Political stuff

Y'know, I hardly ever talk politics here. Partly because I talk politics quite often IRL, and partly because there are so many other people who do it: Bitch PhD does it rather well, as does Phantom Scribbler, and lots of other folks to the right here --->

But there's a primary coming up in a few days here in Virginia and two pretty good candidates are goin' head-to-head for the chance to run against George ("Health Care Crises? What Health Care Crises?") Allen.

I think both Webb & Miller are good, strong, electable candidates. I'd be fine with either of them in the Senate, but I'm voting for Miller in the primary and here's why:

While both Webb and Miller agree on many, many topics, Miller has been a strong Democrat forever and will help bring the Democratic faithful to the polls which we need desperately if we're going to defeat the homophobic, bigoted, and misguided amendment to the Virginia constitution that's on the ballot in November. The Amendment not only would ban same-sex marriage (disgusting enough on its own), it also would ban any contract that bestows the privileges of marriage: so if your Aunt Laura wants you to have her Health Care Proxy, it probably wouldn't be legal. If you want to form a company in partnership with your friend Josh, and you set it up so that each of you has survivorship rights in the company, no can do. Many lawyers say that it could void most contracts and Wills.

Webb used to be in Reagan's cabinet. He voted for Bush against Gore and for Allen the last time around. He'd probably get the votes of moderate Republicans and maybe the Independents, but he's unlikely to get core Democrats motivated and seriously unlikely to get highly Liberal folks out for him. And they're the ones we need to defeat that Amendment.

I like Webb. I think he's a good man. He's been against the invasion of Iraq since before the invasion. That's great. But...He voted for Bush 6 years ago. Back then we all knew certain facts about Bush: he was against gay marriage, he was for lowering taxes for the wealthy, he was for cutting services, he was for conservative (aka anti-choice) judges, he was for prayer in schools, he spoke at Liberty College. Does any of that sound like a platform a Democrat should vote for? And yet he did. Six years ago.

I am close to several people who have made that conversion: people who are fiscally conservative and socially liberal who voted for the Republicans (and for Bush against Gore) because they saw them as the party of fiscal responsibility and didn't see the creeping social conservatism fostered by the religious fundamentalists. Those folks are now the hardest of hard-core democrats because their social values are under siege. And I hope that Webb is one of these. I do. But I fear he may not be. And I wonder if others share that fear and may not be motivated to go out and vote in November when we need them.

With Miller, we know what we're going to get. A strong Democrat who's going to push to fund education and health care. He'll back Warner for President and he'll push to bring the troops home. If we get enough Democrats like him voted in, they might even impeach Bush, wouldn't that be a hoot?

So, on Tuesday, I'm voting for Miller.

But if Webb wins that'll be okay too.

Either way, I'm voting against Allen and the Amendment in November.