Virginia Mercury headline: “After UVA president’s exit, Dems say they want to prevent further politicization of higher education.”

Omitted from the article: Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell, D-Fairfax, said Saturday that he’s prepared to nuke all of Governer Glenn Youngkin’s nominations to the University of Virginia Board of Visitors in the next General Assembly session, and warned the board not to select a new president until next year (when Democrat Abigail Spanberger might be governor).

And Democrats are worried about the politicization of higher ed?

In its crafting of a new pseudo-narrative, the Mercury cited multiple examples of Youngkin efforts to dismantle DEI (Diversity, Equity & Inclusion) in Virginia’s public higher-ed institutions — as if the battle over DEI in higher ed started with Youngkin.

The Mercury totally ignored how former Governor Ralph Northam, under political pressure to resign from his blackface scandal, courted support from left-wing Democrats by wholeheartedly embracing DEI and implementing it throughout state government and higher ed. Further, alleging systemic racism at the Virginia Military Institute, Northam sacked Superintendent J.H. Binford Peay III and replaced him with Cedric T. Wins… who proceeded to implement DEI at VMI.

Politics is a contact sport. Both sides play the game. But, yeah, Republicans are the ones politicizing higher ed.

The only saving grace of the article is that it quoted John Reid, Republican candidate for lieutenant governor. Said Reid: “That’s what happens when you stick your middle finger up at the elected governor and the voters of Virginia and then play a game of chicken with the president of the United States on an issue that’s overtly reverse racist like DEI.”

Say what you will about Reid, but he’s the only Virginia Republican right now willing to say it like it is.

— JAB