If you missed the article by Lewis P. Fickett, Jr., distinguished professor emeritus of political science at the University of Mary Washington, in Friday's Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star, you should definitely check it out. The title is "Virginia's come a long way, baby, thanks to progressive leadership," and it's a short but fascinating survey of our state's political evolution: from "political museum piece," through (relatively) Progressive governorships (Albertis Harrison, Mills Godwin, and Linwood Holton), to modernizing governors like Chuck Robb and Gerald Baliles, to the "tragic figure" of Doug Wilder, to the "reactionary governorships of George Allen and Jim Gilmore ("the latter of whom almost ruined Virginia's finances with his demagogic repeal of the state car tax" and appeal to the "get something for nothing" "darker side"). Then, along came a guy named Mark Warner:
Happily, Gilmore was followed by an able businessman, Mark Warner, who championed a tax proposal that was a reasonable compromise. An able coalition of Democratic Gov. Warner and Republican Senate Finance Committee Chairman John Chichester restored fiscal balance to the Old Dominion.
According to Prof. Fickett, Chichester became "a champion for progressive government in the commonwealth, and thereby one of the ablest leaders in his party" who "speaks for a new, progressive Mid-Atlantic Virginia." Most significantly, the Chichester-Warner alliance "enabled Virginia to return to a period of financial sanity and stability." In addition, the "Warner-Chichester coalition:"
...made no small contribution to the success of Democratic Lt. Gov. Tim Kaine's winning campaign for the governorship in 2005. It also has enabled Warner to become a rising national political star and a potential candidate in the Democratic presidential sweepstakes in 2008.
And, thanks to Governors like Mark Warner, and leaders like John Chichester (and Holton and Robb and Baliles and Kaine and...), Virginia "the best days of Virginia lie yet ahead." In contrast, with reactionaries and demagogues like Jerry Kilgore, Bill Bolling, Bob McDonnell, and George Allen in charge, Virginia would likely remain a "political museum piece" forever, financially ruined and morally bankrupt. That's exactly why we have to keep moving "forward together," as Mark Warner puts it, into a Progressive Virginia future, while rejecting the hateful and divisive politics of the George Allens, John Cosgroves and Bob Marshalls of the world.