Virginia Mega Thread: The Youngkin Administration

[Progressive Pessimist]

Poll after poll shows CRT is not popular.

Parents want their kids learning the 3 Rs and basic history

1. They don't actually know what it is, and that it isn't being advocated for in public schooling as much as they think by either educators or Democrats.

2. Does that mean they will vote on that? Prioritizing it over the economy, pandemic, etc.?

3. Will they even remember it when the right has moved onto their next culture war fixation?

[Non Swing Voter]

Poll after poll shows CRT is not popular.

Parents want their kids learning the 3 Rs and basic history

1. They don't actually know what it is, and that it isn't being advocated for in public schooling as much as they think by either educators or Democrats.

2. Does that mean they will vote on that? Prioritizing it over the economy, pandemic, etc.?

3. Will they even remember it when the right has moved onto their next culture war fixation?

don't take the CRT bait please.

[Devils30]

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/columnists/terry-mcauliffe-is-misreading-what-matters-to-virginia-voters

Youngkin is gonna win because of the real Virginians in Buchanan, Russell, Frederick counties. Who cares if he loses Fairfax by 38%, the real Virginians will just turn out too much.

[Gass3268]

Poll after poll shows CRT is not popular.

Parents want their kids learning the 3 Rs and basic history

The unnecessary freakout over "CRT" is what leads to this:

https://twitter.com/thedailybeast/status/1449026017985761282?s=20

[DaleCooper]

Poll after poll shows CRT is not popular.

Parents want their kids learning the 3 Rs and basic history

1. They don't actually know what it is, and that it isn't being advocated for in public schooling as much as they think by either educators or Democrats.

2. Does that mean they will vote on that? Prioritizing it over the economy, pandemic, etc.?

3. Will they even remember it when the right has moved onto their next culture war fixation?

I'll take these point by point. First of all, if it were true that these voters don't know the definition of CRT, telling them that they're too stupid to understand what it is will just alienate them further. But on top of that, you're telling them to ignore their lying eyes and ears. There have been numerous examples of prominent figures on the left and within various local and state education systems that have described the version of CRT that they want taught in k-12 as being some version of "whiteness" being inherently oppressive. Until the pro-CRT crowd cuts all of those advocates out of their movement, then they'll have to deal with being associated with them.

Second, yeah they absolutely will vote on stuff like this. What do you think a voter cares about more, infrastructure spending or turning their child's classroom into a college socialists' meeting?

As for your third point, I think it will depend. Most culture war issues are designed to preach directly to the choir. Crap like Hunter Biden's laptop, Burisma, Biden's Senate papers, and other similar things all get forgotten within days of the election because it was always manufactured fake news to agitate base voters. Other times, real debates are co-opted by the culture war. I suspect CRT is one of those. Regardless of how many right-wing culture warriors flock towards the specter of CRT, the fact remains that most leftwing activists and officials in this country want critical race theory to be integrated into k-12 education, or at the very least approve of it.

I don't believe that this election will be decided on this issue, but if McAuliffe and every Democrat throughout the country who's interested in statewide office were smart, they'd come out and condemn CRT as bunch of bull that should go back to the academic conference room from whence it came. Don't underestimate the negatives effects that, for lack of a better term, f-cking around with public education can have on a politician's electability. Being on the wrong side of what the voters wanted in regards to schools is exactly what sunk Bevin in a state far redder than Virginia is blue. Now as I've said, I don't believe McAuliffe will lose and I don't believe the CRT discussion is prominent enough in this race to take him down, but defending it or doing anything other than rejecting it outright is like playing with fire.

[Landslide Lyndon]

It's a given that McAulliffe could win by 10+ and the media will spin it as bad news for Democrats.

[Pro-Israel, anti-Bibi]

Poll after poll shows CRT is not popular.

Parents want their kids learning the 3 Rs and basic history

The type of parents who oppose "CRT" (or what Q Facebook tells them it is) are also the type who gladly pull the lever for the far-right GOP that consistently cuts education when it is in power.

[roxas11]

Poll after poll shows CRT is not popular.

Parents want their kids learning the 3 Rs and basic history

1. They don't actually know what it is, and that it isn't being advocated for in public schooling as much as they think by either educators or Democrats.

2. Does that mean they will vote on that? Prioritizing it over the economy, pandemic, etc.?

3. Will they even remember it when the right has moved onto their next culture war fixation?

I'll take these point by point. First of all, if it were true that these voters don't know the definition of CRT, telling them that they're too stupid to understand what it is will just alienate them further. But on top of that, you're telling them to ignore their lying eyes and ears. There have been numerous examples of prominent figures on the left and within various local and state education systems that have described the version of CRT that they want taught in k-12 as being some version of "whiteness" being inherently oppressive. Until the pro-CRT crowd cuts all of those advocates out of their movement, then they'll have to deal with being associated with them.

Second, yeah they absolutely will vote on stuff like this. What do you think a voter cares about more, infrastructure spending or turning their child's classroom into a college socialists' meeting?

As for your third point, I think it will depend. Most culture war issues are designed to preach directly to the choir. Crap like Hunter Biden's laptop, Burisma, Biden's Senate papers, and other similar things all get forgotten within days of the election because it was always manufactured fake news to agitate base voters. Other times, real debates are co-opted by the culture war. I suspect CRT is one of those. Regardless of how many right-wing culture warriors flock towards the specter of CRT, the fact remains that most leftwing activists and officials in this country want critical race theory to be integrated into k-12 education, or at the very least approve of it.

I don't believe that this election will be decided on this issue, but if McAuliffe and every Democrat throughout the country who's interested in statewide office were smart, they'd come out and condemn CRT as bunch of bull that should go back to the academic conference room from whence it came. Don't underestimate the negatives effects that, for lack of a better term, f-cking around with public education can have on a politician's electability. Being on the wrong side of what the voters wanted in regards to schools is exactly what sunk Bevin in a state far redder than Virginia is blue. Now as I've said, I don't believe McAuliffe will lose and I don't believe the CRT discussion is prominent enough in this race to take him down, but defending it or doing anything other than rejecting it outright is like playing with fire.

1. First of all, if it were true that these voters don't know the definition of CRT, telling them that they're too stupid to understand what it is will just alienate them further

I myself have never even heard of CRT until after Trump had lost the election and Not even my republican coworkers knew about it until recently. I asked them to tell me what CRT is and even they could not give me a clear answer. They thought it had something to with the LGBT lol

2. What do you think a voter cares about more, infrastructure spending or turning their child's classroom into a college socialists' meeting?

From my experience living in Louisiana the people who I have met that talk about things like college socialists meetings are not the types who ever have or ever will vote for a democrat in the first place. Maybe where you live stuff like this is a big deal, but even down here in a Republican state like Louisiana people care way more about jobs and infrastructure then do about something like that

3. If McAuliffe and every Democrat throughout the country who's interested in statewide office were smart, they'd come out and condemn CRT as bunch of bull that should go back to the academic conference room from whence it came.

This is like me saying that they should stop teaching ETUOEW in school and when somebody ask me what that means I can't even give them a clear answer yet I still want people to be outraged over it and come out to condemn it

To be clear ETUOEW is something I made up, but at this point it might as well be as real as CRT since it seems like all of have to do these days is go online and claim that Dems wants to put it in all of the classrooms and let the Republicans come up with tons of theories for why ETUOEW is the worst thing ever lol

[Non Swing Voter]

The more you guys give this CRT nonsense oxygen, the more the right has a talking point (as ridiculous as it is).  What red avatars and other non-Trump mob extremists need to learn to do is just take their spin and create new spin rather than letting their spin be the talking point. 

Example with CRT crap:

Mad MAGA Nutjob: "Hurr durr, T-Mac says Parents shouldn't decide what to teach"

Correct Democratic Response: "So is Youngkin now saying that the rest of taxpayers have no say about what is taught in schools?  Only parents get to decide?  Only parents who attend board meetings.  That's outrageous!"

See, you don't acknowledge the dumb point, you just spin it back on the opponent who created the dumb point.

[wbrocks67]

The bottom line is that CRT is not a real thing that is taught in nearly any public schools across the country, and yet here we are as the GOP as commandeered another fake scandal that has no basis in reality.

There is no need for Dems to "disavow" CRT because IT'S NOT A REAL THING THAT'S BEING TAUGHT.

My god. This is a PERFECT example of how the GOP always controls the narrative, especially the mainstream press, and then has them do their bidding for them.

[wbrocks67]

Why are there no articles about VA Republicans being exhausted or tired? Why is the negative narrative always placed on the Democrats?

https://twitter.com/washingtonpost/status/1450049792562933760

[Warren 4 Secretary of Everything]

The bottom line is that CRT is not a real thing that is taught in nearly any public schools across the country, and yet here we are as the GOP as commandeered another fake scandal that has no basis in reality.

There is no need for Dems to "disavow" CRT because IT'S NOT A REAL THING THAT'S BEING TAUGHT.

My god. This is a PERFECT example of how the GOP always controls the narrative, especially the mainstream press, and then has them do their bidding for them.

This. I teach in a >90% school in Macon, GA and haven’t once heard a mention of CRT outside of the political news cycle. You’d think with our demographic breakdown, my school and district would do something with it.

[wbrocks67]

The bottom line is that CRT is not a real thing that is taught in nearly any public schools across the country, and yet here we are as the GOP as commandeered another fake scandal that has no basis in reality.

There is no need for Dems to "disavow" CRT because IT'S NOT A REAL THING THAT'S BEING TAUGHT.

My god. This is a PERFECT example of how the GOP always controls the narrative, especially the mainstream press, and then has them do their bidding for them.

This. I teach in a >90% school in Macon, GA and haven’t once heard a mention of CRT outside of the political news cycle. You’d think with our demographic breakdown, my school and district would do something with it.

Yep. My father is a teacher in the Philly suburbs, and it's the same thing - if this was not a part of the news cycle, no one would even know about it because it's not a real thing that's taught.

[wbrocks67]

Morning Consult has Biden approval at 48/49 for Sept. 14-Oct. 13, 2021.

https://morningconsult.com/2021/10/18/biden-approval-rating-virginia-gubernatorial-race/

[SnowLabrador]

Morning Consult has Biden approval at 48/49 for Sept. 14-Oct. 13, 2021.

https://morningconsult.com/2021/10/18/biden-approval-rating-virginia-gubernatorial-race/

McAuliffe +2 remains my prediction.

[roxas11]

Morning Consult has Biden approval at 48/49 for Sept. 14-Oct. 13, 2021.

https://morningconsult.com/2021/10/18/biden-approval-rating-virginia-gubernatorial-race/

This is actually better than I expected for Biden and if those numbers hold I think McAuliffe is winning this.

Glenn Youngkin and the GOP really needs Biden to being doing a lot worse in that state because voters being simply split down the middle when it comes to the president's approval is not going to cut it for Youngkin if actually wants to win this.

[wbrocks67]

Morning Consult has Biden approval at 48/49 for Sept. 14-Oct. 13, 2021.

https://morningconsult.com/2021/10/18/biden-approval-rating-virginia-gubernatorial-race/

This is actually better than I expected for Biden and if those numbers hold I think McAuliffe is winning this.

Glenn Youngkin and the GOP really needs Biden to being doing a lot worse in that state because voters being split down the middle when it comes to the president's approval is not going to cut it for Youngkin if actually wants to win this.

also, this goes back to 9/14, when his position was a bit worse, so I wonder what the data is showing for the last week or so and if it has improved.

[LtNOWIS]

…

So I'm not sure what's going on here. Perhaps the Democrats have me dialed in as a reliable Dem voter, since I did vote in the Democratic presidential primary in 2020 and the state primary in 2021. Or they figure across the board that there are more Democrats than Republicans in Virginia, and if they get anything remotely like 2018 or 2020 turnout, they're gonna win.

Part of it depends on where you are.

I live in Wayne County, Michigan.

Country seat is Detroit.

Republicans have not carried the county, thinking specifically for U.S. president, since 1928.

Yeah that makes sense. Thinking about this a few days later, Google probably doesn't know my voting history. But they do know I live in Alexandria, and probably in a very bougie, heavily Dem ZIP code in Alexandria. So the McAuliffe campaign figures that anyone here needs to be turned out, not convinced of anything.

[wbrocks67]

As I understand it, yesterday was the first time Virginia had early voting on Sundays, thus a major push on "Souls to the Polls"

[StateBoiler]

Why are there no articles about VA Republicans being exhausted or tired? Why is the negative narrative always placed on the Democrats?

https://twitter.com/washingtonpost/status/1450049792562933760

Yes, that conservative Republican-leaning publication the Washington Post.

(If anything the article is meant to be a boot up the ass to certain activists of "don't take this for granted, get out there!"

[wbrocks67]

Why are there no articles about VA Republicans being exhausted or tired? Why is the negative narrative always placed on the Democrats?

https://twitter.com/washingtonpost/status/1450049792562933760

Yes, that conservative Republican-leaning publication the Washington Post.

(If anything the article is meant to be a boot up the ass to certain activists of "don't take this for granted, get out there!"

Wapo and NYT are not right or left-leaning. But they absolutely lean into GOP narratives way more, considering Dem narratives are not really a thing.

[wbrocks67]

Harris heads to VA on Thursday, ahead of Obama on Saturday

https://twitter.com/merica/status/1450167424268054531

[ElectionsGuy]

Why are there no articles about VA Republicans being exhausted or tired? Why is the negative narrative always placed on the Democrats?

https://twitter.com/washingtonpost/status/1450049792562933760

Yes, that conservative Republican-leaning publication the Washington Post.

(If anything the article is meant to be a boot up the ass to certain activists of "don't take this for granted, get out there!"

Wapo and NYT are not right or left-leaning. But they absolutely lean into GOP narratives way more, considering Dem narratives are not really a thing.

[GeorgiaModerate]

https://twitter.com/BradMossEsq/status/1450189108761010176

The sleeping giant is waking up.

[SnowLabrador]

https://twitter.com/BradMossEsq/status/1450189108761010176

The sleeping giant is waking up.

That's a sign of voter suppression. Nobody should have to wait that long to vote.