The GOP Is the Real Party of Diversity

Becca Lower reporting for RedState 

If there’s one thing the modern left pushes more than any other narrative, it’s the dishonest notion that it represents the most diverse array of Americans. It crows about electing more Black and minority leaders… claiming that it is the force behind letting people see a face they recognize and can aspire to be like. And, by hook or crook, convince many voters that they best represent their hopes and prosperity for the future.

Well, I have bad news for the Democrat Party — this day, January 15, 2022, shows which party is the true party of diversity. That’s the GOP. And the left can’t run far enough from the truth. Because it is right in their faces — meet Winsome Sears, the new Lieutenant Governor of Virginia who was inaugurated today.

RedState has written extensively about how much of a bada** Sears is and why her election as Lieutenant Governor is important: read here, here, and here. But that’s just a small sample.

Of course, Sears wasn’t the only minority addition to the incoming Youngkin administration. As my colleague Bonchie reminded everyone earlier on Saturday, there’s a new sheriff in town: Attorney General Jason Miyares.

(see “Glenn Youngkin and Company Start Things off by Going Scorched Earth in Virginia“)

But while Youngkin is making the moves you’d expect, it’s the new Attorney General Jason Miyares that is already causing wailing and gnashing of teeth. He’s replacing Mark Herring, who ran the office in the typical far-left, woke fashion that led to a higher crime rate and deterioration of safety. Herring also let the various George Soros-funded district attorneys in the state run wild.

Miyares, the state’s first, elected Latino AG, also went to school in the Commonwealth, as James Madison University notes proudly:

But diversity is really the wrong word for Republicans, as I’m sure some will remind me. How about ‘the party of opportunity’? Because that’s really our party’s hopeful message. It doesn’t matter where you come from, what language your parents (or grandparents) spoke, or what color your skin is. What matters is that you place the Constitution before everything else, in a political sense.

I’m sure I’ll get pushback from hard-left Democrats that Douglas Wilder was a Democrat and the first Black governor to be elected. Um, okay, that’s great. He was elected governor in 1990 and served for four years. But, this sure is inconvenient for you all: he’s not all that keen on where the party’s going — even criticized Kamala’s stumping for McAuliffe with a blatant infomercial inside Virginia churches.

Wilder told the Washington Examiner as much:

 But a thumbs-down from the 90-year-old Wilder, a Democrat and highly respected voice in Virginia politics for decades, is significant.

“Well, it’s very good for her to do that, causing these churches to lose their tax-exempt status,” he quipped, referring to the Johnson Amendment, a rule that prohibits 501(c)(3) organizations, such as charities and churches, from engaging in any political campaign activity. “If this is legal, then it’s surprising to me.”

That must sting.

Whatever claims they might make to diversity and standing up for minorities being represented, here’s truly the Democrat Party’s tell: you’re not going to hear them celebrating the inauguration of the first Black and female statewide elected official in the state’s history. Or Virginia’s first Latino top cop. And remember: this is a state that was torn asunder by the evils of slavery. But also has the distinction of being the state where our nation’s wounds began to heal, in Appomattox Court House, in 1865. It’s also the state that was the birthplace of the author of the Declaration of Independence, our great, third president, Thomas Jefferson, who also founded the Washington and Lee University in Lexington.

I’ll close on one last point… Democrats will hate this … Virginia, where the leftists’ cherished, white supremacist narrative — “Charlottesville” — was spawned, chose to elect “the most diverse leadership in Commonwealth history.” So much for the “racists!11!!” storyline. Put a fork in it.

Glenn Youngkin, the new governor of the Commonwealth, said it perfectly in a tweet Saturday:

Let’s make it clear to our friend on the left: today is a great day, not just for Republicans and Virginians — but for all Americans.