The Ugly, Desperate Embrace Of Trumpism In Virginia

Glenn Youngkin is using a disgusting anti-semitic trope to rally MAGA voters in the gubernatorial race in Virginia.

George Soros: a familiar target for Republicans. Image via ADL

by Justin Rosario

Four years ago, Republican Ed Gillespie was losing the Virginia gubernatorial race to Democrat Ralph Northam. Faced with defeat, Gillespie got desperate in the weeks leading up to election day. That desperation took the form of some of the ugliest campaigning in modern Virginia history. His campaign ran ads that had to be seen to be believed.

In the end, he pissed off enough Democrats that he was utterly crushed, 53.9% - 45%. Despite this fairly recent history, Republican Glenn Youngkin is pursuing a similar course of action with just two weeks until the election. This suggests he’s not doing as well as the polls would have us believe and we should all hope that’s the case. Another crushing loss for the GOP is a necessary step to containing the Trumpist fascism consuming the Republican Party. But even in defeat, Republicans leave behind nothing but hate and violence.

They always get to the Jews

After the election of 2016, I sat down with my wife Debbie to explain why I would never again speak to her Trump-voting mother and stepfather. The main point I made was that as an increasingly white nationalist movement, it wouldn’t be long before Republicans started attacking Jews. My exact words were “They always get to the Jews” and that’s exactly what happened as antisemitic rhetoric spread followed by a surge in antisemitic attacks.

Since then, Republicans have been far more comfortable with hate speech directed at Jews. Comfortable enough that some of them are extremely explicit about it. Some, however, are still relying on what used to be considered dog whistles, which brings us to Glenn Youngkin.

Youngkin has been trying to walk the fine line between being part of the Trump cult and still appealing to people turned off by the hate and ugliness that is central to the Republican Party. It didn’t help when Youngkin was caught on camera admitting he’s lying to the public about what he plans to do as governor. It’s also certainly not helping that Youngkin’s opponent, former Virginia governor Terry McAuliffe, has been relentlessly (and accurately) tying the Trump albatross around his neck: