In the near future, folks who follow Virginia history and politics will look back and mark the demise of Republican dominance in Virginia to a single 24-word piece of legislation now before the Virginia General Assembly.

It won’t have anything to do with the budget, or tax reform, with whether money is borrowed, or levied, or how it is spent. It won’t have anything to do with transportation, or law enforcement, or education. It won’t have anything to do with abortion, or gun rights, the Ten Commandments, or same-sex marriages. It won’t have anything to do with how our judges are appointed.

It won’t have anything to do with these issues -- all grave, all serious -- because, in the end, they don’t really matter -- not historically.

These are the issues that are making headlines now. These are the issues that are consuming so much deliberative energy now. But these are relatively short-term considerations. These things all get sorted out in the ebb and flow of any legislature. They are not watershed issues. They are not the separators, the dividing places, the buoys. They are not the markers in the rivers of our consciences.

You see, most folks can make a credible argument either way on these things. For, against, or undecided -- most folks, certainly most legislators, can defend, with some credibility, any position taken on any of these issues.

Republican demise in Virginia will mark its beginning with passage of Morgan Griffith’s bill (HB 1357) exempting the legislature from the state’s Freedom of Information Act.

Republicans ascended in Virginia on hard work and principles, on conviction and values and ideas. They will descend on arrogance.

HB 1357 is the beginning of that descent. There is no defense -- none -- for a consent vote on this bill.

This is the height of imperialism. It is arrogance defined. With this single piece of legislation, Griffith and his cronies in the House -- mostly senior Republicans who make up the so-called ‘leadership’ -- express to the people of Virginia a repulsive sentiment, a sentiment that the people of Virginia will not long tolerate.

They say to the citizens of Virginia, to more than seven million of us, “We are above the law. We impose the law on you, but not on ourselves. We are above it.”

Republican? To its marrow. Solid. Through and through. To its core. You want evidence? This bill passed out of the House this week on a 52-48 vote. Fifty Republicans voted for it and two Democrats: Onzlee Ware, of Roanoke, and Johnny Joannou, of Portsmouth.

The bill is now before the Virginia Senate.

If there is any justice in the world -- and in this instance there is -- it manifests itself in the fact that the final vote in the House on HB 1357 was recorded. There will be no future ducking on this one. How individual members of the House and Senate behaved in the matter of this seminal bill will be evident for all to see.

The questions will be straightforward: Did you vote to remove the legislature from Virginia’s Freedom of Information Act? As a delegate, as a senator, as my delegate, as my senator, did you vote to exempt yourself from a law that you impose on me?

There will be no hiding. No denials. No “I don’t recalls.”

Mark this day. Thus begins the Republican descent in Virginia, a descent born of contempt for the people of Virginia, a descent born of arrogance.

My feelings on the matter?

Quite frankly, they are mixed. As a Virginian, I am enraged by the imperialism of this bill, but as a Democrat, my inner angels flee the field and the devil whispers to me, “Thank you, Morgan Griffith.”

Consider this for your next gift:
A 60,000 word collection of Barnie Day’s commentaries, entitled "A Mule Yule: Hey, Jesus didn’t ride in on an elephant," with an introduction by Jerry Baliles and forewords by Frosty Landon, Larry Sabato, Robert Holsworth,and Bill Wood, is available from the Democratic Party of Virginia. Contact Laura Bland, toll-free, at 1-800-322-1144

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