Jennifer Berkshire, education journalist and co-author of A Wolf at the Schoolhouse Door (with Jack Schneider) explains in The Nation the real reason why Terry McAuliffe lost the governorship in Virginia.
McAuliffe, she says, could have turned the education issue in his favor, but he doesn’t have a clue what public schools are for. He is a corporate reformer. He couldn’t defend the public schools because he sees them as job training sites that feed workers into big corporations. To those parents who care about their public schools, he was as unable to articulate a vision for them as his opponent, Glenn Youngkin.
She wrote:
Four years ago, McAuliffe was en route to southwest Virginia in a state helicopter when he heard about Amazon’s HQ 2 competition—the search by the corporate behemoth for a second headquarters outside of Seattle. The contest would come to be derided as at best a sham, at worst a bait and switch, but for McAuliffe it represented an opportunity to cement his legacy. “We’ve got to win this!” McAuliffe recalled in an interview with the Richmond Times-Dispatch. “Literally, it would finish what we started in diversifying and building a new economy.”
While other states shoveled taxpayer cash and gimmicky incentives in an effort to lure Amazon, Virginia promised something more meaningful to the company: its schools. At the center of Virginia’s sales pitch was a pledge to invest more than $1 billion into tech education, beginning in kindergarten, through high school and into college. Come to northern Virginia, beckoned McAuliffe and his economic development team, and a K-12 tech talent pipeline awaits. “In Virginia, we put corporate partners first,” wrote McAuliffe in a letter to Amazon.
Virginia won the competition, and so did McAuliffe.
He’d taken office in 2013 with a pledge to make the state “the best place to do business,” and followed a blueprint, furnished by the Virginia Chamber of Commerce, to get there. Realigning Virginia’s public schools to better fit the needs of employers—or in Chamber speak, “strengthen[ing] the linkages between the classroom and the workplace at all levels”—was central to realizing his goal….
As a Times-Dispatch reporter noted, Youngkin and McAuliffe were virtually indistinguishable on the goal of tethering education ever more tightly to the needs of Virginia’s industries. In an election in which education was a central and divisive issue, the candidates were in lockstep on the belief that the function of schools is to train Amazon workers.
He was unable to articulate the role of the public schools as the foundation of a democratic society. He doesn’t get it.
Berkshire concludes:
When McAuliffe ran for governor in 2013, the political arm of the Chamber of Commerce representing the northern part of the state, the aptly named NOVABizPAC, backed the Democrat over his GOP challenger, right-wing firebrand Ken Cuccinelli. McAuliffe was their kind of guy, explained the group’s chief. His policies and priorities—especially his vow to keep Virginia a right-to-work state—neatly aligned with those of the business community. This year the group declined to back McAuliffe or Youngkin. Choosing between two such worthy candidates had proven impossible, said the group in a statement. Either would do.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
While I agree completely with McAuliffe’s bought ignorance on education issues, this is another example of missing the forest. Democrats believe reason and policies matter to voters. The segment who voted for Youngkin don’t care about those things. Their world view is unchanging. This is about power not issues.
Been reading a lot lately about how people in Germany reacted to the events of 1933-39. One thing comes up over and over again: large segments of the population, despite the evidence of total collapse all around them, still believed in the rule of law. We are doing the same thing here. The arguments made above make not one bit of difference to virtually every Republican today. This is about power, not ideas.
Did Germans still believe in the rule of law? Perhaps, but I suspect that more of them supported the Nazis because they saw them as a protector against the feared Bolsheviks (a general ploy of the far right). In that way, I agree that it was about power, but so is the rule of law. What people do not understand is how Montesquieu was correct: Dispersal of power is essential to free society. If one group ever becomes unopposed, tyranny cannot be far off.
I did not make myself clear, sorry. I was referring in large part to Jews who escaped most persecution until Kristallnacht. Even while they witnessed government-sanctioned actions against others, they felt they were different, that it would never touch them. They learned the hard way. Many religious leaders who were persecuted and murdered, especially after Sept. 1939, either supported the Nazi takeover when it happened or thought it was the problem of “other people,” not them. They honestly had such faith in the rule of law, some actually thought they had them, even in the immediate aftermath of Kristallnacht.
My point is that while we–correctly–regret and oppose what is going on with public education, it is an afterthought for the great majority of the population. Afterthought is a generous word. The dishonest language they use on education is a tool, not a goal. We are currently in a Cold Civil War and on the brink or removing “Cold.”
Greg, with each passing day, I share your sense of anxiety about the breakdown of civil society. The RepublicanParty has been captured by extremists of all stripes. If they win the presidency and Congress in 2024, our democracy will be in deep jeopardy. It already is.
“dispersal of power”
The alliance of conservative Catholics and evangelicals was a Waterloo moment for the U.S. (one salvo- Koch-funded Paul Weyrich).
Pat Buchanan’s interview about Judge Scalia’s appointment, posted at Buchanan’s site, shows us one of the authoritarian playbook’s inaugural moves.
Mark Pukita’s attack against Josh Mandel in Ohio’s 2022 GOP U.S. Senate primary shows us the build-up of anti-Semitism that targets voters.
Laura Ingraham’s show (10-21-2021) “Pat Buchanan on preserving America and Christopher Rufo Criticizing CRT.”
Largely, Fox hosts acknowledge that conservative religion steers their agenda.
The wake-up call for many is too uncomfortable to hear. The “Judeo-Christian” talk of evangelical and conservative Catholic leaders facilitates the election, today, of some politicians like Schumer and Mandel (Ohio). There’s little incentive for them to dispute the rhetoric as inauthentic. Many other circumstances override reason to be skeptical about what a Pat Buchanan or a Carl Anderson says. Having people’s fears assuaged by inclusion of the “Judeo”, is good strategy.
In truth, there should be no comfort. Even at 50% of the population, women are in jeopardy of losing a right that exists in every other developed nation- a right that mainstream conservative religious don’t want women to have.
Some religious have a misguided feeling that because their sect was discriminated against in the past, that there is an overarching need to protect all of those under the religion umbrella even those who marshal others in support of dangerous political decisions that harm America.
My fear is that the timing of the wake-up, as Greg notes, will be too late. In every age and every country, religious leaders align with the despot (Jefferson). Colonialism has a long history with conservative Christian religion.
GregB
Exactly it is about American values. Few here on Diane’s page seem to share those values. As expressed to me by Blue Collar workers when I would point out to them how destructive the right has been to the labor movement.
So Democrats do have to pass progressive legislation. From supporting Public Schools , to Labor ,to families ( Which they wont.) YES. But do not expect that to change those right wing voters .
Obama unleashed a revolution. Tough to be better than the best Black man when he is a President from Kenya.
Please Diane note the sarcasm!
Joel, done.
Now this is how we should all talk and write about fascists. Finally a story that made me smile:
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/wanda-traczyk-stawska-polish-uprising-eu-bastard-nazis_n_61905bdbe4b0c621c5cdd157
Great Resistance fighter. At her age and with her background, she can speak candidly, without fear
GregB, right on. We could use a few million Wandas. And catch how the polite Canadians don’t even bother with invective, just unanimously pass a motion making Proud Boys a domestic terrorist group.
“…..$1 billion into tech education, beginning in kindergarten..” That is just flat out hideous, kindergarten should be about fun and discovery not learning about how to load a package onto a conveyor belt or how to forgo the use of the lavatory because your supervisor is looking over your shoulder. One billion for education is just fine but not if it’s skewed to just one aspect of education.
The full article is behind a paywall and the “meat” of the article is further down in the article. I could speed read it by scrolling quickly. Yes, the GOP glommed onto the extremist views of a few to try to win the race but McAuliffe committed the worst political sin…..he swatted at the Momma Bear. I will tell you that the meanest of Momma Bears are those who are educated and wealthy and NOVA is full of the educated and wealthy. Lesser of 2 evils is what NOVA had to vote for and they chose Youngkin.
A lot of people really underestimate how angry parents in blue states were and continue to be about how schools handled Covid. One would think that diehard commenters on an education blog would be more aware, but they just keep walking the plank.
A lot of parents really underestimate how many Republican voters there are in blue states. Apparently they think blue states have just tiny percentages of Republican voters.
A lot of parents really OVERestimate how many public school parents who are not Trump supporters are angry that schools were not open.
It’s like they live in a world of angry white suburban moms and they equate what groups of angry white suburban moms say with what “everyone” believes.
flerp, if you really want to push the false narrative that most NYC parents were angry that schools weren’t forcing students to be in-person during the height of the pandemic, then I wonder what little bubble of privilege you live in.
It is true that some of those parents had extremely high expectations and decided to scapegoat public schools for why their high expectations weren’t immediately met.
But I think you overestimate how many parents wanted public schools in NYC to force students to attend in person and ban mask mandates during the height of the pandemic. And you underestimate how many thought that schools did a reasonably good of adapting to remote learning last year, once there was some time to plan.
But I do not underestimate how powerful the right wing propaganda is that scapegoats public schools and union teachers for not figuring out some miraculous way to remain open and end mask mandates — and if I do forget, your posts always remind me how powerful that propaganda is.
That propaganda posts here that McAuliffe’s comment means something it doesn’t, while at the same time those parents profess to strongly support the very thing that McAuliffe’s comment said — that public schools shouldn’t be forced to remove Beloved from libraries because some parents object.
I don’t underestimate the disingenuousness of parents whose agenda is to scapegoat public schools and union teachers because remote learning will never be as good as in-person and that’s all because public schools and union teachers aren’t listening to parents.
I don’t underestimate the motives of those who push that right wing propaganda.
A lot of people…
Too funny.
FLERP, you were angry because schools in NYC were not open during the worst outbreak of COVID. You were angry that they didn’t have in-person classes at a time when most teachers and many other parents were fearful of the highly contagious disease. If you had your way, the schools would never have closed. But many teachers and parents did not agree with you. No one got it right. Not in the U.S. Not in Europe. No one got it right. If people in blue states are angry, they should be angry at Trump for inaction and misinformation. The families who are angry about the government’s inadequate response to COVID would be voting Democratic, not Republican. Biden took charge of the crisis, hastened the distribution of vaccines, told people to listen to the scientists and doctors. Trump lied, urged the public to take unproven remedies (while he took the vaccine and made sure it was not photographed), and continues to discourage the public from getting vaccinated. Even today, Trump could go on national television and take credit for the rapid development of the vaccines (“Operation Warp Speed”). He could tell his faithful followers to “take the Trump vaccine.”
In short, people are not voting Republican to punish Democrats for their response to COVID.
Exhibits A-C have responded to my comment.
Exhibit D, also in this thread, congratulates someone for “smoking out” the “skunk”—i.e., a person who disagrees with them—and excoriates “the skunk” as “privileged” (the worst thing to be in Exhibit D’s world) because she voiced her intention to go out and have a nice evening.
Flerp
You really have to get a grip. Your sense victim-hood is really breaking through. That aside tell us how upset those New Jersey parents were . They re-elected the Progressive Democratic Governor by a full 3% points for the first time in 44 years. . So I guess schools in New Jersey were not an issue.
Contrary to the media spin, the only thing that can be read into the election results last Tuesday is that Trumpanzees showed up in numbers that rivaled a presidential election while Democratic voters did not . Exactly the opposite of what happened in the 2018 mid terms. .
In Virginia 83%(or 85)of People who said they voted for Trump voted while only 66% of those who voted for Biden voted. That 17 or 19%% difference in turnout says it all. Trump voters were upset that they could not spread a deadly virus to more liberals and minorities.
Here on Long Island there were only local races yet the voter turn out story was the same . Almost every district had in person learning for any student who wanted it. Nassau County was named the safest large county in America by US News and World report. Yet dumped its County Exec and District Attorney. Bail reform may have been an issue but not because of actual crime.
And for the fifth straight month Murders and Shooting dropped in NYC in October. Down to pre pandemic levels for the month. Yet the media is not talking about the NYC miracle.
These voters did not vote on their children’s schools .
Momma Bear was also anti-union, and in the piece below, Momma Bear came off as out of touch with society and the implications of a pandemic because Momma Bear wanted to have time for herself instead of having to deal with her kids learning from home.
Momma Bear drank the kool-aid that was the driving force behind the GOP platform in this fall’s election, and what the party had singularly focused on since the summer of 2020: How democrats handled the pandemic. Momma Bear used “education and the pandemic” as the excuse for voting Republican in almost every election. The ad dog-whistling those opposed to actual history by tying McAuliffe to “Beloved” was laced in rhetoric. One ad isn’t going to make a campaign. Granted, it didn’t help along the more easily influenced in the voting populace, but the seeds were sewn when schools were affected by the pandemic and the GOP, opportunists as they are, seized the message that schools were not doing what Momma Bear wanted.
This piece by CNN is enough to make anyone want to vomit. I don’t feel sorry for Momma Bear if her “feelings got hurt.” She is just as vacant as the average conservative voter.
https://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2021/11/06/virginia-governor-race-suburban-mothers-voters-pamela-brown-nr-vpx.cnn
All the Democratic star power couldn’t convince Virginians to have another go with McAuliffe. Virginians already knew of his mediocre leadership, and they wanted something different. McAuliffe’s comments about parents and education came across as hostile and defensive, even though he was essentially correct. Corporate Democrats are out of step with more progressive agenda of the Biden White House.
So both LisaM and RT think that this defeat was primarily due to poor leadership on the part of one person. This seems to agree with the evaluation of Berkshire’s article. We will see if there are larger implications as time goes on.
Roy,
Have Virginia public schools really been taken over by “K-12 tech”, where Kindergarten students begin to learn how to be good corporate drones?
I feel like the fear of a bogeyman called K-12 tech is like the fear of Critical Race Theory. What is really happening in schools? Students get more diverse perspectives of history or read more inclusive literature or learn what unconscious bias is. Students have access to computers in classrooms or access to a programming class. But parents read a sentence from a professional development presentation and decide that white students are being taught to hate themselves.
But I’m just seeing it from a NY parents’ perspective, where the public schools are using technology and teaching a more diverse (albeit far from perfect) curriculum that is far superior than what I experienced when there was no such thing as ed reform or K-12 technology.
I thought the 3 past Virginia democratic Governors had done a remarkable job keeping the corporate privatizers out of public schools and rejecting the charter movement. Virginia has been one of the few states where privately run charters aren’t “competing” with public schools and pulling enormous resources out of public schools.
And I wonder if these Democrats’ supposed embrace of the corporate K-12 tech curriculum is really as bad as it is presented.
My kids have had teachers that have used technology really well. And they have had teachers who refused to teach in any way different from the way they taught for 30 years. Including some technology in the curriculum doesn’t scare me, just like diversity education doesn’t scare me.
“McAuliffe’s comments about parents and education came across as hostile and defensive, even though he was essentially correct. ”
Sadly, a perfect example of how we all are complicit in empowering the false framing that Republicans offer. No wonder public education suffers when even its supporters push right wing narratives.
retired teacher, do you believe that school systems should tell children what to do or that parents should be in charge of their education? False framing.
I watched that part of the debate.
There was not a spontaneous movement of educated parents who heard McAuliffe’s comment and felt immediate outrage. Despite the audience at that debate being quite conservative (it was at George Mason University), there was no intake of breath. It would have been forgettable except that the GOP propaganda machine amplified it over the next few days, got the mainstream media to present the GOP’s false framing of the issue.
Parents watching the debate heard Youngkin say:
“What we’ve seen in the last 20 months is our school systems refusing to engage with parents. In fact in Fairfax County this past week, we watched parents who were so upset that there was such sexually explicit material in the library they had never seen, it was shocking. And in fact you vetoed the bill that would have informed parents that they were there.
You believe school systems should tell children what to do, I believe that parents should be in charge of their kids education.”
And they heard McAuliffe say: “So first of all this shows how clueless Glenn Youngkin is, he doesn’t understand what the laws were because he’s never been involved here, in helping Virginia. But it was not. The parents had to write the veto bill, veto books, Glenn, not [be knowledge about it?], also take them off the shelves. AND I’M NOT GONNA LET PARENTS COME INTO SCHOOLS AND ACTUALLY TAKE BOOKS OUT AND MAKE THEIR OWN DECISIONS. [applause!] SO, YEAH, I STOPPED THE BILL THAT I DON’T THINK PARENTS SHOULD BE TELLING SCHOOLS WHAT THEY SHOULD TEACH, YOU KNOW I GET REALLY TIRED OF EVERYBODY RUNNING DOWN TEACHERS. I LOVE OUR TEACHERS. WHAT THEY HAVE DONE THROUGH COVID, THESE ARE REAL HEROES THAT DESERVE OUR RESPECT AND YOU KEEP RUNNING THEM DOWN. [more applause].
“hostile and defensive”?? really? Because the GOP noise machine told you that they “came across as hostile and defensive”?
I doubt very much that anyone except the parents who want to ban Beloved who actually watched this short clip and heard the applause would believe that that McAuliffe was “hostile and defensive”.
I think you mean that the GOP noise machine convinced you and other folks that IT WAS MCAULIFFE’S FAULT.
And when even retired teachers are amplifying the GOP’s false narrative that what McAuliffe said was “hostile and defensive” toward parents is why he lost. The GOP loves it when those who support public schools “defend” McAuliffe by conceding as fact that McAuliffe did say something very hostile and defensive and he should not have said something so hostile and defensive but he isn’t really hostile toward parents. Then the media can make sure to include that “even parents who support public schools agree that McAuliffe sounded hostile toward parents.”
People didn’t think that McAuliffe sounded hostile and defensive in real time. They thought he sounded hostile and defensive after the GOP noise machine succeeded in framing his remarks that way.
Youngkin won by getting the parents without a college degree, who want to be able to ban books or ideas they don’t like and tell public schools what they can and cannot teach. They aren’t going to won over unless the Democrats run a candidate who will let them do that.
Took me to school on this issue. Thanks for the quotes. Your point is that the so-called “liberal media” lost the battle by not reporting the truth?
Keep on believing what you want, but none of this was about CRT, a teen faking trans to have sex with his girlfriend (until she said “No” and he didn’t listen!), Beloved, book banning or mask mandates. The left leaning MSM kept the minority QANON ,”Patriotic” crazy crowd front and center to try and push their own agenda for a win in VA. Both sides tend to do this….not just FOX and OAN.
NOVA parents weren’t happy about a lost year of learning due to Covid and their children sitting in front of computers for hours on end doing mindless work. When schools opened with mask mandates, the schools were still pushing more time on computers doing mindless work along with numerous and intrusive SEL, questionnaires and surveys instead of addressing the learning loss (Ed tech takeover). If McAuliffe hadn’t opened his mouth and made that remark, he would have been re-elected. He made a huge mistake and Mom’s decided to take him down. Both McAuliffe and Youngkin were awful on education issues.
Now, go ahead and skewer me! It’s a beautiful fall day, I just got my booster shot and I’m heading out soon for a short commute into NOVA for Ice Hockey’s version of Friday Night Lights. Even if my son’s team loses, it will still be a great evening because life is returning to some kind of normalcy because most of us in this area followed the quarantine rules and then got vaccinated. We are beginning to see light at the end of the long, dark tunnel.
LisaM,
Do you even live in Virginia? Are your kids in public schools there?
Joel Herman has already responded to your false statements, and yet you continue to post them.
The only thing that is accurate is that there were some parents who wanted schools to remain open without restrictions throughout the pandemic and were angry they were not. They weren’t the majority, and most of them were conservatives.
There wasn’t a groundswell of progressive, college-educated parents in NOVA who supported CRT and diversity education but decided to punish democrats for closing schools during COVID.
“NOVA parents weren’t happy about a lost year of learning due to Covid and their children sitting in front of computers for hours on end doing mindless work.”
NO ONE was happy about that! But NOVA parents – the ones who didn’t vote for Trump – didn’t blame public schools for that. They didn’t want their kids to be forced to attend in person school during the height of the pandemic and understood the importance of flattening the curve when the medical system was so overtaxed.
Does your kid attend a Virginia public school where parents were outraged that Virginia did not keep their public schools open throughout the pandemic?
I do NOT live in NOVA but I travel there often and I do have acquaintances there. I DO have a great niece who attends public schools in Hampton Rds and the family is leaving the states so that she can attend International Schools in a European country….they’re not exactly satisfied here. I would never think to post anything about schools in NY since I don’t live there and have “0” knowledge about the school system….can’t say the same for you.
As for Joel and his “data” and #’s. He didn’t prove me wrong about anything. Every “data point” represents a human being but how they think or feel is NEVER considered in that generic data. We ALL know that data can be cherry picked and/or skewed to represent what someone wants it to represent…..Charter school data cherry picking/BAD. Suck it up and move on to a new post because you were wrong….just admit it sometimes and stop word saucing to try and prove that you know everything about everything.
LisaM says: “I DO have a great niece who attends public schools in Hampton Rds and the family is leaving the states so that she can attend International Schools in a European country….they’re not exactly satisfied here.”
Mea culpa. I also know parents who left NYC public schools for private schools – 15 years ago. Ten years ago. Five years ago. 2 years ago. And last year.
It didn’t occur to me that privileged parents being more and more dissatisfied as their public schools were required to do more with even less money and cope with a disproportionately greater and greater number of economically disadvantaged students would have been solved if we just elected more Glenn Youngkin’s, who will allow parents to run public schools however they want.
But your brilliantly argued post convinced me. You want to empower the parents who want to ban Beloved, because you are positive that by empowering the parents who want to ban Beloved, you will get the public schools of your dreams – the kind that your great niece’s family would love.
How can I argue with your certainty about that?
Thanks NYCPSP, you smoked out a skunk. LisaM, who I thought was an open mind, has been exposed. Sadly, from my point of view. When she writes, “It’s a beautiful fall day, I just got my booster shot and I’m heading out soon for a short commute into NOVA for Ice Hockey’s version of Friday Night Lights.” she has lost me and my respect. Isn’t this a way of writing, “F… you, I’m privileged and have advantages that many in our nation don’t, and I don’t care, because I’m doing fine.” I’m done with that kind of crap. And remember, LisaM is someone who gave up on public schools while she claims to support them. Gotta admit, you caught this hypocrite in the act.
And smoking out this skunk to admit she has no skin in the game in NOVA while preaching the righteous garbage she does is quite an accomplishment. Again, thank you. We need to identify our resident Quislings and make them obvious to everyone.
GregB,
Thank you. I know that my frequent posts annoy some people but I do not believe that most people here realize how dangerous it is that they are casually embracing the right wing framing of so many issues, and helping turn right wing propaganda into accepted truth.
We have got to call this out and marginalize those who amplify right wing propaganda. Treating this as a “both sides have good points” issue is part of the problem. When I see a right wing meme that is presented as accepted fact coming from posters who are usually thoughtful and I know support public education, I am very worried. I’ve just about given up on fighting for public education when I see people who are teachers helping push the false narratives that help empower the party that is pretty much committed to destroying public education and teachers unions and democracy. If those in education don’t care, I’m wondering why I bother.
Thanks very much to you and Diane Ravitch, who do such a good job calling out some of these posts.
Thanks to both NYC and Greg for describing what’s wrong with LisaM’s viewpoints. Lisa M’s style which ranges from a threat to take her marbles home if commenters talk about something she doesn’t like, to a microphone drop when she’s certain she’s right, aids in understanding what is likely the character that underlies the opinions.
Yes GregB, it was an F—you and I really don’t care anymore. I’m tired of the bloviating and righteous condemnation by some of the posters of this blog, including you. I don’t care if you have no respect for me….it doesn’t hurt my feelings at all. I stopped reading most of your comments long ago because you are so full of yourself. This one pertained to me directly, so I thought I would comment
Yep, I’m a privileged, white, suburban, stay at home Mom and I tried to fight school deforms until I couldn’t anymore and then I pulled my child out of public school. I don’t want vouchers to pay for his education (his school does not accept voucher $$$) even though my tax dollars still support public schools and I don’t advocate for the expansion of vouchers in my state. Funny how lots of public school Principals pull their own children out of the public system and put them into private HS? Funny that there are tons of former public school teachers now teaching in private schools…why? Strange how the private HS’s are filled with former public school students? Yep, I’m privileged for doing what is best for my child.
Yep, I’m a privileged white woman and I followed all the Covid quarantines/rules and then got vaccinated/ boostered. I AM entitled to go out in public and have some fun now. I even went into a restaurant and sat with other privileged parents who have also followed the rules. OOOHHH…..I’m such a bad person! Just remember that Dr. Fauci said we could start getting back to a “new normal” once we were vaxxed and the transmission rates were coming down. It was a nice evening and we ALL deserved that. I’m even planning Thanksgiving with all of my vaccinated and Covid careful family because I’m privileged and followed the rules.
Yep, I’m a privileged white person and you smoked me out! I’ve been caught….OH MY!
And NYC PSP….why don’t you ring up Bernie, AOC, and the squad to hear what they have to say about the election in VA since it seems like you might be privileged to have them on speed dial in your contact list. Maybe they could enlighten you that both schlubs in VA didn’t give a rat’s butt about education issues or the children in the state of VA.
TATA! I’m off to enjoy some more privileged, white activities as it’s another beautiful day and I’m riding high because I was privileged enough to get my booster.
LisaM’s comment- self-reflection run amok
NYC
The people that you describe as writing that your comments annoy them are not the boss of you.
Agree, nycpsp. This is Exhibit#1 of something in the media– I’m not sure you get it right when you claim liberal media repeats conservative media talking points [blatantly, or more insidiously]. To me it represents a striking absence in liberal media of just by god taking a stand and throwing the truth back in their faces. Karen Tumulty has a well-balanced opinion piece on how this particular misquote affected the VA election here: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/11/03/mcauliffe-ended-up-dancing-youngkins-choreography/
How differently might things have been if NYT & WaPo immediately struck back with McAuliffe’s exact words (as you do here), under the banner “Youngkin Big$$ Ads, Conservative Media Twist McAuliffe’s Words to Rope in Angry Moms”? Maybe none, but at least one could be proud to pay for one’s subscription…
bethree5,
Thanks. It’s possible I give to much credit to the media’s amplification and legitimizing of right wing lies, but how else to explain why both retired teacher and LisaM are writing posts where some false right wing narrative is stipulated as fact, and then we are supposed to have a discussion about why that “fact” is the fault of the democrats?
I assume they are both smart, concerned people, but the fact that even when it is pointed out to them that they are accepting right wing falsehoods as truth, they are doubling down on it scares me. It shouldn’t work so easily on them, but it does.
^^Also, Karen Tumulty didn’t write a balanced piece. That’s the problem – that she certainly believes she wrote a balanced piece. But what stipulated as truth is this:
“But sometimes, a candidate’s blunder or miscalculation really does matter. The freshest example was the disastrous declaration by Democrat Terry McAuliffe, the former governor of Virginia who fell short in his bid to regain his old job. “I don’t think parents should be telling schools what they should teach,” he said in his second and final debate with GOP nominee Glenn Youngkin.”
But Karen Tumulty stipulated as fact the right wing narrative that McAuliife did use a phrase and thus never really pointed out that the right wing’s use of this — helped by the media like her legitimizing that lie — is the real problem.
Let’s turn the Karen Tumulty style of “both sides” reporting on her and see how she’d like it:
New article:
Readers were shocked to read Washington Post writer Karen Tumulty writing that the Washington Post’s philosophy is that “gaffes and stumbles by politicians don’t really matter”. As one reader said: “I am appalled that the Karen Tumulty at the Washington Post has gone on record saying the newspaper will no longer report on politicians’ gaffes and stumbles. Why is Tumulty saying that those aren’t newsworthy?”
Tumulty gets fired after many articles excoriating her for saying that the Washington Post won’t be covering gaffes and stumbles by politicians anymore and outraging so many readers.
Do you think Tumulty would be comforted that after she is fired, someone writes a “supportive” article that says: “Tumulty did make an unforced error when she wrote that gaffes and stumbles by politicians don’t really matter”, which did cause much outrage by readers of all backgrounds. But that wasn’t her intention so it’s a shame that she got fired just because she made the mistake of saying that “gaffes and stumbles by politicians don’t really matter.”
I don’t think Tumulty would feel vindicated by a story that reinforced the false narrative that got her criticized in the first place.
“But sometimes, a Washington Post writer’s blunder or miscalculation really does matter. The freshest example was the disastrous declaration by Karen Tumulty “gaffes and stumbles by politicians don’t really matter” she wrote in a November Washington Post article.”
McAuliffe’s statement about parents was blunt and poorly received. It is important that parents in public schools feel valued and heard. A large part of public school budgets comes from the public. They are stakeholders even if they cannot determine curricula.
retired teacher, McAuliffe was responding to the question that you avoided. McAuliffe responded with an explanation of why he (McAuliffe) vetoed a bill that the GOP says values and hears parents.
Parents want to take books with what they deemed “sexually explicit content” out of libraries. School systems did not allow those parents to do that, and McAuliffe vetoed a bill that would have empowered parents who don’t want books like Beloved in school libraries.
retired teacher, if you agree with the GOP framing of this issue that McAuliffe’s veto of that GOP bill was wrong and by doing so he demonstrated that he doesn’t value or hear parents, that is your right. Maybe more democrats will listen to you and stop opposing bills that “make parents feel valued and heard” and start voting for them.
Maybe more Democrats will embrace your POV and start passing legislation that (according to the GOP) makes parents feel listened and heard, instead of trying to stop that legislation like McAuliffe did which demonstrated that he didn’t listen or hear parents.
The question on the table is whether you agree with the GOP view that vetoing that bill that the GOP presents as a bill that values and hears parents showed that McAuliffe didn’t value and hear parents.
I suspect you would support McAuliffe’s veto of that bill, which just makes you another person who doesn’t value or hear parents. Because if you DID really value or hear parents, you would have supported that bill.
Get it? When you embrace the GOP framing of issues, there is no acceptable answer (unless you like the right wing agenda).
I consider parents important partners in education. When parents and teachers work together, a lot can be accomplished. I know this from direct experience.
I still think McAuliffe’s comments came across as dismissive of parents’ concerns. He could have done a better job in his message. Other than that point of view I have no other agenda. My comments are an opinion, not a presumption of some sort of guilt or agenda.
retired teacher says:
“I still think McAuliffe’s comments came across as dismissive of parents’ concerns.”
Sure, if you ignore the words in the sentence that came before and the words that came after. That’s why the GOP propaganda machine quoted them out of context and mischaracterized them to mean something that anyone listening to the words in the sentence that came before and after knew that they didn’t mean.
Roy Turrentine read the whole quote and thanked me for providing more context. But you doubled down on your criticism of McAuliffe.
It mystifies me why you would take a phrase from a longer sentence, and ignore that the phrase refers to whether or not a veto of a policy is dismissive of parents’ concerns.
Vetoing that bill either was considerate of parents concerns or dismissive of them. I think that the veto was considerate of parents concerns. Many parents – most parents – were very concerned about that right wing bill passing. And we strongly disagree with the GOP claims that the veto of that bill was dismissive of parents concerns.
You are confirming the GOP’s narrative that the veto of the bill was dismissive of parents concerns. That’s fine. As long as you own it.
If you are somehow arguing that you don’t believe that McAuliffe’s veto of the bill was dismissive of parents concerns, but you still say that McAuliiffe was dismissive of parents concerns because a short phrase that the GOP is amplifying out of context is dismissive of parents, then really, this country is lost.
The false attack on McAuliffe is very similar to the false attack on Hillary about the deplorables sentence. She made a thoughtful and in fact very insightful statement that was specifically about explaining that not all Trump supporters were a monolith — there were the deplorable ones who liked appeals to white supremacy, but there were also the ones who came to Trump because they had been left behind and ignored and they were struggling and needed help and she wanted to help them. It was quite moving to hear Hillary talking about what she had to offer the other Trump supporters who weren’t looking for a politician spewing racism and hatred of others. But she acknowledged that she had nothing to offer the ones who were looking for a politician who invoked white supremacist ideas (the deplorables).
And that quite empathetic statement was turned into “she says all Trump voters are deplorable”.
The fact that the GOP propaganda machine gets progressives to reinforce their false narrative is not good. It just encourages them to do it more and more. They will continue until we all stop legitimizing false attacks.
There are a couple important lessons from the Virginia gubernatorial race:
Many key states, like Virginia, Florida, Texas, North Carolina, and Michigan, now have very tight elections. Neither party has a clear majority. In such a situation, a candidate cannot simply rely on and can actually be hurt by a Trump endorsement in the general election. Getting Trumpy can really hurt with cross-over voters. That’s why Youngkin didn’t seek one and kept his distance. So, Trump isn’t the king maker he would like to think himself to be.
Candidates can get mileage out of a perception that they are “on the side of parents” on education issues, as long as what that means is not at all clear. LOL.
I suspect that in 2024, Trump will be pretty much out of the picture as a current player. He’s in truly serious legal and financial trouble, and all of this is converging at the same time, slowly, to be sure, but it’s a long time to 2024. Also, the guy was not in the greatest of health, it seemed, at the end of his presidency. In 2024, he will be 77, and he will not be one of those healthy 77 year olds like the guy who just completed the Appalachian Trail at 83. Trump is the exact opposite of that guy.
I suspect that the 2024 candidate will be DeSantis. I really don’t think that either Pence or Donnie Junior has a ghost of a chance, but I have a history of being utterly wrong as an election prognosticator. I didn’t think that Ronnie Reagan was viable. Here was a candidate who, at the beginning of the race that he ultimately won, was railing about Social Security being a Socialist plot. But his handlers put him on a script, and he won in a landslide. And then there was Shrub-a fellow who had run businesses into bankruptcy, avoided his military service, and had a history of substance abuse. Surely, I thought, Americans aren’t THAT stupid. Well, . . .
Bob: I to was gob-smacked when Reagan won. I have continually been surprised at the power of his type of thought in American politics. He and Trump seem to have derived their teflon from the same source. I have thought much about the source for this strange material. Perhaps it is the simplistic nationalism that refuses to believe bad things about “us.” Perhaps it is the tendency of some to accept the authority of one rather than the authority of many. Maybe The United States has become more unum than it is e pluribus.
Whatever it is, Reagan’s presiding over the post-Vietnam War economic rally has cemented his legacy as basically successful, and he has shed the growth of homelessness and decrepitude of the nation’s rust belt like a snake against tree bark. No one gives his policies blame for their failures, only credit for their successes. Will Trump see the same success? I do not think so, but like Bob says of himself, I am not very good at predictions.
When Vonnegut published Slaughterhouse-Five in 1969, he wanted to show that Billy Pilgrim’s wife was an extreme right-wing wacko, so he put a Ronald Reagan for President bumper sticker on the car that she wrecks at the beginning of Chapter 9. This was Vonnegut making a joke. Well, 12 years later, the joke was on the country.
Kurt, who is in heaven now
Bob Shepherd
You are assuming that there are large numbers of crossover voters .
I suspect that assumption is wrong. There are voters that are more motivated and less motivated to show up at the polls . Not more “suburban housewives” that switch ideology from cycle to cycle but different levels of voter enthusiasm.
In 2016 the Comey letter did not make Democratic voters switch to Trump .It persuaded them to stay home in several states .
In 2018 there was a massive sweep for Democrats as the anti Trump vote came to the polls and the Trumpanzees sat on their butts eating corn dogs . . In 2020 both parties turned out their supporters in never before seen numbers. Demographic shifts in age, race, education gave Democrats an 8 million vote margin. Which is why Republicans are doing everything they can to disenfranchise voters .
With Democrats in power,, although Democratic turn out was high in Va. Republican turnout was through the roof. Voters do not change ideology from year to year, short of Black Swan events.
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2020/02/06/rachel-bitecofer-profile-election-forecasting-new-theory-108944
here are voters that are more motivated and less motivated to show up at the polls
Yes!
We need to form a public education party.
We need the Democrats to become a public education party. Not a pretend public education charter school party.
They lost that when Ted Kennedy signed on with W. Perhaps we should just call our party the Dewey Party. John Dewey actually believed in democracy.
“McAuliffe, she says, could have turned the education issue in his favor, but he doesn’t have a clue what public schools are for. ” The hard reality being that he is symbolic of the MANY rather than the few.
Berkshire paints McAuliffe and Youngkin both as corporate types with big-money ties, & it’s true that both seem fine with tying public-ed content directly to state plans for increasing corporate footprint [but, as nycpsp point out… whatever that means]. But this article comparing them on issues shows a clear Dem/ Rep split between them on taxes, spending, criminal justice, covid protocols, abortion, renewable energy, voting rights for felons: https://www.virginiamercury.com/2021/11/01/cheat-sheet-youngkin-and-mcauliffe-on-the-issues/
Which still leaves me wondering: were voters venting frustration over covid school closures, &/or bogus CRT claims fanned by Youngkin? Was it a referendum on moderate Dem Northam’s strict, pioneering measures in response to covid– &/or equity & civil rights measures? Or is VA simply dialing back into purple territory? A number of analysts say VA only left purple for blue because of Trump, and is now returning to form.
How many democratic voters in Virginia blamed democrats for school closures and “punished” them by voting for right wing Republicans who campaigned to remove Beloved from libraries, and who promised to never close schools no matter how overtaxed hospitals were, and promise to ban all mask mandates?
How many democratic voters said “before the pandemic, my kindergarten student was getting way too much technology education and that’s why I now will vote for Republicans instead?”
We are supposed to believe this without a shred of evidence? Because some non-college white suburban moms who voted for Trump were extra motivated to get out and vote for a Republican by commercials about how their kids were being exposed to sexually explicit content?
And we are supposed to believe this because someone posts – without a shred of evidence – that there were huge numbers of Biden voters who decided to vote for Youngkin?
It’s ironic to hear smart, pro-public school teachers repeating GOP talking points about the Virginia Governors race arguing that the success of the right wing propaganda machine had nothing to do with why Youngkin won! They are citing right wing propaganda as fact, to explain what McAuliffe did wrong, and then saying that right wing propaganda had nothing to do with it!
Honestly, all I can say is oy vay!
nycpsp, thought-provoking post that got me researching. I reply to you down below under general comments, to get more margin space.
I would say yes on the former. Voters were increasingly frustrated with the ongoing situation of school closures affecting student learning rather than CR bullcrap. I heard that Fairfax county has the longest school closure since last year. While neither McAuliffe nor Youngkin said anything to support public education (both are typical corporate politicians), it’s apparent that many Biden voters switched to Youngkin because Virginia Democrats did virtually nothing to support their education needs. All I learned from this state election is that McAuliffe made a horrible campaign echoing “No More Trumpism! No more Charlottesville” mantra. That’s not helping at all.
Stop making public schools the scapegoat.
The data is coming in now. The Washington Post says that Youngkin got the votes of EVANGELICALS. You know, the ones who want more Christian values in public schools. And hey, I’m sure the constant negativity in which some progressives push the meme that McAuliffe is ruining public schools managed to get some non Trump supporting public school supporters to stay home. Well done!
From the Washington Post article Nov. 11, 2021
“How Va. Gov.-elect Youngkin won the hearts and minds of evangelical voters: Youngkin’s focus on critical race theory and public education resonated with White evangelicals.”
“For decades, White evangelicals have gotten riled up over issues ranging from evolution to desegregation to prayer in schools, and in Virginia’s latest gubernatorial race, the culture wars in schools were front and center. Ahead of Election Day, Youngkin railed against critical race theory, often using CRT — an intellectual movement that examines the way policies and laws perpetuate systemic racism and is not part of the public school curriculum — as a way to describe schools’ efforts to teach children about race and racial disparities.
That message energized White evangelicals, who flocked to Youngkin. The National Election Pool exit poll found Youngkin won White evangelicals by 89 percent — a higher percentage than President Donald Trump, who won White evangelicals in Virginia in 2020 by 80 percent. AP VoteCast, a survey of more than 2,500 voters in Virginia conducted for the Associated Press by NORC at the University of Chicago, suggested Youngkin won by a similar margin as Trump, while exit polling showed Youngkin won by an even wider margin.”
By the way, proof of how the GOP propaganda works is this sentence from yesterday’s “liberal media Washington Post” article:
“Several observers said that a key turning point was when Democratic nominee Terry McAuliffe stated during a debate, “I don’t think parents should be telling schools what they should teach.”
Reed said that will go down in history as one of the biggest political gaffes, because it tapped into the fear that parents had that they lacked rights or input.”
GOP gets “liberal” journalists, retired teachers who post on Diane Ravitch, and many people to concede the “truth” of an out of context fact and then make the story about how untrustworthy or stupid McAuliffe is for saying that.
It’s quite natural for many parents to get frustrated with the situation that is affecting their children’s mental health and learning while dealing with this ongoing pandemic. There’s no doubt continuous school closure is affecting children’s social well-being because it forces them to spend days gazing at computer screen all day–definitely not healthy for children. And you call it ‘scapegoating’? If don’t know if there’s any psychologist or school counselor who suggests otherwise, but if you think so, please go find some.
Also, Virginia has been a blue state since 2008 election, and it’s the state Biden won by 10.11% vote margin. McAuliffe won the race by 8.9% vote margin last time. It’s not a swing state anymore.
Face it. He’s supposed to win. It could have been his election, should he bring his own agendas clearly and specifically to fill the needs of Virginians such as universal health care, minimum wage increase, paid leave, etc. There’s absolutely no point in debating CR stuff because that’s not what concerns voters in the first place. Youngkin’s take is ludicrous, but McAuliffe’s reaction is simply insufficient. He should have brought specific issues on education himself, as Berkshire says.
You don’t like what his critics say? You want to defend him because he’s a Democrat? Fine. Go head.
But the fact remains that the majority of Virginians voted for Biden last year. McAuliffe couldn’t get many of those back. He’s a business man, so he is expected to do well in his talking. And he blew it off. He lost the election in a Dem-state solely for his bad campaign strategy and inability. There’s no excuse for that.
To add to understanding, 19% of Virginians are evangelical, 11% are mainline protestants and 8% are Catholic.
The Virginia Catholic Conference states at its site that it “was instrumental in establishing the Education Improvement Scholarship Tax Credit…(additionally) Continued advocacy in favor of this important program is vital.” The site has a link to the Virginia Parents Coalition, an organization that appears to have the resources in 2019-20 to hire the McGuire Woods Consulting firm which may function in a type of lobbying role.
VCC posted prior to November’s election a list of state legislators and their voting record identified with a checkmark if the vote agreed with the VCC and an X if the representative or senator’s vote disagreed with the VCC position.
When Pew’s research about the intersection of religion and politics expands to analysis by state, there will be better understanding about the influence of various sects on outcomes for Democrats and for the GOP.
The statistics, 19,11, and 8 are of population, not voters. There’s reason to believe that the religious are more committed voters than some other segments.
Ken Watanabe,
Your logic is impeccable. If a candidate loses, it’s his fault, He isn’t offering what voters want.
So did Bernie Sanders win the Virginia primary in 2020?
I’m not a hypocrite so I don’t indict progressive politicians for not having the right message, or being too corrupt or being secret corporate lackeys for their loss.
You are just doing what James Carville is doing. Missing the big picture and blaming whatever you don’t like.
You claim that a Democrat lost to a Republican because he wasn’t running on issues that never helps a democrat win!
But Democrats lose to Republicans – whether they are progressives or moderates – when they get GOP smeared.
I wish AOC or Bernie Sanders or any other progressive politician stood up for public education but I sure don’t hear them talking about it. I hear them talking about Medicare for All and the Green New Deal and a federal minimum wage — none of which has to do with K-12 education.
Politicians who stand up for public education often get GOP smeared. Which only works when those on the left legitimize their lying smears. Like “McAuliffe hates education”.
I support the progressive agenda, but I also support that not everyone agrees with me. When elections aren’t infused with GOP propaganda in them, Democrats win. That’s why Biden and Obama won and Kerry and Gore lost. The losers were GOP-smeared. It wasn’t an election about policy. It was an election about an issue that doesn’t exist to hide that it was an election about empowering the far right agenda.
But you and James Carville push the Republicans’ favorite false narrative — it’s all because the candidate running against a Republican is so horrible that even a right wing Republican is better.
That’s exactly what LisaM said about Youngkin. Lisa M said that Youngkin is the lesser of 2 evils.
NYC Public School Parent
Funny you said my logic is impeccable at the beginning, and then you accused me of playing Carville in the middle? Why such rhetoric?
I don’t get it. I don’t support Youngkin or any other crony GOP figures.
It is you who are criticizing posters for addressing the issues you don’t like. It’s obvious you are willing to defend McAuliffe in the name of Democrat. I don’t. Both are flawed, neither of those are for public education. Lesser of the two evils? Sure.
If I follow your logic, you must have an issue with the article(if not its author) in the first place. But, you are choosing anyone here except for the article author to pick a fight.
I don’t care whether you like McAuliffe or not. I don’t care if you like Youngkin or not.
I just ask that you keep your criticism truthful. By only bias is to the truth. I don’t have a problem with even the most conservative politicians who argue using facts. I do have a problem when they twist facts to mislead the public into believing something that isn’t true.
You wrote ” it’s apparent that many Biden voters switched to Youngkin because Virginia Democrats did virtually nothing to support their education needs.” That simply isn’t true. Both Joel Herman and democracy and bethree5 have written long posts that includes information that contradicts that. So when I read your comments I get the same feeling I get when a read an anti-vaxxer invoking some false rationale to justify his beliefs.
^^^I apologize, as I wrote “my only bias is toward the truth” but of course I have many other biases, so that isn’t correct.** I am very biased toward progressives and very biased against right wingers. I have many biases, including implicit ones that I am probably not aware of.
I should have said that regardless of one’s biases, they should make every effort to be truthful in arguing for what they believe. And I am very biases against those who don’t.
**Being biased toward the truth doesn’t mean that anyone, including myself, is going to get facts right all the time. But it does mean that when someone points out that facts are wrong, you correct them. One of the reasons I am such an admirer of Diane Ravitch is that she looked at evidence that contradicted her previous beliefs and took a different position on education because she is biased toward the truth. That is the model everyone should aspire to. It’s okay to be wrong. It isn’t okay to double down on being wrong when presented with facts and evidence that contradict it. It’s not okay when someone believes that never admitting you are wrong is more important than the truth.
I went down a rabbit hole after reading an article about a Florida state level representative wanting to rename Florida’s K-12 vouchers after Mary Bethune in the 2022 session. Did I mention that he is a Democrat? A Florida A & M University student who received a voucher in K-12 is quoted as being in support of the name change. (I guess the joke is that FAMU’s rival is the university that bears Bethune’s name.)
It made me realize this.
I’ve never really heard an argument about how people who strongly support public education should respond to the now plethora of 20-somethings out there who have graduated from college and credit their ability to attend a charter or get a voucher to a private school for that degree. Despite everything we’ve heard here and on similar sites showing that these schools are probably more neutral to negative in results than rabidly effective for most of their populations, a compelling story about a charter school or private school voucher changing the course of an 4th or 8th grader’s life for the better is always going to play well. Talk about public education being a facilitator of democracy and stuff we hear in the blogosphere and thick books, while true, won’t in my opinion hold much weight with the general electorate.
Apparently, Gov. DeSantis owes his victory to tens of thousands of Black “school choice moms” who voted for him while voting for Democrat Bill Nelson for Senate.
Even if somehow Democrats miraculously win the FL governorship and both chambers of the Legislature, they just can’t say, “Sorry voucher kids…back to the zoned public school you go!”
Florida could very well see Marco Rubio defeated by Val Demings in the US Senate but DeSantis reelected for the same reasons in 2022.
So what’s the response to “Support the school choice candidate because that charter/voucher saved my life in 8th grade and [insert liberal/progressive candidate] wants to take it away for others” campaign ad?
A new BUSR/Susquehanna Polling and Research survey of Florida registered voters finds DeSantis leading Crist 46% – 43%, with a margin of error in the poll of 3.7 percent. So, very close. A lot could happen in a few months. Trump is reportedly even more tantrum-prone than usual over DeSantis’s 2024 presidential ambitions.
And yes, an anecdote has great propaganda value. The question you pose, “What is the antidote to the anecdote?” is a superb one. Democrats had better be thinking about that.
Here’s what my crystal ball shows: DeSantis is elected president in 2024.
Anyone who questions my non-stop harping of how the so-called “liberal media” amplifies the right wing lies to turn them into character attacks against Democrats — here is yet another example, a tweet by Bloomberg News’ DC reporter about Kamala Harris:
@JenniferJJacobs · 15h
The @VP again used the “thee” pronunciation for the word “the” when making a point. Some critics have claimed she appeared to adopt “a fake French accent” when she said “the plan” during a tour of a research lab on Tuesday. Today at Paris press conference, she said “the topic.”
Sounds a lot like the Washington Post reporter casually reporting that “Several observers said that a key turning point was when Democratic nominee Terry McAuliffe stated during a debate, “I don’t think parents should be telling schools what they should teach.”
^^^ All those folks who attend THEE Ohio State University using the fake French accent. Are they dishonest folks trying to deceive us, or simply ignorant and uneducated folks who don’t know how to pronounce a simple English word? Discuss.
And I’m not asking that question because I am a Michigan fan who knows a discussion of whether Ohio State U. folks are deceptive or just simply ignorant makes Ohio State U. folks look bad. I am just a very concerned person who knows how important it is to get to the bottom of this issue so we can evaluate Ohio State U. folks appropriately. And a discussion about whether they are deceptive or just ignorant will help us all properly evaluate them.
I’ll agree with Jennifer Berkshire that Terry McAuliffe didn’t exactly grasp the historical foundation(s) for public schools. But then, neither do MOST politicians. Nor do most voters. That’s NOT why McAuliffe lost the Virginia election. Racism was.
As I noted previously, prior to the election, the NY Times reported this:
“Republicans have moved to galvanize crucial groups of voters around what the party calls ‘parental rights’ issues in public schools, a hodgepodge of conservative causes ranging from eradicating mask mandates to demanding changes to the way children are taught about racism…Glenn Youngkin, the Republican candidate in Virginia, stoked the resentment and fear of white voters, alarmed by efforts to teach a more critical history of racism in America…he released an ad that was a throwback to the days of banning books, highlighting objections by a white mother and her high-school-age son to ‘Beloved,’ the canonical novel about slavery by the Black Nobel laureate Toni Morrison.”
The Washington Post reported this:
“Youngkin surged in the late weeks of the race by tapping into a deep well of conservative parental resentment against public school systems. He promised to ban the teaching of critical race theory, an academic approach to racial history that’s not on the Virginia K-12 curriculum….the conservative news media and Republican candidates stirred the stew of anxieties and racial resentments that animate the party’s base — thundering about equity initiatives, books with sexual content and transgender students on sports teams.”
And, again, the NY Times:
“the past half-century of American political history shows that racially coded attacks are how Republicans have been winning elections for decades…Youngkin dragged race into the election, making his vow to ‘ban critical race theory’ a centerpiece of his stump speech and repeating it over the closing weekend — Race is the elephant in the room.”
The Associated Press reported this, on CRT and the the Virginia governor’s race:
“The issue had weight in Virginia, too. A majority of voters there — 7 in 10 — said racism is a serious problem in U.S. society, according to AP VoteCast, a survey of Tuesday’s electorate…The divide along party lines was stark: 78% of Youngkin voters considered the focus on racism in schools to be too much.”
How does Jennifer Berkshire explain all this? She doesn’t.
UVA political analyst Larry Sabato described the Youngkin Critical Race Theory strategy this way:
“The operative word is not critical.And it’s not theory. It’s race. What a shock, huh? Race. That is what matters. And that’s why it’s sticks. There’s a lot of, we can call it white backlash, white resistance, whatever you want to call it. It has to do with race. And so we live in a post-factual era … It doesn’t matter that [CRT] isn’t taught in Virginia schools. It’s this generalized attitude that whites are being put upon and we’ve got to do something about it. We being white voters.”
White voters — especially low-education white voters surely did listen hard and hear well. Youngkin won 76 percent of non-college graduate whites. And Youngkin got way more of the non-college white women votes (75 percent) than McAuliffe. Check the exit polls:
WHITE WOMEN COLLEGE GRADS
VA 2020: 58% Biden, 41% Trump
VA 2021: 62% McAuliffe, 38% Youngkin
WHITE WOMEN NON-COLLEGE
VA 2020: 56% Trump, 44% Biden
VA 2021: 75% Youngkin, 25% McAuliffe
How does Jennifer Berkshire explain all this? She doesn’t.
There’s a reason that KKKers, and Neo-Nazis and white supremacists — Trump’s “very fine people” — identify with the Republican Party. And that’s because it is the party of Trump, and racism, and voter suppression, and white grievance and white nationalism.
The Virginia election just mirrored who and what white Republican voters are.
Excellent and informative post. Thank you.
Really do not understand why good folks like Berkshire don’t realize how much they unwittingly reinforce the right wing framing. That is exactly why this country is in so much danger.
Your post is what people should be talking about and how to address it. But instead too many people think some perfect candidate offering some perfect agenda is going to save us all because all voters will vote for that perfect candidate with the perfect agenda.
Voters can’t vote for good progressive candidates if they have no idea abut anything except that progressive candidate is [insert right wing talking points that are legitimized and normalized by the media which cites “even other dems agree that….” in their amplification of this non-issue].
RE: nycpsp post above at 11/12 5:43pm– No I don’t think Dems did any of those things, nycpsp! But… did Reps either? I keep having this feeling that the media is manufacturing angles on this election for clickbait. I first suspected it when WaPo tried to inflate the “covid/ CRT loudmouths in VA swung the election” narrative by claiming NJ’s Murphy almost lost to Ciattarelli for the same reasons (which is patently false). The Berkshire article seemed to support my sense. So did your comment that tech ed likely played zero role in the election (if it’s even a ‘thing’).
Your post got me chasing down VA election-stat history. Take the governor’s race: here’s the winning govr’s affiliation over the last 40 yrs: D, D, D, R, R, D, D, R, D, D, R. Making Youngkin’s win not strange. Downballot races too seem to reflect that VA voters go back & forth between D & R fairly regularly, with pretty close margins. Lieut Gov & Atty Gen favor D over R about 3 in every 4 races, by about 6 pts; this time R’s won both [by less than 2 pts, but fits pattern]. McAuliffe’s 10-pt loss is more significant, but could be explained by his being a known [& not wildly-favored] quantity. Plus: he was trying to accomplish a “re-election” (after sitting out a term, as reqd in VA), so I checked out how often that happens. In that same 40 yrs, 1 man, Mills Godwin, but get this: he ran as a Dem in ’66, then as a Rep in ’74!
There’s another factor drawing VA back toward R that fits something many analysts have observed: there was a splurge toward D in the last 4 yrs that represented disdain for Trump. In 2017, Northam (D) beat Ed Gillespie (R) with biggest turnout in 20 yrs & biggest margin for a Dem govr in 30 yrs. Meanwhile, in both ’17 & ’19 statehouse races, what had been an R majority got pared back to 50-49 when D’s flipped 15 seats in ’17, & D’s gained 10-seat majority in ’19– this yr D’s got pared back & statehouse is now split 50-50. During same period, ’19 race moved state senate from longtime slight [2-seat] R majority to slight [2-seat] D majority.
Interesting factoid: VA registers voters without reference to party—AND they have open primaries (again, no declared voter affiliation). Maybe someone from VA can correct me, but that sounds like a state full of independents.
bethree5
Independents what are they. The research seems to indicate that 3/4s individual voters who label themselves as independents have definite ideologies either left or right .
https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/few-americans-who-identify-as-independent-are-actually-independent-thats-really-bad-for-politics/
VA election history is of little use when the Demographics of the state have drastically changed in 30 years. Both Racially and economically.
And in one respect we can compare NJ to Virginia , The Senate majority Leader Sweeney lost his district (no great loss its personal ) to an opponent with no name recognition, no campaign and $2,000 dollars spent. Another-words he lost to Donald Duck. So what issues exactly were they voting on.
Turn out was the key to the election and Trump was still on the ballot in the minds of his voters and Youngkins . They were fired up by phony race and social issues.
Same here on Long Island. I could sense it when I walked into what should have been an empty polling place in an off off year election. . Turn out spreads were 20 points higher and more for Republicans
. Fear and race dominated the voting . Nassau County being named the safest large population center in the Nation by US News, did little to stop a backlash against bail reform that cost the County Exec and district attorney their seats . With the PBA leading the charge on CRT at school board meetings as well.
Meanwhile Democrats and Progressives paid little attention to the races.
Joel, I take your correction on “independents,” a rose by any other name etc.
My only disagreement: the above stats include the last 30 yrs, and focus on the last 5, so they reflect VA’s demo/ eco changes. However as you say– & it goes for NJ as well– turnout was absolutely the biggest factor. As noted, VA also had a huge turnout 4 yrs ago—where liberals were energized; this yr we see what it looks like when conservatives are energized.
NJ by comparison has long had a cr*p turnout for govr’s race; hopefully this yr is a wake-up call on that score for liberals. The Sweeney loss is significant, & South Jersey indeed is much like LI, you wonder what took them so long. Ironically progressives say they’re happy to see this ‘obstructionist’ go (!) I expect we’ll be getting even more obstruction from that quarter.
Sweeney’s loss was epic. NJEA couldn’t dethrone him, but it took a tiny little campaign by a nobody to oust the demon. He’s on dem that we teachers are happy to see disappear.
bethree5 and Joel,
Thank you both for these two informative and thoughtful comments.
I think all the points you both made are very important and played a role.
But (as you are probably sick of hearing) I do think amplification of memes – generally through the media – are very important in motivating people to vote. There are two kinds of right wing narratives that predominate. The first kind are the scare tactics aimed toward their base and also low-interest voters. The low interest voters may not be huge fans of Republicans or Trump in general, but if some scare tactic propaganda gets through to them (which happens when it is amplified), they are more likely to go out and vote. I don’t think it is a coincidence that the Republicans have become the party of whites without college degrees, while whites with college degrees are moving away from Republicans.
The second kind of right wing propaganda is more insidious. It gets people on the left to legitimize the right wing propaganda. It doesn’t try to attract people to the Republican side but instead is designed to depress the vote of people who would vote for democrats. Terry McAuliffe actually campaigned and talked about lots of issues. The fact that main thing he was asked about was CRT and why he doesn’t want parents to have anything to do with their kids’ education.” Then we were supposed to believe that he had no ideas because all he did was say Youngkin was like Trump.
Aside from wanting to lower taxes on the rich (which they never talk about), the Republicans have been campaigning by painting Democrats as bogeymen. But when was the last time a Republican running for anything had to constantly answer questions from journalists about why the Republican party has no ideas and just keeps trying to run by saying that the democrats are all bad? It never happens.
Republicans are asked to elaborate on why they believe the Democrats are bad. Democrats are asked why they have no ideas and all they talk about is that Trump is so bad.
And the sad part is that the Democrats have lots of ideas and the Republicans have none and yet even the so-called liberal media frames their coverage from the right wing perspective that the opposite is true. Of course Dems rightly criticize Trump but they are also saying lots of other things that are simply ignored by the media.
Yes, NYC parent, the various mainstream media are complicit in the election narratives that get spun. Remember how many NY Times and WaPost article there were about Hillary Clinton’s emails? The emails at issue were innocuous…the stories were the result of a drip-drip release strategy by Assange’s Wkileaks, which was the recipient of Russian intelligence agency email thefts, and the Russians were very much eager to elect* Trump.
But the mainstream media kept reporting the email stories as if they had depth and meaning and importance. Like the Critical race Theory baloney. Fox and other right-wing media kept hammering the emails and CRT, and the mainstream media pick it up…supposedly to be fair and balanced. It’s clear, Republicans know how to lie and to stoke fear and racism, and to suck in the mainstream media on the whole thing.
It’s also clear that what happened in the Virginia elections was based on overt racism. And the Republican Party is now definitely the party of Trump and voter suppression and racism and white supremacy…and sedition.
No, Bethree 5 McAuliffe did NOT lose the Virginia’s governor’s race by 10 points. He lost by about 1.9 points.
And no, Bethree, the Virginia House of Delegates is not now split 6060. As The Richmond Times-Dispatch reported yesterday, “While two close House contests could head for recounts after the State Board of Elections certifies results on Monday, Republicans appear in line to hold a 52-48 majority when the session starts in January..”
Republicans have already picked their new House leaders, and they are some doozies. Todd Gilbert from rural Shenandoah County will be Speaker. The Republican majority leader will be Terry Kilgore from rural SW Virginia. The Republican caucus leader will be Kathy Byron, from rural Bedford County. Not hard to figure out what kinds of policies these tools will push. They’re all far right-wing, anti-abortion, anti-public education and very much PRO Trump and guns.
And no Brethree, Virginia is NOT a “state full of independents.” As the election just proved, there is still a lot of racism in Virginia, and still LOTS of crackers.
THANK YOU DEMOCRACY!! YIKES!! I don’t know how I fluffed the govr’s race #s so badly, I’m thinking typos in my notes & looking up too many figures at once– APOLOGIES ALL! [[red face!!]]
I’ve had trouble following the House of Delegates numbers– developing results have been phrased various ways over the last few days. If I understand it correctly… As of a few hours ago (Mon 11/15), elections have been certified at 52R-48D, but 2 of the R wins were so close, recounts might be called; IF (small chance) D’s prevailed in both, there’s a possibility they end up with a split house.
Of course a horrible disappointment, especially given the deplorable-sounding leaders they’ve chosen. But it’s interesting to me that (judging from ’17, ’19, ’21 races) there seem to be about 15+ seats that swing D or R depending on who turns out strong/ energized, liberals or conservatives. I’ll bow to your experience re: racists/ crackers proportion of conservatives 😉 . Do you think maybe D’s feeling meh about McAuliffe stayed home, hence didn’t pull their weight downballot?
Disagree it is patently false that Covid/CRT caused the NJ election to be close. I live in a red county in NJ, and those issues are a big part of what put Jack over Murphy here. The fact that the Murphy voters primarily live in more densely-populated and progressive areas is what put Murphy over the edge. Looking at the map, you see suburbia going red for Jack. Parents complained about overreach in the school building closures and the mask mandates. Small business owners drank the GOP kool-aid tying 3 months of business closures with a democratic agenda completely ignoring the fact that WE WERE LIVING WITH A PANDEMIC. Covid restrictions and “illegals [and other marginalized people] getting our tax money” were huge in NJ’s red areas. Jack rode that wave from the first time the GOP started in on Murphy about how he was handling the pandemic.
It’s just a copy of the Trump “playbook” — racism, xenophobia, and lots and lots of lies — all over again. Republicans excel at it, and they toss in some stuff about guns and god and gay paranoia to spice it up.
That’s what Youngkin did in Virginia. All the Critical Race Theory and “parents rights” lies, and rile up the evangelical “Christian” base with racism and fears about transgenders invading bathrooms.
These are sick people.
All of that, yes. Disgusting play on their fears of the brown people, however the handling of the pandemic was huge in their rhetoric especially on social media. My friends list and my local FB groups were blowing up about the pandemic and how it was handled by Murphy. We should not discount the narrative they were trying to push along with the racism and xenophobia.
LG– Yes, but… NJ has even more registered D’s than R’s now than during last gub’l race— 1mm more now (880k 4 yrs ago). That underscores Joel’s point: it’s all about turnout. Sure, densely-pop/ more progressive areas put Murphy over the edge, but it wouldn’t have been “over the edge” if more of the dang D’s got off their duffs and voted. Microcosm right in my own family. My sons are as liberal as I am, but only the more politically aware/ active one sent in his all-D mail-in ballot. The other one still only votes in presidential election years (sigh).
I hear you re: smallbiz reactions to covid restrictions. That was probably a factor all over the state. And the immigration thing—gad, that is totally rwmedia-fed: immigration ate my homework. But help me understand something re: the covid school closures anger down by you. Back in Aug 2020 Murphy left it up to the districts to decide on whether to go full in-person, hybrid, or remote. And the districts are run by locally-elected boards. So how did local closures translate into Rep fever? Were local decisions seen as manipulated by unions?
People looked for a reason to vilify Murphy. Parents complained about mask mandates and virtual options for schools incorrectly citing that teachers somehow didn’t want to work—the last could not be further from the truth. We worked harder than ever under stressful conditions and were accuse of trying to get out of work by teaching virtually. Granted, not every district handled the initial building closings well, but by September of 2020, we were poised and ready for the new platform.
As the pandemic progressed, many educators complained that Murphy was not forcing all schools to close indefinitely. They accused their state unions for not advocating for them or lobbying Murphy to keep buildings closed.
What both sides neglected to understand is that every community was unique in both its public health conditions and resources. Covid played a bigger role in Murphy losing support even from the Dems who tend to not turn out as much as Republicans and from Independents that believed the narrative that Murphy made bad choices during most of the pandemic. The nursing home rhetoric was in place as early as summer 2020.
The GOP used the pandemic to empower its base to vote. They spread their misinformation all over the country.
LG, those are interesting points.
The media is always happy to amplify the false narratives that blame the Democrats for pandemic restrictions!
Look at LisaM’s posts. Blaming the democrats for things that have no good solutions to while exonerating the Republicans for things that could be easily fixed!
There were no perfect ways to address education during the pandemic. Closing schools was necessary as cases spread and the health care system was taxed. Remote school is always going to be imperfect. But then schools re-opened. Aren’t schools in NJ open now? (They are in NYC). So what are people still mad about? Mask mandates? Vaccine mandates? The very things that are the reasons schools have been able to re-open without overtaxing the health care system?
It reminds me of Afghanistan. The Biden Administration did what was actually a remarkable job in the Afghanistan pullout. And the media went all in amplifying the right wing narrative that it was fiasco. Can you imagine if Trump had been president and pulled out in February or March? The media would have ignored what would have a far more massive devastation. 100,000+ Afghans would not have been airlifted to safety. It would not be Trump’s failure, it would have been what everyone knew was going to eventually happen.
And as long as those on the left keep legitimizing those attacks — where dems are entirely blamed for no-win situations that they are handling with decency and professionalism — the right wins.
As long as those on the left discredit the right wing’s attempt to scapegoat democrats for not fixing the problems Republicans hand them perfectly, those false memes soon disappear. When instead they echo those attacks on Democrats, those false memes become accepted fact!
What I don’t understand is why anyone with an ounce of sense actually believes that amplifying and legitimizing the false narratives of the Republicans is going to help the progressive movement? It reminds me of trickle down economics — how many times do you have to witness its’ failure and the harm it does to understand that supporting it isn’t a fix for the economy. How many times do voters empower Republicans and set the progressive agenda back years before we realize that amplifying Republican-friendly memes like “Democrats corrupt” “Democrats corporate” “Democrats warmongers” doesn’t empower progressives?
Democrats are mostly in agreement on goals (except Manchin and Sinema) but they do have disagreements on the best policies to get there. But still, the progressives can be empowered in this system as they get voters nationwide to elect progressive candidates. They will be quashed like bugs if they join Republicans in scapegoating and demonizing Democrats for not fixing everything sooner.
NYC—agreed on all points. The media made the pullout from Afghanistan the worst thing. There was little nuance regarding the operation according to the media—little was mentioned about how other scenarios would have played out, i.e. staying longer, pulling out at a slower pace, defying Trump’s agreement with the Taliban, etc. Sure there were the usual pundits presenting both sides, but even CNN was ripping into Biden mercilessly. The right wing see CNN as the tool of the left and the network threw Biden under the bus and just months before midterms. There is your rightwing narrative being reinforced by an unlikely source.
Progressives love to paint centrists with the corporate brush, and do it far too often for my tastes, and I identify as a Progressive myself. With Dems like these, who needs Republicans? Still, I wholeheartedly believe in Bernie and AOC’s agenda. I just wish the Progressive caucus was willing to trust their fellow Democrats more than they do. One thing I admire most about Biden is his understanding of compromise—you simply cannot just say you’re going to take your marbles and go home if one thing is dropped from the agenda. It’s always a compromise.