Virginians Deserve Better

Word of warning to Virginia State Senate Democrats: Paybacks are hell. 

Your gleeful construction of a “brick wall of resistance” to the governor who was elected by the majority of Virginians may come back to crush you.

Maybe not this year. Or next. But eventually you’ll be back where you belong - in the minority - and the GOP will remember what you did in February 2023.

Have you heard?

Earlier this week the Dems flexed their muscles and rejected three of Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s appointees. They tried to block the appointment of Bert Ellis to the University of Virginia’s Board of Visitors because he arrived on “grounds” a couple of years ago with a tool that he intended to use to remove the “F*** UVA” sign some snotty, disrespectful undergrad had plastered to her door on the Lawn.

The president of the university should have ripped it down the day it appeared, but he’s far too woke.

Democrats were unsuccessful in trying to boot Ellis. He was approved on a tie vote.

So the UVA board now has at least one member willing to stand up for the values that once were the hallmark of the commonwealth’s flagship university.

One of the Democrats’ dubious successes this week was the sinking of Colin Greene, Youngkin’s pick for health commissioner.

“On a party-line vote, the Senate blocked the appointment of Health Commissioner Colin Greene, Virginia’s top public health official, over comments he made downplaying the significance of racism as a driver of health disparities,” reported The Virginia Mercury.

Also on the Democratic chopping block was Steven Buck, removed from the Parole Board. The soft-on-crime gang who rewarded Adrianne Bennett, former chair of the board, with a Virginia Beach judgeship because she waved her wand of freedom over convicted killers, just purged the parole board of a Republican “who voted to grant parole in a vanishingly small number of the cases the new board has heard. “

Imagine being cautious about setting convicted felons free. In a commonwealth that abolished parole in 1995.

Suparna Dutta

Perhaps the most outrageous move was one that kept a woman of color from the Board of Education, because she wasn’t sufficiently racist and who espoused traditional American values that made board members, such as Sen. Tim Kaine’s wife, “uncomfortable.”

The nomination of Suparna Dutta, a parent, an information technology professional and education activist who has been vocal in her opposition to the new anti-Asian policies at the highly competitive Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology was blocked by Democratic blockheads in the State Senate. She objected to those policies that relaxed admission standards to increase black, white and Hispanic enrollment at the expense of high-achieving Asian students. 

Dutta's ousting follows a contentious exchange last week during a board meeting reviewing proposed changes to history and social science standards in Virginia public schools. Two of the foundational principles outlined in the learning standards are that the "Declaration of Independence and the Constitution are remarkable documents" and that socialism and communism are "incompatible with democracy and individual freedoms."

Board member Anne Holton — who is married to Sen. Tim Kaine — said she was "uncomfortable" with that language.

"You cannot reference the Declaration of Independence and Constitution as remarkable documents without also acknowledging that they contain fundamental flaws of enshrining slavery and limiting the protections that they provided for only to white, propertied men," she said.

Holton conceded that communism is not compatible with democracy, but said "plenty of governments" call themselves socialist democratic governments, reported Fox News.

Good Lord. Now you know why Virginia public education is on a steep downward trajectory.

In a statement, Youngkin said Senate Democrats "voted to remove Suparna Dutta, shockingly claiming that a public school parent isn’t qualified to serve on the Board of Education. She is a mother and advocate for parents’ rights, she is an immigrant and an advocate for Asian American rights, she is an engineer and advocate for STEM in education."

"She is not only qualified, she epitomizes parental involvement in our schools and we need her voice on our Board of Education.”

He called the vindictive moves by Senate Democrats an “appalling display of partisanship.”

“Democrats are repeating loudly their clear beliefs: parents don’t matter, criminals first victims last, and petty politics above Virginia’s best interests,” Youngkin said. “It’s shameful. Virginians deserve so much better.”

We do. That won’t happen until the brick wall comes tumbling down.