For those of you who do not know, the Commonwealth of Virginia holds its state elections in the off year. So this year’s governors race is in full swing and after two prominent Democrat leaders, Brian Moran and Terry McAuliffe lost to the underdog Craig Deeds. The Republican party just held a state convention where they selected the person to run for governor. Unfortunately, Bob McDonnell looks like a bad choice all around:
Republican Bob McDonnell made a reach toward the political center in his run for governor Monday, gaining the public backing of moderate civic and political leaders who had roles in coalitions assembled by Democratic Govs. Mark Warner and Tim Kaine.
The announcement of a "Virginians for McDonnell" organization could help the former attorney general deflect Democratic charges that he is too closely aligned with a GOP conservative wing that worked against major initiatives of the Warner and Kaine administrations.
The McDonnell campaign group includes two members of Warner's gubernatorial Cabinet and individuals associated with certain policy initiatives embraced by the two Democratic governors.
So apparently, the Republicans still have not learned their lesson from the previous year. John McCain lost because he was a moderate and because he ran a campaign that did not possess strong values that appealed to the right. Like it or not, the conservatives are your greatest ally and you Republicans need to reach out to them and give the middle finger to anyone who tells you otherwise.
I guess the Republican party is just full of insane people now. After all, they keep doing the same, stupid crap again and again. I know that Virginia has been drifting blue in the past decade or so, but the only way to drift it red is to have strong opposition and strong, hard-line stances.
It seems that Republicans are content to simply compromise with their enemies rather than fight them. A fellow member of the church I go to is also a state delegate. I mentioned to him once that I thought the Republicans in Congress should have fought to cut off Federal funding to groups like Planned Parenthood if they really were pro-life. His response was classic moral cowardice. Basically, he said that he would do it at the state level, but it would mean a shut down of the House of Delegates and some single mother who is a teacher would be put out on the street.
That basically illustrates the climate of the Republican party in my state right now. They are too cowardly to take a serious moral stand against statism and against funding of unpopular groups like Planned Parenthood. I would bet if it became well known that such groups receive taxpayer dollars, the public would rally with whoever promised to cut that funding off.
But alas, there are no heroes such as that in the Republican party, only phonies who put up this facade of conservatism much like how Dr. Weston the Unman put up a facade of intelligence when seducing the Queen of Venus (see my favorite book Perelandra if you missed the reference).