Misreading Reality in Virginia
As newspapers are predicting a loss for the Democrats in next week's
Virginia gubernatorial election, it is amazing the lack of
understanding of recent events that emerges in these stories and the
short memories of voters.
Most polls show that the only part of the country where the Republicans have any real presence is in the south in states like Virginia, land of right wing fundamentalists. Virginia is home to both the Falwell and Robertson headquarters.
The GOP gubernatorial candidate, Bob McDonnell, dubbed Robertson's Manchurian candidate, is not only a graduate of Robertson's reactionary Regent University Law School but a member of the hard right wing contingent that now controls the GOP nationally and has controlled the GOP in Virginia for many decades. His bigoted, anti-women's rights and anti-equality thesis, written at the mature age of 34. portions which he tried to turn into state legislation, predicts the disaster he would wreak as governor.
An article in McClatchy Newspapers states: "the Virginia contest is being watched as a referendum not only on the Democrats' appeal in the region, but also on the party's agenda next door in Washington."
Well, yes and no.
Virginia has never been a real Democratic state. It was a Dixiecrat state with massive resistance to desegregation of public schools and voting rights into the latter part of the 20th century. Given this background, it shouldn't be surprising that racism still exists and reared its ugly head during the Obama campaign, and the GOP, as usual, plays to and incites that racism and bigotry.
Obama won Virginia because Republicans had a weak, bumbling presidential candidate in McCain, a reminder of Dubya, an embarrassment they wished to disavow so many GOP right wingers didn't vote, while Democrats registered more disaffected or first time voters for their party.
Instead of criticizing the Obama administration, as many Democrats are doing, for not doing enough to reverse the stench and stain of the criminal Bush administration and/or lacking the courage to fight for national health care, joining the rest of the industrialized nations of the world, for example, the GOP and its lemming followers in the grip of rabid, bigoted right wingers, intensely dislike this administration because it is led by an African American, the first elected to the US presidency.
In the late 1990's GOP governors George Allen and his successor, James Gilmore, turned Virginia into a fiscal disaster for the people of Virginia that Mark Warner had to clean up when he became governor in 2002.
However, it was multimillionaire Warner's money and connections that helped win his campaign, not the feckless, very conservative Democratic Party of Virginia.
Both Mark Warner and his lieutenant governor, Tim Kaine, who won the next gubernatorial election in late 2005 (Virginia governors can only serve one four year term), are conservative, nominal Democrats, and, as titular heads of the Democratic Party, their great failure to build the state Democratic Party into a progressive force for change to be reckoned with is proof and a damning indictment of their DINO credentials that resulted in the current DINO gubernatorial candidate.
The Democratic spring primary became a disastrous three way race between Deeds, Brian Moran, and Terry McAuliffe because of the weak, very conservative Democratic Party in Virginia and its so called Democratic Party leaders: Governor Tim Kaine and Senators Mark Warner and Jim Webb who all failed in their responsibilities to the Democratic Party.
The problem with the gubernatorial election in Virginia this year boils down to a contest between a far right wing fundamentalist GOP candidate, Bob McDonnell, campaigning aka prevaricating as a GOP moderate (a species that hasn't existed since Nelson Rockefeller, if then) and a lackluster DINO, Creigh Deeds, who happens to be the candidate because there is no strong, true Democratic Party in Virginia.
It's a contest between a GOP far right wing zealot who could leave Virginia in ruins and a Republican lite DINO who might make a mess and at best will be second-rate..
A mediocre state Democratic Party that is basically conservative and DINO , running an equally mediocre, conservative campaign for a mediocre, conservative DINO candidate, hasn't fired up Democratic voters to get to the polls.
If McDonnell does win, all Virginians will suffer four disastrous years of a replay or worse of the Allen and Gilmore administrations' debacles because of the stupidity of GOP voters and the failures of a DINO Party of Virginia.
Most polls show that the only part of the country where the Republicans have any real presence is in the south in states like Virginia, land of right wing fundamentalists. Virginia is home to both the Falwell and Robertson headquarters.
The GOP gubernatorial candidate, Bob McDonnell, dubbed Robertson's Manchurian candidate, is not only a graduate of Robertson's reactionary Regent University Law School but a member of the hard right wing contingent that now controls the GOP nationally and has controlled the GOP in Virginia for many decades. His bigoted, anti-women's rights and anti-equality thesis, written at the mature age of 34. portions which he tried to turn into state legislation, predicts the disaster he would wreak as governor.
An article in McClatchy Newspapers states: "the Virginia contest is being watched as a referendum not only on the Democrats' appeal in the region, but also on the party's agenda next door in Washington."
Well, yes and no.
Virginia has never been a real Democratic state. It was a Dixiecrat state with massive resistance to desegregation of public schools and voting rights into the latter part of the 20th century. Given this background, it shouldn't be surprising that racism still exists and reared its ugly head during the Obama campaign, and the GOP, as usual, plays to and incites that racism and bigotry.
Obama won Virginia because Republicans had a weak, bumbling presidential candidate in McCain, a reminder of Dubya, an embarrassment they wished to disavow so many GOP right wingers didn't vote, while Democrats registered more disaffected or first time voters for their party.
Instead of criticizing the Obama administration, as many Democrats are doing, for not doing enough to reverse the stench and stain of the criminal Bush administration and/or lacking the courage to fight for national health care, joining the rest of the industrialized nations of the world, for example, the GOP and its lemming followers in the grip of rabid, bigoted right wingers, intensely dislike this administration because it is led by an African American, the first elected to the US presidency.
In the late 1990's GOP governors George Allen and his successor, James Gilmore, turned Virginia into a fiscal disaster for the people of Virginia that Mark Warner had to clean up when he became governor in 2002.
However, it was multimillionaire Warner's money and connections that helped win his campaign, not the feckless, very conservative Democratic Party of Virginia.
Both Mark Warner and his lieutenant governor, Tim Kaine, who won the next gubernatorial election in late 2005 (Virginia governors can only serve one four year term), are conservative, nominal Democrats, and, as titular heads of the Democratic Party, their great failure to build the state Democratic Party into a progressive force for change to be reckoned with is proof and a damning indictment of their DINO credentials that resulted in the current DINO gubernatorial candidate.
The Democratic spring primary became a disastrous three way race between Deeds, Brian Moran, and Terry McAuliffe because of the weak, very conservative Democratic Party in Virginia and its so called Democratic Party leaders: Governor Tim Kaine and Senators Mark Warner and Jim Webb who all failed in their responsibilities to the Democratic Party.
The problem with the gubernatorial election in Virginia this year boils down to a contest between a far right wing fundamentalist GOP candidate, Bob McDonnell, campaigning aka prevaricating as a GOP moderate (a species that hasn't existed since Nelson Rockefeller, if then) and a lackluster DINO, Creigh Deeds, who happens to be the candidate because there is no strong, true Democratic Party in Virginia.
It's a contest between a GOP far right wing zealot who could leave Virginia in ruins and a Republican lite DINO who might make a mess and at best will be second-rate..
A mediocre state Democratic Party that is basically conservative and DINO , running an equally mediocre, conservative campaign for a mediocre, conservative DINO candidate, hasn't fired up Democratic voters to get to the polls.
If McDonnell does win, all Virginians will suffer four disastrous years of a replay or worse of the Allen and Gilmore administrations' debacles because of the stupidity of GOP voters and the failures of a DINO Party of Virginia.
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