old virginny

 I hate to let Friday go by without something.  Usually one of dawgs leaves something for me to chew on, but no such luck this sunny fall morning.  But so it goes.

I know Beagles is not much of a news junky, not so sure about Old Dog, though I think he rather disdains politics, but the big news this week is the election in Virginia, one year after Biden's pretty big win.  Biden took Virginia by ten, and McAuliff the dem incumbent's  opponent was one of those unknown hedge fund guys with a sack of dough to pay for his campaign which both parties tend to favor.  It looked like a lead pipe cinch.  It seemed obvious to the dems, as it did to me, that the thing to do was to tie Youngkin to Trump.  This would cause Youngkin to defend him to keep the Trumpsters in line behind him, and that would likely send him down in flames.

But Youngkin didn't do that.  He never said anything bad about Trump, and indeed goes along with him on his favorite fringe issues, but he didn't try to defend him either.  He basically didn't say much about him at all.  He ignored the elephant in the room.  Normally you would think this would piss off the elephant who would come storming into the state, but in a rare instance of wisdom he didn't.

And then during a debate McAuliff came out against school boards banning racy books from their libraries and said the now famous words: 

“I’m not going to let parents come into schools and actually take books out and make their own decision,” McAuliffe said during the debate. “...I don’t think parents should be telling schools what they should teach.”

Youngkin pounced on this and turned it into something about critical race theory.

Critical Race Theory, the theory that race is involved in most all politics, is a course taught in some graduate schools.  It is not, nor has it ever, been taught in elementary or high schools.

But now that Trump has broken the surly bonds of truth for them, republicans now campaign against teaching critical race theory in grade and high schools, and this has been a mighty cudgel for them.  For them it means not teaching little white kids about things like slavery which would make white kids feel bad.

And that is the way the election went.  McAuliff chanting Trump, Trump, Trump, and Youngkin chanting Critical Race Theory, Critical Race Theory. Critical Race Theory.  And in the end Youngkin eked out a victory.

This is bad for the dems who were planning to Trump, Trump, Trump their way to victory.  Republicans are still going to have to kiss the Trump butt to win their primaries, but once they win they can pivot and ignore the elephant in the room while campaigning.  And once they have won, and if Trump wins in 2024 because they have really said nothing bad about him they can easily fall into line with Trump.

This is not good.

Have a good weekend dawgs.