Virginia’s stand against the blue-state agenda
Washington Examiner
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Judging by Democratic television advertisements in northern Virginia, one would think Tuesday’s election involved only a statewide ballot initiative on abortion. Democrats have spent tens of millions of dollars trying to scare suburban women into thinking a vote for any Republican is a vote to ban all abortions in the state, with no exceptions.
But the stakes on Tuesday are many. When then-Gov. Ralph Northam had to explain a photo of him dressed either as a member of the Ku Klux Klan or in blackface — it was never clear which — from his decades-old medical school yearbook, he decided to win back the support of his base by turning Virginia hard to the left.
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Using the Democrats’ control of the state legislature, he converted Virginia from a centrist and family-friendly state into the California of the South.
His most destructive lurches left were on the environment, where he signed legislation ordering utilities to become carbon neutral by 2050. Fewer than a dozen states have passed such an unserious green law. Virginia is the only southern state to do so.
Under Northam’s energy scheme, utilities must invest billions of dollars in clean energy projects, many of which are proving to be economic busts in other states. Whether or not these investments pay off, utilities must also shut down efficient energy sources fueled by coal and natural gas. The result is more expensive energy, hitting private and business consumers.
The worst part of Northam’s energy agenda, however, was his decision to sacrifice state sovereignty to California. He signed a law forcing regulators to copy whatever California’s regulators did for automobile emissions. When far-left California banned the sale of gasoline-powered cars by 2035, Virginia thus adopted the same regulation without any independent analysis or legislative input.
Gov. Glenn Youngkin has promised that if Republicans win majorities in both chambers of the Virginia legislature, he will overturn these extreme, and extremely stupid, environmental laws.
Northam also legalized marijuana despite strong evidence from California, Colorado, and New York that it would increase crime, drug abuse, and mental health problems while also failing to raise the promised tax revenues.
Like California, Northam also gutted Virginia’s once-strong educational standards and forced all state employees to undergo critical race theory indoctrination under the guise of “cultural competency training.”
Just before the teachers unions pushed him to shut down the state’s schools, Northam rewarded them and all state public employees with new collective bargaining powers. This is perhaps the most dangerous part of his legacy. The biggest reason California is a one-party state with a shrinking and increasingly unequal population is public employee unions have too much power. Youngkin still has time to save Virginia from California’s union doom.
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A Republican majority would have the power to change Virginia’s laws on abortion. Youngkin has put forward a proposal that would ban most abortions after 15 weeks, with exceptions for rape, incest, and the life of the mother. This is a reasonable and popular position.
Democrats trail Republicans nationally on virtually every important topic. Republican advantages on inflation, crime, and immigration are particularly big. The only topic Democrats have is abortion. The fate of Virginia depends on more than that.