The Morning Rant

TWO GOVERNORS

And then there's Glenn Youngkin:

Virginia Republican gubernatorial candidate Glenn Youngkin vowed Sunday on "Life, Liberty & Levin" to "ban" critical race theory on his first day as governor.

"[I]n the immortal words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., we're called to judge one another based on the content of our character and not the color of our skin," Youngkin said. "And that's why there's no place for critical race theory in our school system, and why, on day one, I'm going to ban it."

This was shortly before winning his election on Nov. 3rd, and one of the big reasons he won was because he had way more credibility with Virginia voters on education, in fact a 12 point lead.

I bring up both governors to highlight the differences in their approach. Both were confronted with hot-button issues that they had to make a decision about and their choices had potentially wide implications, since the tranny insanity and critical race theory are pretty much front and center on the national radar.

Glenn Youngkin passed the test

On the other hand, Kristi Noem chose... poorly.

Kristi Noem problem is that she apparently does not understand that conservative leaders need to confront the progressive beast at precisely the point at which he is attacking. But she didn't do that. instead, she chose to waffle out. Because reasons. She didn't want government to be able to dictate such policy to private companies. Libertarians like to turn every policy conflict into a more vs. less government debate and, of course, for libertarians, less government is always the right answer.

But that's the wrong fight. This is not a small vs. big government dispute. This is a struggle against the imposition of a bizarre new cultural norm where we're forced to pretend that boys and girls, men and women, are simply interchangeable parts. Libertarians don't like to hear this, but government does have an interest in supporting stable social institutions, like marriage and families, and not turning a blind eye to weird and dangerous social experimentation to satisfy the whims of a tiny minority of degenerate wackos.

And simply reducing the size of government is not going to accomplish this. Smaller, less intrusive government is a desirable goal, but it's not an end in itself. It's not the highest principle or value that we have, and making it such reduces everything to economics. That is, if we can only keep government from interfering with any buying or selling, then everything will be OK.

But this is simplistic. And it doesn't work when the government outsources tyranny to private enterprise. Then laissez faire libertarianism suddenly becomes the enemy of liberty.

Oops.

Governor-elect Glenn Youngkin, on the other hand, went to the battle where it was the hottest, and came down solidly on the side of sanity. He didn't waffle out, switch sides, or find a more safer issue to pound the podium about. The bundle of dogmas that goes by the name of Critical Race Theory is truly poisonous and he is right to confront it head on.

Now, what kind of conservative is Youngkin in general? I have no idea yet, since we'll have to watch how he governs. He may turn out to be terrible for all I know. But if he follows through on this promise, he will have accomplished some actual good for his state.

TL;DR version: Glenn Youngkin took a stand precisely at the point of attack, and Noem did not. So Youngkin > Noem.

(By the way, this is why I originally was a fan of Chris Christie. Yes, I know he turned out to be not conservative on a bunch of other issues, but he went toe-to-toe with the powerful teachers' union back when he first was elected governor of New Jersey and he deserves props for that, if for nothing else. Besides, this is New Jersey. Christie is probably as good as we'd ever get in that state.)

Oh Look, A Biden Boat Parade!

Pretty Much The Epitome Of An "It's OK If We Do It" Meme:

toTaLLy NoT A CulT:

(Click to enlarge)

Texas > Florida

Who Dis:

For the 'Ettes:

Wednesday Who Dis: The multi-talented Julianne Hough has made her mark in the entertainment world as a dancer, recording artist, and, last but not least, actress. She starred with Teddy Sears, late of the 'Flash' franchise, in the 2013 horror/thriller film Curve. Sears also has quite a collegiate athletic background.

Today's Edition Of The Morning Rant Is Brought To You By The King's Sandwich:

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Bonus Bass Riffs:

This is Ellen Alaverdyan. 9-year old bassist. Wait for the smile... pic.twitter.com/ziX2otWTbA

— Rex Chapman🏇🏼 (@RexChapman) November 6, 2021

posted by OregonMuse at 11:17 AM

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