Virginia Democratic gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe handed his Republican opponent a golden soundbite during a recent debate. Education was already a hot and contentious issue in the campaign, and McAuliffe crystalized the divide by stating that parents should not determine what is taught in schools. His deference to the education bureaucracy has been a source of criticism – on issues ranging from previous school closures, to controversial curriculum items, to other woke fault lines. In one fell swoop, McAuliffe sided against parents as the primary drivers of their own children's education, and the Youngkin campaign has been pounding away in ads ever since:
McAuliffe hasn't backed down. He doubled down in a local interview a few days later. And just last week, in a roundtable discussion, he allowed his contempt to boil over yet again. He denied that Critical Race Theory is a real issue, smearing parents concerned about their kids being indoctrinated with racial essentialism poison as racists engaged in dog-whistles – all while rebuffing efforts to get him to define the term:
Virginia Democrat Terry McAuliffe suggests parents concerned about Critical Race Theory are racist, then refuses to define CRT. pic.twitter.com/MKnnb5BC4S
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) October 8, 2021
He won't define it. He'll only deny that it's "being taught" in Virginia while sliming parents who disagree. He again dismissed the whole issue as "made up" yesterday morning on CNN:
WATCH: Virginia Democrat Terry McAuliffe falsely claims Critical Race Theory is “made up." pic.twitter.com/6ueozo4z5U
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) October 10, 2021
Notice how he mentions Trump twice in 45 seconds, a name he invokes endlessly, even as he's stopped talking about his dear friend Joe Biden all of a sudden. Indeed, at the debate, McAuliffe said "Trump" 14 times, but the current president's name did not pass his lips once. Why? Well, he's explained why himself:
Terry McAuliffe: Joe Biden "is unpopular today unfortunately here in Virginia." pic.twitter.com/QOMAWRBi2A
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) October 5, 2021
As for CRT and racial division in Virginia schools, McAuliffe is gaslighting. This sort of garbage is absolutely infecting public education in the Old Dominion. This racial, anti-police video was sent to second graders in Northern Virginia school district as part of a "summer learning guide," for instance. McAuliffe might be referring to a hyper-narrow definition that leftists hide behind in order to pretend that the whole umbrella of woke-racial issues is all a right-wing fever dream, but he also refuses to define CRT. I'd call it a nifty little trick, except it's so blatant and ham-fisted. How would he describe this, for instance?
Not sure that this goes any further than Loudon County, VA, Public Schools, but it cost over $34k to train their teachers how to teach critical race theory.
— Scott Greenfield (@ScottGreenfield) October 9, 2021
Here's the bill. pic.twitter.com/IETr4G72ir
"Equity" is a leftist/CRT buzzword used to justify outrageous moves like this:
BREAKING: NYC to eliminate gifted + talented classes over the next 5 yrs, major change and likely BdB's last big decision as mayor. Kids now enrolled in gifted programs will stay in them, but there will be no more separate gifted classes for incoming kidshttps://t.co/WjcaBmBWmp
— Eliza Shapiro (@elizashapiro) October 8, 2021
Shutting down opportunities in the name of "fairness" and "equity," while undermining merit and gutting standards, all while mumbling about "segregation." This is what "progressive" education policies look like these days Incidentally, it's not just New York City and San Francisco where these things are taking place. In the name of "equity" and racial justice, schools named after founding fathers are being renamed, and merit-based application processes are being scrapped, in...Virginia, too. Any comment, Terry? Or is this all just a big conspiracy theory, or whatever? Speaking of which, McAuliffe has outright lied about Glenn Youngkin being "anti-vax" (Youngkin cut a pro-vaccine PSA) and a 2020 election truther (totally false). But as you may recall, there is an election truther in this race. At the same forum last week, McAuliffe still couldn't quite bring himself to admit that President Bush won in 2000. Amazing:
WATCH: Terry McAuliffe refuses to say George W. Bush was legitimately elected president and defends his claims that the 2000 and 2004 elections were stolen. #VAgov #VAGovRoundtable #BigLie pic.twitter.com/4wQe5SOkkF
— Glenn Youngkin (@GlennYoungkin) October 7, 2021
When the reporter pushes him again, McAuliffe throws up his hands and says that once Bush was sworn in, they had to "move on," but based on his destructive lies in the ensuing years, he didn't move on. He kept telling Democrats that the election was "stolen," which was not true. Bush won, every way you slice it. Tellingly, McAuliffe concludes his answer with this hilarious point: “At the time, let’s be clear, I wasn’t running for governor.” Yes, he was merely the DNC Chairman, a position from which he had a wider ability to sow the "Big Lie" on a national scale. Things are different now, you see, because he's running for governor. And he's chosen to make election lies an issue. So he'd prefer that he simply be allowed to lie about his opponent on the subject of election lies, rather than be asked about his own actual lying about elections. It's all just so unfair for Terry. Finally, with schools preaching victimhood and curricula knee-deep in "equity" and "inclusion" propaganda – well past the point of basic kindness and values – what are kids actually being taught, in terms of knowledge? Clearly, the system's failures aren't new, even if they're getting worse:
A 2020 survey of 1,000 people ages 18 to 39 in the United States found that nearly two-thirds of them did not know what Auschwitz is. @adampopescuhttps://t.co/fSTc6Q0yY4
— Peter Baker (@peterbakernyt) October 9, 2021
We have a bunch of ignoramuses howling over pronouns while remaining shockingly ignorant of some of history's most important lessons. This will surely be fixed by scraping "problematic" names off of school buildings, etc. I'll leave you with this vignette, amid a very tight race:
WaPo #VAGOV lede:
— Josh Kraushaar (@HotlineJosh) October 10, 2021
“Bruce Carlson considers himself mainly a Democrat. He voted for Terry McAuliffe back in 2013. But he… is switching over to the Republican, Glenn Youngkin, because he believes public schools are pushing a radical agenda” https://t.co/VH1psFJ6xO
And in case you missed it, here's my recent interview with Glenn Youngkin, who dove headfirst into education issues – including what he called "outrageous" federal overreach directed by the Attorney General (and about which the leftist/media alliance is overtly lying, of course).
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