Most Americans are unaware of the war to control America being waged by theocrats and the Koch brothers that played out yesterday in the Southern state of Virginia’s gubernatorial race. The race featured a progressive-leaning Democrat going up against a well-funded Christian Reconstructionist (Dominionist) and Koch brother acolyte who said the election was a referendum on the Affordable Care Act. That may have been true, but it was also a referendum on Christian extremism, the war on science, equal rights, privacy, gun safety, and a woman’s right to choose their own reproductive health. Fortunately for Virginians who embrace the Constitution’s guarantee of separation of church and state, freedom of speech, and equal rights, rabid Dominionist and Koch devotee attorney general Ken Cuccinelli was defeated by Democrat Terry McCauliffe.
It would be a mistake to downplay the significance of Cuccinelli’s religious crusade that Virginians obviously rejected at the polls because the election was as much a referendum on theocracy as it was the Koch brothers attack on climate science, the NRA’s opposition to sane gun safety measures, and the Affordable Care Act. In fact, nearly every one of Cuccinelli’s positions were founded in his religious crusade to transform Virginia into a haven for the religious right as evidenced by his financial support from the Family Research Council, National Organization for Marriage, and fellow morality policeman and Christian fanatic Rick Santorum.
Cuccinelli may be best remembered of late for his attempt to police sex between consenting adults and control what goes on in Virginian residents’ bedrooms. The Christian fanatic appealed to the Supreme Court to allow him to re-instate a law banning oral and anal sex regardless that the High Court found it unconstitutional in 2003. The Court reaffirmed their previous ruling by rejecting Cuccinelli’s plea for a decision to control sex in Virginians’ bedrooms. Cuccinelli’s war against LGBT rights, firmly grounded in religious fanaticism, is legendary and Virginia voters made him pay for such barbaric statements as telling an anti-gay group that “When you look at the homosexual agenda, I cannot support something that I believe brings nothing but self-destruction, not only physically but of their soul.” Although Cuccinelli attempted to retract his ardent anti-equal rights stance by claiming his anti-gay statements were “offensively false,” he always reaffirmed that his stance against gays had not changed and Virginians did not let him forget it when they went to the polls.
It is certain that women did not forget that throughout his career, Cuccinelli was a religious zealot against contraception, abortion, and women’s access to health clinics. The fanatical Christian also supported an insane personhood bill that would have banned all abortions (even in cases of rape and incest), birth control, and championed every evangelical’s dream of eliminating funding for Planned Parenthood.
Cuccinelli said the election was a referendum on Obamacare (Affordable Care Act) likely because he was heavily funded by PACs and individuals such as the Koch brothers and the Republican governors association that David Koch gave $250K to for Cuccinelli’s gubernatorial bid. His opponent and eventual victor, Terry McCauliffe, campaigned on expanding Medicaid and consistently derided Cuccinelli for his stated intent to reject billions of dollars available for health insurance for poor Virginians. It is possible that Virginia Christians, real Christians, found Cuccinelli’s opposition to Jesus Christ’s admonition to care for the infirm a spiritual abomination and rejected his anti-Christian hypocrisy out of hand.
It is likely the Koch brothers spent millions on Cuccinelli’s campaign as recompense for his opposition to climate science that revealed his unholy ties to the fossil fuel industry. Cuccinelli is the maniac who launched a witch hunt against a University of Virginia climate scientist that was ruled illegal by the Virginia Supreme Court and revealed Cuccinelli’s rejection of free speech and academic freedom if it is contrary to the Koch brothers’ assertion that fossil fuel emissions have no effect on global climate change. For his part, Cuccinelli attacked McAuliffe for waging a war on coal and inspired audiences to exhale extra carbon dioxide just to irritate the Environmental Protection Agency, and likely alienated Virginia voters holding fast to the notion that their right to clean air and water is not a laughing matter.
In an affront to the National Rifle Association in their home state, Virginians sided with McCauliffe who strongly supports universal background checks for gun purchases that Cuccinelli opposed and boasted loudly and often that he was honored to earn an ‘A’ rating from the NRA. The NRA’s political arm contributed over half-a-million dollars to Cuccinelli’s campaign and ran ads warning Virginians that if elected, McCauliffe would rob them of their freedom and enact gun rationing. Likely the Virginia Tech massacre that claimed 32 lives is still fresh in Virginia residents’ minds and they find simple background checks a protection and not a violation of their Second Amendment rights.
The Virginia governor’s race was, as many will say, a rejection of teabagger extremism and Koch brother climate change denial as well as the NRA’s opposition to sane gun safety measures such as universal background checks. But it was also a major blow to evangelical Christian attempts to elect Republican leaders who will enact harsh biblical edicts as the law of the land and a repudiation of Dominionism and theocracy Cuccinelli indicated was his intent for Virginia residents based on his previous statements.
The significance of Cuccinelli’s defeat is more than a progressive-leaning Democrat winning the governor’s race in a conservative-leaning Southern state. When Virginia voters rejected Cuccinelli, they rejected the Koch brothers, the NRA, dirty fossil fuels, and climate change denial, but they also rejected attacks on gays, free speech, women’s rights, and the idea that the bible is the law of the land.
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