Category: Democracy and Western Civilization
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Voyeurism Isn’t Good for the Soul (or Politics)
by Shaun Kenney The scandal of the week involving Susanna Gibson is an indictment of our politics. Shame on us all for participating in it. HAMLET Get thee ⟨to⟩ a nunnery. Why wouldst thou be a breeder of sinners? I am myself indifferent honest, but yet I could accuse me of such things that it…
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A Race to the Bottom Everywhere
by Kerry Dougherty Great news! Beginning today, members of the U.S. Senate will be indistinguishable from bums. Axios reports that Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is “relaxing” the dress code for members, allowing them to be on the floor of the Senate dressed like they’re headed to Walmart. Or rather, like John Fetterman of Pennsylvania who…
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Fairfax School Board Ignores the Rule of Law
by Emilio Jaksetic On July 18, 2023, the Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) issued “Model Policies on Ensuring Privacy, Dignity, and Respect for all Students and Parents in Virginia’s Public Schools” (Revised Model Policy). A copy of that policy is accessible at https://www.doe.virginia.gov/Home/Components/News/News/308/ On August 15, 2023, Michelle Reid, Ed.D, Superintendent of the Fairfax County…
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Revisiting the Intellectual Foundations of Conservatism — One Book at a Time
by Suzanne Munson From time to time, members of every great movement such as American Conservatism need to stop, take a breath, and see where the movement is going. Great movements, founded by great individuals, can sometimes be hijacked by lesser minds. Many of the founders of modern conservatism were intellectuals. William F. Buckley was…
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The Enduring Value of Arlington’s Endangered Monument to Reconciliation
by Donald Smith Jim Webb, former U.S. Senator from Virginia, former Navy Secretary, and certified badass (Navy Cross, Silver Star and two Purple Hearts from his service as a Marine officer in Vietnam) grabbed quite a bit of attention last week. On August 18 he called for the Confederate Memorial at Arlington Cemetery to be…
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The Sorry State of the ACLU of Virginia
by Hans Bader The communist activist Angela Davis advocated abolishing prisons in the U.S., while supporting the incarceration of political prisoners in totalitarian communist regimes overseas. The ACLU of Virginia has touted Angela Davis’s stances in the past, such as in an April 4, 2022 tweet quoting Davis. Now, the ACLU of Virginia has returned…
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The Document That Inspired the Declaration of Independence
by Joseph Postell It’s common for Americans on July 4th to read and discuss the Declaration of Independence, and to reflect on its principles and ideas. Those principles and ideas are often attributed solely — though wrongly — to Thomas Jefferson, the primary author of the draft of the Declaration. Jefferson’s draft was modified in…
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Roanoke County Quietly Extends Contract For $109,000 Year Registrar But Questions Persist
by Scott Dreyer For many historical and cultural reasons, America has traditionally been what sociologists call a “high-trust” society. As reported in this report from the Pew Research Center, cultures with high trust (such as Canada and Sweden) usually have low crime and corruption while the reverse (such as South Africa and Peru) is also…
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Every Day is Memorial Day in Normandy
by Kerry Dougherty My most memorable Memorial Day did not take place on Memorial Day at all, but a few weeks earlier. In May of 1982. But then again, every day is Memorial Day when you stand on those beaches at Normandy. It was a glorious spring morning on the coast of France. The sky…
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Martin Brown Is Absolutely Correct: To Achieve Real Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, “DEI” Must Die
by J. Kennerly Davis Martin Brown, a senior aide to Governor Glenn Youngkin, created quite a stir when he told an audience at the Virginia Military Institute that “DEI is dead.” Democrats in politics and the media jumped on the remark, and the Governor’s support of Brown, to assert that the Youngkin administration is hostile…
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Reagan Republican AG Miyares Put on Russia’s List of ‘Banned Americans’
by Shaun Kenney Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares was included in an elite list of American leaders and political figures as being sanctioned by Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to a press release from the Russian Foreign Ministry. Miyares, who had recently completed visits to Poland and Israel, is the sole Virginia statewide political figure…
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Glen Allen Va’s “Do No Harm” Doing a Great Deal of Good
by James C. Sherlock Do you assume that Virginia’s medical schools are strict meritocracies, taking only the most well prepared and accomplished applicants? And that their efforts are then focused entirely on creating the most skilled physicians possible? If so, you are mistaken. The Medical College Admission Test (MCAT), written by the American Medical Association…
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Five Questions: An Interview with Lieutenant Governor Winsome Earle-Sears
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by Shaun Kenney Last week, The Republican Standard had the opportunity to follow Lieutenant Governor Winsome Earle-Sears as she toured the Richmond Slave Trail — which included not only the site of the notorious Lumpkins Slave Jail but also the site where Gabriel Prosser was executed and presumably buried in 1800. Winsome Earle-Sears brought a…
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“Repressive Tolerance” and the Constitutions of the United States and of Virginia
by James C. Sherlock In the United States, the first references for judges and attorneys are the federal and state constitutions. The Constitution of the United States, in its First Amendment, requires that: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech,…
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Crime in Virginia — the Statistics of Race and their Causes
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in Children and Families, Civil Rights, Individual Liberties, Corruption and Scandals, Crime, Corrections, Law Enforcement, Culture wars, Democracy and Western Civilization, Demographics, Education (K-12), Efficiency in Government, General Assembly, Governance, Government Finance, Health Care, Housing, Land use & Development, Mental illness and substance abuse, Politics, Public safety & health, Race and Race Relations, Regulations, Gov’t Oversightby James C. Sherlock Crime, especially violent crime, is a constant topic in private conversations and in public politics, and thus here on Bacon’s Rebellion. Comments on BR crime-related articles turn quickly to race, often without basis in fact. I will offer below the actual crime statistics by race from 2021, the latest available year,…