Have you heard the news from Virginia? (No, not you, Virginia – the state I mean.) Even at a distance of several thousand miles, it’s enough to make you feel faintly ill. In the race for governor of Virginia, the favourite Terry McAuliffe, who’d been a close ally of Obama and Biden, lost yesterday to Republican Glenn Youngkin.
Youngkin played clever: he received the endorsement of Donald Trump, but never once mentioned his name in speeches or had him appear on a platform. This encouraged moderate Republicans to vote for him as well as the Trump crazies.
The race had a big emphasis on education, with McAuliffe making the big mistake at one point of saying “I don’t think parents should be telling schools what they should teach.”
Not smart. Of course he’s right – parents shouldn’t be telling brain surgeons how to operate, or plumbers how to install a water system, and they shouldn’t be telling schools what to teach. Their input is, of course, important; but for many parents the job of the school is to provide good grades agus sin é. Yes, that matters, but an awful lot of other stuff matters too. Education is a profession, and the laity don’t tell professional dentists what needs treating and how to treat it. Ditto teachers.
Naturally, the Republicans talked about porn being taught to young people in schools and Fox News amplified the claim. Nothing like a big fat lie for putting voters off a candidate.
But lies or no lies, one year after Joe Biden won, you get that old familiar, pit-of-stomach feeling: Trumpism is on its way back. You have been warned.
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