Common Sense for Virginia: Glenn Youngkin

by Kerry Dougherty

Well this is NOT a surprise: A new NBC poll shows that 71% of Americans believe the country is headed in the wrong direction.

This simply proves that the true silent majority in America is made up of folks with common sense.

That’s why, when a Democrat whom I like personally implored me to vote for her I told her that wouldn’t be happening. Until the Democrats wake up, cut ties with extremists like AOC, Bernie Sanders, Ilhan Omar and unshackle themselves from teachers unions I won’t be voting for any Democrat.

And I’ve voted for plenty of them in the past.

Sure, there may be a handful of reasonable Democrats left. I can only think of two: Joe Manchin and Virginia State Sen. Chap Petersen, D-Fairfax, who exhibited more courage in fighting Ralph Northam’s COVID power grab than any Republican in Richmond.

Other Democrats surrendered to far-left loons with their policies and ideas that are ruinous to America.

It’s time for those of us with common sense to fight back.

In just 10 months, the feckless Biden administration has brought us rampant inflation, a reckless and deadly surrender to the Taliban, and caused our border to be overrun with illegals, with thousands more on the way.

In Virginia, we’ve watched the teachers unions fight to keep schools closed and parents out of school board meetings. Just last week, the defiant Virginia Beach School Board voted to force demonstrators to obtain permits if they want to gather outside of the school board meetings.

Never mind that the board cannot issue permits or require them on public property. The rule of law doesn’t matter to these arrogant politicians. They do not want to face angry parents and explain why as test scores plummet as schools are making “Gender Queer,” “Lawn Boy” and other sexually explicit material available in school libraries, and why they’re closing schools on Wednesday afternoons at a time when struggling students need more class time, not less.

When it comes to public safety, Virginia Democrats have been an unmitigated failure. Former Gov. Terry McAuliffe appointed Adrianne Bennett to chair the state’s parole board and she went on a freeing spree that let murderers and violent criminals out of prison, including a cop killer. In one 10-day period, between April 5, 2020 and April 15th, her last day in office, Bennett made sure that 103 parolees, including 69 sentenced to life in prison or longer were released from Department of Corrections supervision.

For her good work in releasing prisoners, Democrats in the General Assembly rewarded her with a juvenile court judgeship in Virginia Beach.

Are you seeing a pattern here? Do you see what happens when Democrats have complete control of state government?

It’s a disaster.

Youngkin has pledged to fire the entire parole board on day one and appoint new members, including crime victims. Victims’ voices were ignored by the McAuliffe/Northam parole boards. That needs to change.

And every single Democrat who voted for HB257 — the bill that allows principals to sweep crimes under the rug — should lose their seat.

As a reminder, here are the votes on that bill:


It was this miserable piece of legislation that led to an alleged rapist in one Loudoun County high school being transferred to another school where he assaulted another girl. The crime was covered up because the left-wing Loudoun County School Board was in a breathless hurry to pass a policy on transgendered rights during Pride Month.

Had parents found out that the alleged rape of a 9th grade girl took place in a bathroom by a biological boy wearing a skirt, it might have spoiled their plans. So the Loudoun County School Board sacrificed kids to push their woke agenda.

This is madness.

And let’s not forget what happened at Heritage High School in Newport News recently, where a student brought a gun to school and shot two classmates.

Turned out, this punk was sporting an ankle bracelet courtesy of the juvenile court system. The reason for the tracking device? He’d allegedly been involved in ANOTHER shooting.

Why are kids in ankle bracelets allowed in regular classrooms anyway?

HB257 was introduced by Del. Michael Mullin of — you guessed it — Newport News. He and everyone who voted with him on this bill need to go.

Democrat politicians and pantywaist school officials are turning Virginia’s public schools into treacherous places where children are shot or raped by classmates enjoying second chances.

Meanwhile, charter schools are a no-go. Test scores are abysmal. Magnet schools are being dumbed down. Critical Race Theory is being promoted by the Virginia Department of Education, despite frenzied denials by the left. And children in Virginia are being left behind.

No matter how you’ve voted in the past, vote tomorrow to return common sense to Virginia.

Glenn Youngkin for Governor. Republicans the rest of the way.

This column has been republished with permission from Kerry: Unemployed & Unedited.