America's future? Yes, according to Randy Shaw of BeyondChron.org, that's exactly what is at stake in the Jim Webb vs. George Allen contest. No more and no less. Check it out:
...The race that could best test America+óGé¼Gäós future direction occurs in moderate Virginia, where former Republican and Reagan cabinet member James Webb is running as a Democrat against Senator George Allen, a favorite of the religious right...... the race in Virginia between Democrat James Webb and Republican Senator George Allen will be primarily decided on ideological grounds, and will tell us whether red-state voters in 2004 are truly dissatisfied with the Republican national agenda.
[...]
A decorated Marine, Webb is also running as a strong opponent of outsourcing and as a critic of Bush+óGé¼Gäós wiretapping. Popular with labor unions, Webb is such an opponent of so-called +óGé¼+ôfree trade+óGé¼-¥ that the Washington Post has accused him of +óGé¼+ôxenophobic sloganeering and business-bashing.+óGé¼-¥
That sounds just like what the Senate needs.
However, "If the right-wing Allen can defeat a charismatic Democratic opponent in an increasingly moderate state, this will not bode well for changing America+óGé¼Gäós direction..."
So, those are the stakes in Virginia this year. Will we give the green light to "more of the same" - tax policies that drives us into huge debt while favoring the richest of the rich, war without end in Iraq, environmental disaster, corruption and incompetence - with George Felix Allen and George Dubya Bush? Or, will we say "we've had enough" of the right-wing neocons and theocrats and elect the war hero, economic populist (not "xenophobe," by the way), Harry Truman Progressive, and social libertarian Jim Webb?
This is not a difficult choice.