A slightly counterintuitive argument on the antigay Republican politics of Virginia

Just to be clear about this before I start: I was appalled that Republican Bob McDonnell could be elected governor of Virginia and absolutely horrified that Ken Cuccinelli was elected attorney general.  In fact, I can’t even remember who else ran for attorney general -- all I know is that I voted for the candidate that was NOT Ken Cuccinelli. As a current Virginia resident who also happened to go to college in the state lo these many years ago, I’m mortified that Cuccinelli has wasted little time exercising his anti-gay bias by asking to Virginia’s public colleges and universities to end their anti-discrimination policies for LGBT staff and students.

So, I’m horrified, most reasonable people are at least perplexed, and Virginia is once again looking foolish on the national stage. On one level, I’m outraged and, like Equality Virginia, want Gov. McDonnell to step in and support an employment discrimination bill (the lack of which he claims makes Cuccinelli’s “request” appropriate).

Then again, I’m not so sure I want him to.

Don’t forget, McDonnell went out of his way to run a smiling-face, moderate-middle campaign -- despite his long ties to Pat Robertson and not-so-long-ago writings about the evils of homosexuality and other social conservative hobby horses. That impression helped get him elected (as did, to be sure, an inept Democratic campaign). Cuccinelli seems to have been crazed from day one, but apparently those middle-of-the-road voters were willing to take a chance.

Long point short, on some level we should want Cuccinelli and McDonnell to show the full crazy on gay issues that we know they have. We’ve certainly spent time warning everyone that McDonnell was not moderate, that he was beholden to the Pat Robertson school of religion that believes natural disasters are the result of God’s fits of pique. Given that we’ve warned everyone what would happen if they elected this dynamic duo, don’t we kind of want/need them to do exactly what we said they were going to do?

I say that not because I want LGBT Virginians to suffer. I say it because I want the old guard, homophobic Republican guard of Virginia to suffer. These guys are political maniacs who, to a large extent, are confined to state legislative districts. Having some of their own boys in charge as the governor and attorney general is a chance to highlight exactly how retrograde their attitudes are.

If you want to get rid of them, you have to encourage them.

I really do believe that most people -- particularly those in the every-growing Northern Virginia area, but people in the state beyond as well -- are not hard core bigots and homophobes. Of those people who are willing to vote either Democrat or Republican depending on issues and context, I believe most don’t care much for the aggressive anti-gay tactics of the far right (hence McDonnell’s carefully centrist, “I’m from NoVa” campaign”).

I also believe that McDonnell and, especially, Cuccinelli, have deep-rooted animus towards LGBT people -- towards me, my husband and my family. We should all protest and campaign and lobby to combat them. But, in the end, I don’t want them to hide it -- I want them to own it, and pursue it. Sooner, rather than later, it will make it easier to hold them, and their party, accountable.

All that said, looking back on the debacle that was the Democratic primary and general campaign for the governorship, I still wouldn’t have voted for effin’ Terry McAuliffe. Note to Democrats: Better candidates next time, please.

Comments

[Brad Eickholt]

You raise a fair point. Until they actually follow through with their ideas, the arguments against them are merely "slippery slope," i.e. this is what is going to happen if you vote for them. If they actually do it, then the argument is "look at what they've done" and there is no "he did this 20 years ago" defense, like they used for McDonnell.

Let's just hope they don't get too far down the road before they have to face the voters again...