Terry McAuliffe appeared destined to return to the Executive Mansion in Richmond when he announced his candidacy for governor leading up to the 2021 Virginia elections.
However, he had to convince concerned parents that he had their backs. The nationwide education debate, which Virginia found itself at the epicenter of this fall, presented an opportunity for Republicans. But it was still McAuliffe’s battle to lose.
And lose he did.
WATCH:
McAuliffe’s been in freefall since his disastrous debate performance, in which he told parents they have no role in their kids’ education.
Turns out that’s an unpopular proposition with most Virginia voters—and most Americans. pic.twitter.com/NLH2fLXpBq
— Jake Schneider (@jacobkschneider) October 15, 2021
The Federalist further reports on McAuliffe’s debacle and the importance of learning from Virginia’s most recent elections:
With that quotation, McAuliffe not only wrecked his campaign, but exposed what the left is really up to with public education, namely trying to undermine and vitiate parental authority. The lesson for conservatives is to keep pulling the thread on education, because it will keep paying political dividends.
Take, for example, WaPo columnist Kate Cohen, who authored a Nov. 24 op-ed titled: “Parents think they know what is best for schools. But they often don’t.” Cohen didn’t mince words: “…We shouldn’t be in charge of our children’s education. That’s right, I agree with the statement Virginia gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe made in a late-September debate.” Quoting McAuliffe’s blunder, Cohen doubles down regarding his assertion about parents not telling schools what to teach. “Of course we shouldn’t!” asserts the mother of three.
It gets better. Cohen continues: “Someone with real expertise should keep up with how many planets there are and how many genders, with the best way to do long division and to talk about race.” She then closes her op-ed: “We need more child-to-parent intergenerational training, as when your child goes to school, learns about the world, and comes home and educates you.”
…
Yet there is hope here. The more we identify and expose the true ideological agenda of liberal ideologues, the more they seem to double down on their own insane revolutionary program. Although some on the left have made an awkward backstep on critical race theory, gender dysphoria, and blatantly pornographic content, many others, including Cohen, are showing their true colors. In the same piece, Cohen even defends a writing course in Ohio for high school seniors that included writing prompts like “write a sex scene you wouldn’t show your mom.” (Her reasoning is that 17- and 18-year-olds are already imagining sex scenes, so why not let them write about such things in school.)