OPINION:
In a remotely honest world, the Virginia governor’s race would already be over. But this is politics, and NBC’s greasy Chuck Todd is the referee.
During a debate this week between retread Democrat Terry McAuliffe and Republican Glenn Youngkin, the Macker made a stunning admission.
“I don’t think parents should be telling schools what they should teach,” Mr. McAuliffe declared in public on live television.
It was a gaffe of epic proportions — the perfect political gaffe in the most honest sense in that it really does reveal Mr. McAuliffe’s true beliefs.
Nobody can claim Mr. McAuliffe was taken out of context. In fact, the larger the context, the more devastating the quote.
Mr. Youngkin had just finished making a simple point that nobody in a free country could possibly disagree with.
“I believe parents should be in charge of their kids’ education,” said Mr. Youngkin, shocking no normal person. If anything, one might nit-pick Mr. Youngkin for saying something so bland and obvious that it fails to define who he is as a political candidate.
But Mr. McAuliffe is not a normal person. And his political views are seriously perverted. After all, he is Bill Clinton —minus the electoral wisdom.
According to Mr. McAuliffe, Mr. Youngkin’s bland statement proved “how clueless Glenn Youngkin is.”
Then he elaborated.
“I’m not going to let parents come into schools and actually take books out and make their own decision,” Mr. McAuliffe scoffed in disdain.
Yikes.
It was like the scene in “Wedding Crashers” when the loud, abusive, and controlling boyfriend named “Sack” lashes out in the middle of a wedding at the girl he intends to marry.
“Wow,” the character played by Owen Wilson drily observes. “Getting a nice preview of what marriage is gonna be like with Ike Turner here.”
What is amazing about Mr. McAuliffe’s public admission is not just what it says about his views on parental involvement in education. It also reveals so much that is deeply disturbing about his larger views on the relationship between supposedly free citizens and their government.
Government, Mr. McAuliffe believes, is all-powerful and cannot be questioned. Meanwhile, the people who pay all the bills are powerless subjects of that government — especially when unelected, faceless bureaucrats run that government.
“Shut up and pay your taxes!” is Mr. McAuliffe’s political philosophy.
It is a pretty stunning admission — even for a smarmy used car salesman like Terry McAuliffe. Is he even aware of all the protests and school board stand-offs across Virginia these past few months over lockdowns, racist school curricula, and forced vaccinations? Is Mr. McAuliffe so far out of touch he had no idea what has been going on in the state he wants to govern?
And his haughty disdain extends far beyond just parents and citizens. Mr. McAuliffe holds the same contempt for the very nurses who have risked their lives for nearly two years fighting COVID-19.
In his opening statement, Mr. McAuliffe flat out lied to Virginia voters.
“He doesn’t believe nurses and doctors and teachers should be vaccinated,” he claimed. “I do.”
Mr. Youngkin, who is vaccinated, has repeatedly and publicly urged people to get vaccinated. He does not, however, believe people should be physically forced by the government to get vaccinated.
Again, Mr. Youngkin trusts citizens to make their own personal health decisions. Mr. McAuliffe does not, which is why he insists on government-forced vaccinations.
Mr. McAuliffe can lie all he wants to about his political opponent, but his real problem is with the brave nurses who have chosen for whatever reason not to get vaccinated. (Perhaps they have much stronger natural immunity, for example.)
But Mr. McAuliffe’s accusation that those heroic nurses would willingly threaten the lives of their patients says nothing about nurses and everything about Mr. McAuliffe.
Listen to Owen Wilson, Virginia. Don’t elect Ike Turner.
• Charles Hurt is the opinion editor at the Washington Times.
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