History repeats itself

Changing demographics has the Republican Party scrambling to hold on to power in the states and to regain a chance to win the presidency (even if they don't win the popular vote). But, instead of putting forth new ideas with broad appeal Republicans across the nation are pushing various schemes to rig election rules in their favor. If this sounds like trying to deny the will of the people, you are absolutely right. If it sounds like something new in American politics, you are dead wrong.

Voter ID laws designed to limit citizen participation have been and are still being proposed in state after state including the commonwealth. Not satisfied with gerrymandering just every ten years, the GOP members of the Virginia Senate are pushing a ultra-partisan redistricting plan they hope will pump up the number of Republican leaning districts giving them an electoral advantage. And across the country, but most especially in "presidential blue states" where Republicans control the legislatures, they are advocating for changes in how electors are chosen.

When parties fall out of step with the will of people, desperation sets in as politicians try to hold on to power. As is happening today with Republicans, it also happened in the late 1790s and early 1800s as Federalists felt power slipping through their fingers. James Madison words to Thomas Jefferson about Federalists could just as well be written about today's GOP: "The horrors which they evidently feel at the approach of the electoral epoch are a sufficient warning of the desperate game by which they will be apt to characterize the interval."

Jefferson was fully aware of the Federalist's strategy, writing to his daughter, Patsy: "Our opponents perceive the decay of their power. Still they are pressing it, and trying to pass laws to keep themselves in power."

The influential New York Federalist, Alexander Hamilton, devised a plan to get Governor John Jay to change election laws to deny the will of the people in the selection of presidential electors. Hamilton implored Jay: "In times like this in which we live, it will not do to be over-scrupulous."

Flashing forward to today's Republican acts of desperation, it at least fair to point out that some in the party are urging a focus on issues of the American people rather than a strategy of rigging the political game. Even Governor Bob McDonnell and Lt. Governor Bill Bolling are urging the Senate to back off on the redistricting. Perhaps they hear the echo of John Jay's words in response to Hamilton's ploy: "Proposing a measure for party purposes, which I think it would not become me to adopt." Or perhaps they are recalling the fate of the Federalist Party which, although it left a lasting imprint on the young nation, was nearly extinct by the 1820s.

Stage Fright

Governor Bob McDonnell used a stage provided by Virginia taxpayers, the State Capitol, to deliver the GOP response to President Barack Obama's State of the Union message. In his short talk, the Virginia governor was surrounded by adoring Virginians of all backgrounds who demonstrated a unique talent at reacting to the "Applaud Now!" cards periodically posted by stage hands. Mr. McDonnell appealed to bipartisanship (not found in the room) by often quoting a founding father of the Democratic Party, Thomas Jefferson.

Tongue.

Cheek.

Exit stage right.

Got his Bell rung?

Just a few days after saying he wants a civil and positive campaign based on issues, Republican nominee Dickie Bell has broken his first promise. Responding to a News Virginian reporter's question, Curren suggested four debates. Before a hand delivered proposal could arrive, the reporter raised the question of debates with Bell. Dickie lashed out and went negative, saying "... here in the Valley, if you want to challenge a man to a debate, you do it to his face, not through the media." Hey Aaron... I mean Dickie... I think that is protocol for a duel, not a debate.

Then Bell proceeded to toss out all the buzz words he learned Monday night, things like "liberal" or charging that Erik Curren was new to the area. Huh? Like I've lived here about 40 years and to some I'm still a newcomer. Bell went on to allege the debates would be "staged" and he doubted their value in influencing voters. Interesting that a man who loves quoting one of the founding fathers of the Democratic Party, understands so little of what Thomas Jefferson means for us today - democracy.

Maybe we should give Mr. Bell a pass for now - after all he's only been a candidate for a few days and clearly hasn't gotten his game face on and the issues clarified. But, we should hold him to his promise of a positive issues-oriented campaign and tell him to drop the buzz words and cheap shots. With an open seat and two new faces vying for votes, Curren's proposal of four 90-minute debates - one each in Staunton, Augusta, Bridgewater, and Highland - makes a lot of sense. If Bell can't agree to at least that, he will have failed the vision of the man he loves to quote.

Happy Independence Day

"When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bonds which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security. --Such has been the patient sufferance of these colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former systems of government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over these states. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world."

Full text of the Declaration of Independence.

Happy Birthday TJ

Happy 266th Birthday, Mr. Jefferson!

On this date in 1643 our 3rd president, author of the Declaration of Independence, and founder of the University of Virginia, Thomas Jefferson, was born in Albemarle County, Virginia. A birthday celebration is planned at Monticello this afternoon.

I've sometimes wondered what Mr. Jefferson would think if we could bring him back to observe and comment on the United States of America in 2009.

• He'd likely be very surprised and very proud of Barack Obama in the White House.
• He'd be appalled about the undue role of religion in the public sqaure.
• He'd marvel at the progress of science but be shocked at those who use ideology to question its findings.
• He'd be proud of his university, but (after learning the games) probably wish UVA would achieve more success on the football field and basketball court.
• He'd be dismayed at the Bush administration's dismantling of our constitutional rights.
• He'd offer suggestions (based on his own experience) for dealing with piracy on the high seas.

On this his birthday, it is instructive to read what he deemed the important accomplishments of his life. Jefferson died at Monticello on the 5oth Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. His epitaph:

HERE WAS BURIED

THOMAS JEFFERSON

AUTHOR OF THE

DECLARATION

OF AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE

OF THE

STATUTE OF VIRGINIA

FOR

RELIGIOUS FREEDOM

AND FATHER OF THE

UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA

BORN APRIL 2, 1743 O.S.

DIED JULY 4, 1826

More on Thomas Jefferson in his Official White House Biography and on Wikipedia.

What do you think would shock, amuse, or pleasantly surprise Mr. Jefferson if he walked among us today?

Almost Christmas

Tomorrow is Christmas Eve. Hope your family is gathering, the hearth warm, the pantry full.

Speaking of pantries, yesterday I stopped by the Verona Community Food Pantry to drop off a donation and to volunteer to help get them an online presence. The parking lot was full, the staff was hustling to keep up with all the clients. With layoffs, heating bills, etc. lots of people need help. Send your donation to Verona Community Food Pantry at PO Box 187, Verona, VA 24482.

Cold today so I made Broa, a Portuguese Corn Bread. Very interesting round loaf with nice crust, a light texture, and earthy flavor. And corn!

Sunday evening we visited Monticello for an evening tour that included going to the 3rd floor Dome Room which isn't on the normal tour. I've been to TJ's place 8-10 times (2nd time in the Dome) and I always learn something new about the man and Monticello. As we gathered in the new gift shop/museum who should walk in but the former deposed Speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates, Vance Wilkins. I was glad he, and his extended family, were in the other tour group - it would have sickened me to hear any of his BS comments about wingnut Virginia Republicans being the natural heirs of Jefferson's legacy.

Merry Christmas to all. Even Vance.

At this moment in our history . . .

Mark Warner rocked the Democratic National Convention and the "Warner Watch Party" I attended. As Warner took the podium the 25 or so folks who had been enjoying friends and food became quiet, intently watching and listening to our former governor and next senator bring Virginia values to the national stage.

Warner had many great lines, but his closing quote from Virginian and founder of the Democratic Party, Thomas Jefferson, captured the essence of this historic turning point in American history. Sorry, I won't cite the quote here. You'll have to watch Warner's great speech to hear, in context, Jefferson's wisdom for yesterday, today, and tomorrow.

Flew the Coop

Flew the coop for a few days of camping and kayaking on the Shenandoah River. Nice change of scenery and activities. Visited one night by four screech owls who roosted in a tree less than 20 feet above our campsite. Although I hear them often, I only occasionally see an owl and this was the most up close and personal I've ever been with one, not to mention four. They stayed close well into the night.

One early morning while heading out for ice I was scanning AM radio for a weather forecast. Ah, the "soothing" voice of Pat Robertson coming from the cheap speakers in my truck. My "favorite" minister was introducing a tape of a speaker addressing the intentions of the Founding Fathers in creating a Christian nation. The speaker's credentials were "well-established" as holding a bachelors degree from some Bible college and an honorary masters from some seminary. I'd never heard of either institution but if you weren't listening closely, I suppose it sounded great. I'd never heard of him either, which is why, I guess, that I can't remember his name right now.

He began railing against the "secular humanists" and the ACLU who are taking God out of the public square. Giving selected facts from a couple court cases, he clearly was having no trouble working up the friendly audience in whatever venue (it was supposed to be in our heathen capitol, Washington, D.C.) he was speaking. Establishment Clause, Free Exercise, nowhere is "separation of church and state" found in the Constitution . . . . On and on he went in a carefully moderated voice (don't want to sound unreasonable like some fire and brimstone revival preacher) designed to sooth and reassure the listener.

Blessedly, I rounded a mountain and the radio went to static. Punching seek, I quickly found a station with the sought after weather forecast.

I've been reading Jon Meacham's American Gospel: God, the Founding Fathers, and the Making of a Nation. It is a great refresher course in the role of religion in politics and government as it developed during the colonial period, the Revolutionary War and Declaration of Independence, the drafting of the Constitution and First Amendment, and how religion has been used and abused by presidents and other political and religious leaders. Meacham does a great job with the early history but seems to skim over more recent controversies and extremist uses of religion in the public square.

It is not my intent to rehash American Gospel, but rather to encourage you to give some thought to the proper role of religion in American government and politics as we get deeper in the presidential campaign. Religion will be a factor - both John McCain and Barack Obama spoke to evangelicals over the past weekend. Religious prejudice has entered some blogs commenting on the congressional race in Virginia's 6th District.

It is clear to me that "public religion" has a role in campaigns, political rhetoric, elections, and governing. By public religion I mean the notion of a "Creator" or "Nature's God" as expressed by the deist, Thomas Jefferson, in the Declaration of Independence. Public religion speaks to our fundamental rights and liberties. The term as coined by Ben Franklin and supported by many presidents beginning with George Washington, that held that "religion and morality" were important aspects of society, but did not control it. Public religion is not the same thing as private belief. Public religion unites. Private belief divides.

The past two elections (actually, this has gone on since at least the election of 1800) have seen the corrosive effects of using religion, especially private belief, to divide us, to foster hate, to win elections at the cost of governing a more united American people. We will be far better off by following the excellent advice of Justice Sandra Day O'Connor:

Reasonable minds can disagree about how to apply the Religion Clauses in a given case, but the goal of the Clauses is clear - to carry out the Founder's plan of preserving religious liberty to the fullest extent in a pluralistic society. By enforcing the Clauses, we have kept religion a matter for the individual conscience, not for the prosecutor or bureaucrat. At a time when we see around the world the violent consequences of the assumption of religious authority by government, Americans may count themselves fortunate - our regard for constitutional boundaries has protected us from similar travails, while allowing private religious exercise to flourish.

In spite of what Pat Robertson and others would have you believe, religion is indeed flourishing in our nation. Extreme voices like Robertson would have their private belief trump our public religion.

There will be other extreme voices screaming for attention on talk radio, in blogs, and in commercials between now and November. Some will be brazen, hateful, and easy to spot and debunk. Other messengers will be more subtle, more polished, and spread their disgusting message with a wink and a smile. Whenever and wherever you confront the politics of religious bigotry and extremism speak out to reject the message. This November we should elect candidates based on character, qualification, issues and their ability to bring us together as a people. The Rovian politics of divide and conquer have no place.

Peck, peck.