Matt Taibbi says Democrats hurt by ‘elitist’ image in Virginia

Journalist Matt Taibbi says Democrats were hurt in Virginia’s gubernatorial election by the notion that the party is “out of touch” and “elitist.”

Speaking on Hill TV’s “Rising,” Taibbi said this perception has hurt Democrats since 2016, and explained how it factored into campaign issues like the teaching of critical race theory in school.

“There are a lot of parents whose … what they’re seeing is academics who are imported, come into the school system, they hire out very high price consultants to come in and do equity assessments. And then they’re sort of told, ‘well, this is the right way to think,’ and they’re not sure about that,” Taibbi said.

Taibbi added that if he were a Democratic strategist, he would examine how popular certain issues are and whether they are worth fighting for, especially when it comes to education.

“Education is the kind of thing that is you know, either the number one or two issue with whole ranches of voters,” Taibbi said. “And if you’re going to commit yourself and make mistakes, like Terry McAuliffe did say things like we’re not going to let parents dictate what we teach in schools, that’s a losing issue.”