It motivated whites, not parents: The truth about CRT in Virginia polls

[Nevilledog]

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Will Saletan
@saletan
The truth about Critical Race Theory as a campaign issue, exposed by Virginia polls: It motivated whites, not parents.

When Republicans talk about a parental backlash against CRT, they’re not talking about all parents. They’re talking about white parents.

What the Polls Really Tell Us About How Critical Race Theory Affected the Virginia Election
One thing is for sure: The CRT panic successfully scared a lot of white people.
slate.com
5:11 PM · Nov 5, 2021

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2021/11/polls-critical-race-theory-virginia-election.html

Republican leaders are crowing about Tuesday’s election in Virginia. They’re crediting the victory of their gubernatorial nominee, Glenn Youngkin, in part to a backlash against “critical race theory”—a term that Republicans have distorted to mean any statement, particularly in schools, that talks about racism and offends some white people. “Parents are getting more and more engaged at the local level, concerned about things like critical race theory being rammed down their kids’ throats,” said Rep. Steve Scalise, the House minority whip, at a Republican press conference on Wednesday. “That was rejected last night.”

Scalise is partially correct. Youngkin cultivated CRT as an issue and exploited it throughout the campaign. He falsely asserted that it was being taught in “all schools across Virginia.” He complained that it labeled white people as oppressors and Black people as victims, and he promised to ban it from public schools. He provoked a backlash against CRT, and the backlash helped him win. But it wasn’t a backlash of parents. It was a backlash of white people.

Surveys conducted before the election showed that Democrats were vulnerable to attacks over the way public schools treated race. In July, shortly after Youngkin began to raise CRT in speeches, the American Principles Project, a conservative organization, commissioned a poll to test the issue. It found that when CRT was framed in Youngkin’s terms—teaching “white children that they are oppressors” and teaching “minority children that they are victims”—a two-to-one majority of likely Virginia voters, 58 percent to 26 percent, said it shouldn’t be taught in schools. When the poll described Democratic nominee Terry McAuliffe as soft on CRT, he lost support. When the poll informed respondents that Youngkin had promised to ban CRT, he gained support. These shifts—measured by how many respondents said the information made them more or less likely to vote for each candidate—were about 10 percentage points.

In August, the APP poll was backed up by another survey, this time from the left. This survey of likely voters in Virginia, conducted by Change Research for Crooked Media, found that 68 percent of independents and 52 percent of undecided voters said the teaching of CRT in schools posed a threat to the state. A narrow majority of undecided voters, when presented with Youngkin’s anti-CRT message, said it was a convincing reason to support him. The pollster’s report concluded: “Messaging about Youngkin never allowing critical race theory to be taught in Virginia schools was the most effective pro-Youngkin message among all voters and undecided voters.”

*snip*

[uponit7771]

1. GQP pols know how to stoke rep voters with lies, dems pols need to learn how to stoke dem voters

... with reality of the threat the GQP poses to democracy

[taxi]

2. Something like that

The GQP stoking their voters may not be one of our concerns. Let them have the fools. We are helpless to educate them and maybe part of our goal could be to make it known that we cannot control their voters either, even if we wanted to. We don't have the time to waste on those who openly and proudly destroy education. We could instead make open statements to the effect that educating GQP voters is a hopeless task - they do not like or desire education. To hell with the ignorant. They like being ignorant, they like being around others ignorants, and they want their children to hold ignorance in esteem and wear it like a crown. They cannot control their petulant children so they get them worked up. We may be more effective by marginalizing them, openly addressing those peoples who do neither party any favors. If the R's want them, fine. Let it be known that we do not want them - they are useless backstabbers and by courting them we set ourselves up for failure.
How to stoke dem voters is a different subject.

[Martin Eden]

3. Youngkin won on a BIG LIE

He lied about what CRT is, and he lied that it's being taught to children in schools.

Our democracy is imperiled when telling BIG LIES is an effective strategy for winning elections. It's a road map to fascism.

[Deminpenn]

4. Lots of white people respond to racist

dog whistles. Shocker. This has been happening for years, just the dog whistle occassionally changes its tune.

[Midnight Writer]

5. My bet is that it motivated more grandparents than parents.

I reckon most of the folks outraged by imaginary CRT in public schools don't have kids in public schools.

Just my speculation.