Virginia bait and switch: Spanberger unleashes Dems' real, radical agenda
Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger was sworn in just a few weeks ago, but the tornado of bad policy is already swirling around her state.
Spanberger’s very first order of business was reversing Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s Executive Order 47, which had allowed for coordination between the Virginia state police and the Department of Corrections and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. That coordination was important because it allowed the federal and state governments to cooperate to remove people in the country illegally who had committed additional crimes. That it was necessary for Spanberger to make it harder to deport criminals is a tell that her moderate campaign commercials will instead translate into a much further left administration.
Spanberger isn’t alone in moving Virginia sharply leftward. Both branches of the state legislature are now also controlled by Democrats, and they’re introducing policies that no one campaigned on. House Bill 863 would reduce minimum sentencing for rape, manslaughter and child pornography. If Spanberger ran on "let’s let rapists off easy," the Virginia electorate somehow missed it. In fact, Spanberger’s campaign ads highlighted her law enforcement experience and that she’s a moderate who works with both sides of the political aisle.
I’M THE NEW VIRGINIA GOVERNOR AND AFFORDABILITY IS WHAT EVERYONE NEEDS
Several other bills would raise various taxes and fly in the face of the "affordability" message on which Spanberger campaigned. One would raise sales tax on services like dry cleaning, another would add a tax on deliveries from Amazon and Uber Eats. Spanberger also noted she would rejoin the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, which would likely make energy bills higher.
Then there’s House Bill 1442, which would prevent any enforcement of immigration law near polling locations. We’re told it’s very rare for illegal immigrants to vote in our elections and yet the Virginia legislature thinks a law like this is a high priority for the state. Why would immigration operations interfere with polling locations unless there are illegal immigrants voting at those polling locations?
Then there’s the chaos Democrats are wreaking at the Virginia Military Institute. VMI is a highly regarded military college with some notable alums, like Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine. The House of Delegates introduced a resolution to form a task force to decide whether the VMI should continue to get funding from the state. They’re also politicizing the board of the school.
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Spanberger appointed former Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam, well-known for taking a photo in blackface while in medical school, to VMI’s Board of Visitors. Northam will be taking the place of Garrett Exner, who was appointed by Governor Glenn Youngkin. Exner was not given a hearing nor asked any questions before being replaced. On his X page, Exner quoted Senator Scott Surovell saying, there are "genuine concerns about the qualifications, backgrounds, and intentions," of Youngkin appointees. Exner pointed out: "Mr. Surovell is not a veteran. He has never deployed. He has never prepared young men and women for service to the nation. I've dedicated my life to serving this country and helping the next generation of leaders succeed. I would like to know what part of my background Mr. Surovell finds, ‘concerning.’"
There is no actual concern, of course. Exner told me VMI is just "the latest target of Democrats' assault on America’s institutions. The school, with its strict honor code and devotion to merit, stands in direct opposition to the new ideals of the Democrat party — socialism and equity."
Democrats are going to spend the next four years moving Virginia as far left as they can get away with—unless Virginians stop them. Virginians who want to save their state have to keep pointing out that Spanberger the candidate is not Spanberger the governor, and that the state government being fully controlled by the Democratic party is turning lawlessness and social engineering into policy. Virginia can be saved from this, before it becomes another failed blue state with residents running for the door, but they need to act quickly.