Great stuff from Progress Virginia:
ProgressVA today launched “Texts from Jackson” (http://jacksontexts.tumblr.com/) featuring imagined text conversations between E.W. Jackson, Ken Cuccinelli, and Mark Obenshain. Jackson revealed to the National Review Online that he and running mate Ken Cuccinelli are particularly close, texting two and three times a day. Jackson noted Cuccinelli “has a lot to teach me.” Text message is an excellent medium for Jackson and Cuccinelli to discuss their shared extreme ideology, including shutting down women's access to health care, demonizing LGBT Virginians, and comparing things they don't like to slavery.
“Considering the outrageous remarks Cuccinelli, Jackson, and Obenshain have made in public, we can only imagine the sort of rhetoric they're using in private,” said ProgressVA Executive Director Anna Scholl. “Their extreme plans for Virginia, including shutting down women's health care access and undermining economic opportunity, are simply dangerous for Virginia families.”
Among the shared views highlighted on Texts From Jackson:
- Prioritizing the wealthy over working families. Jackson has said, “the most powerful giving for wealth building is upward giving.” Cuccinelli's tax plan would cut taxes for the rich, including an estimated $8,000 cut for the top 1% of households. [Think Progress, Citizens for Tax Justice]
- Sending individuals to jail over reproductive rights. Cuccinelli infamously encouraged citizens to “go to jail” to protest affordable birth control. Cuccinelli and Obenshain have also pushed for “personhood” legislation which would outlaw abortion and criminalize some forms of birth control. Obenshain proposed criminally punishing women who fail to report a miscarriage to the police. [WUSA, Virginia Legislative Information System]
- Demonizing gay and lesbian Virginians. Cuccinelli called homosexuality “instrinsically wrong” and, as Attorney General, ordered Virginia's colleges and universities to rescind their nondiscrimination policies. Jackson has used vicious language to attack LGBT Virginians, calling them “sick” and “perverted.” Obenshain carried legislation legalizing state-funded discrimination at colleges and universities. [Virginian Pilot, Americans for Truth, Virginia Legislative Information System]
Texts from Jackson is online at http://jacksontexts.tumblr.com
Sign up for the Blue Virginia weekly newsletter
