Virginia Republican gubernatorial candidate Ed Gillespie continues his inexorable slide toward the Donald Trump/Corey Stewart style of GOP politics with his latest TV ad, in which he hits Democrat Ralph Northam for wanting to take down Virginia’s monuments to the Confederacy. “Ralph Northam will take our statues down,” the ad’s narrator proclaims—a telling statement in terms of specifically which voters Gillespie is appealing to with this ad. Identifying Confederate monuments as “our statues” explicitly excludes the sentiments of Virginia’s communities of color, for which these statues are lurid reminders of the shameful institution of slavery and the lengths to which white southerners went to preserve the subjugation of other human beings.
This ad, while fairly mild in overall tone, is just another extension of the racist thread that has run through a number of other campaign communications from both Gillespie and down-ballot GOP campaigns this cycle. Just this past Monday, Gillespie dropped a spot hitting Northam for Gov. Terry McAuliffe’s work to automatically restore voting rights to those with felony convictions after they've served their time. That ad not only ignores the racist history of felony disenfranchisement, but it also furthers the systemically racist trope that those who have served their time don't deserve to vote, sit on juries, or otherwise exercise their rights as citizens.
Gillespie’s latest ad is a clear attempt to hang an "us vs. them" lampshade on his commitment to the white supremacy symbolized by monuments to the Confederacy, and it’s only the latest evidence of his desperation to activate an ugly segment of the GOP’s base.
Fight back against the Virginia GOP’s racist campaign tactics by donating $3 to elect Ralph Northam and other Democrats on Nov. 7!
