Outrage is a defining feature of our political era. Scandal, strong emotional appeals and hateful rhetoric have played an increasing role in civic life, fueled political fatigue and reshaped voter expectations. Just weeks before November’s election, violent texts from Attorney General-elect Jay Jones resurfaced, in which he imagined shooting former Republican House Speaker Todd Gilbert. Though he apologized for his past words, these texts rightly sparked bipartisan condemnation, as well as talk of a split-ticket in Virginia for the first time since 2005. Yet, Jones was still elected, and in the wake of his inauguration, Virginia should reflect on what the fact of his administration means for the state of our Commonwealth.
Although he won by a narrower margin than Gov.-elect Abigail Spanberger, his victory carried immense symbolic weight. It pointed to a changed civic culture, induced by years of outrage politics at the national level and marked by a growing resistance to leaders who voters fear will perpetuate this very chaos. Across the country, patterns of violent, divisive and dehumanizing rhetoric have begun to feel ordinary, and Virginians are now navigating the consequences of a political culture saturated with scandal. While it is understandable that such a culture has emerged, this numbness to political misconduct is ultimately unsustainable — it reshapes what Virginians are willing to tolerate from public officials and dulls the accountability necessary to uphold our democratic norms.
Political decorum — the set of behavioral standards that require public officials to debate ideas without demeaning opponents, threatening violence or attacking democratic legitimacy — has long been on the decline. In 2019, 85 percent of Americans reported a feeling that respectful politics had declined, while 76 percent reported that politics had become less fact-based — over half believed President Donald Trump was driving these changes for the worse. And by 2023, 65 percent of surveyed Americans reported feeling consistently exhausted by politics.
To be sure, politics has always been volatile — from Thomas Jefferson to Andrew Jackson to Richard Nixon — but the last decade has revealed a distinct threat. The democratic norms that bind us and hold us accountable to each other have increasingly been shunned by politicians. When standards guiding political behavior are eroded, thoughtful rhetoric easily devolves into bigotry, us-versus-them narratives and outright conflict. Civic spaces become sites of shouting matches — a phenomenon Virginians, albeit on a smaller scale, have become all too familiar with.
Gov. Glenn Youngkin — in a term defined by education-centered culture wars, the defense of mass government layoffs and increasing alignment with Trump — certainly contributed to this strained political climate. Predictably, then, Northern Virginia — home to Democratic strongholds where Youngkin performed well but where government layoffs hit the hardest — delivered 88 percent of Spanberger’s victory margin. Miyares, as the incumbent, inherited this association. But even independently of Youngkin, Miyares has been criticized for his hyperpartisan loyalty, sometimes to the detriment of his constituency, raising concerns about the extension of federal power in Virginia in future terms. His election symbolized a perpetuation of the vitriol, inefficacy and polarization that characterized some of his fellow Republicans’ campaigns and administrations.
While Jones’ campaign was shaken by the release of his violent text messages, Virginians ultimately decided that his words were not enough to justify the alternative. The broader political climate of indifference to new scandals — amplified by Youngkin’s term and Miyares’ perceived intense partisanship — created conditions in which voters felt they could overlook Jones’ texts. Across the country and all levels of government, violent rhetoric has become so ubiquitous that Jones’ messages felt, for some, like a mere drop in the bucket. For others, they appeared a kind of forgivable equalizer to the often dangerous rhetoric of the far-right. But these are narratives we should stridently reject — regardless of intention, they serve to normalize and perpetuate harmful discourse.
Our indifference to cruelty is an indisputable problem — it undermines the values of trust, decency and care which underpin a healthy democracy. We need to look inward, to condemn our own parties for violent, undemocratic rhetoric and demand from our political leaders a rejection of the cruelty we have come to expect. Furthermore, it will be necessary to create and uplift civic spaces where anger is not the dominant language. While this trend is national, in the coming years, Virginians can rise above it.
Those who lead, even through tumultuous political eras, must be held to a higher standard of behavior. Decency cannot be sacrificed upon the altar of authenticity, nor can violent rhetoric ever be an effective method of condemning an opponent. For those who voted for Jones, support comes with an obligation — to expect better from him, to hold him accountable and to remain honest about the conditions under which he is afforded trust. Our politics will only rise as high as our standards.
Grace Clippinger is a viewpoint writer who writes about politics for The Cavalier Daily. She can be reached at opinion@cavalierdaily.com.
The opinions represented in this column are not necessarily those of The Cavalier Daily. Columns represent the views of the authors alone.
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