The other day, in its endorsement editorial about the Fairfax County School Board elections, the Washington Post blasted Fairfax Republicans’ “poisonous tone” and having “taken a page from President Trump’s playbook of trafficking in fear, misinformation and demonization.” For just a few examples of that “poisonous tone,” see:
- Far-right Fairfax County School Board member Elizabeth Schultz ranting about a Muslim kid in biology class and using the Holocaust as an example of how, supposedly, “the school boards are not demanding both sides of an issue be presented”;
- Republican-endorsed Fairfax County School Board candidate Andrea Bayer falsely claiming that the “One Fairfax” policy about achieving equity in the schools “gives authoritarian power to…the School Board.”
- Another Republican-endorsed Fairfax County School Board candidate, Vinson Palathingal, referring to “silly things like ADD.”
- The many examples cited here by Robert Norris Rigby of FCPS Pride, such as “Vinson Xavier Palathingal and Priscilla DeStefano have been interviewed and accepted endorsement from neo-Nazi-connected Sebastian Gorka”; “Laura Ramirez Drain and Anastasia Karloutsos have campaigned with officials from the notoriously anti-LGBTQ Family Research Council”; “Steven Mosely has pushed a document that says LGBTQ people are not acceptable to God”; “Zia Tompkins seems to be obsessed with this ‘boundaries and busing’ thing”; etc.
- Also see The “Trump Effect” Turns Local School Board Races From Staid to Strident, with Nasty Anti-LGBTQ Views and Republican Candidates and Radical Anti-LGBTQ Candidate Running for Fairfax County School Board in Mt. Vernon District
- Check out Andi Bayer Says FCPS is Wasting Money on Teacher Training, Mental Health, and Creating “a Child Centered Utopia” and GOP School Board Candidates Say “We Like America” and Rant About Democrats Having a Majority and Video: GOP Fairfax School Board Candidate Calls LGBTQ Students the “Loudest Special Interest Group”
Now, for the latest Fairfax GOP craziness – check out the following video, courtesy of Fairfax County Democratic-Party endorsed Providence District School Board candidate Karl Frisch. It is painful to watch Republican-endorsed Andrea Bayer’s rambling rant at Congregation Olam Tikvah yesterday morning about how everyone should check out the far-right “Daily Caller” (see the Southern Poverty Law Center’s “The Daily Caller Has a White Nationalist Problem“; Adam Siegel’s note – to be clear, it has been home to/promoter of anti-Semitism/anti-Semitic content); about how “sitting next to a kid who’s a different race is not going to close the minority student achievement gap”; about how people need to be “waking up” regarding “who’s calling the shots” and where “the money” is coming regarding the (supposedly “manufactured”) “One Fairfax” policy; about how “One Fairfax” is aimed at “fix[ing] problems that nobody ever complained about”; and about how clearly there are no problems regarding diversity in Fairfax because:
“We all love [Fairfax County’s] diversity. If we didn’t, we’d move. We celebrate our diversity. Look at the restaurants! When I go out to eat, I don’t want to eat American food. Where’s this coming from?”
So…yeah, there are no problems in Fairfax because there are so many great ethnic restaurants and, anyway, if people didn’t like it there they’d just move! No problem! I mean, seriously, can someone be any more oblivious, out-of-touch, clueless, etc? Fortunately, the good news is that on 11/5, Fairfax County voters have far, far better options for School Board, such as Karl Frisch in Providence District and the Democrat-endorsed candidate in every other district, plus of course the Democratic-endorsed “At-Large” candidates (Karen Keys-Gamarra, Rachna Sizemore Heizer, Abrar Omeish).
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