Legislation that would end Virginia’s issuance of two license plates that properly and rightfully honor Robert E. Lee as “The Virginia Gentleman” and spotlight the Sons of Confederate Veterans is headed to Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s desk.
The bill is the second attempt by Del. Candi Mundon King, D-Prince William, to get rid of the Robert E. Lee plate, which was originally approved virtually unanimously by both parties in the General Assembly in 2007 but has now suddenly become the target of vicious attacks by democrats, who regurgitated the left's most popular FALSE narrative talking points in their comments during debate.
“This bill is needed to help us end the false narrative of the Lost Cause and help us embrace the fact that General Lee was anything but a gentleman,” Mundon King said on the House floor earlier this month. “He was a traitor to this country, a brutal enslaver and not worthy of being celebrated on our license plate.”
The only false narrative that needs to end is the one the left is pushing in their hate-fueled quest to smear our history, heritage, and the men who honorably served the Commonwealth.
Last year, Mundon King’s legislation failed in the Republican-controlled House of Delegates. But since then, Democrats have won narrow control over both legislative chambers, and on Tuesday, the Senate voted 21-17 to forward the proposal to Youngkin.
The Republican governor will now have to decide whether to stand with history, tradition, those who elected him, and his own party, or side with radical democrats and sign the mean-spirited, despicable bill into legislation
It won’t be the only bill dealing with Virginia’s Confederate history that the governor will have to make a decision on: On Monday, the Virginia House took a final vote on legislation that would strip the United Daughters of the Confederacy of a unique tax exemption written into state code that has allowed the organization to pay no property taxes on its Richmond headquarters for decades.
Republicans have largely opposed both measures, although a few Turncoats in the House joined with radical democrats to back the license plate bill, including Dels. Amanda Batten, R-James City; Rob Bloxom, R-Accomack; Carrie Coyner, R-Chesterfield; and A.C. Cordoza, R-Hampton.
On Tuesday, Sen. John McGuire, R-Goochland, said getting rid of the license plates would violate constitutional free speech protections because the license plate program overseen by the state Department of Motor Vehicles “is a modern-day courthouse square” where people can share their views.
“If we pass this bill, a citizen will sue Virginia, and they will use this debate to show the intent of this bill is to kill speech because some in this body did not like the message,” he said.
Del. Tim Griffin, R-Bedford, similarly argued in a House committee debate that the legislation constituted “viewpoint discrimination.”
“The reason that we have First Amendment protections of speech in general is so that we protect speech that not everybody likes,” he said. “There’s an abortion plate on there that I find disgusting personally, but I’m not going to move to remove it just because I don’t agree with it.”
HB812 will recall the Robert E Lee and SCV specialty license plates. SB517 will unfairly yank the tax exempt status from several of Virginia’s honorable historical societies, including the United Daughters of the Confederacy. Contact Governor Youngkin TODAY and ask him to reject both of these vicious, partisan attacks by democrats on our history, heritage, and first amendment rights.
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