WTF is VA GOP gubernatorial candidate Pete Snyder – who has moved full into a Trumpian, hard-right posture in trying to win the nomination this year – blathering about in the following video? (as a side note, the guy asking Snyder questions is the same person who “does not apologize for’ his decision to wave the Indian national flag at the Capitol Hill protest” on 1/6)
- He rants against teachers’ unions, “cancel culture,” getting rid of “F” grades, and supposedly ceding the public schools to “the liberals”
- He talks about his effort to recall Fairfax County Public School Board members and his support for charter schools
- He attacks the “insanity” of renaming schools, the “crazy” (in Snyder’s words) 1619 Project (which “aims to reframe the country’s history by placing the consequences of slavery and the contributions of Black Americans at the very center of the United States’ national narrative”), and school supposedly “brainwashing our kids.”
- He spews out nonsense about “ballot integrity,” “electoral security,” “election fraud,” blah blah blah.
- Crazily/falsely claims that “the coronavirus did not kill our economy in Virginia, government did.”
- Falsely claims that “crime is on the rise all around” Virginia because “we have Commonwealth’s Attorneys who are no longer enforcing the law; they were hired and funded by liberal interests like George Soros.”
- Falsely claims that Democrats support “defund the police.”
- And last but not least, at 1 hour into this morass, the subject of increasing diversity at “TJ” comes up. And yes, the conversation is as bad as you’d expect among these right wingnuts. First, Palathingal falsely claims that Virginia Secretary of Education “is not happy that TJ is the #1 school in the country,” because “70% of the students are Asian Americans.” Snyder then riffs bizarrely that “government’s saying” (supposedly) that Asian Americans are “testing out of being a minority because you’re so darn successful.” Huh?
- It’s hard to even understand what Snyder’s trying to say here, but I’ll quote it in full so you can try to figure it out: “We have the #1 high school in America…and [liberals/Democrats] want to break it and change it because it’s been too successful…and this is what’s wrong with the woke left and the extremists out there; they are so hell-bent on turning Virginia into California and viewing the world only through race and gender and identity politics that they’re not even focusing on what the end result is…unfortunately…if you look at the priorities of the General Assembly right now, whether it’s through trying to legalize marijuana or get rid of balloons or styrofoam or trying to reengineer Thomas Jefferson School…the priorities are absolutely insane.“
- Snyder then says “I would love to get as much possible support from the Indian community as I could…but you know what, I don’t care if I get a single vote there, because guess what, no matter what I will protect and preserve the Thomas Jefferson School...I will make sure that we get rid of these ridiculous policies. And if I don’t get a single endorsement or a single vote from the Indian community, that’s fine…We are going to preserve and protect the Thomas Jefferson School from the lunacy of the left…”
So yeah, this guy’s actually one of the leading Republican candidate for governor of Virginia. Let’s make sure he doesn’t get elected in November, assuming he wins their nomination…
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