Saturday, October 27, 2007
Editorial: Dysfunctional democracy
From the RoundTable blog
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Poor Rep. Thomas Davis. For a minute there he actually thought there was a place for a moderate voice in today's Republican Party in Virginia.
Davis had been thinking about running for the Senate seat being vacated by Sen. John Warner. The trouble was that former Gov. Jim Gilmore had his eyes on the seat, too.
It could have been a great Republican primary, a test of party philosophy in a changing commonwealth. Would voters favor Gilmore's dogmatic conservatism that plays so well in most of the state or Davis' fiscal responsibility and moderate social views popular in Northern Virginia?
Party leaders were not about to roll the dice. They dispensed with the primary and decided to choose their candidate at a convention, a move that all but ensured Gilmore would get the nod.
So Davis is out -- and angry. He lambasted his party this week, warning that inflated paranoia about immigrants, opposition to real health care reform and sound fiscal policy, and devotion to radical social agendas dooms the party's long-term election prospects.
Meanwhile, Virginians can only watch while party insiders dictate the terms of the election. It will almost certainly end up a battle of former governors -- Gilmore vs. Democrat Mark Warner. Don't like either? Too bad.
Some people call that democracy.
