Disinformation, not education, is on the ballot in Virginia
The press would like you to believe that the main issue in the Virginia governor's race is education. That is assuming Republicans suddenly care about it.
The only viable platform for a conservative in 2021 is disinformation. This is Glenn Youngkin’s tact in the Virginia governor’s race. He is not a career politician, like his competitor Terry McAuliffe. He is an opportunist, and he has seized upon the tension school boards in the state are facing regarding what is being taught in the classroom as his clearest path to the governorship.
The panic of a future generation learning about the atrocities levied against Black people throughout American history is enough to build an entire political candidacy upon, and Youngkin, a private equity executive, has become a potential threat to former governor McAuliffe because he has successfully exploited these fears. Youngkin does not need to understand what Critical Race Theory is, nor does he need to demonstrate its proliferation into the public school system in Virginia; his sole responsibility is in convincing a majority of his constituents that his Democratic adversary is too “woke” to be a governor.
In order for a politician to thrive in the GOP, they must be willing to ride the wave of trendy propaganda to their respective office. If the Virginia governor’s race had taken place a year prior, education wouldn’t be the top issue. Voters care about it now because it’s being discussed on Fox News and filtered through the right-wing corners of social media apace. Anti-vaccine, anti-transgender and racist rhetoric centered around education may seem outlandish to a Democratic voter in Virginia, but for the average Republican, the types of battles Youngkin is waging run parallel to the information they are receiving on a daily basis. He is speaking their language and McAuliffe is not, rendering it irrelevant that Youngkin, not McAuliffe, is the political outsider.
This race is being described in the press as a sort of litmus test, a determinant of where swing states stand in a post-Trump world. That may be so, but Tuesday’s Virginia gubernatorial election is also a referendum on the job the media has done in laying out the stakes clearly enough for prospective voters. Education is not on the ballot; disinformation is. And yet, many journalists can’t be bothered to distinguish between the two.
Virginia public schools didn’t adopt a liberal agenda as the governor’s race in the state was ramping up. White children are not being taught that they’re evil. Transgender-inclusive bathroom policies are not causing sexual assaults. These are desperate lies ginned up by a GOP base and amplified by mainstream media outlets in an effort to weaken the commonwealth’s Democratic grip. Youngkin has made up ground in the polls not by impressing voters with his profundity of policy, but rather by capitalizing on misplaced fears rooted in the same racist legacy that led Nazis to march through Charlottesville in 2017.
If McAuliffe loses the election, his great undoing will be the amount to which he entertained Youngkin’s fear-mongering platform. For months, the former governor has highlighted Youngkin’s refusal to distance himself from Donald Trump (Youngkin has said he was “honored” to receive the former president’s endorsement). On September 28, McAuliffe set off fireworks when he suggested in a debate that he didn’t believe “parents should be telling schools what they should teach.” He stated on Meet the Press on Sunday that Critical Race Theory has never been taught in Virginia schools, countering right-wing propaganda to the contrary.
Perhaps McAuliffe wouldn’t be so inclined to debunk disinformation if the media were more interested in doing it for him. Instead, coverage of the hotly contested gubernatorial race has centered around slipping percentage points and tense school board meetings, rather than substantive policy. While a Republican victory Tuesday may portend an uncertain future for progressives in the 2022 midterms, the past few months have also been a chance to see how the media has altered the way it covers high-profile elections after January 6.
Instead of fighting disinformation, fact-checking Youngkin’s constant lies and contextualizing the Republican hysteria over censorship in public schools, the press has resorted to horse race journalism. In the short term, it may cost a Democrat a governor’s seat. In the long term, the price will be far greater.