President Biden and Virginia gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe share much in common: the same far-left agenda reflective of a small segment of the electorate and an arrogant assumption that they may rule imperiously and hypocritically, well beyond constitutional limits and without accountability.
Biden has refused to answer all but a smattering of soft ball questions concerning his controversial and consequential acts. Despite breaking the back of the fossil fuel industry; removing immigration limits to flood the nation with sex traffickers, drug traffickers, criminal gangs, and illegal aliens; leaving behind in Afghanistan Americans, Afghan allies, and $80 billion in munitions; kowtowing to Iran, the Taliban, Russia and China as they imperil America; ordering the termination of all employees who will not be vaccinated; and implementing socialist redistribution initiatives, Biden offers no explanations and answers few questions.
In sum, Biden has abdicated the duty of an elected President in our constitutional republic—to account to the electorate for his actions. By contrast, President Trump answered a hostile media daily (even answering partisan questions that had false factual predicates). Instead, Biden hides in his shell not even responding to a friendly mainstream media except on rare occasions (and then lamely). He thus rules without accountability in a manner befitting a tyrant, not a president.
The bombastic and impulsive Terry McAuliffe shares Biden’s imperiousness, looking down at the electorate and media, wondering why they cannot just leave him alone to rule without account. While loudly demanding all Virginians be vaxed and masked, McAuliffe keeps popping up maskless (like the emperor, he will be naked but the public must be clothed). A month ago, maskless at Virginia Tech’s indoor auditorium against the university’s requirement, McAuliffe spoke to a large gathering, throwing caution (and his spittle) to the winds. McAuliffe’s hypocrisy at Virginia Tech is not isolated. McAuliffe parades about in public places without a mask whenever it suits him and without regard to those in close proximity. In late July on Amtrak from New York to D.C. (a three and a half hour trip), McAuliffe sans mask ambled by other passengers who dutifully wore their masks. Then a few days ago, despite criticism of his hypocrisy, a maskless McAuliffe marched into a packed Virginia restaurant, hugging the masked owners, again proving his hypocrisy and insincerity.
At a further sacrifice of his shredded integrity, McAuliffe selectively shames those who (like him) choose not to wear masks. Consider the fate of a hapless Virginia Rising official who appeared outdoors without a mask at a McAuliffe event. He asked McAuliffe: “Who should be in control of education if not Virginia parents?” Dodging the question, McAuliffe resorted to imperious bluster: “Have you been vaccinated yet? That’s the question I want to know. You should have a mask on! You’re dangerous here.” And so it goes, round and round on McAuliffe’s hypocrisy merry-go-round. In his addled mind, McAuliffe can do whatever he pleases but you must do only what McAuliffe will allow. A perfect tyrant.
Also like Biden, McAuliffe is a lackey for teachers’ unions. Those unions endorse “equity” training of teachers and Critical Race Theory (despite denials). In the gubernatorial debate, McAuliffe explained that he distrusted parents and would do nothing to challenge the education bureaucracy. He said: “I’m not going to let parents come in to schools and actually take books out and make their own decisions... I don’t think parents should be telling schools what they should teach... Listen, we have a board of ed working with the local school boards to determine the curriculum... You don’t want parents coming in in every different jurisdiction saying, ‘This is what should be taught here’...” In other words, McAuliffe views parents as losing their parental authority at the schoolhouse gate. If Fairfax and Loudoun Counties want to transform generations of youth into Marxist genderless and Godless revolutionaries, so be it, says McAuliffe, that’s their right because parents have no rights over their children’s education.
McAuliffe, like Biden, expects voters to vote for him without understanding what he stands for. In short, he, like Biden, lacks respect for voters and for that fundamental of elective governance in a republic: accountability to the people. The refusal to account to the public is the hallmark characteristic of every dictator and is antithetical to the core democratic values in our republic. Only by subjecting those in power to constant critical examination can the public protect its sovereignty, ferret out corruption, give meaningful input, exercise the franchise intelligently, and impose popular will as a check on tyranny.
Every intelligent Virginia voter will vote against the Biden doppelganger they call McAuliffe, a hypocrite who expects to rule imperiously without answering for his actions, including those of greatest controversy and consequence.
Jonathan W. Emord is a constitutional law attorney and author of The Authoritarians: Their Assault on Individual Liberty, the Constitution, and Free Enterprise from the 19th Century to the Present (2021).