Dear Friend of TJI, “Until recently, I was a loyal, left-leaning Democrat, and I had been my entire adult life. I was the kind of partisan who registered voters before midterm elections and went to protests. I hated Donald Trump so much that I struggled to be civil to relatives on the other side of the aisle. But ... “Throughout the pandemic, Democrats have been eager to style themselves as the ones that ‘take the virus seriously,’ which is shorthand, at least in the bluest states and cities, for endorsing the most extreme interventions. By questioning the wisdom of school closures—and taking our child out of public school—I found myself going against the party line. And when I tried to speak out on social media, I was shouted down and abused, accused of being a Trumper who didn’t care if teachers died. “Many liberals and institutional leaders thought that no one could fault them for being too cautious, especially when it came to children. But I can, and I do. The University of Oxford medical ethicist Euzebiusz Jamrozik said recently on a podcast that ethical public-health responses must rely on a few key principles. One of those is “proportionality,” meaning that the intervention must be proportionate to the risk. A Bloomberg article noted in March that children in the U.S. were about 10 times as likely to be killed in a car crash as by COVID-19. Closing school for more than a year was disproportionate the same way that forbidding parents to drive would have been. -- Angie Schmidt The Atlantic, 1/7/22 Meanwhile ... 1.) Governor Glenn Youngkin is taking hits over ending the “mask mandate” in schools, with multiple school divisions saying they will continue to require masks. It is certain to be played out in the courts. He released updated guidelines for parents, educators and prek-12 schools here. 2.) Youngkin is also under attack from a Left claiming he’s trying to take Virginia out of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) by Executive Order. The problem, of course, is that he didn’t do that. Senior Fellow Steve Haner points out that what the “Day One” Executive Order did was lay out the steps necessary to get out of RGGI (here), and disagrees with Democrat contentions that doing so requires legislative action. 3.) The high consumer cost of Virginia’s forced conversion to a fossil fuel free economy is unpopular with Republican and Independent voters. Watch your email “in-box” at 8:35 am tomorrow for our release of a poll conducted by Mason-Dixon demonstrating exactly that – and one area where Democrats stand with the vast majority of Virginians. 4.) Haner again: Legislation has been introduced to protect your right to use natural gas, or the “We Are Not San Francisco” bill (here). 5.) On the other hand, maybe elected Democrats are changing their tune. Haner (he’s a busy fellow) detects some subtle shifts in the winds that may be leading to changes in Virginia Energy policy (here). 6.) The rights of Virginians is important – including the rights of public employee workers and the taxpayers that support them. Visiting Fellow F. Vincent Vernuccio writes about legislation introduced by Delegate Nick Freitas protecting those rights as some localities consider monopoly union contracts (here). 7.) The Governor issued his own set of Legislative Priorities. Find them here. Steve Haner analyzes the tax proposals (combined with Ralph Northam's) here. In education, particularly, Rick Hess, of the American Enterprise Institute, notes Youngkin is off to a strong start (here). 8.) Over in Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS), the County’s sole Republican Supervisor Pat Herrity discovered students have been playing “Privilege Bingo” in which children are told they are “privileged” if they are white, male, their parents are married, they’ve never lost a loved one, or they’re a “military kid” (here). This is, of course, news to the kids whose parents spent their child’s formative years on deployment defending the nation, and demonstrates the elitism of those in the FCPS education establishment (here and here). School leaders have since “apologized” but say they remain “committed to equipping students with the skills to recognize multiple perspectives, analyze bias and examine privilege” (here). Which means they are committed to dividing students, playing identity politics and informing some children that they can’t succeed because too many others are “privileged.” This “approved curriculum” (here) is the downstream consequence of using critical race theory’s underpinnings to inform instruction. 9.) Such exercises now extent to candy, as M&Ms rebrands, according to its news release (warning: This is not a parody) “to reflect the more dynamic, progressive world that we live in.” It’s all too much for John Paul Brammer (no conservative) who declares the changes “the latest victims of a misguided progressivism running through corporate America” (here). 10.) Dealing with this is one reason the state Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion has now been changed to the Office of Diversity, Opportunity, and Inclusion, and Governor Youngkin appointed former Heritage Foundation executive Angela Sailor to head it (here). Delegate Lamont Bagby immediately attacked Youngkin for swapping “Opportunity” for “Equity” (here). In the Wall Street Journal, Jason Riley notes “the racial progress Democrats won’t admit” here. 11.) Want to run for local office? The costs vary widely, and you can find them on VPAP’s latest visual here. Of course, you may not be getting much from Dominion Energy if some legislators get their way. VPAP also offers a visual of the Dominion-connected donors who backed the Political Action Committee airing social media ads depicting Glenn Youngkin as soft on guns (here), including $250,000 in corporate (i.e., coming from ratepayers) dollars and another $27,500 from corporate executives. The Cardinal News’ Dwayne Yancey rightfully calls it “voter suppression” of rural voters here. Over at Bacon’s Rebellion, Jim Bacon digs a bit deeper into it here, and Jim Sherlock parses the data even further here. All of this has created a bipartisan drive to ban political spending by government regulated utilities (whereby corporations can contribute to those who set their prices) here. 12.) On Biden: The Washington Free Beacon’s Matthew Continetti analyzes the President’s press conference, noting “to watch Biden at the lectern was to experience shock and dismay interspersed with moments of alarm and dark humor” (here). Brian Reidl notes that Biden didn’t get Build Back Better, but he still spent plenty (here). What has the inflation caused by the spending spree cost workers? In 2021, it reduced real wages by 2.4 percent (here). Michael Rubin concludes that Biden’s international weakness matters (here). Happy Sunday, Everyone!
Cordially, | |
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