A Return to Sanity?

On June 3, 2008, Senator Barack Obama proclaimed, upon clinching the Democratic presidential nomination, “This is the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal.”

I kind of felt the same way upon wakening last Wednesday morning to learn that Republican Glenn Youngkin had won the Virginia gubernatorial race, in a state that President Biden carried by ten points just a year ago. To whomever would listen, I declared, “This is the moment when sanity began return to America. The moment when we stop dividing schoolchildren into white oppressors and black victims; the moment when access to bathrooms and locker rooms is no longer determined on the basis of one’s self-declared identity; the moment when we once again reassert control of our borders.”

Of course, not much came of Obama’s boast. The seas did not stop rising. And within two years of his election, Democrats lost over 60 members in the House, and a slew of seats in the Senate and governorships.

So perhaps nothing will come of Youngkin’s surprise victory, either. But for now, the omens are good for Republicans. First, Youngkin hit upon a wedge issue to win back affluent suburban voters: education, in particular the suspicion that their children are being indoctrinated into radical racial and gender perspectives. And he did so while surpassing Donald Trump’s percentages in many parts of rural Virginia.