Bacon's Rebellion

  • A Travesty of “Open Government”

    Posted on

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    James A. Bacon

    by James A. Bacon

    The University of Virginia’s Board of Visitors convened at noon in a specially scheduled meeting to discuss one of the most contentious and potentially momentous issues it has ever been called upon to address — the dismantling of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion and racial preferences.

    The meeting will not be live-streamed.

    Not that it would make much difference. The touchiest topic will be addressed in closed session.

    Transparency is an absolute joke at UVA, a $5 billion-a-year public agency subject to Virginia’s public meeting laws, which were designed in a fit of idealism of some past era lost in the mists of time to make government open to the public, but which have been eroded or ignored ever since.

    Consider the context: DEI is one of the most emotional and consequential debates occurring in the country today. In March the Board of Visitors voted under pressure from the Trump administration and acclaim of Governor Glenn Youngkin to dismantle DEI and end racial preferences. It gave President Jim Ryan 30 days to report back on his progress. He did, but he declined to make the report available to the public. From what I hear, it was brief, superficial, and unsatisfactory, but no one leaked it, so it’s impossible for the public to evaluate it.

    (more…)

  • Why Does Youngkin Attack His Friends, Not His Foes?

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    James A. Bacon

    by James A. Bacon

    This is a hard post to write because I think Governor Glenn Youngkin has been a pretty good governor overall. I like his rhetorical tone, and I can’t think of a single important policy stance he’s taken that I disagree with. While he has not accomplished as much as I would hope, I recognize that he has to deal with the reality of a General Assembly dominated by intransigent Democrats. His most important contribution may be the dozens (or is it hundreds?) of bills he has vetoed, briefly halting Virginia’s drift into failed blue-state status.

    While Youngkin has held back the tide, he has not reversed it. His tenure is shaping up as a brief interregnum in the inexorable New Jerseyfication of Virginia. Unlike, say, Ron DeSantis who converted Florida from a swing state to a solidly red state, Youngkin has made no lasting impression on the correlation of political forces in the Old Dominion. Why? One reason is that he has declined to take the battle to the opposition.

    Instead, Virginians have witnessed the spectacle of Youngkin training fire on his own supporters!

    First it was Bert Ellis, a Virginia-born, Atlanta-based entrepreneur who served on the University of Virginia Board of Visitors. When appointing him, Youngkin tasked him to recapture Virginia’s flagship university from an administration that had re-engineered the institution from top to bottom along “social justice” principles. When Ellis proved to be a trifle too demonstrative in his language, Youngkin kicked him to the curb.

    Now it’s John Reid, a popular Richmond talk-show host before he gave up his job to run for lieutenant governor. Reid’s sin? As a gay man posting three photos of himself at a drag show (horrors!) and allegedly posting photographs of nude male models on a tumblr account five years ago. Without seeking Reid’s response to charges originating from a yet-to-be revealed opposition research group with a yet-to-be-revealed agenda, the Governor demanded that Reid drop out of the race.

    Is this how you treat your friends and allies?

    (more…)

  • Virginia’s GOP Better Get a Reid on the Situation

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    James A. Bacon

    by Kerry Dougherty

    Here’s some free advice for Virginia’s Republican Party: Get your act together before the Democrats sweep the November elections and Old Dominion turns into California East.

    Intra-party squabbling and charges of extortion are not a winning message.

    Cut it out.

    Four years after stunning the nation by taking the commonwealth’s top three elected offices back from Democrat control, the Republican party is in disarray and appears on the verge of a schism with the governor on one side and some GOP committees and a former governor on the other.

    In a close election, this will be fatal.

    When news broke a week ago the Fairfax County’s most prominent Republican, Pat Herrity, had withdrawn his primary bid to be the party’s nominee for lieutenant governor due to health problems, it looked like the party was going to avoid a bruising primary altogether and focus on November.

    Herrity’s withdrawal cleared the way for his opponent, John Reid, to be the nominee.

    Reid is the son of the late Jack Reid, an 18-year Republican veteran of the House of Delegates. John Reid’s conservative credentials are impeccable: he interned in the Reagan White House, served as then-Sen. George Allen’s communications director and hosted a popular conservative Richmond talk radio show for eight years.

    Reid has been a guest on The Kerry and Mike Show and he’s a smart, engaging guest. There’s no daylight between his issues and mine.

    I’ll vote for him without hesitation. Continue reading.

  • Reid Hangs Tough

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    James A. Bacon

    View video here.

    by James A. Bacon

    Is there room for a gay man, no matter how conservative, in Virginia’s Republican Party? The signals are mixed, but it appears that there may be.

    Five years ago, a Virginia GOP committee passed a resolution censuring Rep. Denver Riggleman, R-Va., for betraying the party’s values when he officiated a same-sex wedding. He was challenged in a Republican primary, lost his seat, and has since dropped out of the Republican Party.

    History doesn’t repeat itself, as the saying goes, but it does rhyme. Today, John Reid, the lone contender for the GOP candidacy for lieutenant governor, is under pressure to drop out of the race. Indeed, he says, he has been the victim of a “coordinated assassination attempt” to force the first gay GOP candidate for statewide office off the ticket.

    Citing the existence of photos of nude men on what was purported to be Reid’s tumblr account, Governor Glenn Youngkin demanded last week that Reid drop out of the race. The former Richmond radio talk-show host refused. And it turns out that a lot of conservative Republicans are willing to look past his sexual orientation. This may not be a replay of Denver Riggleman after all.

    Reid was greeted warmly in Abingdon, in far Southwest Virginia, by local GOP activists including Rep. Morgan Griffith, R-Va. The suburban ladies of the Henrico County GOP have leaped to his defense online. And Matthew Hurtt, chair of the Arlington County Republican Party, sent out a tweet protesting the Governor’s call.

    Philip Kazmierczak, a member of the Virginia LGBQT+ Advisory Board, submitted his resignation. “One of the fundamental principles of the Republican Party, and a value I hold dearly, is that government should stay out of the personal lives of individuals — all of the time, not merely when it is political convenient,” he wrote. “This recent episode stands in stark contrast to that principle. We are meant to be the party of the big welcoming tent.”

    Kazmierczak wrote that he was “deeply moved” by the support that Reid was receiving from conservative circles.

    (more…)

  • Matthew Carroll’s Kafkaesque Journey Through Woke Purgatory

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    James A. Bacon

    Image credit: ChatGPT

    by James A. Bacon

    Matthew Carroll, an event coordinator with the Office of Student Affairs, was in his office at the University of Virginia on April 12, 2023, when a professor in Garrett Hall called to say that someone outside the building was playing music so loudly that he couldn’t teach. Student Affairs needed to fix the problem. Pronto.

    Carroll and a colleague hustled over to Garrett Hall. Several students had set up a table to conduct a fundraiser and were blasting out loud music. Explaining that they had not obtained a permit to set up at that location, did not have an approved table, and were not authorized to use amplified sound, he told them to move.

    The students, who belonged to the Central Americans for Empowerment at UVA (CAFE), reacted defensively. They accused Carroll of being belligerent and disrespectful.

    After a brief standoff, the students packed up their gear and departed. Carroll returned to the office and recounted the incident to his boss. He didn’t think much about it until the next day when he discovered that the confrontation had blown up on social media. People were assailing him as a racist and calling for him to be fired.

    Six days later, UVA placed Carroll on administrative leave, made him turn in his work keys and laptop, and issued a No Trespass Order blocking him from setting foot on Grounds until an investigation could be completed. Despite their violation of University rules and disruption of other students’ classes, CAFE members received no sanction whatsoever.

    (more…)

  • Resolute Mr. Reid

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    James A. Bacon

    Out, proud, and in the fight.

    by Gordon C. Morse

    “Virginia’s embattled Republican nominee for lieutenant governor,” The Washington Post now calls John Reid.

    The paper might have called him “bewitched, bothered and bewildered.” That would have been more fun, but “embattled” will probably do.

    There are photos. Re-posted on-line and by Reid, so claimed.

    His? Not so, says Reid. “I’m not going anywhere.”

    “This is the new way that politics is played,” Reid said over the weekend. “The politics of personal destruction are coming right home to everybody who runs.”

    New? Tell that to the Founding Fathers. That will give their spirits a chuckle or two.

    Personal attacks and character assassination have been present in American politics since the nation’s founding. The highly charged and often vicious rhetoric of the 18th and 19th centuries included personal smears, rumors, and public shaming.

    (more…)

  • Justice for Jews?

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    James A. Bacon

    Five months after a student sent antisemitic messages, entered a Jewish student’s room, and brandished a gun, UVA leadership has yet to denounce or acknowledge the hate crime.

    by James A. Bacon

    Two-and-a-half years after the University of Virginia failed to prevent the shooting homicide of three football players, a student who entered a Jewish student’s room and brandished a gun has been readmitted to the University after a brief suspension.

    “Although UVA initially suspended the perpetrator, the case was handed over to a student-run judiciary committee—an entity that has issued expulsions for far lesser offenses,” states a letter circulated by a group of Jewish parents identifying themselves as The Lions of Zion.

    “Shockingly, the committee overturned the suspension and assigned community service instead,” states the letter, which is addressed to University leadership. “To date, the university has not publicly acknowledged the incidents and has been evasive in providing information about the disciplinary status of the perpetrator and a second roommate who purchased the handgun.”

    The Lions of Zion called for UVA leadership to publicly condemn the incident, expel the students involved, ensure the safety of the target (who wishes to remain anonymous), and “commit to protecting all students from hate and violence.”

    The University of Virginia is one of 60 institutions warned by the U.S. Office for Civil Rights that they might be subject to enforcement actions if they do not fulfill their obligations under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act to protect Jewish students on campus.

    (more…)

  • Jeanine’s Memes

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    James A. Bacon

    From The Bull Elephant

  • DEI Not Dead at UVA

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    James A. Bacon

    *** Sponsored Content ***

    This ad was published today in the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

    DEIatUVA.com

  • When Did Democrats Begin to Resemble the Rockettes?

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    James A. Bacon

    Virginia Democrats long defended and preserved the state’s “right-to-work” law. They’re shifting in unison.

    Image credit: Bing Image Creator

    by Gordon C. Morse

    Join a labor union, if you like.

    Or do not join a labor union, if you like.

    Your choice. Virginia law says that no one can force you to financially support a union as a condition of employment.

    Does the law put labor unions at a disadvantage? You bet.

    Which was politically sound. There previously existed a clear consensus in favor of right-to-work. In 1985, the director of the state’s Department of Economic Development called right-to-work “almost Biblical.”

    Was it resented? Sure. Danny LeBlanc, the stalwart Virginia labor leader of that era, said, “The whole purpose of the right-to-work law is to make unions weak.”

    It really wasn’t the whole thing, but that wasn’t far off.

    LeBlanc further claimed that state politicians “feel they have to have the corporate bosses in order to get elected. They are the ones who have the bucks to make things go.”

    Well, unions make things go, too, bucks included. The cash just flows differently.

    It mostly comes down to a question of where power best resides and how the answer encourages or discourages private business investment and economic growth.

    Has public sentiment on this matter shifted? We’re about to find out.

    (more…)

  • Bacon Meme of the Week

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    James A. Bacon

  • Bonfire of the Sheepskins

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    by

    James A. Bacon

    Image credit: Bing Image Creator

    by James A. Bacon

    As tuitions climb ever higher and the wage premium for a college degree has plateaued, an increasing percentage of Americans — especially younger Americans — consider their diplomas a waste of money, concludes Indeed.com, an online job site, on the basis of a new survey.

    Twenty percent of Baby Boomers considered their college degrees worthless, but the percentage increased to 41% for Millennials and 51% for Gen Z, found the poll, which queried 772 U.S. adults who are employed or seeking employment and have an associate degree or higher.

    The high cost of higher-ed means that half of all respondents (52%) were saddled with student debt. Unsurprisingly, those with higher debt burdens were more likely to question the value of their degrees.

    “The combination of stagnating wage benefits, skyrocketing costs, degree saturation, and debt may explain why younger generations increasingly question whether college is worth it,” states Indeed’s analysis. “The traditional promise of higher education simply doesn’t align with the reality many younger professionals experience.”

    (more…)

  • Why Harvard and the UDC Should Keep Their Tax Exemptions

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    James A. Bacon

    Strange bedfellows. Image credit: Chat GPT

    by Derrick Max

    Every taxpayer dollar sent to any university or private entity should be closely scrutinized. In the case of the billions sent to Harvard University and other elite schools, the probe being imposed by the Trump administration is long overdue. 

    The research grants which make up the majority of Harvard’s non-medical federal funding, notoriously lack transparency, allow for use of funds for supposed “indirect costs” that go almost unfettered to the University, and are the type of grants that are not available to most other colleges and universities in the country.

    When the Harvard Crimson reports that more than three-quarters of Harvard’s faculty self-identify as “left” or “far left” and 65 percent of Harvard graduates identify as “progressive” (only 12 percent identify as “conservative”), the level of federal funding from a progressive leaning federal bureaucracy rightly raises concerns about “self dealing” in the eyes of a newly elected conservative administration.  

    With famous liberal graduates like former Presidents John F. Kennedy and Barack Obama and liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg, it is no wonder that Harvard is considered the intellectual center of the failed progressivism that is an offense to much of what was rejected by voters in this last election. President Trump is right to view Harvard with some distrust, if not disdain. On this, we and most conservatives agree.

    Throw in the lackluster response to the antisemitism running rampant on Ivy League and other college campuses and you have more than enough reason to take a second look at the taxpayer funding given to these institutions.

    But, this disdain and scrutiny should not bleed over into any consideration of challenging Harvard’s tax-exempt status. While President Trump’s mention of removing Harvard’s favored tax status could just be a part of a broader negotiating strategy (three dimensional chess), it would set a dangerous precedent.

    Such a move, without question, would put Liberty University — Virginia’s largest University and 18 other Christian colleges in the Commonwealth — square in the crosshairs of some future progressive President who would use Liberty’s policies on homosexuality and gender as justification to end their tax status. 

    (more…)

  • About Being Virginia’s Lieutenant Governor

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    James A. Bacon

    Patrick Herrity

    by Gordon C. Morse

    Earlier this week, Patrick Herrity dropped out of the June 17 primary for the Republican nomination for lieutenant governor, and it’s too bad. The son of Jack Herrity had not fallen far from the tree and that alone promised to make his race both fun and useful.

    About his old man: born in Arlington, Jack Herrity opened his political career by winning a spot on the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors in 1971. Five years later, he was elected chairman and remained so for the next 12 years.

    Herrity favored economic growth in the 1970s and 80s when “growth” invariably inspired a protracted fight. Herrity stayed the course, and in the process, earned lasting respect.

    It earned him growing opposition, too. In 1987, the slow-growth forces in Fairfax handily defeated him, though his legacy remains undiminished.

    Son Patrick likewise embraced a “let’s-get-things-done” mentality. His business background stood him out in a part of the state now celebrated for its ideological blather. You didn’t always have to agree with Pat Herrity to see that his knowledge of local government would have benefited him in state office.

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  • The Opportunity-for-All Candidate

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    James A. Bacon

    by James A. Bacon

    Pundits and politicians are enamored with the idea that Virginia will “make history” in its gubernatorial elections this fall. No matter who wins the election — Republican Lieutenant Governor Winsome Earle-Sears or Democrat Abigail Spanberger — she will be the first woman to serve as Governor.

    The making-history observation applies to Earle-Sears in triplicate. She’d be the first woman, the first immigrant, and the second African-American to become governor — an undisputed winner of identity-politics sweepstakes. But it’s not a distinction she’s looking for.

    “I acknowledge that [the election] is historical, but I don’t stand on that,” Earle-Sears told an audience of roughly 200 at the University of Virginia yesterday in an event sponsored by The Jefferson Council and Center for Politics. The luster of being a historical first wears off quickly, she said. People quickly adopt the attitude, “Now what? What have you done for us?”

    Earle-Sears did not delve into detailed policy proposals. Rather, she sounded broad themes. She believes in equal opportunity, not equal outcomes. The keys to achieving equal opportunity in Virginia are freedom of choice in education, an all-of-the-above energy policy, safe communities and a robust economy.

    (more…)

Now Available

Book cover of 'Dust Mites: A Second American Revolution' by James A. Bacon, featuring astronauts planting a flag with a blue and white emblem on a lunar landscape, with Earth visible in the background.
For sale on Amazon.com

The year: 2075. The American colonies on the Moon are getting restless under Washington’s tyrannical rule….

This second edition of “Dust Mites” has a snazzy new cover, includes helpful lunar maps, and is 5,000 words tighter than the original. The sequel, “Trogs,” is scheduled for publication this summer.

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Bacon’s Rebellion is Virginia’s leading politically non-aligned portal for news, opinions and analysis about state, regional and local public policy. Read more about us here.

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