Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, June 9, 1993 TAG: 9306090296
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Gubernatorial nominee Mary Sue Terry may as well buy a gown now for her inaugural ball. Lt. Gov. Don Beyer can take a five-month cruise, confident his job will be waiting for him when he returns in November. William Dolan can pick out new curtains for the attorney general's office.
Such, anyway, is the conventional wisdom - even among some Republicans - following the GOP's state convention this past weekend.
The radical right, it is said, has won again, marginalizing the party, alienating moderates, assuring defeat.
For that matter, why bother holding the election? Why go through the nuisance when Republicans already have guaranteed another Democratic sweep of statewide offices?
Why? Well, because nuisances such as holding elections - and allowing majorities to sway party conventions - are the democratic way.
There's a basis, of course, for the conventional wisdom that Virginia Republicans again are caught in the radical right's stranglehold.
But there is also something unseemly and undemocratic in some of the typecasting and snide, dismissive, gleeful put-downs of the convention.
To be sure, the 13,000-plus delegates nominated the most uncompromisingly conservative ticket in memory. It includes former U.S. Rep. George Allen of Albemarle for governor, and Henrico County Commonwealth's Attorney James Gilmore for attorney general.
It also includes a charismatic, conservative Christian home-school advocate and political newcomer with little knowledge of state government and some radical ideas for reforming it. He is Mike Farris of Loudoun County, the GOP's candidate for lieutenant governor, and he attracted by far the most delegates to the convention.
Farris' presence on the slate has Democrats celebrating and traditional Republicans wringing their hands.
"The Nazis are taking over," says a former 5th District Republican chairman, Don Moseley. "This is 1939 all over again, and I forgot my jackboots."
Nazis? Now hold on.
No argument: Hundreds upon hundreds of young, fresh-faced, home-schoolers - drawn to political activism by Farris - took over and controlled the GOP convention from start to finish.
But they didn't do it by storm-trooping the Richmond coliseum, or by using Gestapo tactics. They followed the rules laid down by the so-called party regulars.
The activists endured the GOP's arcane system of local caucuses and mass meetings. They put up their money, as the party demanded of those who sought to participate in choosing candidates. They paid for the right to vote.
Party neophytes, yes. Relentlessly committed to Farris, yes. But they not only propelled him onto the statewide political stage. They also took seriously their duty as delegates to choose candidates for governor and attorney general. Most even studied candidates' literature before deciding how to vote.
And voting is how opinions are translated into policy in a democracy. The Farrisites locked Republicans into a right-wing agenda, and insisted that the ticket conform with it, because they fervently believe in their agenda.
Disagree with the agenda if you like. Lament, if you will, that it leaves no room for Republican moderates like Clint Miller and Steve Agee, who were labeled "liberals" by Farris supporters. Regret that it prompted conventioneers to boo lieutenant-governor candidate (and former aide to President Bush) Bobbi Kilberg when she said: "Virginians are mainstream voters. They reject extreme of the left and right."
Decry, if you want, that it isn't inclusive, that it motivated some GOP conventioneers to carry signs with pictures of aborted fetuses, reading "No Thanks - Not Under Our Tent."
Understand, nonetheless, that this was the agenda freely and democratically embraced by the largest party convention in history.
Farris denies allegations that he wants "The Wizard of Oz" removed from school libraries because it features witchcraft. It may be that Republicans nonetheless have strayed far from the Yellow Brick Road. But if it doesn't look like they're in Kansas any longer, blame not the radicals.
Blame the party regulars.
Old-line Republicans like to claim that the party's heart and soul is still owned by those who are fiscally conservative but socially moderate. But why couldn't they get any of their candidates nominated? What have they done lately to reach out to the politically uninvolved, to inspire activism, to build the party's base?
Where are their new, charismatic leaders? Why have they not pushed for primary elections, where small groups with narrow interests such as home schooling would not dominate?
If the moderates don't like what's happening to their party, they could get busy trying to retake it. (Plenty of legislative officeholders - Republicans who actually win elections - would like to help.) They could become Democrats. They could even start a new party. This is how democracy works.
by CNB