As my regular reader (Hi Jeff!) will recall, I have mentioned that I come from a family of educators. My dad was a university professor and later dean, teaching graduate students. My older brother and sister both taught in the public school system for more than 35 years each, one in high school and one with the littler kids in elementary school. And I taught cadets at the US Air Force Academy for 15 of my 25 years of active-duty military service.

So, to be clear, I have a bias – I think teaching is noble and that education is, well, important.

And when I say important, I guess included in that is the idea that our kids (be they first graders or grad students) should be taught things that are true, at least as far as we know.

For example, I started off college as an astronomy major, and a couple of things I was taught about star formation we now know to be not quite right. I have no plans to sue my old professors, as they were doing the best that they could with the information available. Education, like modern medicine and how we build skyscrapers, evolves and grows over time as we learn new things. Heck, the vaccine that I truly and passionately hope is also coursing through your body as I type these words is a brand new and incredibly exciting new type of medication that has the potential to revolutionize how we fight viral illnesses like HIV and others.

It was, therefore, interesting for me to watch the Virginia governor’s race these last few weeks…

First off, I’d love to ask the Democrats in that commonwealth why the heck they nominated a pretty terrible candidate like Terry McAuliffe, but then I remembered that we Dems often nominate smart, clever people who know the issues and are lousy at the actual act of campaigning (Ed: wait, didn’t the Dems nominate you for congress back in 2008?). But one way the pundits are explaining the GOP win is by pointing to the attack on public education the GOP has been running all over the country and especially in Virginia. They are especially showing fake outrage at the concept of Critical Race Theory (CRT) being taught to our little kids! Because, won’t someone think of the children?!

You also heard loud calls, around Colorado as well as around the nation, from parents demanding the right to control what is taught to their kids in school. Let’s set aside for a moment that there already is an entire educational system – private schools – that allows parents to pick and choose what their kids are exposed to. But many of these parents aim their indignant and uninformed outrage at the public schools. Heck, live in Mississippi and don’t want your kids to feel uncomfortable by being told about slavery? Just ban the teaching of it!

Parents certainly should have some say in education, but if a group of angry parents demands that a particular bit of our history, science, or larger world not be taught because it is scary, we should be very, very concerned. We did land on the moon and elections are safe and secure.

Oh, and one of the challenges that Democrats have, in addition to lousy candidates too much of the time (Ed: again, you?) is that we moderates/liberals are not willing to lie to the voters as the current Trumpian GOP will happily do. Let’s use the aforementioned CRT as an example. To listen to Virginia’s next governor, you’d think CRT is being forced down the throats of kindergartener through high schoolers, all aimed at making the white kids feel guilty and down because, well, history.

And he’s promised to stop it. And he will. Because it isn’t actually a thing.

You see, CRT isn’t actually taught in the public schools. It is taught in some law schools, because the central premise of this now 40-plus year old idea is that racism has been sealed into our society in many ways, including laws and government policies. As evidence, those who teach CRT offer up things like, well, our nation’s actual history. Rosa Parks was arrested for breaking a law and Donald Trump’s rich daddy did deny housing to people of color. The core of CRT is based on facts and is taught to those who will practice law and may well someday be involved in the crafting of new laws. But your fourth grader is not being taught Critical Race Theory. Unless, of course, you subsume CRT into teaching things like the Civil War happened and people of color got arrested for sitting at lunch counters. You know, facts.

The promise to ban CRT in Virginia schools is just about as significant – educationally – as banning the teaching of modern Aramaic grammar principles. But boy, it sure did get GOPers to vote, having been terrified that their kids might be forced to learn about, well, lots of facts that might make them feel uneasy.

But, my friends, education is supposed to make you feel uneasy. When I challenged my cadet student’s thinking at the AF Academy on a daily basis, it was to make them better critical thinkers in the future. Education is not just about memorizing things; rather, it is also about learning how to see the world around you with a judicious and analytical eye. There is no war on Christmas, no matter how many times Fox News says there is.

Critical thinking skills help people from being sucked into such silliness. A critical thinker will ask for evidence, will use reason, and will logically evaluate the claims made, be they silly, surreal, or significant.

No doubt there are many Virginia voters (and lots here in El Paso County, where hard right folks largely swept the local school board elections) who are breathing sighs of relief that CRT won’t be taught to their little ones. Not that it was being taught, of course. But be careful what you wish for. What if other radicalized parents demand schools stop teaching biology, because it can lead to, I dunno, premarital sex? Do you want to have a heart surgeon who was educated in such a school? How about a plumber who was never taught basic math, because it makes some kids uncomfortable?

These are silly examples, I admit. But I worry they will become less silly as we continue our slide down the slippery slope of GOP winners appealing to the lowest qualities and biggest prejudices in our fellow Americans.

Hal Bidlack is a retired professor of political science and a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel who taught more than 17 years at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs.