Wednesday, September 02, 2009
Editorial: Bob McDonnell's radical thesis
What does the GOP's gubernatorial candidate believe, and when did he start believing it?
From the RoundTable blog
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Twenty years ago, Bob McDonnell wrote a master's thesis at Regent University. It contained a world view that has no place in modern Virginia, let alone in the governor's mansion.
His thesis was no immature document penned by a 21-year-old for an undergraduate class. It is a 93page manifesto written by a 34-year-old two scant years before winning election to the General Assembly.
McDonnell, today, flees his earlier writing lest Virginians see through the carefully crafted mask of moderation he wears while campaigning for governor.
We were heartened to hear him reject some of the views he once held. "Like everybody, my views on many issues have changed as I have gotten older," he said. People, even politicians, can mature and alter their beliefs as they learn new things.
McDonnell said he no longer believes that working women are detrimental to families, that government should discriminate against people based on their sexual orientation and marital status, that no-fault divorce is harmful to society, and that contraception should be denied to married couples.
Besides, he assured Virginians, he would enforce the laws of the commonwealth. No doubt, but the current law is not what concerns people. Before Virginians support someone who once held such radical beliefs, they need to know what is in his heart today, for that will affect what laws he seeks to change.
McDonnell points to his record in the General Assembly and during his partial term as attorney general as proof that he has changed
That record is not as flattering as he seems to think, though. Those who have followed his political career found few surprises in his thesis. Several colleagues say he worked zealously to implement many of the proposals he espoused 20 years ago. He twice won the conservative Family Foundation's legislator of the year award.
In 2001, he voted against a resolution to support eliminating gender-based wage discrimination. Over the years, he also sponsored or cosponsored three dozen bills to restrict a woman's right to choose an abortion.
As attorney general, he wrote a legal opinion that Gov. Tim Kaine could not protect gay state employees from discrimination in the workplace, and he abandoned neutral analysis when it came to a state constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage.
If he changed his mind on these and other things, it was only recently, perhaps as recently as the day he declared his run for governor.
McDonnell owes Virginians a more detailed explanation. He might start by answering some lingering questions based on his thesis, explaining where his views have changed, when and why.
- Should abortion be illegal? In all cases, including rape and incest?
- Do political leaders and the Supreme Court still need to "correct the conventional folklore about the separation of church and state"?
- Will you oppose "special rights for homosexuals or single-parent unwed mothers"? Which rights are special? Which are not?
- Do your Democratic friends and colleagues "seek to shepherd a nation of powerless incompetents"?
- Do all your Republican friends and colleagues share a philosophy that "embraces the talents and worth of all people?" Do you?
