The other night, I spent about a half hour talking with my roommate about politics. He is in no way involved in any form of politics whatsoever, and honestly thinks both parties are totally full of it. However, he has some very interesting views when you get the guy going.He was born and raised in a small town in Southwest Virginia. We started talking about Democrats in that area. He laughed about Boucher, and said it took a long time for him to understand what people saw in him. After all, Boucher?s hardly a conservative Democrat. Yet he?s constantly re-elected in a very conservative area. These are the people, according to my roomie, that?ll talk about how Democrats are liberal sissies who are trying to take away their guns, but they will strike down he who speaks ill of Rick Boucher.
I laughed and said, ?I?ve heard as much from people around here.? He told me why Democrats lose all the time there. He said we always nominate some ?rich, elite-feelin? party guy from Northern Virginia who thinks he can win by pretending to be more conservative on the social issues.? Of course, he explained, that?s clearly not the way to win. Boucher is evidence. He said the only way to win is to start ?helping the common man.? When I countered with Mark Warner as an exception to the rule for his ?rich, elite NoVA challenge? he told me it has nothing to do with his moderate social views or his money. It has to do with how much he helped in the area with jobs. It?s about him being able to just talk with them. He said that Democrats need to learn to focus more on the basics. ?If they can tap into that, hit the vein just right, then the possibilities are endless.?
What he told me made suddenly made a lot of sense to me. If conservatives are going to vote on social issues, they?re going to vote for the conservative, not the moderate. The only thing that can persuade them to consider a Democrat is to talk about getting some people health care and making sure the Government doesn?t outsource their jobs to Tai-freakin-wan. THAT will get us votes in Red Virginia. How did Tim Kaine create a Democratic surge last November in Loudoun County? It had nothing to do with ?moderate? Tim Kaine, it was his promise for "smart growth" and his ability to talk about bread and butter issues, not hot button ones.
Some people would say SWVA is all but unattainable for Democrats. I would remind them that Mark Warner brought a semi-populist idea to these people: ?We can give you better care, better schools, and a better life. We don?t even have to tax you that much for it. We just have to be smart.? Many people may be willing to ignore these people in the campaign and reach out to other voters, but I?m the kind of Democrat who believes that we have the ability to reach every person in Virginia if we talk about what really matters instead of these social hot topics. Call me na?ve, call me overly-optimistic, call me young and inexperienced, but I believe, and will continue to believe, that Democrats can duplicate what Rick Boucher has done in SWVA.
This is one of the major reasons I support Jim Webb. Jim Webb has based his campaign on offering a better life, stopping an unjust war, and leveling the playing field. As Tim Kaine said, ?there?s a better way.? We can?t show it to people by trying to fight Republicans on hot-button issues they?re guaranteed to win. We can?t win by trying to imitate Republicans. We?re not Republicans, we?re Democrats. Don?t get me wrong, I?ll be the first to admit to being a social centrist. I support gun rights, have reservations about abortion, am hawkish when it comes to supporting the military, am not afraid of my Confederate history, etc. But no matter how hard I try, I?m not going to win over conservative Virginia against a powerful conservative figure.
As my roomie put it, we have to get back to the basics. We have to return to what Democrats originally stood for, back when this party was created. We have to get back to a Declaration of Independence that declares ALL men to be created equal. When we get back there, to fighting for the common man, then and ONLY then will we be able to take back this country. Only then will we deserve to take back this country.
Is this a politics blog, or a shooting gallery?
*young
*"naive"
*enthusiastic
*did I mention young?
*wet behind the ears
*really "naive!"
*passionate
*youthful
*lacking in age
Got it? Good! :)
Nice post, Dan. I'm guessing you will hardly get attacked at all for this one. ;)
Regarding Mark Warner's vote in the 9th, another factor was that Mark came down here. When he was Party Chairman, he visited every county in the state starting with Lee County. He helped work on a public water project in Dickenson County while he was running for Governor I believe but it might have been as part of the Senate Campaign (Brian may know more about this.) But Mark came down here, looked the voters in the eye and asked for their vote. Absolutely essential in far SWVA. Particularly in a primary where turnout is likely to be light.
Webb and Miller: Where are you? When are you coming down here? We need to see you and talk to you if you want our votes. And yes talk about clean reliable water, good schools, good jobs, roads and infastructure. That's what the voters in the fighting 9th want to hear
NCLB is set to to force schools to fail by requiring ESL and Down Syndrome (and other learning disabled) children to pass the same tests as everyone else. Once the schools fail for a few years they are turned over to private companies. I did some research on the company which will get the Baltimore schools and they have a terrible track record.
I'm sure these companies will train our children to be little consuming robots. How much say to do think parents will have? The other question is will they teach all this madeup science which is being promoted by the Christian Right Wing?
This is all part of the Right Wing master plan which has been in the works for 20 years. This is not a conspiracy theory, its a conspiracy fact. Its all well documented.
If this happens who knows what our kids may learn in school? Do you really think the schools will teach the Constitution if they are beholden to big business?