Column by David Lampo
The headline from the Washington Times the morning after that state’s historic election said it all: “Independents fuel GOP victories.” Because the campaign of Bob McDonnell methodically ran an inclusive campaign that discussed almost exclusively the economic issues that most people care about instead of focusing on divisive hot button social issues, independent and moderate voters came back to the GOP in a big way. The populous counties of Fairfax, Prince William, and Loudoun, for example, all flipped back to the Republicans after supporting Democrats in the past two statewide elections.
The editors at another conservative Virginia paper, the Washington Examiner, agreed. “The leading shifts within the electorate that produced Bob McDonnell’s win in Virginia and Chris Christie’s victory in New Jersey were among independents and voters who worry most about the economy,” the paper said. And they reiterated a political truism: “America remains a centrist nation with a distinct tilt to the right.” But there are some on the right in Virginia, the folks who routinely traffic in divisive and sometimes hateful language, that see the recent election results as a mandate to pursue their discriminatory social agenda. The day after the election, for example, The Family Foundation, perhaps Virginia’s leading religious right organization, sent an e-mail to its supporters claiming credit for the Republican victory, saying that their efforts “had an incredible effect on voter turnout,” as if merely turning out the so-called social conservative base can ever win a statewide election. Warning that it will be pushing its “pro-family” proposals and “legislation that reflects our values,” the foundation is offering up the same tired, anti-equality stew that helped turn Virginia blue for the past decade. Talk of an anti-equality mandate from voters is merely self-serving spin from the folks who know it well.
The new McDonnell administration must not lose sight of the kind of campaign that led to its victory: one that repeatedly proclaimed, for example, that state employment should be based on merit, not sexual orientation or any other irrelevant criteria. When candidate McDonnell stated that “government should not discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation,” he was merely restating the basic Republican principles of limited government and personal freedom, not to mention equal protection of the law. He also has the vast majority of Virginia voters on his side, as polling consistently shows.
Indeed, it appears that Gov.-elect McDonnell and his team aren’t buying the rightwing spin. The new governor stated at his post-election news conference that he will govern as he campaigned, someone focused on the economic issues that unite Republicans. And most people around the new governor know that one of the keys to victory was adopting a position of social tolerance, despite what the candidate’s personal views might be. “When we stay broad-based, we win. When we become narrow and divisive, we lose,” said former congressman and McDonnell campaign adviser Tom Davis. Any attempt to reunite Republican governance with the intolerant agenda of the far right will once again push moderates and independents back into the Democratic column. And it will energize the pro-tolerance 18-30 voters, whose participation in this latest election plummeted from 2008, to come out once again for the Democrats.
The lesson from this month’s election is crystal clear, but Republicans who truly believe in basing government on traditional Republican principles instead of their own personal religious values will have to stay vigilant against those who would take us back to the culture wars and lost elections of the past decade. That fight isn’t over. In fact, it’s only just begun.
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