Simple Decency Is on the Ballot in Virginia
Early voting in Virginia ended on November 1, and now all that’s left is the vote on election day itself. There are those who argue that the race for governor is already decided, that Democrat gubernatorial candidate Abigail Spanberger’s polling lead over Winsome Earle-Sears is insurmountable — there are, in fact, those who suggest that, given the votes already cast during early voting, Spanberger, quite likely, has already won.
There is, thankfully, still time to strike a blow for fundamental human decency.
After all, while political analysts still categorize Virginia as a “purple” state, largely on the basis of Glenn Youngkin’s surprise triumph four years ago, the demographics tell a different story. “Northern Virginia,” that is, the affluent D.C. suburbs, and the urban agglomerations around Norfolk and Richmond have become Democrat strongholds, helped by a significant dose of gerrymandering and an even more significant dominance of left-leaning media outlets.
And yet, the now well-reported disgusting remarks by Jay Jones, the Democrat’s attorney general candidate have opened the door at least a crack. If the most recent polling is to be believed, his Republican opponent, Jason Miyares, has taken a slight lead. Much attention in recent days has been devoted to the topic of “ticket splitting,” and, specifically, the likelihood that voters disgusted by Jones’s murderous fantasies will split their votes, voting for Spanberger and Ghazala Hashmi, the Democrat’s candidate for lieutenant governor, while refusing to vote for Jones.
Perhaps all that honest Virginia conservatives can hope for in this election is a small victory such as this. In addition to the now well-established Democrat advantages, Spanberger has also benefited hugely from infusions of outside money, massive donations from California and other “progressive” allies. The Democrats were horrified when Youngkin won, seeing in his victory a philosophical rejection that extended far beyond the internal dynamics of Virginia politics.
Many analysts saw the tipping point four years ago in voter’s rejection of the education establishment’s commitment to LGBTQ+ ideology. Youngkin’s opponent, former governor Terry McAuliffe, infamously opined that “I don’t think parents should be telling schools what they should teach.” Outraged parents, not all of them otherwise conservative, provided the narrow margin of victory in Youngkin’s favor.
But here we are again. My wife and I live in a county on the margins of the D.C. suburbs, and while our county has consistently voted Republican, the Democrats continue to see it as being in play. Accordingly, we are bombarded with Democrat campaign advertising. Significantly, the Democrat vote generation machine completely ignores the Jay Jones debacle.
There’s no apology in this literature for his calls for the assassination of a political opponent and, even more horrifying, his apparent delight in the thought of seeing that opponent’s small children murdered. There’s not even a passing reference to Jones’s weasel worded attempt to walk back the remarks. Nothing — it’s as if the words were never uttered, at least as far as the campaign flyers are concerned.
Spanberger, predictably, condemned the remarks, but then, in effect, told Virginians “there’s nothing to see here, move on.” Significantly, she has remained silent in the face of calls for his removal from the ticket. This alone should be disqualifying, a clear indication of a woman who values power over fundamental human decency.
But there is more. The Democrats in Virginia are now the party of an unrestricted right to abortion, extended through the full nine months of pregnancy. If successful in Tuesday’s election, they mean to enshrine this in the constitution of the commonwealth. Spanberger has refused to even discuss compromise positions akin to those common even in liberal European countries.
Moreover, while carefully avoiding the “sound bite” that brought McAuliffe down in 2021, Spanberger has utterly refused to support parental rights when it comes to transgender access to school bathrooms and other similar issues. In this, she has revealed herself to be the instrument of the radical teachers unions who dominate suburban D.C. politics.
By their own account, in the flyers that appear in our mailbox every day, Spanberger, Hashmi, and Jones are “down-the-line” leftist Democrats, against voter ID — we can’t keep those illegals off the voting rolls — and more than willing to follow other Democrat states in gaming the Medicaid system to add illegals to the system. They don’t say it honestly, but the buzz words of their campaign literature make it clear to anyone who has watched what has taken place in California or Illinois.
For all the pretense of moderation, Spanberger and company are seemingly hell-bent on making Virginia a clone of the most dysfunctional blue states. They are also rank hypocrites. When Kamala Harris was running for president, we were told — over and over again — to vote for the “black woman.” But now, when a black woman is running for governor as a Republican, they treat her with contempt.
To Winsome Earle-Sears’ credit, she has categorically refused to make her candidacy about identity politics, and this is as it should be. It’s long past time that we moved beyond this nonsense. But it’s perfectly reasonable to throw the Democrat’s identity politics hypocrisy back in their faces. After this election, we should never again be subjected to any Democrat’s insistence — looking at you Barack Obama — that we should vote for the black woman simply because she’s a “black woman.”
But, of course, we know better. The real issue here, and with any black conservative, is the failure to slavishly adhere to the Democrats identify politics agenda. I use the term “slavish” deliberately, because that’s exactly what it amounts to. We should call this out wherever we see it, and we should insist that the time for slavery has passed, even when — especially when — it comes dressed up in the usual “progressive’ pieties.
Early voting in Virginia has ended, and now all we have left is election day itself. There is, thankfully, still time to strike a blow for fundamental human decency, because, in the end, this is what this year’s election in Virginia is all about. Time to channel Patrick Henry rather than Gavin Newsom. If you haven’t voted, you still have time to make a difference — cast a vote on Tuesday for liberty, and for simple, honest, human decency.
READ MORE from James H. McGee:
Remembering the True Victims of Injustice: Iryna, Logan, the Oltons
Looking Back in Anger — With Hope
James H. McGee retired in 2018 after nearly four decades as a national security and counter-terrorism professional, working primarily in the nuclear security field. Since retiring, he’s begun a second career as a thriller writer. He’s just published his new novel, The Zebras from Minsk, the sequel to his well-received 2022 thriller, Letter of Reprisal. The Zebras from Minsk finds the Reprisal Team fighting against an alliance of Chinese and Russian backed terrorists, brutal child traffickers, and a corrupt anti-American billionaire, racing against time to take down a conspiracy that ranges from the hills of West Virginia to the forests of Belarus. You can find The Zebras from Minsk (and Letter of Reprisal) on Amazon in Kindle and paperback editions.
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