Paul Krugman has an ominous article about the Governor’s race in Virginia.
Dr. Ralph Northam, who is Lt. Governor, is running against GOP operative, Ed Gillespie, who is running as a white nationalist candidate.
Krugman writes:
Ed Gillespie, the G.O.P. candidate, is trying to pull off an upset by going full-on Trumpist, doing all he can — with assistance from the tweeter in chief — to mobilize the white nationalist vote. He’s accusing Ralph Northam, his Democratic opponent, of dishonoring the state’s Confederate heroes. (Funny how people who accuse their rivals of being unpatriotic worship men who engaged in armed rebellion against the United States.) He’s not only accused Northam of being soft on illegal immigration, but he’s insinuated that this somehow makes him an ally of a violent Central American gang.
These cynical ploys probably won’t change many minds in a state that disapproves strongly of Trump and all his works. But they might mobilize enough angry white voters to swing the election if Democrats don’t come out in equal force.
Whatever happens in Virginia, the consequences will be huge. If Gillespie pulls this off, all the worst impulses of the Trumpist G.O.P. will be empowered; you might think that things can’t get even worse, but yes, they can…
Folks, right now this is where the action is: Virginia is now the most important place on the U.S. political landscape — and what happens there could decide the fate of the nation.
Dr. Northam is a strong supporter of public schools. He is a graduate of Virginia’s public schools.
I just sent him a contribution. I hope you will too.
Betsy DeVos and family gave $100,000 to Gillespie to keep white nationalism strong. Don’t let them win.
You can also help flip the Virginia legislature from red to blue by supporting these 9 candidates with one gift.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
A little context: Gillespie was the author of and arguably the architect behind the “Contract with America” strategy that brought Gingrich to power and irreparably damaged national politics ever since. He is a right-wing zealot in “reasonable sounding adult” clothing.
LikeLike
All this the darkness before dawn. After George the Little, the country still hadn’t learned its lesson. Now, with Trump, the intensive remedial course . . . with Trump and his Trumpeteers like this Gillespie.
George, btw, seems to have grown in retirement. He learned some hard and costly lessons.
LikeLike
Exactly. Thanks for posting this… and if you want to see the push to end EVERYTHING WE KNOW ABOUT OUR NATION Texas Supreme Court Justice Don Willett, now an official Donald Trump nominee to a federal appeals court, is by most accounts a charming person. But beneath his apolitical tweets about children’s book characters lies a man seeking to dismantle the last 80 years of America law.
https://thinkprogress.org/trumps-most-radical-nominee-since-neil-gorsuch-02d1bcabc8e0/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=tp-letters
LikeLike
Susan,
To understand the ideology of this libertarian Judge, read Nancy MacLean’s “Democracy in Chains”
LikeLike
I’d like to share some positive news. Dr. Northam is ahead in all of the polls, but we are taking nothing for granted and working hard on his behalf. Thankfully Virginia is using paper ballots this election so we can’t be hacked by the Russians. And, whatever white nationalists Gillespie and Trump may mobilize will be answered by Indivisible and other progressive groups that have formed after the 2016 election. We outnumber them, especially in vote-rich Northern Virginia which is where this election will be won in addition to the Richmond area and Hampton Roads in the southern part of the state.
In Prince William County where I live (about 30 miles west of D.C.), in just the western portion of the county, we have 1,200 + Indivisible members, the vast majority who have never been involved in politics before. Last spring we flipped a red seat blue in a special county election for Clerk of the Court, defeating the current Republican majority whip in the House of Delegates who wanted the clerk job instead.
As a parent of two public school students, I am joining the VEA this weekend and every weekend before the election to canvass. Educators have been canvassing in full force since the summertime to get Dr. Northam elected, in addition to Justin Fairfax for Lt. Governor & incumbent Mark Herring as Attorney General. Dems are running 100 candidates for the 100 House of Delegate seats wherein in the past we haven’t contested dozens of these seats giving up since they are “red.” (Republicans control the House of Delegates 2-1). Dems are running dozens of pro-public education candidates in these races & a few are teachers.
If you can donate to any of these campaigns (Northam, Fairfax, Herring) or any of the House of Delegates races, I know the candidates would appreciate the support.
LikeLike
Send us your list of pro-public ed candidates for the Legislature, and we will help them
LikeLike
Great! Thank you!
Here are 4 in Northern Virginia who I’m familiar with & are in districts that Hillary Clinton won, therefore are flippable (there are 17 of these “Hillary won” districts!):
1/ Elizabeth Guzman – 31st district
2/ Hala Alaya – 51st district
3/ Jennifer Carroll Fay – 2nd district
4/ Danica Roem – 13th district
All 4 candidates are women. They are all running against rightwing conservative men, 3 of whom are incumbents. These men support charter schools and vouchers. The Democratic women candidates do not! They all campaign together with Dr. Northam & support public education.
As an aside, I had the pleasure of having had dinner with Danica Roem with a few educators ( I’m a parent & not a teacher) and she is very familiar with Finnish schools since her boyfriend is Finnish. She understands Finnish education quite well and we didn’t have to get her up to speed on anything! Not only will she defend public schools, she will also support any Finnish-like changes proposed in the state legislature.
LikeLiked by 1 person
WONDERFUL possibilities: for women’s issues to garner solid power, women must step up and run.
LikeLike
This is from a local paper about the 3 of the delegate races I mentioned above. These are the kinds of candidates we are up against:
“During the forum, Larson also spoke in favor of abolishing public education and privatizing all police departments and the operation of highway construction and maintenance.
The candidates also clashed on charter schools, with Democrats Guzman, Ayala and Foy arguing that public funding should not be diverted to charter schools while Anderson said he supports public funding for privately-run schools.
Anderson said he believed the state can fund charter schools without decreasing funding to public schools. Lingamfelter stopped short of advocating specifically for charter schools but said Virginians need to “stop the bickering” about whether students attend public, private, charter or homeschools.
“We need to stop the bickering and start the wickering,” Lingamfelter said. “We need to wicker a basket of solutions … so parents can decide what is best for their child.””
LikeLike
Typo edit: it’s Jennifer Carroll Foy (not Fay)
LikeLike
Diane,
One local teacher & one local school board member are hosting a fundraiser for Jennifer Carroll Foy on Friday evening. She is in a close race and they believe she can win. They are raising money for a flyer she can mail. Here’s the link if anyone would like to donate:
https://www.jennifercarrollfoy.org/
LikeLike
I live in Fairfax county VA. (I worked as an election judge in 2012). The Commonwealth uses paper cards, which the voter marks with a pen, and then the cards are scanned by an electronic scanner. The cards are kept secure, and only used in case of a recount.
( I am a telecommunications engineer, and computer systems specialist. The chances of a foreign hack of this gubernatorial election, are so remote, as to be laughable. Putin does not care who the governor of Virginia is)
This election is probably going to be decided by the voters “downstate”, as Fairfax/Arlington/Loudoun etc, are all heavily Democratic.
LikeLike
Oh really? Then why did DHS inform Virginia that it was one of 21 states that Russia attempted to hack?
https://www.google.com/amp/s/techcrunch.com/2017/09/22/electronic-voting-state-hacking-russian-government-cyber-actors/amp/
Northam is running 30 points ahead of Gillespie in Northern Virginia. However, Prince William County which is next to Fairfax but in the DC exurbs is purple & ground zero. PWC could put Northam over the finish line.
LikeLike
Well, if that’s the case VP, I fear for you. I have family in PWC and have met a few people there. Based on that, admittedly very small sample size, I am concerned. This is an affluent county where people live in gated communities because of some “threats” they perceive. They are scared of their own shadows. And they blame it on liberals, LBJ, and think Black Lives Matter is some communist conspiracy.
LikeLike
Nothing to fear. Here are some facts about PWC….2nd largest county & 1st majority-minority’s county in Virginia.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_William_County,_Virginia
LikeLike
I’m on your side more than you can imagine, VP. Here’s hoping I’m completely wrong. I hope I am and that your view will prevail! Just remember to do what we were accused of doing (but never did) in my home state of Louisiana: vote early and vote often. 🙃
LikeLike
GregB – I know the demographic in PWC you speak of & you’re right, they are here, vocal & well-represented. They usually win at the local level & at the state & federal levels (for state delegates & U.S. House of Reps). They have a mixed record re: state senators. Their candidates lost in the most recent gubernatorial election in 2013 (Terri McAuliffe beat Ken Cucinelli by 8,000 votes) & they’ve been losing U.S. Senate elections for many cycles now. PWC voted for Obama twice & Hillary.
Mine is just an “on the ground” report that the anti-Trump sentiment is running high in the county which is majority-minority, Indivisible and other groups have formed where they did not exist before, and people like your relatives were probably surprised that in a special election last spring for Clerk of County Court the favored Republican candidate lost and lost big (because our side turned out). It sent shockwaves throughout the Republican establishment in the county and was a wake-up call that the Dems are going to contest each & every office going forward.
Thanks for wishing us luck. It’s going to be a GOTV battle for each and every vote!
LikeLike
GregB – here’s an account from the 2013 gubernatorial election which explains in greater detail how Terri McAuliffe won his election in 2013 (whereas the Republican Bob McDonnel won handily in 2009) because of “gains he made in a handful of population-rich counties clumped in northern Virginia.” (Fairfax, Loudoun & Prince William)
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2013/11/06/how-terry-mcauliffe-won-in-1-map/?utm_term=.19912482178b
LikeLike
Here’s the link to donate to Elizabeth Guzman:
http://elizabethguzmanforvirginia.com/
LikeLike
Here’s the link to donate to Hala Ayala:
https://ayalafordelegate.com/
LikeLike
And finally the link to Danica Roem:
http://danicaroem.ngpvanhost.com/
LikeLike
Why is it we worry about the Republicans mobilizing their base . So the polls show a majority of “likely” voters, a 7% majority voting for Northam . What are the “Svengali-like powers of GOP operatives able to manipulate a zombie base to do their bidding”
Why are Democrats incapable of making the Republicans shake at the thought of the Democratic base or who should have been the Democratic base showing up. Well one is honesty the Republicans are the biggest low life —- — ——- —— on the planet who have absolutely no desire to do anything for working class Americans. But they have an uncanny abbility to high-light the problems that their policy has created and blame it on their opposition .
“America since about 1970 has spawned an increasingly downscale white middle class – without job security (or even without jobs), with pensions and health benefits evaporating and with their principal asset deflating in the collapse of the housing bubble. Their fears are not imaginary; their standard of living is shrinking”. (ML).
And a black working and lower class trapped in place and not a very good place at that. As the whites begin to filter down to their economic status.
So what do Democrats offer. They offer up the memes that justify the policy that they signed and just enough voted for., Policy that was designed by their opposition who only dreamed of achieving it on their own . Policy that when given the golden opportunities to change they didn’t . Instead “Its a skills shortage”, “failing schools” , “the Robots took your job”. “We live in a Global economy”.(only when it comes to disappearing jobs)never when it comes to patents . . In turn the Republicans point to a closed down factory a broken middle class and blame it on the Democrats . Blame it on the Mexicans . whether in a Maquiladora located near the border or on a Construction site in NY or LA. “Blame it on Blacks in Cadillac’s bought on food stamps”
Just once it would be nice to hear a Democrat say, see that SOB over there, he caused this problem . How do you do that when you are in bed with the same Plutocrats and Oligarchs. Thomas Frank bemoaned the fact that Bannon is stealing the issues that rightfully belong with the progressive left. Issues that he raised years ago . As Lofgren wrote the bulk of my response in 2011.
LikeLike
Yikes. This is going to get nastier.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/virginia-politics/corey-stewart-in-talks-to-endorse-gillespie-at-urging-of-trump-aides-bannon-and-bossie/2017/10/10/8ab5b96c-addf-11e7-9e58-e6288544af98_story.html?utm_term=.c65dd01b5fea
LikeLike
The Democratic nominee, Northam has an “F” rating from the NRA. The Republican Gillespie, has an “A” rating from the NRA. 2d amendment rights, will figure prominently in this election.
LikeLike
Ed Gillespie is a real tool He’s campaigning as mild-mannered Ed, but his tv ads and mailers are all-in on the race-baiting. He has hired a top advisor to Corey Stewart, who almost obtained the Republican nomination for governor, running on Confederate statues and white nationalism.
Gillespie represents everything about the Republican party that is horrid and undemocratic, and racist t the core. That’s what the party has become. It no longer bears any resemblance whatsoever to the party of Lincoln.
Voters in Virginia are older and whiter than the national average. Not good. But they are also – overall – better educated. And that’s a big plus for those who want sane, sensible government.
This last month will be nasty.
There are plenty of racists in Virginia. They comment on local news sites, spewing hatred, for example, at the Charlottesville city council for attempting to remove the statues of Confederates Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson from city parks, and renaming the parks. They offer up twisted, distorted, wholly inaccurate renditions of history to buttress their feeble arguments. Some of them distance themselves verbally from the white supremacists and KKKers and Neo-Nazis, but they blame – vehemently – a particular black city councilman for the Aug, 12 riot in Charlottesville, rather than Corey Stewart, who came to the city and made the statues and white nationalism the centerpieces of his campaign. So, they give themselves away. Some still call Obama a “Marxist.” Some openly call members of city council “Communists,” a tactic used by Corey Stewart and advocated by one of Stewart’s top advisors, who has ben hired by Gillespie.
We’ve been witnessing the “controversy” whipped up by Trump over the NFL protests. That has trickled quickly into public schools across the country. Apparently, there are American citizens who believe – wrongly – that exercising one’s rights is “unpatriotic.”
I’ve said this before her, and I’ll repeat it. The Republic is in peril. Far too many citizens are unacquainted with their own history. Way too many do not understand or subscribe to the core values that are embedded in our Constitution (and Bill of Rights): popular sovereignty, equality, justice, freedoms for all citizens, tolerance, and promoting the general welfare.
Public education is a foundational cornerstone of our democratic republic, with the nurturance of democratic citizenship as its premier mission. We continue, however, to move the wrong way. One self-described “innovative,” “cutting edge” school district in central Virginia – very near the white supremacist march in Charlottesville – has committed itself to STEM, and Advanced Placement, and LOTS of technology, rather than to authentic inquiry and critical, reflective thinking, and a direct focus on the development of future citizens. School district officials like to use some of those terms, but basically, given how they operate and control and deceive, it’s in the same way that Trump and Republicans have (grossly) wrapped themselves in the flag.
We know that Russia used the technology platforms of Google, Twitter, and Facebook to undermine Hillary Clinton and push Donald Trump. They used hundred if not thousands of phony accounts to buy and disseminate thousands of ads and pieces of fake news that ended up being shared millions and millions of times. A researcher at Columbia says it’s likely the deliberate disinformation ads were shared HUNDREDS of millions of times. And they were focused on voter sin swing states, including Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, and Pennsylvania.
According to James McHenry, a delegate from Maryland to the Constitutional Convention, Ben Franklin was approached by a woman as he exited Independence Hall. She asked him something on the order of “What kind of government have you given us Dr. Franklin?”
And Franklin’s response was something like, “A Republic, madam, if you can keep it.”
That’s why we have public education.
LikeLike
Q Betsy DeVos and family gave $100,000 to Gillespie to keep white nationalism strong. END Q
Do you have any solid evidence to back up this outrageous claim? I am not a lawyer, but a statement like this borders on libel.
LikeLike
The Republican party has become the party of white nationalism. Richard Spencer, the white supremacists who led the alt-right march in Charlottesville declared “Hail, Trump” and raised his hand in a Nazi salute when Trump won*. Spencer said that Trump represented the “first step” in white nationalist, racist politics. Trump did run an openly racist campaign.
Ed Gillespie barely won the Republican nomination for governor in Virginia over Corey Stewart, who made Confederate statues and white nationalism the center pieces of his campaign. Gillespie has hired some of Stewart’s advisors, including the one who pushed the Confederate statues and white nationalism. Gillespie has now made fear of “the Other” and Confederate statues (white supremacy, racism) the core pieces of his ads.
Trump endorsed Gillespie.
Get the picture?
LikeLike
I do not dispute your statements. But you are “dodging”. What is the connection between Ms. DeVos donating to the Gillespie campaign and “White nationalism(sic)”?
How is a donation, going to “Keep white nationalism strong”?
I am trying to understand Dr. Ravitch’s statement.
LikeLike
Gillespie is playing the Confederate statue card. That is an appeal to white nationalism. Do you think blacks want to keep the statues of Confederate heroes?
LikeLike
I have been watching the debates and media covering this campaign. I have seen nothing about Civil war memorials or confederate statues. And I do not know what black people think about confederate statues. I would not hazard a guess.
LikeLike