OPINION:
Just after being elected Virginia’s governor, Abigail Spanberger sat down in early December with Washington Post reporter Gregory Schneider.
The last time Democrats ran all three branches of the state government, in 2020 and 2021, they enacted an “aggressive” agenda, he wrote. They abolished the death penalty, legalized marijuana and punished the use of fossil fuels. They also got rid of the voter ID law.
“This time, Spanberger and some Democratic lawmakers are preaching restraint,” he wrote under a headline that said Ms. Spanberger would “act fast on a pragmatic agenda.”
It was a pack of lies. Ms. Spanberger, a former CIA agent, and her party are working at breakneck speed to turn Virginia into a Venezuela-style experiment in socialism and permanent one-party rule.
Unlike the obvious communism of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, Ms. Spanberger told party officials in a leaked conversation in 2020, “We need to not ever use the words ‘socialist’ or ‘socialism’ ever again.” Lie to the public, in other words.
Here are some lowlights for what she and her party plan to do to Virginia.
Even as federal officials continue to uncover billions of dollars in fraud via Minnesota welfare agencies, Virginia Democrats have introduced HB 1369, which prohibits state agencies that hand out federal funds from requiring nonprofits to “determine, verify, or otherwise require proof of eligibility of any applicant for such benefits.”
This is fraud facilitation. There is only one reason not to require proof of eligibility: Making it easier to steal.
Ironically, the bill is sponsored by Delegate Jessica Anderson, who represents Williamsburg, where much of the American Revolution was hatched against the oppressive taxation of King George III.
What’s happening in Virginia has national implications. A proposed constitutional amendment would allow the Democratic-controlled legislature to gerrymander the state’s congressional districts.
Virginia now has six Democrats and five Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives. Redistricting would give Democrats 10 of the 11 seats, thus greatly aiding their effort to take back the House.
A slew of proposed bills attack election integrity. One allows counting absentee ballots up to three days after an election. Another limits the periods when officials can check voter registration lists for accuracy. Another prohibits hand counting of ballots originally tallied by machines. Still another gives local jurisdictions the right to run the “ranked choice voting” racket. A constitutional amendment would restore voting rights to convicted felons.
There’s more, but let’s get into the Democrats’ policy agenda of “affordability.”
HB 978 would add more fees on nearly every already-taxed transaction in the state, including vehicle repairs, dry cleaning, digital services and dog walking. There’s an 11% tax on purchases of guns and ammunition, a new hotel tax and a 10% tax on parking in Northern Virginia. The bill even adds 50 cents to every delivery by whatever means, including Amazon, FedEx and Uber Eats.
How does this make life more “affordable”? Democrats are always denouncing “greed” while grabbing our wallets.
The tax blitz is happening even though Gov. Glenn Youngkin left the state with a $2.7 billion general fund surplus and $4.7 billion in the rainy day fund.
Ms. Spanberger is also putting the state back into the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, based in New York, which requires states to send taxpayer money to buy emissions credits to fund “green” projects. This will cost each household in Virginia an estimated $1,100 more in electric bills without doing a thing to lower the planet’s temperature.
They also want more revenue-raising speed cameras.
Democrats are not about just taxing and spending. Proposed amendments would put abortion access and same-sex marriage into the state constitution. One bill establishes a 40-foot “buffer zone” around abortion clinics. Another lets schools keep parents in the dark about sexually explicit materials in libraries.
Expect Democrats to unleash the full force of the LGBTQ agenda, including transgender insanity in schools.
How about crime? HB 863 abolishes mandatory minimum sentences for manslaughter, rape, sexual assault and distributing child pornography. Let that one sink in.
Indigenous Peoples Day will replace Columbus Day. Is there any nutty or dangerous idea they’ve overlooked?
While in Congress, Ms. Spanberger was among those who wore white suffragette outfits along with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to signify that women in America are oppressed. At her inauguration, Ms. Spanberger once again turned up in her white pantsuit. This snuffed any illusions that she would be the “moderate” that the media promised us.
After her lieutenant governor, Ghazala Hashmi, the first Muslim woman in America elected to a statewide office, took the oath with her hand on a Quran, the governor signed 10 executive orders. One overturned Mr. Youngkin’s directive to Virginia law enforcement to cooperate with federal immigration officials. Another called for affirmative action in hiring for state jobs, which means officially discriminating against White men.
Oh, and the new attorney general, Jay Jones, is the guy who openly wished for the violent deaths of a Virginia Republican House speaker and his family.
There was a time when Virginians looked smugly over the Potomac and felt sorry for normal people caught up in the political insanity of Maryland and the District of Columbia.
I wonder whether a new tax is coming on state border crossings and moving vans.
• Robert Knight is a columnist for The Washington Times. His website is roberthknight.com.
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