With Democrats in control, the challenge is to govern
The gift that never stopped giving to them — Donald Trump — will remain sufficiently available for autumn campaign fodder
It could be — this is just an argument — that Virginia Democrats could do themselves a political favor by simply governing well.
Starting now. No time like the present.
After all, Democrats run the show. New president. New Congress. And, here in Virginia, Democrats command statewide political offices and rule the General Assembly.
True enough, Republicans are conscientiously cranking up their campaigns for the fall elections — governor, lt. governor and attorney general, along with all 100 seats of the House of Delegates.
The GOP may make some headway. You never know. I just wouldn’t stake the farm on it.
First, the gift that never stopped giving to the Democrats — Donald Trump — will remain sufficiently available for autumn campaign fodder. Democrats will milk The Donald, the insurrection, the chaos, etc., for all it’s worth.
Second, no matter what the new state redistricting panel produces, it won’t be good for the GOP. The districts have to follow the population and that means more representation for Northern Virginia.
Which, come to think of it, requires amending what I just wrote. It’s not precisely Democrats running the show in Virginia. It’s Northern Virginia Democrats.
Let me pause on that point: Hampton Roads legislators have heft, in some cases, by virtue of seniority. Some notable elected figures get heard, exercise influence, no question.
It’s just that our regional lawmakers seemingly struggle to think or act on the basis of the region. Provincial, local jurisdictional demands, not to mention demographic pressures, tend to be more politically compelling.
Yes, our region. Hampton Roads. Or whatever else you want to call it. We need a king.
Or a queen. A monarch of Tidewater. A commanding figure with a sense of place and boldly ready to act broadly (as opposed to narrowly — our enduring, achingly familiar habit).
Every so often, over the years, we get contenders to royalty. Ed Brickell. Meyera Oberndorf. Bill Harvey. Hunter Andrews. Anne Kilgore. Henry Clay Hofheimer. Dr. C. Waldo Scott. Tom Chisman. Chris Jones. Josh Darden. Frank Batten. John “Dubby” Wynn. Those are just off the top of my head and I won’t identify them. Look them up. It will be a good exercise.
But, for the time being, there is no authoritative presence, no grand fromage. Northern Virginia holds the reins and that has consequences for Virginia’s priorities and the interests of Hampton Roads.
For decades, it was all splintered up there. Not now.
So, back to the point about governing: Maybe all these new Democrats from that great mass of humanity north of Fredericksburg will get into that. Maybe they will combine with others and think largely.
It would do us all good. “Us” meaning Virginia, as a whole. I’m operating in optimism mode, you understand.
It’s starts with getting some perspective — a perspective of how the state geographically breaks down, economically and culturally, and discovering where common interests exist.
That used to be more built into state government. While far from ideal, the long period of Democratic Party hegemony in Virginia effectively created an institutional farm system.
Election to the General Assembly, in other words, did not constitute entry into the major leagues. You got experience and, if reelected, you built up seniority and earned more responsibility.
All that abruptly ended roughly 20 years ago when the GOP won majorities in the House of Delegates and the state Senate. In with the new.
But the “new” included many lawmakers who took their marching orders from the car radio and drew on model legislation prepared by the conservative American Legislative Exchange Council.
Too much of it had a generalized, national ideological tilt, as opposed to a specific Virginia ideological tilt. There is a difference.
Newly-hatched GOP lawmakers, as a consequence, appeared in Richmond with all the answers — even though those answers made little political sense in Virginia specifically.
So, what do you know? The Republicans eventually hit a wall.
Now, it’s all too obvious that Virginia Democrats risk a variant of the same problem. The bubbling, ideological fervor of their party’s adherents threatens to drive the agenda.
To paraphrase Joe Biden
— our new president — every sentence out of a Democrat has to be more than a noun, a verb and “climate change.”
Yes, the inaugural was relieving, liberating, hopeful. But we have to make good on the spirit of the thing and allow the political pendulum to center itself, sans the wild swings from one extreme to the other.
If Democrats can govern — govern with some unifying purpose — they may last.
After writing editorials for the Daily Press and The Virginian-Pilot in the 1980s, Gordon C. Morse wrote speeches for Gov. Gerald L. Baliles, then spent nearly three decades working on behalf of corporate and philanthropic organizations, including PepsiCo, CSX, Tribune Co., the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation and Dominion Energy. His email address is gordonmorse@msn.com.