CatholicVote is partnering with Secretary of Education Linda McMahon and others in an America 250 Civics coalition, an initiative aimed at restoring to our nation a right understanding of citizenship — its rights, its duties, and the moral foundation of self-governance.
I can think of one man who could use a refresher course.
Over the weekend, private text messages from 2022 surfaced showing Jay Jones, the Democratic nominee for Attorney General in Virginia, fantasizing about violence toward then–Speaker of the House Todd Gilbert, a political opponent.
In one exchange, Jones speculated that Speaker Gilbert "gets two bullets to the head" and made appalling references to Gilbert's family — even wishing that his children would die in their mother's arms so that Gilbert would "move on policy."
As if that were not enough, reports have now confirmed that in 2020, Jones told Virginia House Delegate Carrie Coyner, during a discussion about police reform, that "if a few police officers died … then maybe they would move on, not shooting people, not killing people."
No Democratic leader in Virginia has yet called for Jones to withdraw from the race, though the Fraternal Order of Police of Virginia withdrew their endorsement. Apparently, no one in his party appears to think such words disqualify a man from holding the highest law enforcement office in the Commonwealth.
But Aristotle would disagree — and every civics teacher in America should be up in arms.
This race for Attorney General — and by extension, Virginia's gubernatorial future — has become a moral referendum on what we tolerate in public life.
The refusal to disqualify Jones is already a form of civic decay. The fact that mainstream media has decided to stand on the sidelines as though this issue is but one small scandal for which an apology suffices is appalling even if not surprising. When the lines between anger and evil blur, when rhetoric of death is dismissed as political theater, the foundation of the nation itself begins to erode.
Imagine how the Gilbert family must have felt reading those words — their two young boys, both under ten, asking their father:
"Daddy, why does Jay Jones want to kill us?"
There is no answer to that question but madness and moral corruption.
This corruption must be defeated in the ballot box.
If you have friends in Virginia, call them. Text them. Urge them to vote for Attorney General Jason Miyares — a man who has shown himself committed to justice, law, and the protection of every Virginian.
If you live there, drive your five closest friends to the polls with you.
There is nothing ordinary about a candidate for Attorney General who casually spoke of murdering opponents, police officers, and children.
By extension, there is nothing ordinary about a candidate for governor - Abigail Spanberger - who won't recognize this heinous behavior of her fellow Virginian as disqualifying in a climate that in the last month has seen a political assasination, armed violence against ICE officials, and a man arrested with a tent full more than 200 molotov cocktails outside the annual Red Mass for judges in Washington, DC.
That is why our reaction must be nothing ordinary. This is Virginia's moment to stand. To remind the nation that leadership is about service and requires virtue.
Let us make this election a living civics lesson. Let us teach Jay Jones, and the rest of the nation, that hate has no place in our politics.
Go forward bravely,
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