By even the most basic metric of understanding of American politics, there are some things that will always, always be true and firm. One ...
By even the most basic metric of understanding of American politics, there are some things that will always, always be true and firm. One of them is that when you lose an election – any election- you pause and reflect. You lick your wounds and you are humbled. You assess carefully and thoroughly what went wrong.
And when you lose an election in a swing state, in an embarrassing fashion, not even a year after the sitting-president of the United States won the state by 10 points, you'd better slap yourself across the face and get a grip.
Normally political strategists, analysts and staffers will do what is called an autopsy report where the rundown of each demographic and area of the state where you fell short is analyzed.
Trust me, I have been a part of campaigns who have fallen short and lost. It isn't fun but it is part of the game. One of the things I still love about politics and elections is how definitive it is. There are no participation trophies. There is a winner and a loser. The end.
But something very strange has been happening ever since Governor-elect Glenn Youngkin beat former Governor Terry McAuliffe. A great deal of the Democrat response hasn't been, where did we go wrong? How can we improve? Why are we losing so many voters in so many demographics? What do we need to do to stop the hemorrhaging voters in order to not get shellacked in the midterms and the 2024 Presidential election?
Something very strange has been happening ever since Governor-elect Glenn Youngkin beat former Governor Terry McAuliffe. A great deal of the Democrat response hasn't been, where did we go wrong? How can we improve? Why are we losing so many voters in so many demographics? What do we need to do to stop the hemorrhaging voters in order to not get shellacked in the midterms and the 2024 Presidential election?
The overwhelming sentiment coming from the left is simply that Virginia voters are racists being conned by a GOP lie because that is the only conceivable reason, to most Democratic analysts, that someone could ever vote for a Republican. They make this claim despite the fact that exit polling showed that both education and critical race theory are important issues to Virginia voters
The overwhelming sentiment coming from the left is simply that Virginia voters are racists being conned by a GOP lie because that is the only conceivable reason, to most Democratic analysts, that someone could ever vote for a Republican.
The left makes this claim despite the fact that multiple polls, including the Wall Street Journal's survey, suggests that Youngkin won hispanic and Latino voters 55% to McAuliffe's 43%. And they make this claim despite the fact that exit polling showed that both education and critical race theory are important issues to Virginia voters.
MSNBC's Nicolle Wallace infamously said on election night that 'critical race theory isn't real' and it's a line that Democrats are falling over themselves to repeat. 'Squad' leader, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez attributed the loss to Republican 'race-baiting'.
Don't you get it? Virginia voters are too sublimely racist or stupid to understand what they were voting for and against when they pulled the lever for Youngkin. This is bizarre, it's political suicide and it's some of the most egregious media bloviating I've ever seen, which is truly saying something. Now let's get to the Democratic strategists' so-called boogeyman: Critical Race Theory. Is it really the myth they claim?
No. CTR is real, and any assumption that it isn't is not only a fantasy but a bold-faced lie.
For those of you still unaware of what Critical Race Theory is, the encyclopedia Britannica defines it as the 'intellectual and social movement and loosely organized framework of legal analysis based on the premise that race is not a natural, biologically grounded feature of physically distinct subgroups of human beings but a socially constructed (culturally invented) category that is used to oppress and exploit people of colour'.
The main takeaway is that from this perspective the United States is an inherently racist country made up of oppressors and the oppressed. This teaching has already been banned in eight states (Idaho, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Iowa, New Hampshire, Arizona and South Carolina and soon to be Virginia).
But they aren't, as the Democrats now claim, chasing a phantom. This is a very real horror.
MSNBC's Nicolle Wallace infamously said on election night that 'critical race theory isn't real' and it's a line that Democrats are falling over themselves to repeat. 'Squad' leader, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez attributed the loss to Republican 'race-baiting'. Don't you get it? Virginia voters are too sublimely racist or stupid to understand what they were voting for and against when they pulled the lever for Youngkin. This is bizarre, it's political suicide and it's some of the most egregious media bloviating I've ever seen, which is truly saying something
Public documents from the Virginia Department of Education repeatedly mention the term 'Critical Race Theory'. There are a litany of news stories about teacher-training by consulting firms associated with CRT.
City Journal writer Christopher Rufo has reported on these documents as well as Virginia counties implementing CRT into their curriculum. He is also a fantastic Twitter follow for anyone interested in this topic.
He reported on October 30 that: 'In 2015, then-Governor McAuliffe's Department of Education instructed Virginia public schools to 'embrace CRT' in order to 're-engineer attitudes and belief systems. They explicitly endorse CRT.'
He also found documentation that under the Northam administration, Superintendent of Public Instruction James Lane sent a memo to Virginia public schools endorsing 'Foundations of Critical Race Theory in Education,' calling it an 'important analytic tool' that can 'further spur developments in education.'
In July, it was revealed that Virginia's controversial Loudoun County school district spent more than $34,000 on Critical Race Theory coaching for its staff. The program materials encourage state employees to 'question the white power structure.'
The Virginia Mathematics Pathways Initiative (VMPI), a partner of the Virginia Department of Education, considered eliminating advanced math classes through the 10th grade, but only backed off amid parent protest.
The VMPI website linked to a group that claimed classes for overachieving students, 'disproportionally has a negative impact on minority and low-socioeconomic students.' A state spokesperson refused to condemn the concept, telling the Washington Post that they don't, 'unequivocally denounce the idea that every student should be forced to take the exact same math courses at the same time without options for acceleration.'
And CRT is not only in Virginia schools, it's gone national.
California's Hayward Unified School District in June became the first in the state to officially adopt a new ethnic studies curriculum, promising in a press release that it 'will be informed by and include Critical Race Theory.' During a taxpayer-funded 'anti-bias anti-racist' summit, an Oregon middle school teacher warned fellow teacher that they'd be fired if they refused to teach CRT.
The Beaverton School District even defended her comments in a statement to Newsweek, before backtracking.
In July, it was revealed that Virginia's controversial Loudoun County school district spent more than $34,000 on Critical Race Theory coaching for its staff. The program materials encourage state employees to 'question the white power structure'
Imagine telling parents of school children in Virginia who have been through what can - mildly be stated - as a lot the past eighteen months that their concerns, anger and frustration were simply because they are white supremacists
Maryland's Montgomery County Public Schools ordered all its principals to teach all elementary and secondary school students that their community and the entire U.S. is facing a 'dual pandemic' of COVID-19 and systemic racism. After Oklahoma passed a law banning the teaching that, 'one race or sex is inherently superior to another race or sex,' an Oklahoma City Public school board member said the legislation sought to protect 'white fragility.'
And not to be outdone, the Biden administration appointed an outspoken CRT advocate, Precious McKesson, to a prestigious position at the U.S. Department of Education. In an August op ed for the Lincoln Journal star, McKesson and co-authors blamed Republicans for making CRT, 'a political boogeyman without actually knowing what it is'.
The messaging from democratic operatives that Glenn Youngkin and all Republicans are racist not only fell flat but I believe contributed to Terry McAuliffe's loss. All of it is dripping in elitism.
Imagine telling parents of school children in Virginia who have been through what can - mildly be stated - as a lot the past eighteen months that their concerns, anger and frustration were simply because they are white supremacists.
Not that their schools were closed while the rest of the globe opened up their classrooms. Not that their children are in fact being taught CRT.
Most reasonable people I know are aware and understand America's dark history when it comes to slavery and race relations and want it taught and to have our children understand this
What they don't want, as Secretary Condoleeza Rice said recently, is to do it by making 'white kids feel bad about being white'.
That will never end well.
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