Written by Nathaniel Manor
Republicans are turning the tide in one battle we never thought we could win: the Virginia gubernatorial election. This new voter trend comes as parents have shifted towards the Republican party as Democrat nominee Terry McAuliffe defended critical race theory, which teaches children to view themselves solely based on race. Additionally, the Loudoun County case where a male student who identified as “gender-fluid” allegedly raped a girl. The student was then transferred to another school where they assaulted another female student. This case and the school board coverup only fanned the flames for a Republican victory in blue Virginia.
Now the Republicans may have another edge as the president of the American Federation of Teachers, Randi Weingarten, tweeted her support for school preference over parental choice. An article from the Washington Post titled “Parents claim they have the right to shape their kids’ school curriculum. They don’t” claimed that the push for parental involvement in their children’s education is a political tactic to stroke white racial grievance.
Professor Jack Schneider and journalist Jennifer Berkshire write, “Knowing that every vote matters, the GOP has increasingly relied on a strategy of voter suppression. Simultaneously, Republicans have worked to ensure that their base turns out in force by stoking White racial grievance. The recent firestorm over critical race theory is a perfect case in point. Never mind that this concept from legal scholarship isn’t actually taught in K-12 schools or that it isn’t what most protesters believe it to be. Republicans gain an electoral advantage by convincing their base that White children are being taught to hate themselves, their families and their country.”
Instead of condemning this flaming heap of garbage, Randi Weingarten tweeted out, “Great piece on parents’ rights and #publicschools,” earning her scathing rebukes from the Twitter mobs to defund teachers unions.
The push for CRT and the backlash illustrate how the Democrats have gone too far with their radicalism. Because they’re trying to appease the party’s most extreme elements, people in the middle (old school liberals and apolitical people) will wake up and side against them. If Democrats lose the election in Virginia, they are in for a world of hurt come 2022 and 2024 as many consider this race to be a bellwether election.
