines between combatants and civilians, state and non-state actors, and war and peace. It thrives on cultural subversion, psychological operations, and the erosion of institutional legitimacy.

Fifth-generation warfare (5GW), which Lind and others extend into the realm of information dominance, elevates this further: it’s “war of information and perception,” where battles are won not with bullets but with memes, media echo chambers, and manipulated realities.

The Democrats’ strategy in these elections embodied both. They weaponized the recent U.S. government shutdown—engineered through their own intransigence on spending bills—as a cudgel against Republicans. Mainstream media outlets, still firmly in the grip of leftist narratives (with most journalists graduating from Left wing dominated universities and overruled by Left wing corporate interests (total control)), amplified the lie: portraying the shutdown as GOP extremism while airbrushing Democratic demands for unchecked trillions in “equity” spending.

This unified disparate voter blocs—urban progressives, suburban moderates, and even some disillusioned independents—against the perceived Republican chaos, turning a self-inflicted wound into a unifying rallying cry.

Layered atop this was the Cultural Marxist playbook, a term I have explored extensively in my Substack posts on the intersections of ideology and strategy. Cultural Marxism, as critiqued by Michael Walsh in The Devil’s Pleasure Palace and his subsequent works like The Fiery Angel, represents the long march through the institutions: a deliberate subversion of Western values by replacing objective truth with subjective “lived experiences,” equality with equity, and merit with identity-based redistribution.

Walsh argues that this isn’t mere policy drift but a diabolical inversion of reality, where virtue-signaling supplants virtue, and moral relativism justifies the erosion of family, faith, and freedom. In the 2025 elections, Democrats deployed this with surgical precision. Candidates like Abigail Spanberger in Virginia and Mikie Sherrill in New Jersey masqueraded as moderates, cloaking far-left voting records in the garb of bipartisanship and “common sense.”

Spanberger, who has consistently aligned with Biden’s radical agenda—voting for multi-trillion-dollar spending sprees that inflated family costs by thousands annually, opposing tax cuts that benefited working Virginians, and championing decarceration policies that fueled rising crime—campaigned on vague promises to “lower costs” and end “culture wars.” Yet, her record tells a different story: support for D.C.’s failed criminal code overhaul, resistance to parental rights in education, and policies that expose police to endless lawsuits while facilitating illegal immigration and recidivism.

Sherrill’s victory in New Jersey’s gubernatorial race was no less emblematic of this deception. Despite her ethical lapses at the U.S. Naval Academy—where she failed to disclose involvement in a cheating scandal, barring her from walking at graduation—she positioned herself as a steady, centrist hand. Her congressional voting record, however, reveals a far-left core: unwavering support for Green New Deal-style mandates that have driven up energy costs, opposition to border enforcement, and advocacy for “gender-affirming” policies that undermine biological reality and parental authority.

In New York City, Democratic sweeps in local races echoed this pattern, with candidates leveraging shutdown blame games to portray Republicans as obstructionists, all while pushing socialist-leaning policies on housing, transit, and policing that promise compassion but deliver dependency.

This fusion of 4GW and 5GW tactics with Cultural Marxism created what Thomas E. Kurek aptly termed “the price of illusion”—an economics of deception where fear outruns facts. As Kurek observed in his analysis of Virginia’s shift, Spanberger didn’t win with evidence; she kept voters afraid—of conservatives, of lost “programs,” of the “chaos” if government loosened its grip. Modern politics, in this view, has devolved into a theater of intention, where outcomes matter less than the appearance of virtue.

Rising electricity bills from climate mandates are recast as the “price of saving the planet”; families squeezed by inflation are told they’re “investing in equity.” Virginia’s reconnection to California’s scarcity-driven energy policies hasn’t yielded cleaner grids but strained infrastructure, higher industrial rates, and factories eyeing exodus. Public safety erodes under decarceration, borders become sieves under the guise of “comprehensive reform,” and classrooms betray families with secrecy on identity issues—all framed as moral imperatives rather than policy failures.

The irony deepens with foreign entanglements. Spanberger’s campaign accepted funds linked to a CCP-backed electric-vehicle firm while pushing policies that enrich such industries and opposing restrictions on Chinese land purchases. This isn’t coincidence; it’s dependency by design, a 5GW maneuver where adversaries buy influence cheaper than conquest.

As Lind warns, 4GW succeeds by exploiting cultural fault lines, and here the left’s narrative dominance—bolstered by media “fact-checks” that recycle talking points—ensured that scrutiny was buried under headlines of “historic firsts.” Voters weren’t persuaded by data; they were shamed into approval, convinced that doubting the progressive program was indecent.

My own work on Mission Command and Maneuver Warfare, as detailed in Maneuver Warfare Handbook and my Substack explorations of generations of war, offers a counterpoint Republicans ignore at their peril. Mission command—decentralized execution guided by intent—thrives in uncertainty, much like 4GW demands. Yet, in political terms, Republicans have failed to apply it: clinging to centralized messaging that reacts rather than maneuvers ahead. Maneuver Warfare emphasizes speed, surprise, and exploiting enemy weaknesses, principles Lind integrates into his generational framework.

The left’s Cultural Marxist infiltration has turned our institutions into rigid hierarchies, vulnerable to subversion. Republicans must counter with agile, narrative-driven campaigns that reclaim the vocabulary Walsh decries—replacing “equity” with equality, “gender-affirming care” with protections for minors. As I argue in my posts, true mission command in politics means empowering local leaders to adapt, building coalitions outside the uniparty, and using information warfare to expose deceptions before they metastasize.

These setbacks are ultimately constructive. They provide Republicans with a clear warning, one year out from what may be the most consequential midterm elections in history. If Republicans can reclaim the House, President Trump’s MAGA agenda—which is already taking root—will gain momentum, yielding significant results by spring and summer 2026, both at home and abroad.

While the public’s impatience and susceptibility to mainstream media narratives pose challenges, progress is underway. The radical policies of Obama and Biden took over a decade to erode the nation’s foundation; in contrast, Trump’s transformative efforts, only nine months in, are poised to deliver substantial outcomes within the next eight months.

Republicans must seize this moment with unwavering commitment. As Vivek Ramaswamy emphasized this morning, the party should prioritize two imperatives: making life affordable for Americans and rejecting divisive identity politics. By focusing on these principles, Republicans can galvanize support and demonstrate the tangible benefits of their vision, countering the left’s agenda and securing a mandate in 2026. But to win, we must go further, learning from Kurek’s call to reclaim the battlefield of language and build alternatives that make bureaucratic overreach costly.

Recommendations for Republicans Before the 2026 Midterms

To counter the Democrats’ 4GW/5GW mastery and Cultural Marxist grip, Republicans must adopt a maneuver warfare mindset infused with mission command. Here are actionable steps, rooted in Lind’s strategic generations, Walsh’s cultural critique, and my own frameworks:

1. Use the Nuclear Option, NOW!: Republican Senate should consider using the nuclear option or reforming the filibuster to pass key elements of President Trump’s agenda, previously enacted through executive orders, into law. This would enable swift implementation of policies aimed at promoting economic prosperity and stability for Americans. By doing so, Republicans can demonstrate the tangible benefits of their agenda, contrasting it with Democratic policies, which they argue lead to economic hardship and excessive government control.”

2. Reclaim the Narrative Through Information Dominance (5GW Adaptation): Invest in independent media coalitions and rapid-response fact-checking networks that expose deceptions in real-time. Train spokespeople to dismantle slogans—e.g., counter “equity” with stories of merit-based success. As Walsh urges, restore truth-telling as a moral imperative, using platforms like Substack and podcasts to bypass legacy media.

3. Decentralize and Localize (Mission Command Principle): Push decisions to state and local levels where voters can hold leaders accountable. Build parent alliances, small-business networks, and neighborhood safety coalitions, as Kurek suggests, to demonstrate conservative governance in action. This mirrors maneuver warfare’s emphasis on initiative at the edges, eroding centralized progressive control.

4. Economic Transparency and Affordability Focus: Audit and publicize the “hidden taxes” of progressive policies—inflation as debasement, fees as stealth hikes, mandates as scarcity creators. Launch town halls teaching basic economics, drawing on Kurek’s insight that arithmetic chases fear but catches up. Tie every pitch to Ramaswamy’s affordability imperative: show how MAGA reverses Biden-era costs.

5. Ethical Vetting and Authentic Moderation: Screen candidates rigorously for integrity, avoiding the Spanberger-Sherrill mirage. Promote genuine centrists with voting records to match rhetoric, while highlighting leftists’ hypocrisies through targeted ads and op-eds.

6. Build Cultural Counter-Institutions: Foster homeschool networks, civic education in churches, and legal funds defending parents and police, per Kurek’s blueprint. Echo Lind by treating Cultural Marxism as a 4GW threat: subvert it by creating parallel structures of excellence that outshine institutional decay.

7. Sustain Hope Over Anger: As Kurek concludes, hope fuels movements. Rally with evidence of what freedom builds—safety, dignity, mobility—reminding voters that common sense is not heresy. Persist with moral steadiness: reject false premises, speak plainly, and let reality deliver the last word.

The damage from November 4 can be contained, but only if we act with the agility of maneuver warfare. Virginia, New Jersey, and New York may have fallen to illusion, but economics and human nature remember what we forget. Republicans, it’s time to maneuver, command the mission, and turn deception’s pyre into renewal’s forge. The 2026 mandate awaits those bold enough to claim it.

Donald E. Vandergriff Retired U.S. Army and Marine veteran, Military Historian, Author of the forthcoming military fiction *Reforging the Sword* series (December 2025), author, editor and contributor to 11 books and over a 100 articles. He also consults Ukraine and Taiwan as well as First Responders on Mission Command and Maneuver Warfare, while USMC TECOM has barred him (and William S. Lind) from speaking at any TECOM USMC courses or schools.

Subscribe for more to my Substack articles at https://donvandergriff.substack.com

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Vandergriff, Donald E. “4th Generation Warfare: The Insidious Evolution of Far-Left Strategies in American Politics.” Don Vandergriff’s Substack, August 27, 2025. https://donvandergriff.substack.com/p/4th-generation-warfare-the-insidious.

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Vandergriff, Donald E. “Woke Warfare: How Cultural Marxism is Gutting Our Fighting Force.” Don Vandergriff’s Substack, March 15, 2024. https://donvandergriff.substack.com/p/woke-warfare-how-cultural-marxism.

Walsh, Michael. The Devil’s Pleasure Palace: The Cult of Critical Theory and the Subversion of the West. New York: Encounter Books, 2015.

Walsh, Michael. The Fiery Angel: The Sequel to The Devil’s Pleasure Palace. New York: Encounter Books, 2018.This article is dedicated to Bill Brindley— a warrior for truth.