Virginia's Culture War Nonsense, WAPO endorses McAuliffe, Trump to Rally for Youngkin

With just 48 hours to go in the campaign, one could easily say that Virginia's Gubernatorial election has devolved into the Theater of the Absurd, without "purpose, or goal, or objective." Democratic candidate Terry McAuliffe has spent months outlining an ambitious agenda to bring more business to Virginia, fight climate change, and expand educational opportunities, but in the end the race may hinge on inane debates of Critical Race Theory [which isn't part of the Virginia school curriculum], trans kids, and whether Toni Morrison's award winning novel, Beloved should be banned from the schools because it gives white kids nightmares.

CNN: "Youngkin released an ad on Monday that features Laura Murphy, a Fairfax County mother and conservative activist, who spearheaded a campaign against "Beloved," the 1987 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. The campaign began after Murphy claimed it gave her son, a high school senior at the time, nightmares."

Republican candidate Glenn Youngkin has encouraged much of the election's silliness, leaning in to the GOP's culture war narrative and unwilling to lay out a specific platform for Virginians to consider and debate.

Washington Post: "In the current campaign, for which voting starts Friday and culminates Nov. 2, Mr. McAuliffe has proposed a sweeping, detailed agenda — a sharp contrast with Mr. Youngkin, who for months had almost no policy proposals beyond a commission to tighten rules on nearly nonexistent election fraud."

And, just when you thought the election couldn't get any more vacuous, Donald Trump will drop in for a tele-rally for Youngkin tomorrow, during which he will undoubtedly rehash his voting fraud delusions.

The Washington Post captured much of this in their recent endorsement of Terry McAuliffe, arguing that Glenn Youngkin is not a serious candidate, and that the few positions that he has taken will just stir up more culture war nonsense and take Virginia backwards.

The Washington Post: ... "the Republican nominee, Glenn Youngkin, a candidate making his first run for political office, has played footsie with the scurrilously antidemocratic “big lie” that election fraud propelled President Biden into office; signaled he would roll back gun-safety laws and abortion access; equivocated on same-sex marriage; and called Medicaid expansion, which provided health insurance for hundreds of thousands of Virginians, “sad.”

The Post's endorsement also details why Terry McAuliffe is the right choice for Virginia based on his track record of accomplishments during his first stint as Governor.

Washington Post: "Mr. McAuliffe’s economic wins were matched by policy achievements, all the more impressive given that he faced a GOP-controlled legislature. He ended an ugly vestige of Jim Crow by restoring voting rights to tens of thousands of former felons who had served their sentences. He notched an important victory for women in a bipartisan deal that criminalized gun possession by the thousands of domestic abusers served with protective orders annually. He negotiated a massive, privately financed expansion in traffic-clogged Northern Virginia’s highway capacity, which will pay dividends to commuters and others for decades."

#news #politics

By: Don Lam & Curated Content