David Reynolds: Wishing for jobs
Be careful what you wish for because you may get it. That’s what my mother always told me. I trust your mother was just as wise. Now, years later, I’m worried. Everyone is wishing for more jobs. What happens if we get them? Here!
Once upon a time in this great land there were two major political parties. One was called the Republican Party. Others called themselves Democrats. Then there was a financial meltdown. It flowed like lava over the land. The people were scared. So they united to form a single party. They called it the Jobs Party. No one leans left or right, everyone stands straight for jobs. No matter where.
However, before the lava flowed into our neck of the woods, we were fond of proclaiming that this place was special, that the quality of life here meant more than a bigger pay check elsewhere.
I liked that kind of thinking. So I moved to be with such thoughts.
I believe that you and I are in agreement on matters of time and money. Time counts more. A big boost in our work hours versus our free time can upset our way of life. If we get all of the jobs we wish for maybe we will be at risk of killing what we most cherish about our area. I recently returned from the Big Apple, a great place to visit, but who from the valley wishes to live there? We plain don’t like city life – even when it means fatter pay checks.
Do Virginia’s leaders know this? I’m not sure. Lt. Governor Bill Bolling sent me an email. He wrote, “During the past decade, the manufacturing sector in America has shed 5.5 million jobs.”
Mr. Bolling, I have a simple solution for getting those jobs back. It is for the American worker to be less productive. We have the most productive workers in the world. It’s why the Japanese don’t build most of their cars in Japan. We have a labor distribution change, not a manufacturing problem. The manufacturing share of our economy is down somewhat, but what is really down is the number of workers engaged in manufacturing, from 50% to 16%.
Now I don’t believe Mr. Bolling wishes for Virginians to be less productive. Yet we keep going after jobs as if it is simply a numbers game. Life is more than numbers. When Toyota quietly pulled out of a plant site near the Augusta-Rockbridge County line and headed for Mississippi we cried. And when ground was recently broken for the new Heatex plant at Natural Bridge Station we cheered, in spite of the fact that only 14 new blue collar jobs will be created.
Ah, blue collar jobs! Why don’t I hear about campaigns attempting to bring white collar, higher paying, more professional jobs to the area? Because we are still stuck in a blue over white frame of mind. An imbalance of work collars can unbalance our lives. And what are the side effects of more jobs? Do we really wish to be like Northern Virginia? Or another old plant city?
What’s the answer? It is not in the wishing – it is in being careful – - careful that we have the right numbers and the right mix of jobs and knowing that the valley has a good thing going. And not to mess it up in order to be like too many other places in Virginia.
I think I’ll quit the Jobs Party and rejoin one of the other two. When the donkey and the elephant battle it out we will get the right jobs mix.
Column by David Reynolds
Brian Moran: A view of Virginia’s future
As Virginians prepare for a 2011 campaign in which every state legislator is up for election, many are probably wondering what the real differences are between the two parties competing for their votes. Fortunately, state government provides a clear contrast between the divergent priorities of Democrats and Republicans in the commonwealth.
Democrats believe that making our nation more equal, fair and just for every person isn’t just the morally right thing to do, it’s also sound public policy. We base our values on the idea that, in appropriate circumstances, governme nt is a force for good when it helps ensure that every person in our society has the same access to the American dream of building a better life. We strive for a country in which race, gender, creed, economic status, and sexual orientation are irrelevant to a person’s ability to get a job, earn enough to make a living and build a better life for his or her family.
These values translate into Democratic support for investments in people that empower them to succeed. Public education, civil rights protections and preserving a clean environment generate and protect real equality of opportunity for middle-class families, and they also give people the tools and security to contribute to maximize their potential in today’seconomy.
Those values are what guide Virginia Democrats at all levels of government as they stand up to a Republican Party that understands the c ost of everything but the value of nothing. Since taking power in Richmond, the Virginia GOP has sought to cut or eliminate smart investments that they regard as “too much government,” seemingly without regard for the essential role that many of them play in giving every Virginian the opportunity to build a better life for their families.
The shortsighted “cut government at all costs” philosophy of the Virginia Republican Party was on display during this year’s session of the General Assembly. The governor and Republican legislators offered several proposals to cut millions of dollars out of our children’s schools in order to accomplish a political objective that has no ostensible connection to preparing our kids for the future.
Fortunately for Virginians, Democrats recognize that investing in schools not only prepares the next generation to compete and build the economy of the future, it also encourages businesses to locate and create jobs here in the present. Democrats fought off the Republican education cuts and actually succeeded in restoring some funding from past cuts to schools.
These are just some of the many differences that Virginia voters will consider this November. Here in Virginia and across the country, Democrats are fighting to move the people of this commonwealth and this country forward by making investments in people that create jobs and promote the common benefit. Republicans are obsessed with shrinking or eliminating those investments in order to score political points, even if it means leaving middle class families behind.
As a lifelong Democrat, I am proud of my friends and former colleagues in the General Assembly who are fighting so valiantly for our shared values. If we do ou r job and explain those values in every corner of this commonwealth, I am confident that 2011 will be a great year, not just for Democrats but for the Virginia families we serve.
Brian Moran is chairman of the Democratic Party of Virginia. This column first appeared in The Virginian-Pilot and is republished here with permission of the Democratic Party of Virginia.
David Reynolds: Defining moments
The phone rang. No, it was not three in the morning. It was a far more civilized hour. And a more civilized time. It was 1992. However, as far as I was concerned it was a political wake-up call.
“Dave, this is Vivian, how would like to be a Bill Clinton delegate at the Democratic State Convention in Salem?” Vivian is Vivian Watts, since 1996 a delegate to the General Assembly from Fairfax County.
Her question was most reasonable. She was a neighbor and her husband, David, and I car pooled to work. (In Washington, a car pool is as close as you can be to another person and still be dressed.) More importantly, Vivian knew my politics. We worked for Doug Wildler for governor and helped other Democrats.
It took me about ten seconds to say, “Yes!” I had never been to a political convention and it sounded like fun. However, it is not easy to have fun in Salem, unless you are at a baseball game. But this was a convention.
So, what did we do at the Salem Civic Center in ‘92? As good Democrats we looked out for ourselves. Public school teachers were there. An so were other union members. No surprise. But then came the big eye-opener.
I sat down to vote for delegates to the national convention. Two ballots were passed. One was for male candidates; the other for female candidates. The winners had to balance. Gender neutrality ruled. Equal results – not equal opportunity.
Allow me to explain. Since 1972 the Democratic National Committee has operated under what are known as the “McGovern Rules.” While George McGovern lost his bid to become president that year he was able to steer his party to the social left. One result: If it were not for two Southern governors the party would have been shut out of the White House for forty years!
The current Democratic Party — as well as many Americans — believe in categorical representation. This form of democracy infers that only those of the same social category can properly represent the interests of that group. Thus, equality is judged not on an individual basis, but on a sociological basis. The civil rights industry has its basis in categorical representation, as well as affirmative action.
Such a self-serving view of humanity clashed with everything I had been carefully taught — that race and gender do not matter. That each of us possess special and unique qualities. And that is why there was an unlimited budget to rescue 33 miners in Chile.
So I left the convention hall. And the party.
Now, fast forward to next Wednesday. That is the day when some political pundit will declare that the McGovern presidency is over. It, too, will be a defining moment. He will say that if the Democratic Party is to rise from yesterday’s ashes it must tack back to the center, that is, the fiscal center where politics will be played over the next two years. He will go on to say that it was the tea party movement that forced how the game is be played here by both Republicans and Democrats.
That is why I talked with Jeff on the poach on the Col Alto Hampton Inn. Jeff who? Jeff Vanke. Mr. Vanke is running as an Independent, a centrist, against Mr. Goodlatte. Try as I could, I could not put Jeff into an R or a D box.
Jeff Vanke believes that neither major party fully understands the public’s angry mood. Maybe a few votes for Vanke can light a fire under our nine-term congressman. But, don’t count on it. Whether you support Bob Goodlatte or not, there is a need to change how business is conducted in Washington. Or are the Republicans again going to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory?
Bob, how about no more earmarks to go along with your balanced budget amendment? Show some leadership. Otherwise why have a safe seat? A no earmarks bill can be the “No Broken Windows Bill” for the federal government. When local governments (New York City is the best example) made strong efforts to reduce serious crime they first stopped tolerating broken school windows. Crime rates went down.
Four items on my early Christmas wish list: (1) a Democratic Party like the one we had before 1972; (2) a Republican Party that takes ideas from the tea party movement, not just their votes; (3) a GOP excited about governing, not just playing pin the tail on the donkey; and (4) true independents like Jeff Vanke to be heard.
This month I had another defining moment. In Princeton, New Jersey, where Albert Einstein once lived, I bought a poster. It hangs in my garage. There was his familiar pipe, along with this and other quotations: “Wisdom is not the product of schooling, but of the lifelong attempt to acquire it.” On Tuesday our political class will have a postgraduate exam in wisdom. Many are predicted to fail.
Column by David Reynolds
Bradley Rees: A time for choosing
“A political battle is merely a skirmish fought with muskets. A philosophical battle is a nuclear war.” These words were written by Ayn Rand way back in 1964. This sentiment was, at one time, shared by the Tea Party groups that inhabit central Virginia. They understood that the time for fixing those metaphorical rusty bayonets to unreliable antique muskets was past, and that a new war was raging.
This new struggle represents a fundamental disagreement over the very philosophical basis of our great Republic, and whether our future course will reflect or even remotely resemble it.
There are still a few who recognize this central fact upon which the national Tea Party movement was built, but there are many more who fall into the ranks of what the central Virginia Tea Party has now become: yet another partisan group, concerned merely with short-term political victory. Preferably Republican.
There are far too many examples of this paradigm shift to include in the limited space allotted here, so the most egregious will have to suffice. During the 5th District GOP primary, 6 truly conservative candidates garnered over fifty-two percent of the vote, giving a clear indication of their lack of enthusiasm for and/or trust of State Senator Robert Hurt.
Tea Party leaders throughout the Fighting Fifth also voiced their displeasure with his voting record, some even going so far as to formally endorse other candidates.
But all that changed rapidly, once the primary was over. The GOP, which already had their hooks deep into the local Tea Party groups, began flexing their muscles even more.
The whispers of “Come with us. We’ve been around longer and we understand how to get things done in politics” gained volume and force, and the Tea Party groups (and some former primary candidates) believed that they were becoming the bestest buddies of the GOP. They were convinced they would be granted a prime place at the GOP table, if only they would capitulate, grovel, and compromise “just this once.”
And the Tea Parties, throwing caution to the wind and consciously ignoring those old warnings from Mom and Dad, accepted the sucker and climbed into the panel van with the nice man who was surely sent by Mom to pick them up, just as he told them he was.
Some have said that the Tea Party movement has been hijacked. I disagree and submit that it is much more in keeping with the preceding scenario; a consensual kidnapping.
The next indication that local Tea Party groups have confused this battle with a political one is their shameful treatment of Independent conservative Jeff Clark. The fear campaign from the right has convinced Tea Party “leaders” that the future of the entire Republic hinges on Virginia’s Fifth District.
In a classic case of missing the forest and running face-first into an individual tree, they have conflated Tom Perriello with Nancy Pelosi, his values and record be damned.
I am by no means a Perriello supporter, as evidenced by the fact that I launched a campaign to run against him, before the ’08 recount was even finalized. My concern here is that principles be paramount.
I know Tom’s principles, and I know Jeff’s. Because they both draw their principles from a deeply-held personal philosophy. Robert Hurt’s principles, according to me and every single candidate that challenged him in the primary, are skin deep and subject to change without a moment’s notice.
The local Tea Parties staunchly opposed Hurt in the primary. This race is being watched closely on a national (and even international) level. Adding those two factors together, a victory by Robert Hurt next Tuesday will be trumpeted by the vast majority of the national media as an embarrassing defeat for the Tea Party movement.
To return to the beginning: “A philosophical battle is a nuclear war.” And a vote for Robert Hurt is the equivalent of signing a unilateral disarmament treaty in 1977.
Bradley S. Rees resides in Bedford.
Another Dem-less year in the Sixth
It had been 10 years since the last Democratic Party nominee challenge to Republican Bob Goodlatte when Sam Rasoul made a run at the Sixth District seat in 2008. Goodlatte’s 61 percent showing in 2008 was convincing enough to convince Democrats not to field a candidate against the incumbent in 2010. The question today – is it too early to write off 2012 as well?
“The 2012 cycle is probably just as difficult, because you’ll have the president on the ballot, and it’s almost certain that the Republican presidential nominee will win this district, so the coattail effect would also be on Goodlatte’s side looking ahead to 2012,” said Isaac Wood, a political analyst at the University of Virginia Center for Politics.
Candidate recruitment can be tough in the Sixth, which stretches from Harrisonburg to Roanoke along the spine of Interstate 81 and juts over to Lynchburg along the Route 29 corridor in one of the more conservative congressional districts in the country.
Goodlatte received 61.5 percent of the vote in his re-election contest with Rasoul in ’08. GOP presidential nominee John McCain received 56.9 percent of the vote in the Sixth in ’08, and Republican Senate nominee Jim Gilmore picked up 40.8 percent of the vote in his race against Democrat Mark Warner, his best showing in a race in which Gilmore got only 33.7 percent of the votes cast statewide.
The best bet for Democrats, Wood said, would be “another Democratic wave year, like 2006 or 2008,” except that even in 2008, with Rasoul running a nearly two-year-long campaign, and polling better through early September than Tom Perriello was doing over in the Fifth in advance of Perriello’s eventual upset win over Republican Virgil Goode, Democrats were still bushwhacked.
Perhaps the best insight into Democrats’ chances in the Sixth comes from retired Bridgewater College history and politics professor David McQuilkin, who has long said that the best hopes for local Democrats to land one of their own in Congress would involve being redistricted into another congressional district.
Goodlatte appears infallible at this point, and thoughts of his retirement don’t make light appear at the end of the tunnel given the paucity of elected Democrats in the district.
“Recruiting can be difficult. You don’t have a deep Democratic bench in the Sixth,” Wood said. “There isn’t a slew of popular elected Democrats at the state level. You don’t have candidates who have been almost successful in the past running for Congress. That adds another set of challenges.”
Story by Chris Graham. Chris can be reached at freepress2@ntelos.net.
Tea, latte and T-Mac
Column by Chris Graham
freepress2@ntelos.net
I had a good conversation with a colleague today who happens to be a Tea Partier. I told him how I was planning to write a column today on the shocking vote in Utah over the weekend that ousted Sen. Bob Bennett from the upcoming Senate Republican primary, and how it seems to me that the Tea Party is running the risk of making itself and the Republican Party electorally irrelevant by demanding strict ultraconservtive ideological purity. Read more
David Mills: More than a soundbite
Posted by afp on April 26, 2011 · Leave a Comment
Sloganeering is easy. Governing is hard. The trouble really starts when our representatives make promises so completely driven by campaign slogans that there is no way to actually make good on them. That inability to deliver is exactly where Virginia Republicans find themselves right now.
In 2009 candidate Bob McDonnell (R) told Virginians that privatizing the state’s Alcohol and Beverage System would be a painless way to find hundreds of millions of dollars for transportation. Gov. Bob McDonnell quickly found out that his plan would actually cost taxpayers money, but given the promises he made on the stump, he blindly went ahead and tried to get it passed anyway. It has become a classic example of slogan-guided politics failing to solve a big problem.
In 2010, candidates John Boehner, Eric Cantor and Paul Ryan told Americans they had a plan to cut the national debt without raising revenue. They failed to mention what we all learned shortly after they took the majority in the House of Representatives: Their deficit reduction plan breaks America’s promise to the elderly and the poor on items like Medicare and Medicaid, and then spends that money on tax cuts for corporations and the wealthiest Americans.
That plan, which Nobel Prize winning Economist Paul Krugman calls “a sick joke,” is the product of a Republican Party that recognizes the need to take action but is too bound by the rigid dogma (and their Tea Party base) that got them elected to propose a serious solution.
As good as Republicans are at campaigning, we are now seeing how poorly their slogan-driven election efforts prepare them to govern. Conversely, Democrats, who are often better at governing than they are at campaigning, are taking on complex policy challenges with clarity and purpose. Last week President Obama (D) put forth his own plan to reduce the national debt that offers a serious path to avoiding the looming crisis without leaving the elderly and the needy out in the cold.
During that speech, President Obama forcefully articulated what Republicans hope we all forget on Election Day: the solutions to the problems we face don’t often fit on a bumper sticker or in a tweet. Paul Ryan introduced a budget plan that in bumper sticker form sounded pretty good to a lot of serious people. But, as Krugman points out, upon close inspection, “The only real things in it were savage cuts in aid to the needy and the uninsured, huge tax cuts for corporations and the rich, and Medicare privatization. All the alleged cost savings were pure fantasy.”
Paul Ryan and the Republicans are proving that government by campaign slogan isn’t just dishonest; it’s dangerous to the health of this Commonwealth and this nation. President Obama, Sens. Mark Warner (D-Va.) and Jim Webb (D-Va.), and our Virginia Democrats in Congress and in state government continue to strive for serious solutions to serious and complex problems. The sooner the Republicans drop the dogma and come to the table, the sooner we can confront our challenges and build a brighter future for this country.
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