by Shaun Kenney
New polling data from Founders Insight reveal that 24% of Virginians are putting inflation as their top concern heading into the November elections, with abortion coming in at 15% and split between Democrats and Republicans.
To make matters worse for Virginia Democrats, a summer spent pushing abortion rights has backfired spectacularly, as the Planned Parenthood life of 40 weeks (and beyond) is wildly unpopular with most Virginians.
Making matters worse, Planned Parenthood’s so-called “reproductive rights” state constitutional amendments such as the one in Ohio this year go even further, allowing not only for abortion up to the moment of birth, but even permitting gender reassignment surgeries alongside a repeal of parental notification and parental consent.
Virginia Democrats are not hiding the football on their abortion-up-to-birth ambitions, as they continue to bring the bill before the Virginia General Assembly whenever they get the chance.
Don’t believe me on this one. Believe them:
Under questioning from a House subcommittee, (Democratic Del. Kathy) Tran said third trimester abortions would face substantially fewer restrictions.
“How late in the third trimester could a physician perform an abortion if he indicated it would impair the mental health of the woman,” asked subcommittee chairman Todd Gilbert (R-Shenandoah).
“Through the third trimester,” responded Tran. “The third trimester goes all the way up to forty weeks.”
Tran also clarified that abortion procedures would be allowed up until the end of a woman’s pregnancy.
“I don’t think we have a limit in the bill,” added Tran.
Across the board, nearly three in four Americans have restricted their spending, and those households with children in the home have gone even further and deeper.
This recent polling reflects the same findings of the latest VCU Wilder poll in August, where cost of living and inflation were driving the concerns — and fears — of most working class Virginians:
More than one-third of Virginians (36%) believe that inflation and the rising cost of living is the most important issue facing Virginia today, followed by education (18%), women’s reproductive rights (13%) and gun control (12%).
More to the point, the issues that Republicans and Democrats wanted to talk about — namely parental rights and abortion-on-demand — aren’t even on the radar. Or if they are on the radar, the issue cuts evenly between parties.
Not so with inflation.
Inflation is the top issue for 38% of Republicans and 14% of Democrats, and among independents it remains a driving factor in their considerations moving forward — with one in three independent Virginia voters undecided yet demographically leaning towards Republican candidates.
Once again, Virginia Democrats have taken their eye off the ball in pursuit of radical and extreme social issues such as CRT, transgenderism, and abortion-on-demand.
Meanwhile, Virginia Republicans continue to hammer parental rights and book banning — but only to a point.
As the book banners push past smut and start rattling their pitchforks against the Great Books — Shakespeare, Chaucer, Dante, Vergil, Aeschylus and the like — the issue is starting to become weird as certain proponents are lumping in the Western canon with the smut for the sin of being sexually explicit. For those who have actually read the Holy Bible, that seems like an unthinking and illiterate position at best.
What does win? Common sense. Hence the reason why most Republicans are simply coming back to bread-and-butter issues on law enforcement, small business growth, and desperately trying to tackle Bidenflation.
Of course, Virginia cannot resolve inflationary pressures from Washington. Nor can Virginia resolve the pressures coming from the Russian-Ukrainian conflict which continue to drive up the price of gasoline, increase lumber costs, and drive up the expense of groceries.
Yet we all have to catch those grenades.
All the more reason why focus matters. At present, Virginia Republicans seem to be reminding their neighbors that the business of Virginia is business. Meanwhile, our friends opposite seem to be obsessed with dead babies, blue hair, and an Orwellian rewrite of history.
Thus the upcoming November elections are sounding less and less like a contest between Republicans and Democrats, but rather a contest between sane and crazy. Virginia Democrats of course know this, which is why in places where they know they are underwater — Fredericksburg, Hampton Roads, Northern Virginia — they are all running and sounding like Republicans.
If Virginia Democrats are running away from their issues today, then why on earth should independents trust them to govern in January the same way they campaigned in November?
Shaun Kenney is the Senior Editor for The Republican Standard.
Republished with permission for The Republican Standard.
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