I’ve lived in each of the string of Virginia counties connecting Washington, D.C., to Winchester, Virginia: Arlington, Fairfax, Loudoun, and Clarke counties. I grew up in what might be called the “Dulles or Reagan?” northern Virginia corridor — please, God, not BWI — a locale emblematic of the American dream, replete with opportunities for people of diverse socioeconomic backgrounds to raise families in safety and stability. The gem of northern Virginia is idyllic western Loudoun County, where farmland abounds, the Blue Ridge Mountains beckon, and light pollution is held at bay only an hour outside the nation’s capital.
To mention only the suburbs surrounding Washington, D.C., is to overlook the riches of Richmond, Roanoke, Charlottesville, Shenandoah, and Williamsburg. Virginia is the state of statesmen, home of Mount Vernon, Montpelier, and Monticello. You can’t walk through a field without passing a placard about a Civil War battle fought there.
Residents of 20 years or more will recall at least two collective agonies. Virginia was both an origin and a destination on Sept. 11, 2001, when American Airlines Flight 77 took off from Dulles International Airport and crashed into the Pentagon. In October 2002, terror swept over the routine chore of filling the car with gas as the D.C. sniper attacks claimed lives along Interstate 95. These events challenged the spirit and strength of the commonwealth two decades ago.
Today, there’s a different kind of battle for the soul of Virginia playing out in the schools, in the statehouse, and at the ballot box. Many Virginians won’t cast a vote in a critical gubernatorial election, believing that the game is already rigged against them. They have every reason to think so. The gaslighting of Virginians knows no limits.
Virginia elections are flooded by cash infusions from organizations backed by billionaire financiers including George Soros and Michael Bloomberg. Bloomberg’s Everytown for Gun Safety nonprofit organization poured $2.5 million into successfully flipping Virginia’s General Assembly from Republican to Democratic control in 2019. Inexperienced prosecutors floated to electoral victory on coffers of Soros cash surpassing what their incumbent opponents raised in total.
The Washington Free Beacon reported in 2019 that the Soros-backed Justice and Public Safety PAC had been the largest donor to winning liberal candidates Buta Biberaj and Steve Descano, while Fox News reported : “Campaign finance reports show [Parisa] Dehghani-Tafti received $583,000 and Descano received $392,000 just from that PAC. Meanwhile, [opponents Theo] Stamos and [Ray] Morrogh raised $162,000 and $242,000, respectively, for their entire campaigns.” Fox also noted, “While [Deghhani-Tafti and Descano] have never prosecuted a case in a state court, they beat candidates with more than 60 years of experience between them.”
If you want to see what kind of public service these Soros “appointees” are doing, look no further than Biberaj, Loudoun County’s commonwealth’s attorney. In spite of historically railing against over-incarceration — it’s too expensive, Biberaj told Mother Jones in 2020 — Biberaj sought to put Scott Smith, father of the girl raped at a Loudoun County school, in jail for being disorderly at a June school board forum. You know what’s disorderly? A teenage girl being anally raped in the women’s bathroom by a boy in a skirt. It’s a lot for a father to contemplate as he goes to his plumbing job every day.