Good question. Why, indeed?

Virginia Democrats have let, and are letting, Virginia Republicans define the parameters of that debate.

Democrats know better than that. Virginians everywhere deserve better.

The political struggle for hearts and minds is fluid, and on-going. It doesn't end -- not with a candidate, not with an election -- but flows continuously, much like a river. Sometimes it shifts and changes course. Sometimes it glides. Sometimes it races like a crazy colt. But always it flows.

The currency of this flow, the substance of it, is ideas. And these ideas can only be expressed in language. Thus, the debate. The struggle for hearts and minds is waged in debate. Virginia Republicans are winning the word game.

How so?

Easy. They're constructing the argument, they're setting the course and flow of public policy debate here in Virginia, very simply as: Do you want to pay more or less taxes?

Is it intellectually honest? No. Is it effective politically? Very. That is, if you're only concerned with the Democrat/Republican win/loss columns. Does it do disservice to this commonwealth? It is absolutely destructive.

Wherein is the fault of this destructiveness? Is it with the Republicans? I don't think so.

For lack of an alternative, Republicans have been allowed to define the debate, and this is the way they've chosen to define it. Politically, there is nothing inherently wrong with opportunism. Shallow? Yes. Wrong? Not if you're only concerned with the win/loss column.

No, the blame must lie with the Democratic message -- or lack of one. Virginia Democrats still insist on engaging in the debate defined by that simple premise: Do you want to pay more or less taxes.

No wonder Warner still finds himself -- as the Roanoke editorial so aptly pointed out -- dancing on the hot rock of that 'more or less' taxes question. No wonder the answer is 'yes' today, but 'no' tomorrow, and perhaps something else next week.

You see, as long as that is how the debate is framed, Democrats, can't, and won't, win it. It can't happen. Democrats can't win that 'more or less' taxes debate.

Well. What to do?

That one is easy, too. Virginia Democrats must re-define the debate. Virginia Democrats must re-cast the premise. Virginia Democrats must re-draw, must re-construct, the parameters of our public policy debate. Virginia Democrats must expand that debate.

And it must be done with language. Virginia Democrats must remember, the coin of that flow, of that river that is the struggle for hearts and minds, is language.

When Virginia Republicans flog the anti-tax message that they've become so good at, Democrats must set up an incessant series of rejoinders:

But do you also want your children to be put at risk educationally?

But do you also want fewer law enforcement officers patrolling your neighborhoods and your businesses?

But do you also want to pay higher tuitions that are colleges and universities are raising for lack of alternatives?

But do you also want to spend four hours a day for the rest of your life waiting in traffic?

But do you also want our state hospitals emptied so that these folks can seek the treatment they so desperately need on your street corner?

But do you want 41 state fees increased, like Republicans in the General Assembly did this year?

But do you want your local governments to raise every one of your local taxes in order to make up the difference in state cuts?

Virginians, given the choice, will take the long view and behave politically in a way that truly protects their interests. It is the lack of choice that is sometimes confusing. Virginia Democrats must, for the moment, take the blame for that.