{"id":6524,"date":"2026-08-14T11:08:11","date_gmt":"2026-08-14T11:08:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/metrotransitreview.com\/?p=6524"},"modified":"2026-08-14T11:08:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-14T11:08:11","slug":"virginias-democrats-show-us-how-to-wreck-a-state-in-5-easy-steps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/metrotransitreview.com\/?p=6524","title":{"rendered":"Virginia’s Democrats show us how to wreck a state in 5 easy steps"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Political pros have a saying about how our two parties handle defeat and victory.<\/p>\n

Read more New twist in case of surrogate who refused to abort baby despite biological parents\u2019 request<\/a><\/p>\n

When Republicans lose, the pundits say, they fear they\u2019ll never win again; when Democrats win, they govern as though they\u2019ll never have<\/em> to win again.<\/p>\n

Virginia offers proof of the maxim.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As Virginia\u2019s Republican attorney general from 2022 to 2026, I worked alongside Gov. Glenn Youngkin to rebuild a state in disrepair.\u00a0<\/p>\n

When we took office, Virginia ranked\u202f46th out of 50\u202fin post-COVID job creation.<\/p>\n

Our schools were\u202famong the last in the country\u202fto reopen.<\/p>\n

The murder rate had reached a 20-year\u202fhigh, and fentanyl overdose deaths hit new records.\u202f<\/p>\n

People and businesses were voting with their feet: For the first time in a century, Virginia experienced eight consecutive years\u202fof net population loss.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Commonsense conservative ideas and leadership changed the trajectory.<\/p>\n

Under Youngkin, Virginia climbed from the bottom tier of job creation to the\u202ftop five.\u202f<\/p>\n

Smart fiscal discipline produced\u202fbudget surpluses every year,\u202feven while delivering more than\u202f$9 billion\u202fin tax relief.<\/p>\n

Over\u202f$156 billion\u202fin new business investment flowed into the commonwealth, more than under the previous six governors combined.<\/p>\n

The murder rate fell, and Virginia led the nation in\u202freducing\u202fdrug overdose deaths because we chose to work with law enforcement rather than against it.<\/p>\n

Some dubbed it the \u201cVirginia Renaissance.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Virginia Democrats have rejected that Renaissance.<\/p>\n

In doing so, Gov. Abigail Spanberger has managed to become one of the\u202fleast popular governors\u202fin modern state history after a little more than half a year in office.<\/p>\n

All it took was five\u00a0easy steps.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Step 1: Drive businesses away<\/strong>\u202f<\/h2>\n

Virginia Democrats have proposed more than\u202f$37 billion\u202fin new taxes in 2026, one analysis found \u2014 despite the budget surplus that Youngkin\u2019s policies left them.<\/p>\n

Democrats in Richmond have enacted a sweeping payroll tax and a carbon tax, and their new regulatory burdens have increased the effective cost of hiring in Virginia by\u202f22.5% , the Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy estimates.<\/p>\n

Under Spanberger,\u202fBoeing,\u202fAmazon and\u202fmany\u202fother companies\u202fhave announced closures or layoffs in the commonwealth.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Step 2: Impose an energy tax<\/strong>\u202f<\/h2>\n

Virginia must double its\u00a0baseload\u00a0electricity capacity over the next decade to meet growing demand.<\/p>\n

The rational response would be expanding natural gas and nuclear energy \u2014 proven, reliable and affordable energy sources.<\/p>\n

Instead, Spanberger is pushing energy suicide by advancing an extreme green agenda centered on intermittent wind and solar power.<\/p>\n

Read more Surrogate McKenna West vows legal fight against parents of baby they wanted her to abort, lawyer says: \u2018She is the mother\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n

Democrats are forcing ratepayers to\u202fpurchase\u202f\u201crenewable energy credits\u201d that generate no actual electricity \u2014 a de facto carbon tax that\u2019s costing Virginians\u202fhundreds of millions of dollars annually, and will soon add up to $1 billion or more a year.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Step 3: Prioritize offenders over victims and tie law enforcement\u2019s hands\u202f<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Under the Democrats\u2019 \u201cEnhanced Earned Sentence Credits\u201d\u00a0program, more than\u202f9,000 convicted felons have been released early, some with decades\u00a0remaining\u00a0on their sentences;\u202fnearly half of them\u202fhave already been re-arrested.<\/p>\n

As a former prosecutor, I can affirm that justice means accountability \u2014 and accountability means serving the sentence imposed.<\/p>\n

Moreover, one of Spanberger\u2019s first official acts was ordering state law enforcement to\u202fstop cooperating with federal authorities to deport violent illegal immigrants, even those convicted of rape and murder, putting innocent Virginians at risk.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Step 4: Undermine workers\u2019 rights and force unions on local governments\u202f<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Virginia\u2019s right-to-work law has been key in attracting and\u00a0retaining\u00a0manufacturing jobs \u2014 but Spanberger, while in Congress, was a co-sponsor of the\u202fPRO Act,\u202fwhich would have abolished right-to-work protections in Virginia and 26 other states.<\/p>\n

Now, as governor, she is poised to sign mandatory collective bargaining legislation that forces all government employees into bargaining units, stripping local governments of flexibility and guaranteeing property-tax increases across the board.<\/p>\n

Chesterfield County alone\u202festimates\u202fthe cost to its taxpayers at $200 million per year. Extrapolated across Virginia, the fiscal damage will be devastating.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Step 5: Push partisan politics in defiance of the state constitution<\/strong>\u202f<\/h2>\n

In 2020, Virginia voters amended their state constitution \u2014 by a\u202ftwo-thirds supermajority \u2014 to enact a nonpartisan redistricting process.<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

Yet Spanberger, who campaigned as a pragmatic leader who would transcend party politics, supported an egregious partisan gerrymander under which the 46% of Virginians who voted\u00a0Republican in 2024 would have held approximately 9% of the state\u2019s congressional seats.<\/p>\n

And while our state Supreme Court struck down the power grab, the damage to Spanberger\u2019s credibility was done.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Virginia Renaissance was the product of principled, disciplined governance focused on the people rather than the political class.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s unfolding now in Richmond is its deliberate undoing at the hands of Spanberger and her Democrat allies.<\/p>\n

Now, businesses and families are making their own calculations about whether to stay or go.<\/p>\n

History, and the\u00a0voters,\u00a0will\u00a0render\u00a0their verdict in time.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Jason Miyares, Virginia\u2019s attorney general from 2022 to 2026, is a partner at Torridon Law PLCC.\u00a0Adapted from City Journal.<\/em><\/p>\n

Read more Inside surrogate McKenna West\u2019s quixotic quest to keep the baby she delivered despite biological parents\u2019 wishes<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Abigail Spanberger has managed to become one of the\u202fleast popular governors\u202fin modern state history. 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