The issues that matter most, or should

Rep. Abigail Spanberger, who managed to turn a Red Virginia district Blue and keep it that way after redistricting made the task more difficult, has announced she will run for governor in 2025. According to the Washington Post, Spanberger is considered one of the most “bipartisan” members of Congress.

It’s true that Spanberger clashed with Nancy Pelosi at times and has occasionally criticized the Biden presidency. My guess, though, is that these gestures were mostly to prevent her constituents from viewing her as the standard-issue Democrat she is when it comes time to vote on legislation.

I also believe that, if elected governor, Spanberger, now free from the constraints of representing a swing district, would govern from the left. Recall that Kirsten Gillibrand struck a somewhat moderate pose when she represented a swing district in upstate New York, but became a left-liberal once elected to the Senate.

To understand what a Spanberger administration would be like, consider her core message to Virginia voters, as described by the Post:

When we rise above the chaos and division, we can focus on what matters most to Virginians: lowering prescription drug prices, growing the middle class, lowering costs and easing inflation.. No more using teachers and our kids as political pawns — it’s about focusing on recruiting and retaining teachers, so all of our kids can succeed. And stopping extremists from shredding women’s reproductive rights. Even in this moment of deep division, we can seize the opportunity.

(Emphasis added)

Whether one calls this message “moderate,” “bipartisan,” or “liberal,” it is ruinous — and dishonest. Sure, I’d like to see lower prices for prescription drugs (assuming they don’t drop so low as to stop pharmaceutical companies from bringing new meds to market). And, yes, I’d prefer to see inflation “ease” by a few percentage points.

But these issues are nothing when compared to stopping the indoctrination of America’s school students in the destructive ideologies to which so many of them are now subjected. Americans can muddle through with high prescription drug prices and, say, a 6 percent inflation rate.

America is doomed if Americans believe their country is, and since its founding has been, fundamentally oppressive; that merit and excellence are dirty words; that membership in a racial, ethnic, or other such groups goes to the core of one’s identity; that criminals are really victims of a racist and patriarchal society; and that it’s okay to curb speech that hurts people’s feelings. Yet, these ideas are pushed in America’s schools from February (Black History Month) of a student’s kindergarten year all the way through college.

Thus, it is dishonest for Spanberger to claim that she opposes “using teachers and our kids as political pawns.” Students are already being used that way. Spanberger is content to have it to continue.

Unfortunately , Spanberger is more honest when she says the things that “matter most to Virginians” are lowering prescription drug prices and easing inflation. Virginians, like all Americans, seem to place paying a little less for things above providing their kids with a proper education — one that doesn’t demonize America or whites — and preserving free speech.

This sad state of mind applies even to Republican voters. Ron DeSantis has gotten very little mileage from his successful war as governor of Florida on woke education and wokeness in general. Pundits whose understanding of electoral politics exceeds mine have urged him to move away from that message and focus on the economy.

Indeed, the message is disappearing from the campaign. According to this report, the word “woke” was used only twice during the most recent debate — and not at all by DeSantis.

The candidates are probably following good political advice. Recent school board elections suggest they are. But if the war on wokeness doesn’t resonate even among GOP voters, that’s depressing.

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Last week, Bari Weiss gave a stirring speech (the Barbara K. Olsen Memorial lecture) to the Federalist Society’s National Lawyers Convention. The title was “You are the last line of defense.”

Her thesis was that America faces a “war of ideas and of conviction and of will.” The war is against “the ideology of nihilism.” It’s a “fight for the West” and for “American values.” It’s not a fight for lower prices or for (or against) gay marriage. (Weiss is married to a woman.)

That war, Weiss insisted, must be waged “fearlessly and relentlessly if we seek to build a world fit for our children, and if we want to save America itself.”

Democrats, even “moderate” ones like Spanberger, won’t wage it. Instead, they will pooh-pooh it. It’s up to Republicans to lead the fight.

Donald Trump can lead a war of will, but not one of ideas and conviction. As his older sister — the former conservative federal judge who died this week — said, Trump lacks genuine conviction.

Some of Trump’s rivals are willing and able to wage a war of ideas and conviction. However, GOP voters don’t seem interested, so the candidates — whose chances of being nominated are slim in any case — move to other subjects.

Like I said, it’s depressing.