Greetings from Gideon...Er, Virginia

Glenn Youngkin is a younger and smarter version of Donald Trump

Republican Glenn Youngkin is continuing to rally anti-abortion and anti-LGBTQ extremists in his bid to become Virginia’s next governor. Most Virginians support legal equality, including marriage equality, and most Virginians believe abortion should be legal in all or most circumstances, but Youngkin continues to seek and tout endorsements from groups that oppose LGBTQ equality and want to make abortion illegal. Youngkin has told activists that he will go “on offense” against reproductive choice once elected, and he has refused to say whether he supports marriage equality.

In a press release dated Oct. 8, Youngkin boasted about endorsements from the Family Research Council’s political arm, the Virginia Society for Human Life PAC, and longtime anti-abortion and anti-equality activist Penny Nance, head of Concerned Women for America.

FRC supports “total abortion bans” that criminalize abortion at all stages. The organization has been designated an anti-LGBTQ hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center and has long promoted anti-Muslim bigotry. None of that kept Youngkin from agreeing to speak at FRC’s annual conference for religious-right activists earlier this month, where speakers delivered Christian nationalist and bigoted messages. Delivering his own speech, Youngkin urged the activists, “Lock arms with me!”

If there’s one thing that seems clear about today’s Republican Party, it’s that their unspoken goal is to turn America into Gideon. That’s the corrupt, mean-spirited, Bible-based republic from Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale. That’s not out of any Republican wish to honor God. Far from it. Their desires have nothing to do with the Bible or the teachings of Jesus Christ.

No, it’s about political power, and Christianity is merely the bludgeon Republicans are employing in their drive to seize, consolidate, and maintain that power. Today’s GOP has morphed into the American Taliban, a cabal of hateful, intolerant, mean-spirited assholes mindful of one thing- political power. It’s their Alpha AND their Omega because to them, nothing else matters.

There’s nothing different, special, or even particularly unique about Glenn Youngkin. He’s the Republican candidate for Governor in Virginia, running against former Democratic Governor Terry McAuliffe. Youngkin, a Trump sycophant, has sought power by courting homophobes, bigots, and self-righteous haters of every conceivable variation.

And he’s done it while portraying himself as the very picture of tolerance, acceptance, and understanding. If you listen to his stump speeches for any length of time, however, the truth of his message becomes crystal clear.

Youngkin has made it clear that he wants you on board if you’re White, Conservative, Christian, and heterosexual. If you’re not…well, he still wants your vote, but you shouldn’t expect him to be on your side because you’re not a member of the “master” race.

A Youngkin campaign press release touting the latest endorsements included a long quote from FRC’s Tony Perkins smearing the Democratic nominee as a threat to religious freedom and claiming that Youngkin “understands the values that are important to Virginians.”

It’s telling that Youngkin is employing an old Nazi propaganda technique developed and perfected by Josef Goebbels. Yes, Youngkin’s accusing McAuliffe and Virginia’s Democrats of wanting to do precisely what Republicans WOULD do.

The problem with Youngkin is that he defines “religious freedom” as “the freedom to worship as the American Taliban does.” Anything outside of that narrow definition fails to even qualify as “religious,” much less “freedom.”

In a Gideonized AmeriKKKa, race traitors and religious criminals will be dealt with harshly. Either accept the superiority of Conservative White heterosexual Christians or find yourself hanging from the wall.

As for “the values that are important to Virginians,“ Youngkin formally recognizes only those who are White, Conservative, Christian, and heterosexual as “full-membership” Virginians. His not-so-subtle subtext is that Virginia is for those White, Conservative, Christian, and heterosexual folks like him. Other, “lesser” people must settle for whatever crumbs “real” Virginians deign to leave for them.

In choosing Donald Trump as their Presidential nominee in 2016, Republicans chose the path of hatred, bigotry, lies, propaganda, and dezinformatziya. The GOP doesn’t pretend to hide their racism, homophobia, Islamophobia, and hatred of anyone not White, Conservative, Christian, and heterosexual. Why should they? It’s their raison d’etre.

They make no effort to hide their standards and prejudices, even if they still don’t have the cojones to voice them outright.

After packing the Supreme Court and the federal judiciary, Republicans are now turning their attention to the states. I don’t know Virginia politics well enough to be able to predict Glenn Youngkin’s prospects, but I do know that you ignore him at your peril. The Virginia Governor’s race is neck-and-neck with a week until Election Day.

That’s Too. Damned. Close.

[Penny, head of Concerned Women for America] Nance has devoted much of her professional life to making abortion illegal and worked tirelessly to help former President Donald Trump pack the Supreme Court and other federal courts with like-minded judges. She spearheaded a $500,000 campaign backing the confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. Nance is also a strident opponent of LGBTQ equality, even opposing reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act because CWA claimed it would create “new protections for homosexuals.” When the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg officiated at a gay couple’s wedding, Nance sent an email with the subject line, “Ruth Traitor Ginsburg.”

Even though Virginians soundly rejected Trump, Nance claimed that the Trump-endorsed Youngkin will “uphold the values of Virginians.”

The Virginia Society for Human Life is an affiliate of National Right to Life, which supports abortion bans, including the recent extreme Texas law that bans abortion as early as six weeks and is now being challenged in federal courts. In September, Youngkin’s campaign touted National Right to Life’s endorsement, along with that of the anti-choice Susan B. Anthony List.

Once upon a time, one could expect- or at least hope- that Republicans had some connection to the truth. But, unfortunately, the GOP is today wholly unmoored from reality. For Republicans, the only “truth” that matters is that which gets them to where they want to be. “Truth” is whatever’s necessary to help their candidates win, their nominees secure confirmation, and their legislation to get passed into law.

There really isn’t anything particularly unique or special about Glenn Youngkin-and that’s the problem with America and today’s GOP. Though I’m endeavoring feverishly not to become pessimistic about our chances going forward, it’s becoming more difficult. America is under siege by the American Taliban, which is committed to seizing power and imposing its rules and way of life on the entire country.

Gideon may be a fictitious country in a brilliant (if terrifying) work of fiction, but Margaret Atwood may yet turn out to be prophetic. And it’s people like Glenn Youngkin who may prove her to be a prophet.

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