Analyzing Delores Oates’ Hypocrisy

Delores Oates wants you to believe she’s the best choice around for delegate of District 31, but she can’t even uphold her own campaign values. For proof, we need to look no further than the recent Samuels Public Library attack she’s involved in.

Taken from Delores Oates’ campaign site: “Education: We must ensure parents remain the primary educators and drivers of what their children learn. Parents have a fundamental right to choose what students are taught in the classroom. …The role of educators should be to prepare the leaders and the workforce of tomorrow and teach them how to think, not to indoctrinate them with a woke agenda.”     

Mrs. Oates says she believes parents should have the right to parent. By holding the library’s funding hostage, she’s showing she only wants those rights for people who adhere to her religious standards. What about parents who want to follow the American Academy of Pediatrics, Mayo Clinic, and other medical and children’s groups that suggest sex conversations and education start at 5 to 8 years old? Or what about parents who teach their children “woke” concepts like universal human rights and inclusion? Those parents are supposed to go pound sand, unable to have resources so their children learn age-appropriate concepts that their parents support. Education comes from knowledge, and banning knowledge because some religious parents are too lazy to parent is in direct opposition to her statement that individual parents are the only ones who should determine the appropriate content for their own children. Which is it, Mrs. Oates – do all parents have the right and responsibility to parent their children or do only you and those who share your religious beliefs get to choose for the rest of us?

But don’t worry, this kind of double standard can be seen again: “Religious Freedom: Our country was founded on the basis of escaping tyrannical rule and the freedom to live and worship how we please.” Ironic, considering Delores is working to undermine the rights of anyone who does not conform to her religious beliefs or personal values. I guess if you believe an overweight child can be heroic in a story, you’re supporting obesity (and, apparently, obscenity in libraries). And if you think it’s fine for two dads to hold hands in a picture book, you’re encouraging pornographic filth.

Finally, my personal favorite. “Corruption: Being a public servant means sacrificing personal gains for the betterment of the community.” Delores paid one of the leaders of Clean Up Samuels $20,000 for a few months of work, well over the average for a political consultant in Virginia. Either Mrs. Oates has shown gross incompetence in her ability to hire, or she’s wittingly or unwittingly bankrolled a hate group. It’s hard to believe it’s mere incompetence or negligence after reading Oates’s online essay to local Catholics: “I support the removal of pornographic literature and severing ties with the ALA (American Library Association) … the current library board, with one exception, has proven they are not suited for the task and should be replaced by new members who care about the well-being of children.”

Delores Oates perpetuates the same lies and hate that the Clean Up Samuels Library group does, painting our wonderful library staff as groomers and pedophiles — not the respected experts they are. The 99% approval rating by patrons of Samuels Public Library confirms that. This kind of slanderous, unmerited attack should not be perpetrated or supported by any member of our Board of Supervisors. Yet Mrs. Oates and others continue to drag out this hate parade for a few extra votes, already causing the resignation of the library Director, Michelle Ross, after months of harassment

In my opinion, Mrs. Oates is also not above directly lying to the public to suit her needs. In the same essay, she writes, “Supporting our residents, me and three other supervisors voted to withhold funding for the library by 75% until September, giving them time to clean up their material and attitude toward parents.” Then in a June 13 Facebook post, she wrote, “We completely and fully approved the budget, including the library budget.” She also states the money can be appropriated “at any time” — but refuses to do so despite the library implementing a new card system that allows concerned parents greater control over the books their child can check out.

Delores Oates will only support education that indoctrinates children to her “doublespeak” way of thinking. Just read those campaign values again; you can practically hear the dog whistling. Mrs. Oates will only support her own religious freedom, and she has shown she will waste her own and taxpayer dollars with frivolous grandstanding, even hijacking budgets of valued community resources. Delores Oates has shown the LGBTQ+ community of Warren County she will NOT support you, she will NOT respect the protections and rights you have desperately fought for, but she will use her power to try and ERASE the strides forward you have made.

Delores Oates is not interested in protecting the well-being of children; she is interested in upholding her own religious doctrine. If Mrs. Oates did care about protecting the well-being of children, she would support the library’s efforts to provide a variety of literature covering far more viewpoints than her narrow-minded and bigoted view of the world. If Mrs. Oates were concerned about children’s safety, she wouldn’t be exposing the LGBTQ+ members of our community, some who are, in fact, children, to this hateful vitriol as people once again have to stand up to defend their right to exist in a public space.

M. Christopher
Warren County

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