From the live coverage I've been reading about RPV convention, it appears that the social conservatives are firmly in control of the party and are determined to take it over a cliff this November and well into the future.
Meanwhile, the Virginia Democratic Party is enthusiastically united behind Mark Warner and with good reason. Below is his first ad.
This a great ad, reminding Virginians of the condition that Jim Gilmore left this state in when Warner took over as governor. The Republicans are going to try to hit Warner for "raising taxes" but the truth is when Warner took over, he faced a $700 million deficit (actually, that's the public figure that Gilmore would admit to, but privately his critics say it was closer to $3 billion).
Warner not only turned that around but left the state with its Triple A bond rating in tact and Virginia has been declared one of the best states for business by Forbes Magazine every year since, including under Tim Kaine's stewardship.
In other news, the RPV has elected Jeff Fredrickson its new chairman. John Hager stepped aside and asked that Fredrickson be declared the new chairman by acclimation. (h/t) to RK for the report. Actually, Grey Havens says it best: "The RPV death spiral accelerates." And Too Conservative calls it Apocalypse Now.
I suspect our chances of furthering the bluing of Virginia is still on schedule!
7 comments:
You do know that the new RPV Chairman's name is Jeff Frederick, not Fredrickson, right?. I do start to think that all your criticism of Mr. Frederick is based on fear more than anything else.
our own VA11 Race gets a nod on
Air America - guest blogger by Down with Tyranny
http://airamerica.com/blog/2008/may/30/how-big-let-down-have-democrats-been
Iso, actually I think I did know it, but thanks for correcting the spelling - I should have looked it up and been more careful.
Anonymous, thanks for the link to the Air America piece, though I think it was more divisive than necessary. Both wings of the Democratic Party do need to debate the issues and have fair contests to see which one will lead the Democrats. My heart is with the progressives.
But none of the Democrats that Down With Tyranny takes on are as conservative as the Republican candidates. And in a lot of cases, rushing so far left that you leave behind voters is not a winning strategy.
Also, DWT's analysis of Virginia missed the mark somewhat. Tim Kaine was a hero of the progressive grassroots and netroots. We did not mistrust him, as DWT alleges. That's what made his endorsement of Gerry Connolly so shocking and disappointing to us.
The Largest new block of voters to appear at the RPVA Convention were not the evangelicals, but the Paulistinians (those LIBERTY loving supporters of Ron Paul and our Constitution) Fully one-quarter of the Marshall supporters were Paulistinians. These citizens are not the foil hat stereotypes paraded out for the media, but young family types with one or two children, who just want the government to get off of their backs.
Democrats should pay close attention to this movement and reassess current stands that have supported domestic spying and other government usurpations of our Constitution.
The Paulistinians are tech savvy, and fiercely devoted to limiting government intrusion into our lives. They gladly support core infrastructure programs and some targeted aid programs, but they are mad as hell about the Bush Neocon attempts to trash our Constitution.
Millions of Paulistinians have joined their local Republican Committees across the USA in the last year. The Paulistinians made a major impact here at the Convention and will be a decisive force next time.
Democrats should take heed: Freedom is VERY popular. For the good of the Republic, Democrats should seek to work more actively on common ground issues that serve to ENHANCE our freedoms and return government back to within Constitutional limits.
If the "Paulistsa" are such supporters of freedom, why would they back Bob Marshall, the man who wrote the discriminatory "Marshall-Newman" constitutional amendment to take away the rights of same-sex couples to have any of their rights or liberties protected in Virginia? Ron Paul opposed a Federal constitutional amendment that was LESS Draconian and discriminatory than Marshall's state amendment.
Anonymous has a good point. The specious thing about the libertarians is that they are often not so much for your or my freedom so much as they are simply for the freedom of large corporations.
Being anti-regulatory when it comes to business is not the same thing as actually supporting individual liberties such as the right to marry whom you please, choose whether to have a child (I'm talking about the right to contraception, not necessarily abortion), the right to associate with whom you please, which is under attack by anti-labor "meet and confer limits;" and the right to collective bargaining, which is recognized as a basic human right by the UN.
Sorry but the libertarians don't impress me much even as defenders of individual freedom.
One thing the Paul supporters have definitely proven: they know how to win elections.
LOL, just kidding.
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