Introduction
Virginians have elected Democrats to the governor’s mansion and the Attorney General’s office before but this year is different. The candidates are different, the Democratic Party is different, and the political climate in Richmond is different. The situation is so bad that I have had the very real thought of moving out of state in response to the election outcome. I want to summarize my thoughts and synthesize additional considerations for the sake of my own clarity. Maybe it will help you too.
General Overview & Problem
The Democrat Party is headed toward open socialism. Old Guard Democrats are retiring and facing pressure from the new generation. The new generation is decidedly and unashamedly socialist and very often communist. Why does this matter so much to Virginians? Well, Virginia has a lame duck governor every election. The Virginia Constitution limits governors to one term at a time. They are not allowed consecutive terms. This means that each Virginia governor has no hope of reelection. Since they cannot earn the right to continue in their job, they are focused on what job they will have after the election. Will they be a senator, a vice president or even a presidential nominee, an ambassador, a cabinet member, or even a board member at a major company who is also a top donor to their political party? These thoughts are on the minds of Virginia governors; not the thoughts of how to make Virginia better for Virginians.
The result is that Virginia governors are trying to suck up to their future bosses (which are not we the people). This means that Virginia governors are interested in making national party leadership happy with their performance. They push national party agenda on Virginians like guinea pigs to see how Virginia (a largely purple state that leans slightly Democrat) reacts to their schemes. Since the governors will never get reelected anyway, they gladly push party policies in the hopes of gaining favor with party leaders.
California and New York are solidly blue. They do not serve as political test beds for America as a whole. Virginia is much more balanced. This makes it a prime location to test national policy. Since the Democrat Party as a whole is headed toward radical socialism, a Democrat governor in the Governor’s Mansion means we will be getting radical social policies tested right here in the Old Dominion.
This happened under Warner, Kaine, McAuliffe, and Northam. Warner and Kaine got senator spots. McAuliffe and Northam got business positions with party supporters. Virginians got stuck with the consequences. Abigail Spanberger is one of the most radical yet. And the Democrat majority in the Virginia legislature gets more socialist and bolder every year. Together, Spanberger and the increasingly radical Virginia legislature will have nothing stopping them from transforming Virginia to meet their vision.
Gun Control
The Democrats will undoubtedly try to criminalize the Second Amendment as they do every time they have power. They have done irreparable damage to Virginia’s gun laws which the Republican Governor Youngkin was unable to overturn due to the legislature being controlled by Democrats. Youngkin was only able to reject proposals, not undo damage. The outgoing Attorney General, Jason Miyares (Republican affiliation), consistently sided with Democrats and anti-gun folks on Second Amendment issues. Having done nothing to fix the damages to gun rights caused by previous Democrat governments, Republicans are now getting booted from the government by radical anti-gunners. The results will be problematic to say the least. Gun owners should expect to find themselves criminalized and restricted to the utmost for keeping, bearing, and using arms in the upcoming administration.
Homeschool Freedom
The Democrats have been solidly against homeschooling since its inception. They don’t want it at all but if it has to exist they want it regulated and state-controlled like everything else they get their hands on. Virginia has something called “religious exemption” which grants homeschoolers with religious convictions the right to exempt themselves from compulsory attendance at public school if they believe that such attendance is sin. Democrats have publicly denounced this exemption because those who use it are not subject to any further control by the state. Once religious exemption has been granted, a homeschooling family gets no additional follow-up or supervisory action. They are free to homeschool as they please without government interference.
Naturally, this really ticks Democrats off. As usual, they use the possibility of abuse by a minority as their excuse to abuse the majority. Democrats have now come forward in the Virginia legislature and attempted to change the religious exemption clause in Virginia law. The law was designed to put all religious exemptions under government scrutiny and reporting. Thankfully, this attempt was defeated in the Senate in the Finance and Appropriations committee. But this is a recurring theme with Virginia Democrats. They will be back and this time they have the Governor’s Mansion. Homeschoolers should expect to see religious exemption become a state-controlled activity in the upcoming administration.
Political Violence
The incoming Attorney General who will be the highest law enforcement officer in Virginia, has been outed for wanting to kill the children of Republicans in front of their parents and then kill their parents. It was not a passing comment or a moment of hyperbole. He meant it. One must expect that he will use the office of Attorney General against Republicans in every way he can. And one must further expect that he will pass over violence committed against Republicans. His tenure will inspire Democrats and racial supremacists to do whatever harm they can against Republicans. The state will spiral out of control as his policy of leniency toward criminals is publicized and practiced. Republicans will be targeted more than ever before and they will have no recourse. The incoming administration promises to incite and protect murderous violence against Republicans. Just how bad it ultimately gets is up for debate.
Gerrymandering
The Democrats have gerrymandered themselves into power in Virginia. It is still possible that state level elections could swing in favor of Republicans but what we saw with Youngkin is going to be the norm from now on. Democrats will handily win most statewide elections but, although they may lose sometimes, they will always keep control of the General Assemble and State Senate. And the Democrats have plans to entrench themselves even more firmly by another redistricting action.
Option 1: Stay Here
If we stay, we will be able to push back and file lawsuits and so on as we try to restrain the evil that is being unleashed. If we keep our heads down, practice operational security, and walk in safe paths, the danger might not visit us. We may live through the next four years without experiencing anything particularly dangerous personally.
However, if it gets really bad and a move is necessitated later in a much more urgent setting, people will look back and say “why didn’t we take the threat more seriously?”. They will ask themselves why they didn’t take what the Democrats said in writing at face value. Many evil people have overtly published their evil plans and then followed through on them. Their victims were left to wonder why they did not take the threat seriously.
If it doesn’t get really bad, but only sorta kinda bad; things generally get worse; atrocious crimes become more common and grab headlines but people ultimately still feel safe enough, then what will the outcome be? Well, if it isn’t too bad, the political climate may swing in favor of Republicans who may be able to use whiplash against Democrat extremism to win support in elections. However, as I have mentioned earlier, the Democrats have gerrymandered Virginia and intend to do it again in the near future. Their goal is to make Virginia a Democrat stronghold going forward. They have the tools to do it. There is no one to stop them. Only they can stop themselves by goofing up or making a mistake.
Given that scenario, living through the decline (but not too bad) over four years will not really result in a Republican comeback scenario. A Republican governor may come to power but he will come to power with a Democrat legislature again. The chances of remediating the situation are probably a generation or more away. So, if you survive the four years and it isn’t too bad, you get to live through the next four years of decline. It makes me think of California and New York. They are just in decline and always will be. The bad people seized power irrevocably and the good people either just live with the abuse or they moved. There is no changing California or New York but perhaps in a hundred years.
Virginia is headed down the same path. There is only slowing the decline, not reversing it. If you survive these four years, you will face another four years with another decline. You will be like the frog slowly cooking in the pot never realizing just how bad things are until it’s really really bad. Then you will face the same tough choices you face today. Moving is hard. Picking up and starting over is hard. The longer you invest in an area, the harder it is to break out. If you can put up with Democrat abuse for four years, eight years, twelve years, and so on, what catastrophe will have to occur to get you to move to a better place? If you normalize abuse, you will have a hard time justifying escape from abuse.
Apart from a miracle, staying in Virginia is going to be a losing game of decline followed by more decline and only slowed slightly every so often by a random moderate to liberal Republican governor. The fate of California is a good example.
Is this an acceptable option? Well, yes, it is. God is our protector and if we have ministry here in Virginia, we can stay and know that we have protection from God. And if things get bad and we suffer, we can suffer for Christ’s sake and rejoice in it. There is missionary work to be done and church ministry as well. The church exists everywhere even in Democrat hellholes. But let no one enter into this situation lightly without realizing the true cost.
Option 2: Move
“A prudent man foreseeth the evil, and hideth himself: but the simple pass on, and are punished.” – Proverbs 22:3
A prudent man foresees the evil coming to Virginia and decides to move out before things get too bad. He decides to move before the crowds panic and run. He decides to relocate when he has options to choose from and at least some control over his exit timeline. He knows that things will not get better. He knows that relocation is the only way to protect his family. Someday, people will say “I’m glad you got out when you did” or “You saw this coming didn’t you” and his relocation will seem wise.
Or perhaps, things will not get so bad all at once and people will tell him “you overreacted, the danger was mostly imagined”. Or where he moved to will also fall to Democrats and then he will be stuck facing the same problems even after moving. How often must he run? Is running always the best solution? Is it a good example to the kids to run every time bad people come to power?
But who would choose to stay in East Berlin knowing that a wall was to be erected separating families and friends for decades upon decades under penalty of death? Who would stay in Nazi Germany knowing the fate that would come upon them? How many people would stay in Cuba knowing that Castro was coming to power or in Venezuela knowing that Maduro was coming to power? People who foresee the evil move and then they are glad they got out when they did.
Conclusion
I guess the million dollar question is: How bad will it be? We know how bad it could be. We know how bad it has been. But how bad will it be? I think we have to look at every place where Democrats worked themselves into permanent power. California, New York, Detroit, Chicago, and so on. They drag everyone else down. They drive everyone to eventually leave. I think there is sense in moving before you are forced to move.
Perhaps the better question is, have Democrats seized unassailable power? If they have, they will certainly destroy Virginia as fast as they can. I believe they have and I expect that Virginia will not recover. We did not recover from Warner, or Kaine, or McAuliffe, or Northam. Nothing was reversed under Youngkin. He simply slowed the enemy advance. Spanberger and Jones will go for the end zone this time and there will be no branch of government to stop them.
If you stay, you are facing certain trouble while hoping for a miracle. The trouble may not be too bad but it could be really bad. If you don’t mind the trouble and can deal with not getting a miracle, staying might be for you. If you leave, you are avoiding imminent danger. If nothing bad happens, you’re still in a better place than you left. If really bad things happen, you’re in a much better place than you left.