Can a Candidate Sell Progressive Values in Southern VA?
I hope folks read Tom Perriello's post carefully on how Dems can use a moral argument for withdrawing troops from Iraq-- and think about how amazing it would be to have someone like him replace a neanderthal like Virgil Goode from that Southern Virginia district.
Full disclosure-- Tom is a good friend of mine but he is also one of those folks who walks the walk on international justice. For the last few years, when he wasn't helping launch various progressive religous left efforts (Faithful America, Catholics for the Common Good) or launching his global MoveOn-like avaaz.org, he's been spending months and even years in Sierra Leone, Darfur and Afghanistan, talking to regular folks about how to restore sanity to lives racked by violence and oppression. He missed attending my wedding because he had previous engagements in the back hills of Afghanistan interviewing warlords and their victims, while thinking about a moral approach to counter-insurgency.
So when after working hard for years on international justice issues, he told me he was moving back home to southern Virginia to take on Virgil Goode, it wasn't that strange. Getting rid of a stone racist and reactionary just is a piece for Tom.
Folks should check out his campaign website at http://www.perrielloforcongress.com/. His campaign raised over $110,000 in his first four weeks leading up to the October 1st filings. Partly because of Tom's success, the DCCC has moved the district up to actually being a targetted race.There's a lot of talk about using "values" in campaigns and whether that means diluting progressive commitments to reach faith voters. Tom in running is doing a real world experiment in how to make a moral case for progressivism among voters that some folks think we just should avoid talking about the hard issues to. It's still a formidable challenge but Tom is definitely someone who has both the moral and political fiber to make the case.
Mr Perriello has captured the way to win. Even if you loose the election running in the way he is you have advance your agenda. The GOP earned their majority running on the principals of low taxes and fundamentalist morality. How much easier would it be to run on the principals of justice and peace.
October 30, 2007 8:08 AM | Reply | Permalink
Why do you think these counties in the sleepy rural areas of " 'Ol Virginny" have a representative like Goode? Do you think that they have never had an opposing candidate to vote for?
Witness Tim "The Eyebrow" Kaine. Even with all his "bi-partisanship" charm he has only hardened the Repubs in the Statehouse. We haven't heard very much good news coming out of there.
So good luck to Tom, and if I were to find myself stuck in the confederate flag waving southern reaches of this state instead of the godless northern VA area, I'd certainly welcome him in the race. But to think that a "moral" candidate like Tom can win over the likes of the "moral" Virgil Goode ignores the "one man's ceiling" metaphor.
Alphonse ( Al ) Kada
Iranians are fighting the Americans in Iraq so they don't have to fight them on the streets of Tehran
October 30, 2007 9:45 AM | Reply | Permalink