After a laborious nominating process, where the GOP's lies about "election integrity concerns" were laid completely bare in hilarious fashion, the Virginia Republican Party has nominated Glenn Youngkin, an uber-wealthy, former equity fund executive, as their candidate of choice to run for governor this fall.
For those of you with better things to do than watch another Republican trainwreck, let me fill you in. Youngkin's "campaign" was nothing more than a mishmash of Mad Libs-style self victimization and neo-conservative talking points; the sole policy plank he discussed was the creation of an "electoral integrity task force."
I’d tell you more about Youngkin, but the man is a blank slate. He exemplifies the phrase “generic Republican.” Hell, he doesn’t even have a Wikipedia page, although that’ll probably be rectified while I’m writing this.
Unlike Donald Trump, Youngkin isn't a "paper tiger"; he's actually rich, with a net worth somewhere around $300 million cash—money he poured into the convoluted nomination process that the Virginia GOP created.
Youngkin flew under the radar when compared to fellow candidate Amanda Chase, who has a lengthy track record of horrible stances—like claiming that voting to remove Confederate statues was “removing white history,” or declaring that if women don't carry a gun and get raped, it's their fault, and attempting to co-opt the #SayHerName hashtag for QAnon-devotee and insurrectionist Ashli Babbitt.
Youngkin is smart enough to not spew that kind of nonsense out loud. As a graduate of Rice University and Harvard Business School, he's another in a long line of smart people who've decided that conning the MAGA crowd for money and power is a helluva lot better than trying to stand up to them.
Really, I can't think of a better standard bearer for the modern GOP than Youngkin. Recognizing that public opinion and the political leanings of the country are mobilizing against them in an overwhelming way, Republicans have come to accept that the only way they'll stay in power is to reject democracy entirely. As Jamelle Bouie put it recently, claiming "a Democratic electoral victory is inherently illegitimate" has become a defining characteristic of the Republican Party. For all their bullshit talk on "cancel culture," Republicans are actively trying to build a future where an entrenched minority can force their will upon the country.
A lot of people want to believe this is all somehow new, but come on. As far back as Ronald Reagan, it was clear that "small government conservatism" was nothing more than a fig leaf for situational ethics and moral relativism in the pursuit of winning at all costs. Donald Trump was merely the most blatant manifestation of that, one that could no longer be ignored or explained away (though the media has done the yeoman's work in attempting to do just that). Trump could walk up to a microphone today and say that we need to nationalize the means of production to protect the proletariat from the bourgeois, and every Republican politician and right-wing talking head in the country would be stampeding over one another to verbally fellate him for being so brave, insisting that Trump’s stance had been Republican dogma from time immemorial.
Really, this is the consequence of the decadent, grievance-laden, white supremacy-infested movement that's been allowed to metastasize in our country unchecked. The "MAGA base" of voters fueling the GOP today are almost entirely entitled white Baby Boomers whose parents were the ones who did all the fighting and sacrificing, who survived the Great Depression and World War II. These wealthy white voters paid $600/year for college and made sure other generations would pay far more, but love to lecture younger people about their student loans. They also eviscerated public school funding, but sneer that high school graduates aren't prepared for "the real world." This generation enjoyed single-income careers with enough wage power to buy a house, two cars, and still take the family on annual vacations—working less hours than people do today, only to then tell younger generations that they’re "lazy" and “entitled.” They’re the same people who fueled their growth by destroying the environment, only to claim “global warming is a hoax.”
As for white supremacy, it’s nothing if not a movement to lionize mediocrity and laziness by any means necessary. Look at the Tucker Carlsons, Kevin McCarthys, and Ben Shapiros of the world. If you looked up the world "milquetoast" in a dictionary, you'd see their pictures there. They understand perfectly that in an actual meritocracy, where hard work and effort truly make the difference in life outcomes, they'd be nobodies; out of a job, unknown, and completely forgotten. Without a systemic effort to push them to the top, they’d actually have to work hard, something they seem completely and wholly unable to do.
Which is precisely why white supremacy and fascism are being championed relentlessly by Republican politicians; it’s become inextricably woven in the very fabric of their being. They’ve completely lost the ability to do the hard work of winning fair elections. And when it comes to standing behind policies that would improve the lives of Americans, fighting for laws that the Founding Fathers they worship supposedly stood for, or protecting those Constitutional values they claim to hold dear? As if!
They certainly won’t let actual voters determine the outcome of elections! That is, unless they vote for Republicans- then we have the most secure voting system in the world.
That’s why it doesn’t matter how much of a “blank slate” Glenn Youngkin appears to be, even though that's a huge plus for him, as competent consultants could mold him like a “build your character” screen in a video game. However, if he wants to be a politician in the modern GOP, there’s a playbook he has to follow to the letter … or else. There’s no room for morals, ethics, policy, or even consistency in the Republican Party, only blind, unquestioning, fall-in-line sycophancy, and a drive to ensure that any Democratic win is deemed illegitimate.
And let's be very frank: Glenn seems to be exceptionally well suited to take his amorphous blob of a campaign to the governor's mansion. Virginia is not a blue state, as much as we want to believe it is, and I think we need to take his candidacy extremely seriously, because we cannot simply scream "DONALD TRUMP" and expect people to take us seriously in the face of unlimited money and the best consultants that can buy. I know the Virginia GOP has been on a losing streak, but if you think they don't have talented people who can punch hard- with a media megaphone Democrats can only fantasize about- you are delusional.
Electing Joe Biden last November by the barest of margins was only a short reprieve. And just like four years ago, Virginia is shaping up to be the battleground that will foretell what the future holds for democracy in America. The events of Jan. 6 showed us all—in stark detail—that we cannot afford to take a single step backward.
We had all better be prepared, right now, to do the work to ensure that doesn’t happen—starting in June with our primary, ensuring we nominate people who will stand up for all of Virginia, those of us out here in "ROVA"; moving on this fall to our general elections; and then on to next year in Congress.
Nothing less than the fate of our republic rests in the balance.