Meghan McCain Torches Press for Painting Virginia Voters as Racist: ‘Most Egregious Media Bloviating I’ve Ever Seen’
Meghan McCain ripped into Democrats for a lack of introspection, denial of critical race theory in schools, and accusations of racism following Republican Glenn Youngkin’s surprise and decisive victory in the Virginia gubernatorial race last week.
McCain’s column published Tuesday in the Daily Mail, renowned for its protracted headlines, is titled:
The Democrats’ biggest lie is that CRT is a lie: Instead of learning from Virginia, the party has a new narrative – that parents are bigots reacting to a new Republican ruse but they won’t be gaslighted so easily, writes MEGHAN McCAIN
While McCain’s text is more toned down than the headline, the former co-host of The View argues that Critical Race Theory is real, not some “GOP con,” that it is being taught in Virginia schools and that if Democrats don’t change course they are headed for electoral disaster in 2022 and 2024.
McCain hammers MSNBC’s Nicolle Wallace (who was a senior adviser on her father John McCain’s 2008 presidential campaign) for declaring “on election night that ‘Critical Race Theory isn’t real’” and cites Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) for saying that Youngkin won due to “race-baiting” as evidence of the left’s delusion on the issue.
“Don’t you get it? Virginia voters are too sublimely racist or stupid to understand what they were voting for,” McCain continues, arguing, “This is bizarre, it’s political suicide and it’s some of the most egregious media bloviating I’ve ever seen, which is truly saying something.”
She then goes on to define CRT and cite what she claims is evidence that it was indeed being taught in Virginia schools.
She writes “public documents from the Virginia Department of Education repeatedly mention the term ‘Critical Race Theory’” and notes that City Journal reporter Christopher Rufo has “documented Virginia counties implementing CRT into their curriculum” and has even reported on then-Governor Terry McCauliffe “instructing Virginia public schools to ’embrace CRT’” as far back as 2015.
A debate has raged since the final days of the Virginia elections over what exactly critical race theory is, and whether critical race theory is actually being taught to schoolchildren or if it’s a contrived moral panic manufactured by conservative activists.
While McCain offers some evidence for CRT existing in schools, Eric Levitz of New York Magazine splits the difference between her and those who deny it exists, writing, “No one should pretend that such proposals are nonexistent or self-evidently wise. But their prevalence and ambitions shouldn’t be exaggerated.”
Levitz rejects claims that the public school system across America has been taken over by such teaching.
“Public education in the United States remains highly decentralized” he writes, though noting that a “decent number of progressive groups and well-intentioned school districts do seem to be hiring quack consultants to dispense laughable race malarkey and recipes for organizational self-sabotage.”
After parsing through the culture war red meat on critical race theory, McCain concludes her argument by touching on another reason cited for Youngkin’s victory: school closures.
She writes:
Imagine telling parents of school children in Virginia who have been through what can – mildly be stated – as a lot the past eighteen months that their concerns, anger, and frustration were simply because they are white supremacists.
Not that their schools were closed while the rest of the globe opened up their classrooms.
Alexander Nazaryan reported for Yahoo News over the weekend that “conversations with [Virginia] Republicans and Democrats, parents and educators, found a hangover from school closures intertwining with other education-related issues, leading voters to punish elected officials they associated with those policies.”
