It. Is. Not. About. CRT

[Patton French]

CRT is not some evil plot! WTF?

[maryellen99]

1. I think it's also people still being angry about stay at home orders,vaccines and masks nt

[Patton French]

2. Shit who knows.

Whatever it is, it makes little sense.

[womanofthehills]

22. Some on Twitter said it was about school closings too

From the Hill:

Education was one of the dominant issues of the Virginia race’s closing stages.

But really that label was a catch-all term for several even more emotive topics that got traction with moderates as well as social conservatives.

Resistance to vaccine mandates in schools, a backlash against progressive demands about how American history is taught and an increasingly politicized atmosphere around school boards all played a part.

https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/579764-five-takeaways-from-a-grim-night-for-democrats

[underpants]

3. It's got "race" in it. Perfect to scare the crap out of people.

Just saying.

[Patton French]

6. You're right and is just so wrong

But does wrong matter? Clearly no.

[Big Blue Marble]

4. It is ever so easy to scare people with the term.

In politics, messaging, not logic is everything. Dems have not been as effective at it; and this
time they failed badly.

[SMC22307]

5. They think it is an evil plot.

They can't define it but CRT = bad.

[JI7]

13. Just like Obamacare was Death Panels to them

That's what republicans have always done. It's always fearmongering among their certain groups and types of people. The fearmongering is always of other people that are different in some way.

[live love laugh]

7. Who said it was?

[bluewater]

9. Youngkin said he would ban CRT from the public schools.

So, I guess Younkin made it about CRT...

[Patton French]

11. Good grief..

It has been their whole campaign. It’s so absurd that it’s not true, but is not even part of the curriculum. Sorry this is personal.

[ForgedCrank]

8. I'm not so sure.

Obviously each individual has their reasons, but let's look at the early demographics being posted, in particular, the one outlining white women voters. That massive shift compared to 2020 points directly at only one of the top issues polled, and that is education. I suspect this has a lot to do with the lies that republicans have been spreading regarding CRT.
I'm obviously not an expert, and this isn't based on anything other than speculation, but it all adds up at the very least.
I'd be interested in hearing other theories as to why we just watched that unbelievable shift in white females.

[LonePirate]

10. Republicans used lies to turn CRT into a cultural flashpoint.

In VA, those lies were used to mislead parents into thinking CRT:

(A) was being taught in K-12 schools which it is not.
(B) was added to school curricula without parental consent
(C) made children feel bad about who they are
(D) distorted the history of America by mentioning the evils of white colonialists and the racial atrocities committed in our history

Basically, Republicans played their racism card once again and inattentive white Americans, especially in Virginia (but also in many other places across America) fell for it hook, line and sinker.

[GoodRaisin]

17. +1

Sad as it is, this happened.

[pfitz59]

24. 2022 playbook

Stupid, prejudiced pepper are easily mislead...

[JI7]

12. Yes it is . But it's more about what Racists and other bigots think when they think of CRT

and other issues like immigration, Bathrooms etc .

They see these things as getting into their "comfortable space" which consists of certain types of people and views.

Biden was able to get some of these votes because he was well known and people are comfortable with him because he is an older white man that comes off as "everyday joe" .

I think Tim Kaine and MArk Warner could have won this Governor's race.

[Patton French]

14. I feel a need to elaborate

CRT, as it is demonized, is NOT part of the curriculum anywhere I know. The things that are demonized as CRT use perception of CRT to support their bullshit. But, I’ll shut up.

[uponit7771]

19. You bring up a good issue but just left off the "MAGA doesn't even know what it is and its just

... about tribal emotions" part.

They're assholes

[Mary in S. Carolina]

15. I think it is

The democratic response to the CRT issue lost the election.

[Ptah]

23. What should the democratic response have been?

[Mary in S. Carolina]

27. Ptah I have

given my response on several different threads today and had my posts removed and threatened to be permanently removed from DU.

Y'all win, I give up..... I have changed my mind, I now believe Terry gave the "perfect" response to CRT and his response should be the response for all future democratic candidates.

[Ptah]

25. What should the democratic response have been?

[Initech]

16. CRT is a racist dog whistle.

And basically the real life version of the Independent Thought Alarm. Can't have any of that when there's a cult running things.

[uponit7771]

18. Not relevant, most MAGA couldn't tell you what CRT was to save their lives its the emotions ...

... and the tribal connection the issue brings

[inwiththenew]

20. CRT has become like Defund the Police

It's become an amorphous term that causes a visceral negative reaction from a sizeable amount of the population even if they can't understand or define what it really means.

That said, I think it was more of "I don’t think parents should be telling schools what they should teach" than CRT. That statement rubbed a lot of people the wrong way.

[Mary in S. Carolina]

26. Thank you

I agree

[Ms. Toad]

28. There is a major difference.

Defund the police was adopted (and defended) by a lot of progressives as a goal, despite many of us saying that (1) any message that has to be explained to make its meaning clear or (2) upon which its advocates don't even agree, is a bad slogan.

CRT was resurrected from the 1970s BY the right. While I have heard explanations from progressives (including from some close to the origins) - those explanations came AFTER accusations made by people on the right (i.e. as a defense, not as something progressives were advocting.

It is not a slogan or a goal adopted, pushed, and defended by progressives. It is a branch of uppper level academic study. Not a policy. Not a slogan. Not a movement.

TLDR: we did "defund the police" to ourselves. CRT, as a political idea, is right wing gaslighting.

[Hekate]

21. It. Is. About. Race. However.

CRT is just the bogeyman — ooga booga smooga wooga as a DUer once said back when our computers were hewn out of rocks.

American racism is forever. That is why this shit works every time.