It’s pretty fitting that voters elected Glenn Youngkin as governor of Virginia on the same night that the Atlanta Braves won the World Series.
Youngkin’s campaign was mainly focused on public schools, with parents outraged at leftist curricula. His victory over Terry McAuliffe the Democrat can be seen a triumph over woke revolution.
The Braves, meanwhile, got the last laugh over Major League Baseball after league officials replaced their home stadium as the site of the All-Star Game because of liberal fury over Georgia’s election integrity law.
Though other issues certainly were in play, Youngkin’s campaign really caught fire when he tapped into sentiments—particularly in vote-rich Northern Virginia—that government at all levels is not listening to the people.
The seeds were sown when Gov. Ralph Northam (a Democrat) shut down schools in Virginia during COVID-19. Students were forced to learn online via computers at home, and parents could hear what was being taught. The schools forced critical race theory and gender identity ideology onto their students.
Liberal commentators, McAuliffe himselfThey claimed that nothing like this was happening and were accusing parents of hallucinating. Parents flooded school board meetings, telling their own stories of white children being shamed for being skin-colored and minority students being told that they were not eligible for the same opportunities.
Other incidents soon became part of the story. Schools that provided graphic materials to their students upset parents. pornographic materials(In the name, what, diversity?) Students in libraries and classrooms are offered this service.
Loudoun County school administrators made the most shocking revelation Covered up a sexual assault in a high school alleged to have been committed by a teenage boy who already had been accused of a sexual assault months earlier in a girls’ restroom of a different high school.
The student recently convicted of the earlier assault, is described as “gender fluid,” leaving many parents to believe that the Loudoun County school system kept it quiet to avoid offending the sensitivities of social justice activists.
Amazingly, the U.S. Department of Justice joined the fray by issuing a memorandum issued by Attorney General Merrick Garland, which labeled parents who protested school board policies as domestic terrorists and criminals.
McAuliffe, in the midst of all this, committed the greatest debate blunder ever made in the history of gubernatorial elections in any state when he said: “I don’t think parents should be telling schools what they should teach.”
Youngkin didn’t shy away from the opportunity and leaned into the controversy. McAuliffe meanwhile, was determined to stick to his stance until he finally claimed he was. taken out of context.
But the election was already over. The Youngkin victory is notable, since Virginia went for Joe Biden in 2020 by 10 points and Republicans hadn’t won a statewide race there in 12 years.
Virginia’s election results are a repudiation of liberal overreach: on woke school policies, on mask mandates, on vaccine mandates, and on a variety of other governmental transgressions that McAuliffe supported and Youngkin opposed.
The White House’s current occupant is another important topic. Biden’s plunging popularity, even in Virginia, was grudgingly acknowledged by McAuliffe.
An NBC News pollThese polls were taken just before the election and showed that voters are strongly against Biden’s party on issues such as border security, inflation and crime, the economy and getting things done.
And that discontent doesn’t stop at the borders of the Old Dominion.
Voters rejected a proposal for the dissolution and transformation of the police department, in a renunciation to the Defund the Police movement. MinneapolisThe epicenter of the rioting that erupted across the country after the death of George Floyd, a resident of police custody, was in.
The socialist candidate for mayor in Buffalo, N.Y. who had won the Democratic nomination apparently has been beatenBy a write in campaign by the incumbent, she won the primary.
And while, at this writing, he appears to be hanging on to a narrow victory, New Jersey Gov. Phil MurphyDemocrat Jack Ciattarelli, was given the scare his career in a state even smaller than Virginia. Republican Jack Ciattarelli challenged Murphy and argued for lower taxes and mandates, just like Youngkin.
What voters in all those places rejected was an overreach of government at all levels—federal, state, and local.
It’s at this point that a national political party might step back and assess whether a change in direction is warranted.
National liberals, however, appear to be true to form. forging aheadWith their radical spending plans. Their conclusion was that more socialism is the best solution when faced with voter disapproval for their socialist agenda.
Leftists seem to be also taking the wrong lessons from Virginia.
Jemele hill, formerly of ESPN but now of The Atlantic declared: “It’s not the messaging, folks. This country simply loves white supremacy.”
The “white supremacy” take is a hard sell after Virginia voters picked as their lieutenant governor Winsome Sears, a Jamaican immigrant who will become the first black woman to hold statewide office in the Commonwealth.
It is also difficult to understand why, even though they are racists, Virginians elected Jason Miyares (the son of Cuban immigrants) to replace the current attorney general. He will be the first Latino to hold statewide office.
Van Jones, CNN’s commentator, was even more provocative then Hill.
“When this election is over in Virginia, we will know have we seen the emergence of the delta variant of Trumpism,” Jones fumed. “In other words, Youngkin [is the] same disease, but spreads a lot faster and can get a lot more places.”
For his part, McAuliffe did try mightily to tie Youngkin to former President Donald Trump, centering much of his campaign on that goal in the hope that invoking the left’s favorite boogeyman would rile up his base and carry him to victory. But it didn’t work.
Youngkin demonstrated that it was possible for Trump voters to remain loyal by accepting the America First agenda. He also attracted independents and moderates by speaking out on other issues that were important to him. McAuliffe proved that the left cannot win by running an anti-Trumpism campaign.
For a long time, social justice warriors have attacked the Atlanta Braves for the team’s name and for having fans who perform the “tomahawk chop” at games. The club just won a World Series.
Similar, the federal, state, as well as local governments have been telling citizens how to live their lives and to put up or sit down if they disagree. Voters won their World Series on Election Day.
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