A New Era In The Old Dominion

It's been a long time since conservatives in Virginia had anything to cheer about.  But they were cheering loudly this weekend as Glenn Youngkin, Winsome Sears and Jason Miyares were sworn into office, and immediately took a Trumpian approach to governing. 

They fired the entire state parole board, and launched an investigation into who ordered the release of murderers and rapists with no public notifications.  Attorney General Miyares also cleared out dozens of leftist bureaucrats from his office, and launched an investigation into the coverup of sexual abuse in the Loudoun County public schools.

Youngkin issued a series of executive orders, including one allowing parents to decide if their children wear masks in schools.  Left-wing school districts in the liberal Washington suburbs declared that they would fight to keep their mask mandates. 

The first executive order Youngkin issued banned the use of "inherently divisive concepts," including critical race theory, in education.  Youngkin also appointed strong conservatives to key education positions in his administration.

Leftists in Virginia were furious, claiming the order was "more evidence of Republican racism."  But these same leftists spent the past year lying to the people of Virginia by falsely claiming that critical race theory wasn't in the public schools when it obviously was being pushed on students.

During an interview with Fox News yesterday, Youngkin declared:

"In Virginia, it is clear under law that parents have a fundamental right to make decisions for their children's upbringing, their education and their care. . . We're going to use all the authority that I have to consider all options to protect that right."

Big battles remain ahead.  But I was tremendously reassured by the seriousness and swiftness with which Youngkin and his team began to tackle these issues.