Did I wake up in 2020 all over again?
For most of last year, Democratic candidates told voters that affordability was the defining issue of their campaigns.
Affordability this. Affordability that.
Voters heard repeated pledges about economic relief and a renewed focus on the needs of working families. To these candidates’ credit, that message resonated.
But words and deeds from the campaign trail have begun to diverge from reality.
Despite campaigning to make life more affordable for families, lawmakers in Richmond have introduced dozens of new tax proposals that would raise costs on everyday services from Amazon deliveries to rideshares, gym memberships, dry cleaning, home repairs and even firearms.
It’s an agenda that threatens to squeeze working families.
That is why the sudden return of Confederate monuments to the public debate is so puzzling.
At a moment when families are grappling with rising costs, Richmond appears once again consumed by a symbolic struggle over the past.
It feels like déjà vu.
State Sen. Adam Ebbin, D-Alexandria, is behind the latest push to remove three memorials to Confederate figures from Capitol Square, including Gen. “Stonewall” Jackson, former Gov. William “Extra Billy” Smith and Dr. Hunter Holmes McGuire.
Ebbin has said it is “embarrassing” for constituents to walk by Confederate statues.
Regardless of whether one agrees with Ebbin’s claim, such a measure does nothing to lower costs for working families. It is political theater.
As a Yankee, born and raised in Illinois, where you can’t drive through a small town without seeing a statue or courthouse named for Abraham Lincoln, the intensity of these monument battles has always baffled me.
Where I grew up, historical markers were part of the landscape, reminders of where we’ve been, not where we’re going.
I’m not here to argue whether these Confederate figures should or should not be immortalized in stone. Reasonable people can disagree on how history should be remembered and who belongs in public spaces.
That is a serious conversation, but it is not the same as governing.
What I cannot understand is why elected leaders would allow a piece of granite to take precedence over the struggles of real people.
Statues don’t lower energy bills or make housing more affordable. They don’t fix schools or create jobs.
Yet they become the centerpiece of political attention because they are easier to fight over.
Democrats did not stumble into power. Much to my dismay as a Republican, they were given a mandate by Virginia voters in November.
Gov. Abigail Spanberger and Democratic candidates for the House of Delegates ran on a clear promise: They would focus on affordability and improving the day-to-day lives of Virginians.
That message earned trust and created expectations.
Ebbin’s intentions may be sincere. He may truly believe this is the right thing to do. But it is not what voters were told would come first or what families struggling to keep the lights on asked for when they cast their ballots.
The winter storm that swept through the commonwealth last month left heaters running longer and power usage climbing. When those utility bills arrive in the coming weeks, many families will feel it immediately.
For some, it will mean hardship.
Virginians do not need another symbolic debate. They need relief and lawmakers working on their behalf to make life a little easier.
Elections are supposed to change priorities, not just the language around them. If affordability was the promise, it’s time to govern like it.
Virginia does not need another cultural proxy war. It needs leaders willing to do the hard, unglamorous work of governing.
The only question is whether Richmond will honor that mandate or keep choosing the easier fight.
Because monuments are easier than governing.
Jacob Lane of Warrenton is a Republican strategist whose writing has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, Newsmax and the Chicago Tribune.
A correction was made on Feb. 11, 2026: When published earlier this evening, this column was attributed to the wrong author. Jacob Lane of Warrenton was the writer.
