V for Victory

WE WON!

Byrne, Bolling Take Lt. Governor's Races

Virginia voters yesterday chose two nominees with strong appeal for core loyalists in their respective parties as candidates for lieutenant governor this November.

State Sen. Bill Bolling (R-Hanover), a veteran state lawmaker and a leader of the legislature's antitax contingent, convincingly defeated a well-funded challenge from Prince William Board of County Supervisors Chairman Sean T. Connaughton to win the Republican Party nomination.

On the Democratic side, former state delegate, senator and U.S. representative Leslie L. Byrne beat back three competitors, including Del. J. Chapman Petersen of Fairfax, for her party's nomination. Byrne, 58, has long been known for her outspoken style in support of abortion rights and gay rights, as well as expanded health care and the environment. Yesterday's win represented the first step of a political comeback for Byrne, who lost her state Senate seat in 2002 when district lines were redrawn.

"We put together a grass-roots effort, and it paid off," Byrne said. "We won in places like Staunton, in places like Winchester, not just in Northern Virginia."

Byrne had perhaps the best name recognition in her party from more than two decades in politics. Voters at several polls said they felt comfortable with her long record.

"I know her -- she's a woman and she's been good for Fairfax," said county resident Elyse Galik, 51.

I knew all those hours stuffing envelopes, scanning data, and making phone calls - hundreds, thousands of phone calls - would pay off. The margin isn't as wide as I would like, but in a four-way competitive race you can't expect too much. Especially when turnout was as abysmal - 8 percent, by some counts - as it was.

The victory party was held at an Italian restaurant which served us all the bruschetta and priscuitto we could ask for, with a big dry-erase board on one wall to tally up the vote returns as they came in. Leslie was in the lead from the very beggining, and never fell less than six points ahead.

When it became clear that victory was imminent, attorney general candidate Creigh Deeds and gubernatorial candidate Tim Kaine showed up to offer their congratulations. Deeds is a personable guy who greeted me by name (we had met before at the Memorial Day parade) while Kaine simply shook hands and made what I assume is the standard what-a-great-team-we're-gonna-move-(this state)-forward speech. Leslie then got up and began to thank all of her supporters who were crowding the room, but quickly had to retire lest she start crying. It was an illuminating moment.

Now, on to the general. It'll be a battle of polar opposites - or, at least, as far apart as two mainstream American politicians can get. But that's the primary system for you, even though Virginia has an open primary.

Unfortunately, I won't be involved with the campaign anymore - they're moving the office to Mclean, Virginia, and I have no way of getting there. Ah, well, it's nice to be part, and I wish her all the bets in November.

Aux Armes, Citoyens

We have not eternal allies and we have not perpetual enemies. Our interests are eternal and perpetual and those interests it is out duty to follow.

- Lord Palmerston

Something that's been troubling me lately is the widespread notion that being born in a country makes you a representation of everything that country has ever done, and able to call in 'debts' from other countries for past services. And I cannot for the life of me understand the rage that occurs from the more jingoistic when another country fails to follow that idea.

That's not very well put. I'll use a current example to illustrate what I mean: the relationship between the US and France. Who gave us vital military and strategic support during the Revolutionary War? The French. Who lost over a million men in the trenches before the US decided to step in? They did. Who fought the Nazis while America was too scared to face reality or too selfish to think that Hitler concerned them? You guessed it.

And yet, you can barely spend five minutes in a 'patriotic American' crowd without hearing the French described as the most cowardly, contemptible, surrender-happy people in the world who owe the US eternal obedience for the liberation of Paris.

But let's look at what else happened in WWII. The country that sacrificed the most, suffered the most, and fought the longest against the most overwhelming odds, was the Soviet Union. The Red Army suffered losses on a scale that would've set the US Army in full retreat before the slaughter was 1/10 over. Could Vladmir Putin today stride into Poland or East Germany and declare "We saved you from the Nazis. Now do as we say!"? I doubt it.

In the end, it's all fairly irrelevant. Even if the French (or any other country) had passively sat by and it was the US alone who had fought Hitler, what does that mean for Americans today? Most of the people who fought in WWII are dead. Brave deeds aren't inheritable.

Further, the constant whine of "Those socialist wimps hate us now, but just wait till they need us again!" belies a basic misunderstanding of the situation on all levels. First of all, the Europeans do not 'hate us'. They despise the reckless and arrogant behavior of the current administration. And yes, there are some cultural snobberies, but we make up for them with out own. Second, it's not as if the EU has trade sanctions on us; we still trade, visit, and embark on international aid ventures together. And finally, 'we' need 'them' as much as the other way around, both economically and in terms of much of our shared cultural and philosophical heritage. This marriage can yet be saved.

Yet this I think is a problem with the personification of countries; the idea that each nation is, in effect, a single person, transferring the words, deeds, sins and virtues of each citizen of that nation into every citizen of said nation, and making the people who happen to be born in one place somehow the heirs of those who lived in the same place over half a century ago. For a writer of travelouges, this might be a charming literary device. As a way to decide foriegn policy, it is sentimental nonsense at best.

But don't let that stop you from ordering your freedom fries. Getting heart disease is as American as hot dogs and apple pie (both of which probably also cause heart disease).

'Blog Tag' and Randomness..

Apparently Seth the theophile has decided to afflict me with 'blog tag', which is kind of like a chain letter, but more annoying. I'll play along, but I'll do part in ending it by not tagging anyone else:

Number of books I Own: What a stupid question! Maybe hundreds, maybe thousands. I have no idea. Moving on.

Last Book I Bought (For Myself): Good-Bye to All That by Robert Graves. I always liked I Claudius, and the generation of British writers who came of age after WWI (Graves, Orwell, Dahl) have always been my favorites, and their lives are impossibly interesting.

Last Book I Read: The Luzhin Defense by Vladmir Nabakov. It took a while to become interested in a dialouge-less novel about a frankly boring chess maniac, but it draws you in little by little.

Books that Mean Alot to Me: Homage to Catalonia by George Orwell. A clear-eyed look at the better world that's possible. The Sword in the Stone by T. H. White. The first book I ever read that made real people out of all its characters; heroes, villians, fools, and sages.

I'll expand on this if I feel like it.



Oh Tom Tomorrow, sometimes you just have to do the talking for me.

Campaign Update: Chap Peterson is offering temporary tattoos. Get'em while they're hot.

Memorial Day

Yesterday was Memorial Day, and I for one spent my time walking in the Falls Church Memorial Day Parade next to Leslie Byrne, being driven in a convertible. As she waved to the crowd I had a packet of brochures in one hand and a basket of candy in the other, and I distributed campaign literature and sweets to all who wanted them. Guess which was more popular.

But they event made me think. Memorial Day is supposed to be a time to gather together and remember those who gave their lives to protect us from those who wished to do us harm. But do we really understand how those servicemen really lived and died? Did we and the military give them so much consideration when they were alive? And did we give their deaths the honor of truth that every person deserves? Even if you subscribe to the idea that war is necessary sometimes, the sheer disregard for US servicemen and women displayed by our own government and their own commanding officers (I mean the ones on top, not the ones in the field) is something unbelievable.

At the start of 2005, at least a quarter of US deaths in Iraq were in non-combat situations. This is fairly typical for an occupying army. Yet what is the family of those servicemen told? That the fallen was 'fighting for freedom' is popular, as is 'defending America'. And I'm sure that people believe those things when they hear them. They have to. Who among us could face the idea that your son, your daughter, your husband, or anyone else you loved dearly, died in vain and for no purpose at all? Who has the heart to tell someone that? What commander or politician has the courage to admit it?

No, better that the soothing balm of heroism and patriotism be applied to the whole painful affair. No one needs to know about the orders that went wrong, or the jeep that hit a pothole and rolled over, or (God forbid) the friendly fire. Thus responsibility is avoided, and the truth of war remains where most people can handle it: out of sight.

And what if the war itself was nothing but a waste and a sham built on lies and false hopes?. Not surprisingly, many veterans lash out at that idea, especially if they lost friends. Their sacrifice has to mean something, and all those America-haters who opposed the war must be wrong. In a way, they're right: their friends' deaths do mean something. Just not what they dearly hoped it would.

Pardon me for being inarticulate. I did my best.

All Politics is Local

Only in rare instances has my day-to-day existence intersected with the actual political process as it’s generally thought of in the U.S. But now, I’m a great deal more involved. You see, I’ve ended up interning for Leslie Byrne, a candidate for the lieutenant governorship of Virginia. I know, it’s not exactly high-profile; but one has to start somewhere.

Besides, in this situation I have an opportunity to actually get noticed by the candidate and the campaign. If I were working for a governor or senator (or for a presidential nominee, like I did in the fall) none of the higher-ups would even hear of me, and the candidate almost certainly wouldn’t come over to my desk and introduce herself, like Byrne did this morning.

She’s a good candidate too – a favorite of educators, pro-choice groups, the environmental lobby, and the labor unions. What else could one ask for in a Democratic candidate?

Byrne started off about 20 years ago with a seat in the Virginia House of Delegates. After Clinton came in he named her to be the nation’s consumer advocate, but in 1999 she returned to local politics and won a seat in the Virginia senate. For the 2003 election, the Republicans re-drew the district line right next to Byrne’s house, forcing her to either a.) move, or b.) challenge an incumbent Democrat for his seat. She decided to do neither for the time being, and run for lieutenant governor instead.

Our main competition in the Democratic primary is J. Chapman ‘Chap’ Peterson, a shifty-looking guy with conservative values, family connections, and enough money to buy himself an RV to tour the state in.

Other candidate include Viola Osbourne Baskerville (what a name!), a Richmond-area delegate with progressive ideals but little experience, and Phil Puckett, a former high-school principal going for the ’rustic woodsman’ vote, if his campaign photos are any indication.

As for the Republicans, I don’t know much about them. There’s ‘moderate’ Sean Connaughton and ultra-conservative Bill Bolling. Until the primary, they don’t really concern me.

So far I’ve mainly been doing office work, but I’ve also worked the phones. Our biggest hurdle with voters isn’t convincing them to vote for us, it’s making them aware that an election is even taking place! I realize it’s just the primary for lieutenant governor, but even so, the sheer apathy and alienation is sometimes rather astounding. Voting is not the most important part of democracy, especially with the electoral system as stratified as it is, but it counts for something, and if we can’t even get people to rouse themselves to go to the polling place more than once a year, we’re in serious trouble.

Updates to follow. Not everyone may find this race as fascinating as I do, so I’ll keep my comments focused on the big picture.