With 83% of the Virginia vote tally, Greg Youngkin (R) has 53% (1,426,017) vs. 47% (1,263,758) for Terry McAuliffe (D). It’s a very bleak omen for what may happen in the 2022 midterms, and, in Virginia at least, a clear rejection of wokester policies as far as education (CRT) is concerned. MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow: Virginia women went roughly 50-50 in the 2020 Presidential race, but they voted against McAuliffe, 57% to 43%, on the race-education issue.

Friendo: “Democrats will probably not get the message. They should but they won’t. They have to stop listening to Twitter. Everything and everyone is racist to the wokester left (Thomas Jeffersons statue being removed from NYC’s city hall, etc.) and moderate Americans are finally pushing back. I was surprised it was such a decisive win though — 51.9% to 47.4%. They all said Virginia would be a squeaker.”

Bret Stephens, 11.3:

Ross Douhat: “The McAuliffe approach isn’t going to cut it: You can tell people that C.R.T. is a right-wing fantasy all you want, but this debate was actually instigated not by right-wing parents but by an ideological transformation on the left.

“So Democratic politicians may need to decide what they actually think about the ideas that have swept elite cultural institutions in the past few years. Maybe those ideas are worth defending. Maybe Kendi and DiAngelo are worth celebrating. Maybe school superintendents who recommend their work should be praised for doing so.

“If so, Democrats should say so, and fight boldly on that line. But if not, then Democratic politicians in contested states, facing Republican attacks on education policy and looking at the unhappy example of Virginia, should strongly consider acknowledging what I suspect a lot of them (and a lot of liberal pundits) really think: That the immediate future of the Democratic Party depends on its leaders separating themselves, to some extent, from academic jargon and progressive zeal.”

November 2, 2021by Jeffrey WellsNo Comments