In a debate on Saturday between four GOP contenders for the
soon-to-be open U.S. Senate seat in Virginia, George Allen, Del. Bob Marshall,
Chesapeake Minister E.W. Jackson, and Jamie Radtke vied for the label of “most
right” political candidate.
Each candidate, for instance, pledged his or her support for
the 1996 federal law[1]
(The Defense of Marriage Act) that gives states the right not to recognize
same-sex marriages. Furthermore, each candidate showed lukewarm support for one
of America’s most popular programs, Social Security, while also noting their
support for an alternative outside the scope of government.
No tea party-esche political get-together would be complete
however without a bruising of the federal Transportation Security
Administration (TSA) in particular, and the Department of Homeland Security
(DHS) in general (“larger bureaucracy rather than fixing the problem where it
is”). The solution, according to Radtke: an armed populace.[2]
In sum, the “debate” turned into an enunciation of the standard
tea party mantra: fewer taxes, more guns, less government.
With each U.S. Senate candidate vying to “out right” the
other in the GOP primary, propelling themselves simultaneously outside of the
political mainstream, it’s hard to imagine that Virginians will take the
eventual winner as a viable candidate for U.S. Senator.
In actuality, the GOP candidates have offered little in the
way of actual policies outside of chopping off or eliminating particular parts
of government that seem, arbitrarily, intrusive or unnecessary. Can government
run on being not run, so to speak?
There are a good many issues I also have with the federal
government, but the fact of the matter is you can’t take the wheels off of a
moving vehicle without serious consequences. The consequences, however, don’t
seem to matter much to this round of GOP candidates for U.S. Senate in
Virginia.
Don’t worry about righting me, I’ll be sure to right you may
be the title for this chapter in Virginia’s political history.
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