OPINION:
A city board in northwestern Virginia voted Tuesday to remove the Pledge of Allegiance as the opener for its meetings.
One of the Winchester Planning Commission’s liberal female members blew off the tradition as “pageantry,” and another called it “unnecessary.” Without discussion, they voted 4-2 to toss the Pledge into the hopper.
This is in line with what Democrats are doing to Virginia now that they have taken total control in Richmond. They are converting the cradle of America’s founding into a liberal hothouse where things such as patriotism are considered retro and perhaps even fascist.
Led by Gov. Abigail Spanberger, who shucked off her “moderate” mask the moment she took power, Democrats are giving New York City’s communist/Muslim mayor, Zohran Mamdani, a run for his money in the race-to-the-left sweepstakes.
Virginia lawmakers have been quick to introduce tax increases, climate change activism, the LGBTQ agenda, anti-gun laws and a mind-boggling gerrymandering scheme that would give Democrats nine congressional seats and leave only one Republican seat.
Senate Bill 624 would add “Islamophobia” to the state’s hate crime law. The bill defines it as “malicious prejudice or hatred directed toward Islam or Muslims” and requires state police to track it in hate crime reporting.
This might sound OK (after all, who is for “malicious prejudice or hatred?”) except that Democrats have redefined “hatred” as disagreeing with them on any given issue.
If you oppose subjecting children to sex change treatments, that’s “transphobia.” Objecting to school curricula that teach children a false history of America as uniquely evil among nations is “racist.”
How about if a pastor or priest tells the truth to his congregation about Islamist persecution and mass murders of Christians around the world? Would that be considered “hate speech”? You bet it will if the Islamization of America, which is well underway, continues apace.
Democrats, who invented Jim Crow laws, have been using the race card since the 1960s to win elections and discourage fraud investigations. They use newly arrived immigrants as pawns, ensnaring them in welfare dependency before turning them into voters.
In Democratic-run Minnesota, where $9 billion in welfare money has apparently been stolen in recent years, anyone asking about it was accused of racism. That’s because nearly all the fraud has been found in the state’s burgeoning Somali Muslim community.
In the January edition of Imprimis, Hillsdale College’s monthly publication, Scott W. Johnson of Power Line laid out the immense scandal, which is spreading to other states. Somalis began resettling in America in the 1990s as refugees from a civil war, and now number more than 100,000 in the Twin Cities area. They have received billions of dollars in taxpayer aid, some of which has been harvested for Democratic campaigns.
At a recent hearing, Sen. Josh Hawley, Missouri Republican, put Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison on the hot seat. He accused Mr. Ellison of taking at least $10,000 from Feeding Our Future, a group that fraudulently raked in about $300 million in taxpayer money. Mr. Ellison repeatedly denied the allegation, calling Mr. Hawley a liar despite the damning evidence.
In 2020, federal agents raided various Feeding Our Future sites allegedly feeding thousands of children a day. “The kids were nowhere to be seen,” said Mr. Johnson. “Government overseers were easily scared off by absurd claims of racism — charges that continue to be leveled even today.”
As for Minnesota’s top officials — Gov. Tim Walz, Mr. Ellison and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey — they do a Sgt. Schultz from “Hogan’s Heroes” and “know nothing,” or they unconvincingly pretend to be fraud busters.
Then there’s Rep. Ilhan Omar, Minnesota Democrat. She is on record declaring her fealty to Somalia, and she sponsored the federal MEALS Act, which facilitated the Feeding Our Future fraud. Her Twin Cities district is at the center of the scandal, but she says she had no idea.
Circling back to Virginia, the Minnesota scandal should be a warning that a fast infusion of foreigners turned voters can create a political climate in which Democrats can pursue crony socialism, aided by a complicit media.
Fueled by jobs in the high-tech corridor near Washington Dulles International Airport, a tsunami of demographic change benefiting Democrats has occurred in Northern Virginia over the past decade.
For example, Loudoun County, once the most Republican jurisdiction in the Washington metro area, is now a Democratic stronghold. President Biden won there by 25 percentage points in 2020 and Kamala Harris by 16 points in 2024. Ms. Spanberger won by 29 points in 2025.
Not coincidentally, Loudoun, which has 450,000 residents, is now about 27% foreign-born, double the national average.
The point here is not about immigrants per se, just the sheer numbers. Immigrants have enriched America since its founding, and many new citizens are prouder to be Americans than their neighbors are. Still, the melting pot needs time to work. The problem is that some immigrants, such as Islamists who adhere to Shariah, will never assimilate. As a group, new arrivals vote overwhelmingly Democratic.
This is perhaps why Democrats in Northern Virginia and New York City, where nearly 40% of the population is foreign-born, seem less inclined to identify as Americans and more disposed to moral relativism and a globalist mindset.
If that sounds like an oversimplification, then it might be worth asking the liberal planning commission members in Winchester why they threw the Pledge of Allegiance under the bus.
It’s also worth asking why Senate Republicans haven’t passed the SAVE America Act to ensure that only U.S. citizens with photo IDs can vote.
• Robert Knight is a columnist for The Washington Times. His website is roberthknight.com.
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