The best offense is a good defense. That was the pre-Trump playbook for the Republican Party. This resulted in Republicans perennially playing defense. Year in, year out.
In 2021, though, there is a shift occurring. The epicenter can be felt right here in Loudoun County. As Republicans, we are in a unique position to demonstrate to the rest of conservative America how to get it done. The lesson is in one word; ATTACK!
The opposition to Critical Race Theory at the local level holds the key. Likewise, the response to the LGBTQ agenda being imposed on our local schools holds the key. Skyrocketing violent crime is a local issue. It’s an axiom we have failed to implement. ALL POLITICS ARE LOCAL.
National news outlets have been closely following the battle in Loudoun to keep the scourge of Critical Race Theory away from our kids. It is an issue that resonates beyond the Republican electorate. It is a national issue that can only be fought at the local level in Board of Education elections.
Like so many others controlled by the left, the current Loudoun Board are fascist-like in their zeal to implement this indictment of American society. Unfortunately, Democrats are masters of the long game, and CRT is aimed at the America of the late 2030s and beyond.
Parents Defending Education claimed some schools were teaching that “white people are inherently privileged, while Black and other people of color are inherently oppressed and victimized”; that “achieving racial justice and equality between racial groups requires discriminating against people based on their whiteness”; and that “the United States was founded on racism.”
The LGBTQ agenda under the guise of The Equality Act for public school systems is just as pervasive. The Tanner Cross case again puts Loudoun at ground zero. This is simply a push to indoctrinate children in the language of the left and punish dissent or deviation from the approved lexicon.
If passed, the Equality Act would open the door for K-12 curricula to include controversial information, suggesting girls can be trapped in a boy’s body and vice versa and that “gender transition” is helpful and healthy.
Local Board of Education elections can install members that believe that parents are the ones best suited to provide the love and care their children deserve. Unfortunately, Democrats are pushing a strain on this vital relationship by pitting parents against the education system, the medical profession, and federal law.
Loudoun County is at ground zero for two out of three of these issues. Violent crime would also be an issue here if it were not for the steadfastness of our gallant Sheriff Mike Chapman, who has higher poll numbers than all of his critics for one reason only; Loudoun stays relatively safe.
The George Soros infusion of cash into local prosecutors’ races was on display
right here as Loudoun Commonwealths Attorney Buta Biberaj received financial
contributions. In California alone, Soros headlined a consortium of private funders,
the American Civil Liberties Union, and other social justice groups and
Democratic activists targeting dozens of district attorney positions.
The goal is to eliminate cash bail for suspects, apply broad discretion in deciding
whether to prosecute drug-related arrests based on the suspect’s race as a prime
factor, and prioritize over-charging police misconduct.
These are all issues that can garner local support across party lines and needs a new
kind of candidate and, dare we say, progressive Republican Committees. Not
progressive in the redefined language of the left. I meant progressive as in no
longer counting a solid defense and on coat-tails from national elections trickling down.
Elected bodies in Loudoun County are not totally immune to positive Republican
influence. But it must be a broad-based inclusive influence. An updated “kinder,
gentler” party must be the perception, if not the reality. Unresponsive, harsh, tone-
deaf Republicans like the current Lovettsville town council will not advance the
party. Alt-right elected Republicans steeped in racism and hate will not garner the
broad-based cross-over support needed to win.
Candidates like Roger Zurn, Geary Higgins, Caleb Kershner and others are the
kinder, gentler faces that have proven they can win with Republicans and
disaffected Democrats. Republicans must also cultivate black and Latino
candidates that will carry the conservative banner into their communities, not
because of their race but because conservative principles work.
It’s time the Republican Party got back to its roots in our local communities,
showing that conservative policies do work, that conservatives do care, that
capitalism isn’t the enemy, that Republicans haven’t given up on small towns and
Boards of Education, and that Republican values and principles are far more
unifying, freeing and sane than the leftists now in control of the Democratic Party.
A Build Back Better message can be co-opted by the right. All the energy Trump
injected into the party now manifests itself in anger. This energy must be leveraged
at the local level if the party is going to be strong in 2024.
As Biden and the Democrats controlling Congress are dead set on advancing an
ambitious progressive agenda at the national level as they have locally, almost all
red states responded with what amounts to a collective cry of defiance.
Virginia cannot be a red state again until Republicans take control of local
elections, period. Texas and Florida are defining what Republican leaders should
be doing. Loudoun needs to be right there with them, defining how to win locally.
If we don’t do it now, we never will.
