Local MAGAs vote en masse to block ban on teaching Jan. 6 as ‘peaceful protest’

The Republicans representing us in Richmond voted against a bill in the General Assembly prohibiting K-12 public schools in Virginia from teaching that the Jan. 6 insurrection was a “peaceful protest.”

This is today’s reminder that we need to replace the following folks when we go to the polls in the 2027 elections for the House of Delegates and State Senate:

• Tony Wilt, House District 34: City of Harrisonburg, portion of Rockingham County
• Chris Runion, House District 35: Bath County, Highland County, portions of Augusta County and Rockingham County
• Ellen McLaughlin, House District 36: Staunton, Waynesboro, portions of Augusta County and Rockbridge County
• Mark Obenshain, Senate District 2: Bath County, Highland County, Rockingham County, City of Harrisonburg, and a portion of Augusta County
• Chris Head, Senate District 3: based in Roanoke, his district includes Staunton and Waynesboro, Rockbridge County, and a portion of Augusta County

All five voted against the bill, HB333, which passed the House of Delegates on a 63-35 party-line vote, and passed the State Senate on a party-line 21-19 vote.

Do note here: the bill doesn’t require schools to teach about Jan. 6 at all; but if they do, the teaching can’t “describe, portray, or present as credible a description or portrayal of the actions precipitating or involved in the events of the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection as peaceful protest.”

The bill also says local school systems can’t “state, suggest, or present as credible a statement or suggestion that there was extensive election fraud that could have changed or actually changed the results of the 2020 presidential election.”

What’s the controversy here, other than, our local MAGA delegates and state senators want to use our tax dollars to teach kids that the election that Joe Biden won by 7 million votes was actually stolen from Donald Trump, who bravely insisted that his followers storm the halls of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 to get their country back.

But then again, this is Virginia, where we still use our tax dollars to fund the day-to-day at VMI, which a state-commissioned 2021 report found continues to carry a torch for the Lost Cause of the Confederacy.