It is not an overstatement to say that the Virginia gubernatorial race could decide the future of this country. Incumbent Democrat Terry McAuliffe and his Republican challenger Glenn Youngkin are neck and neck in a state that went to President Joe Biden by over ten percentage points.
The issue that is sparking the Youngkin movement is not the economy or the Biden administration’s foreign policy failures (although these have helped). Rather, what has brought the Republicans to the forefront is the culture war and the battle over critical race theory. The Virginia education department has pushed this ideology within schools resulting in a widespread backlash among parents.
Initially, Democrats chose to lie, claiming that it was not being taught at all. Terry McAuliffe even claimed that he had never promoted critical race theory in the classroom. Journalist Chris Rufo then uncovered documents showing that McAuliffe’s office had, in fact, promoted critical race theory.
Since this revelation, the media has now pivoted to the narrative that the reaction against critical race theory is nothing but a covert white backlash. Media personality Charlamagne Tha god claimed that CRT is nothing more than a “great white hype.” Additionally University of Virginia professor Larry Sabato claimed that CRT is nothing more than vile white backlash.
This tactic is characteristic of leftists who believe that their moral superiority raises them above the level of debating the actual merits of a position. Rather than defend their logic, they attempt to castigate their opponents as racist while presenting themselves as the moral arbiters of truth and justice. It is telling that one of the proponents of this doctrine labels himself “Tha god” with a capital G.
The situation in Virginia is not as simple as political hacks make it out to be. The truth is that critical race theory is a terrible ideology that seeks to topple traditional structures of government in favor of more comprehensive control.
Although there is a great deal wrong with the CRT doctrine, there are two tenets that are the most objectionable. The first is that it promotes racial discrimination. Critical race theory popularizer Ibram X Kendi wrote that the only remedy to past discrimination is present discrimination. Rather than move forward in a post-racial manner, Kendi would like us to continue discriminating against people on the basis of race. This would be continued until a complete equality of results was effectuated (which is to say it would continue forever).
Kendi has expressed support for an anti-racist bureau which would examine disparate racial outcomes and then be given the authority to correct those disparities. This means that bureaucrats such as himself would be given complete control to run social experiments so as to cram equality upon American people. Because each of us has different histories, backgrounds, and experiences the quest for complete equality among groups will be endless. Rather than give people equal opportunities to achieve greatness, bureaucrats would like to provide shallow guarantees that they will provide happiness to all people.
The second problem with critical race theory is that it is unAmerican because of its attempt to fundamentally change our value judgements. Although they were rightly critical of specific policies, all previous civil rights movements have been extremely friendly to American values. It was the words of the Declaration of Independence that were used by both Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King Jr. to promote the rights of African Americans in this country. In their righteous fight against segregation, African Americans were commonly seen holding American flags in order to demonstrate their desire to participate in the system of liberty that had been denied to them.
Rather than make an argument that is similar to these calls for American liberty, the current civil rights movements have been infected by an ideology which claims that a free society must be eliminated. The Black Lives Matter group argues that free market capitalism must be destroyed, the nuclear family must be dismantled, and the police must be defunded. Their argument is not that America in its current state is not living up to its values. Rather, their argument is that the American system is evil.
Despite their smug proclamations, most of the people defending critical race theory are just ignorant of reality. They see pretty sounding slogans and language about racial justice and immediately jump on the bandwagon. Rather than critically evaluate their positions and defend them with intellectual honesty, they attack the morality of their opponents without making a single logical argument. The CRT doctrine is racist, anti-American, and is a fundamental attempt to destroy the values upon which a free society is built.
