2017 General Election Elected 56 – 44
A general statement, maybe even a homily.
We all try to control the world we live in. When we do, we find that there are constraints on our efforts — bosses, colleagues, landlords, spouses, politicians, other voters. Democracy is a way for people as a whole to attempt to exercise that control, imperfectly, of course, because there are so many of us with different goals and different understandings of how to achieve those goals.
When the institutions that reflect our goals fail us, we replace or supplement them. These Notes are intended to supplement the institutions of the Democratic Party such as the DNC and the DCCC which have not served us well.
In the conversations about what our country’s politics should be, the Democratic Party, on balance, is the right instrument. The Democratic Party advocates policies through which people can achieve their goals and live a good life. Many of the goals of the Republican are distasteful (a universally armed society, for instance). Even when ultimate goals are shared, too many of the Republican Party solutions are cruel and based on cupidity.
Most of us have only a modest capacity to control the world we live in. Some of us so despair, that violence seems a reasonable alternative for attempting to control the political world. Six years ago, a Democratic Congresswoman was shot by someone who disdained her politics. A few hours ago a Republican Congressman was shot by someone who disdained his politics. These acts are terrible offenses, offenses against those attacked and offenses against moral and civic order. We rightly condemn them.
These Notes are an expression of hope that we can find a way to exercise some modest control of our world through ordinary political means — electing people whose goals and solutions and affiliation are reasonably consistent with ours. Join me in that hope.
The ordinary work.
The Virginia primaries are over.
A part of that work has been to help make Virginia more truly and more consistently a Blue state. It is an important place because of its location near Washington DC. It is an even more important place for its location in time. Virginia holds its elections in odd years. This year it will elect a Governor, a Lt. Governor, an Attorney General, and its entire House of Delegates. The entire state Senate will be up for election in 2019.
What Virginia and every state does affects us all. Each state is a model for the rest of the country, but that is especially true for a state that votes in 2017. All states except those with only a single Congressional district create legislative districts which, if unfairly created, tilt Congress unfairly.
Recently, Virginia has been Blue at the top. It has had two Democratic US Senators, a Democratic Governor, a Democratic Lt. Governor, and a Democratic Attorney General. Governors and Lt. Governors in Virginia are limited to a single term. Although the current Democratic governor is popular, he is unable to run for Governor in 2017.
This Note is intended to urge readers to support the current Lt. Governor, Ralph Northamhttp://ralphnortham.com/about/ in his candidacy for Governor. The election is, in a way, a test of whether the Democratic Party can stay together after a difficult primary and whether the Republican Party can stay together after a difficult primary.
On first look, the Republican should have the more difficult time. The Republican nominee won the primary by just over 1% against a candidate who was described as a neo-Confederate; who had been a Trump operative, but was so excessive that even the Trump campaign fired him. While the primary may have weakened the Republican nominee, he was a very strong candidate for the Senate in 2014 — losing to Senator Mark Warner by 1%. Warner had won his Senate seat in 2008 by a 2-1 margin, 65% to 34%.
Can Ralph Northam win decisively or will he be faced with the candidate who really tested Mark Warner? Ralph Northam was tested fairly severely himself. Although he beat his opponent by 11 percentage points, the contest was unusual. Some people have thought of the primary as a contest between a moderate and a progressive Democrat. Northam’s opponent was supported by national progressive leaders – Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren. Ralph Northam was supported by the Democratic Governor of Virginia. The local connections prevailed.
What kind of Democrat is Ralph Northam? For a long time, he was not a Democrat. Son of a nurse and a Virginia judge, he was the kind of kid who is going places. A high school basketball player, the salutatorian of his graduating class, he was voted “most likely to succeed.” For college, he went to VMI (the Virginia Military Institute). Democrats are scarce at VMI, one of the most conservative non-religious colleges in the country.
After college, he went to a local medical school and then joined the military, serving as an army physician from 1984 to 1992, getting further training as a pediatric neurologist. As a civilian, he was affiliated as a pediatric neurologist with the Hospital of the King’s Daughters in Norfolk, VA.
Although he acknowledged he had voted for GW Bush in 2000 and 2004, he ran for the Virginia State Senate as a Democrat in 2007, beating a Republican incumbent. He ran for Lt. Governor as a Democrat in 2013 (candidates for Governor and Lt. Governor run separately in Virginia) and won by 10 percentage points.
What kind of Democrat is Ralph Northam? He described himself as fiscally conservative and socially progressive. Republicans saw him as conservative enough so that they sought to recruit him to change parties — a change at that time would have, through the tie-breaking vote of the Lt. Governor, given Republicans control of the state Senate.
What kind of Democrat is Ralph Northam? The NY Times describes him as courtly, with a manner that would resemble a Virginia governor of 30 years ago. The Times says that Ralph Northamworried both Republicans and Democrats — Republicans because he will take their voters and Democrats because he might lose their most fiery supporters.
Ralph Northam is the kind of Democrat who, as a white man, usually attends a predominantly African-American Baptist Church. As a state Senator and as Lt. Governor, he has supported funding for education, gun control, and abortion rights. He describes himself as being passionately supportive of ensuring mental health services and early childhood education, of closing the achieving gap and services for at-risk children. He is willing to allow his candidacy to be seen as a kind of second term for the current Democratic governor. That’s a modesty which stands out in a world of megalomaniacal politicians.
What kind of Democrats are we? Will Democrats join together to support Ralph Northam? His primary opponent endorsed him immediately after the primary result was clear. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren will undoubtedly support Ralph Northam. What about their followers? Will the Democrats of Virginia, those who voted against Ralph Northamin the primary, provide the support he needs to be the Democratic Governor.
Ralph Northamhttp://ralphnortham.com/about/is a candidate we should support. His victory in November would serve as a model for 2018 elections. His election will be central to the effort to elect a Democratic House of Delegates for Virginia, to make Virginia a truly Blue state. Give him some support. The election is less than five months away.
