I'll say this for Terry McAuliffe: He's making no bones about overtly campaigning on his contempt for parents in Virginia, with his teachers union allies cheering him on every step of the way. It actually makes perfect sense that the destructive, anti-child, anti-science organization that fought to keep kids out of schools for a full year is enthusiastically backing the candidate who now wants to keep those kids' parents out of schools. Voting against Randi Weingarten's preference seems like a pretty solid bet as a political heuristic, if you ask me:
One of the reasons we back @TerryMcAuliffe for governor. #AFTvotes https://t.co/oS3WtByFQL’
— Randi Weingarten (@rweingarten) October 27, 2021
Recent polls show that K-12 parents in Virginia back Republican Glenn Youngkin by double digits. Teachers unions think they know better than parents, and Terry McAuliffe agrees wholeheartedly. McAuliffe surrogates like Barack Obama have obnoxiously dismissed parental concerns about racialized curricula, fetishized "equity," sexually explicit materials, and covered-up sexual assaults as "phony" and "trumped up" issues from the right-wing media. Every one of these issues has a basis in fact – follow those links – but to McAuliffe, it's all just a big conservative hoax cooked up by Youngkin himself. Asked how he'd deal with worried parents if he's elected governor, McAuliffe angrily declared the whole issue made up, just like MS-13 violence (also a real issue) in a previous campaign cycle. His disdain runs deep and he believes Virginia is blue enough to say things like this:
Terry McAuliffe was asked a simple question: "If you win, how are you going to work with those parents who have concerns about how things are being taught in schools?"
— Glenn Youngkin (@GlennYoungkin) October 27, 2021
His answer says it all. #VAgov pic.twitter.com/51q1TE2mNK
He's telling voters exactly who he is and betraying exactly who he's beholden to. Parents should pay attention because if he wins, we know precisely who will be empowered and who will be disempowered. He's also bitterly clinging to the dishonest smear that opposition to CRT is "racist":
Terry McAuliffe AGAIN smears Virginia parents by calling their concerns about Critical Race Theory "racist." pic.twitter.com/QkU4YJrN9X
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) October 27, 2021
That's also how he's trying to wave away anger over his vetoes of bipartisan legislation that would have allowed parents to be made aware of sexually-explicit materials in Virginia schools, with potential opt-outs available based on parental discretion. McAuliffe has been fact-checked by the Washington Post for mischaracterizing these bills, and for lying that Youngkin and his supporters are pushing to "ban" the materials in question. It's untrue, he's been called out by a left-leaning newspaper for it, but he keeps lying anyway. As a John Kerry advisor once said, McAuliffe is a valuable Democratic attack dog because he's willing to say anything. The man is famous within his own party for his lack of honesty and integrity. And as I alluded to, McAuliffe is also pretending that Youngkin wants to "ban" (again: no bans were proposed) a book with a graphic bestiality description because the author is a black woman whom Youngkin supposedly wants to "erase." Racism is everywhere, in McAuliffe's mendacious telling – including, it seems, among the more than a dozen black Democratic lawmakers who voted in favor of the bills he vetoed:
Terry McAuliffe is falsely claiming these 18 Democrats voted to ban books. He also says they’re racists because they voted for a bill that would let parents know what their children are being assigned to read at school.
— Glenn Youngkin (@GlennYoungkin) October 27, 2021
Why is McAuliffe so afraid of notifying parents? #VAgov pic.twitter.com/m3igXqpJ2C
And it's not just the one book, which is another McAuliffe myth. There are other materials that were deemed too obscene to even feature in television ads litigating this issue (content warning):
TV stations rejected this ad for obscenity. The obscenity was simply showing a book that is in Fairfax schools. https://t.co/ulXlnyiqtx
— Phil Kerpen (@kerpen) October 27, 2021
Here's an example of a page from one of the books, which @IWV even blurred out. If you check out the book from the library, there's no censoring. You see it all. pic.twitter.com/bwMYbdIl8L
— Kelsey Bolar (Harkness) (@kelseybolar) October 25, 2021
Virginia's Democratic standard-bearer says parents who may object to this stuff being available to their child, in school, are racist book-banners. If you missed my update to this post yesterday, yet another poll shows a tie in the race, which will be decided on Tuesday. Journalists rooting for their fellow Democrats are very excited about a quasi-threatened 11th hour visit to Virginia from Donald Trump. I'm not sure if that possibility is real, or if it's a troll (and this 'trick or treat' is looking more like a troll). I do know that the person who seems most excited about the prospect is Terry McAuliffe:
Biden for Terry McAuliffe: Trump Trump Trump Trump pic.twitter.com/AF8t6U0Kat
— Charlie Spiering (@charliespiering) October 27, 2021
Donald Trump is coming to Virginia to campaign for his handpicked guy Glenn Youngkin. Enough of this MAGA nonsense. We will defeat Trump once again this November!
— Terry McAuliffe (@TerryMcAuliffe) October 27, 2021
They're obsessed, and they clearly believe their best chance at clinging on and winning is to scare anti-Trump voters into turning out. We'll see if Trump takes their aggressive, unsubtle bait and decides to that task easier in the campaign's closing days. It may be the best shot Terry's got coming down the home stretch, considering the electric enthusiasm he's generating for himself:
Terry McAuliffe takes stage just now at midday event in Danville, Virginia. pic.twitter.com/WaL1NadLAU
— Steve Peoples (@sppeoples) October 27, 2021
I'll leave you with this:
Of course he’s lying because that’s what he does. But ask your self *why* he insists on repeatedly & massively inflating COVID’s risk to kids. https://t.co/tkK50P64BH
— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) October 27, 2021
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