Charlie Sykes yesterday: “Here comes Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin.” He looked at this video below and saw something with “strong folks-he’s-running vibes to it… I mean, who doesn’t like videos with jets?”
But he found 2 odd things about it— “(1) It leans heavily on Reagan nostalgia that feels a bit pre-2016, and (2) Youngkin seems to be betting that the GOP electorate is in the mood for upbeat optimism, rather than six more years of lizard carnage. It goes without saying that (for now) Youngkin is pretending that Donald Trump doesn’t exist, but the video may be an indication that he feels there might be an opening for the pleasegodnotTrumpagain lane.” OK, take a look at this odious, cringey thing that Youngkin released on the world yesterday:
I asked some of the progressive candidates running this year for the Virginia legislature. None of them seemed too impressed. “Governor Youngkin’s emphasis on Reagan as a mystical demi-god who ‘projected strength’, said Terrence Walker, “does not speak to the realities we are facing in Virginia today. Residents in the 81st district cannot count on leaders whose nostalgia outweighs our lived experiences. I am here to answer the call of everyday Virginias who want equality and justice to live their lives peacefully without the oppressive dictates of Republican politics.” Terrence’s district east and southeast of Richmond (mostly in Henrico County with bits of Chesterfield and Charles City counties) and he told me that he believes he can deliver for his district “by focusing on affordable childcare, paid family leave, affordable long term care and earned sick days; these are the real life concerns of residents in the 81st; I don’t see where these are concerns for Youngkin-GOP as they look backwards with nostalgia.”
Victoria Luevanos is running for a swingy state Senate seat held by conservative Republican Bill DeSteph— primarily in Virginia Beach but also including Accomack County, Northampton County and a small part of Norfolk. He’s a lockstep Youngkinite and likely sees this ad far differently than the way Victoria does. Yesterday when it first came out, she said “I guess Reaganomics is good if we ignore the widening income gap it’s created, the atmosphere of greed in politics, reduced economic mobility for working families, and the national debt tripling during his presidency. His supporters like to ignore that his voters at the time ended up expressing no confidence that his methods were leading to the improvement of the economy and that he had gone too far in increasing military spending while cutting back social programs, putting millions of Americans out of work and allowing family farms to go out of business because he vetoed a farm credit bill that would have provided farmers with relief. Now we see the deep slashes he left on higher education and how he inspired Republican opposition to funding basic public education. Many of the politicians who supported Reagan were those who enriched themselves in office, enriched businesses and friends who donated to them, and manipulated laws to empower themselves and their friends, all while suppressing the freedoms of working Americans who did not vote for them while claiming love of country. A lot of us are really tired of the fan girl club of Reagan, especially when we see the harmful ripple effects of his policies on all areas of the country to this day. I hope when people see the glorification of Ronald Reagan by public servants of any party they get a wake-up call that they are not in it to serve the public, especially with Youngkin; he has quietly been pushing similar policies of Florida and Texas here in Virginia while claiming traditional family conservatism and saying Democrats are trying to turn Virginia into any ‘liberal” state that pops in his mind.’”
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Jessica Anderson wrote a short essay after watching the ad and shared it— along with one of her signature videos:
Resurrecting the Moral “Minority”
The recent ad of Governor Glenn Youngkin smells of Presidential ambitions, fortunately for us he does not have the national attention for that to even be a possibility. However, this November’s elections is where he hopes to garner the Republican limelight and we cannot allow that to happen.
What struck me particularly odd was that Youngkin compared his leadership to that of former President Reagan. The same Reagan who made a name for himself demeaning minority women on social programs, who used the slogan “crackdown” on drugs, specifically referencing crack, that again directly targeted our minority communities (yet did NOT target the alternate drug used by predominantly rich, white elitist; cocaine) and finally his alignment with the “Moral Majority.” The tactics of 1978 and the likes of Reagan and his religious cohorts, Jerry Falwell Sr., are rearing their ugly heads, reincarnated through sweater vest wearing Glenn and the arch nemesis of an animated mouse, Ron.
Every election becomes more and more critical to the future of this country and the 140 Virginia General Assembly seats on the ballot THIS November are NO different. Allowing him to maintain the House majority and/or flip the Senate will be the death to the only sanctuary state of the South. While we cannot lose sight of the upcoming 2024 Presidential elections, Virginia is in on the line THIS year, in 2023, and we need support from every corner of the nation. Reagan died in 2004; let us not have his policies be resurrected!
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