Why Does Youngkin Attack His Friends, Not His Foes?
by James A. Bacon
This is a hard post to write because I think Governor Glenn Youngkin has been a pretty good governor overall. I like his rhetorical tone, and I can’t think of a single important policy stance he’s taken that I disagree with. While he has not accomplished as much as I would hope, I recognize that he has to deal with the reality of a General Assembly dominated by intransigent Democrats. His most important contribution may be the dozens (or is it hundreds?) of bills he has vetoed, briefly halting Virginia’s drift into failed blue-state status.
While Youngkin has held back the tide, he has not reversed it. His tenure is shaping up as a brief interregnum in the inexorable New Jerseyfication of Virginia. Unlike, say, Ron DeSantis who converted Florida from a swing state to a solidly red state, Youngkin has made no lasting impression on the correlation of political forces in the Old Dominion. Why? One reason is that he has declined to take the battle to the opposition.
Instead, Virginians have witnessed the spectacle of Youngkin training fire on his own supporters!
First it was Bert Ellis, a Virginia-born, Atlanta-based entrepreneur who served on the University of Virginia Board of Visitors. When appointing him, Youngkin tasked him to recapture Virginia’s flagship university from an administration that had re-engineered the institution from top to bottom along “social justice” principles. When Ellis proved to be a trifle too demonstrative in his language, Youngkin kicked him to the curb.
Now it’s John Reid, a popular Richmond talk-show host before he gave up his job to run for lieutenant governor. Reid’s sin? As a gay man posting three photos of himself at a drag show (horrors!) and allegedly posting photographs of nude male models on a tumblr account five years ago. Without seeking Reid’s response to charges originating from a yet-to-be revealed opposition research group with a yet-to-be-revealed agenda, the Governor demanded that Reid drop out of the race.
Is this how you treat your friends and allies?
It’s certainly not how Youngkin treats his political opponents, some of whom have been relentlessly critical and have obstructed his initiatives at every turn. To them, his Christian charity comes to the fore and he turns the other cheek. Name one Democrat whom Youngkin has assailed for their personal conduct. Off-hand, I can’t think of a single one.
As an abstract principle, yes, it is important to hold your political friends and allies to high standards. You don’t want crooks and incompetents carrying the banner for you. But that’s assuredly not the case with either Ellis or Reid.
Youngkin’s style is non-confrontational. He shuns conflict. He is a gentleman in a raucous, rancorous world. That makes him a fine person. But it’s not working for him as a politician.
The politicians who move the political needle focus on their opponents, make them the issue, and put them on the defensive. Virginia Democrats are a target-rich environment. The opportunities are boundless. But Dems aren’t on the defensive in Virginia. They’re licking their chops in anticipation of sweeping to power in Richmond this fall.
While Youngkin has governed well, in my humble opinion, he has not created the political conditions for Republican victory this fall. You don’t do that by lining up your friends against the wall and shooting them. Firing Ellis caused great consternation among conservatives who care deeply about UVA. But political blowback to Youngkin was negligible — there aren’t enough conservatives deeply committed to UVA’s future to affect an election. But Youngkin’s action did send a message to activists. This governor doesn’t have your back.
Youngkin’s attack on Reid will prove far more damaging. Reid, as it turns out, has a lot of conservative friends across Virginia who don’t give a hoot that he’s gay, they really don’t care what he posted online, and they’re going to support him regardless of what the Governor thinks. (That could change if we find out that some of the images were truly graphic or disgusting, but there is no evidence of that.) As this story evolves, the controversy — a controversy that Youngkin needlessly started — could tank the entire Republican ticket.
What a morale killer. Youngkin was arguably Virginia’s last chance to prevent the slide into permanent blue-state senescence. What a tragedy.
