For the citizens of Virginia, it has been a rough couple of months. Those of us who care about and pay attention to state politics were confronted with one of the hardest political choices in the four years since I have been able to vote.
Our choices were: the carpetbagger, big business Democrat with questionable morals, Terry McCAuliffe, or the ultrareligious, ultra-conservative Virginia Attorney General, Ken Cuccinelli.
This was the first Gubernatorial Race where the Richmond Times Dispatch did not endorse any candidate. The mud-slinging seemed uglier than ever. In the end, Terry McAuliffe won.
Why? What does this race say about the future of politics? What does it say about politics in general?
Terry McAuliffe won with 48 percent of the vote. McAuliffe was predicted to win, pulling 10 points ahead for most of the race. There was no reason that, in this state, McAuliffe would have won because, at one point, Virginia was Republican.
McAuliffe is a terrible politician. He’s kind of a strange guy and he doesn’t speak well in public. His staff did not seem to give him any media training at all and he made no eye contact with the camera during the first debate. He also did not present his ideas and goals for office; rather, he lodged insults and accusations at his opponent. The sad thing is, while McAuliffe’s staff didn’t give him media training, they successfully defined the tone election, defined the issues and defined his opponent. They made the tone ugly, the issues social and defined his opponent as womanhating and too conservative.
In this day and age, when half the population is faced with the idea of losing basic civil rights and control over their own body, they are scared into voting for a person that they feel will protect them.
Many people have such little understanding of complicated political decisions and feel more and more disconnected from the government. The loss of birth control is tangible and an easy idea to drive in and hold onto.
Every decision that the government makes effects the people but it can be hard for these things to be felt unless it is a direct change or money out of the wallet.
Cuccinelli has never made his conservative, religious beliefs a secret, and it has helped in some cases to appeal to a base in his party. However, for a populous that is becoming more secular by the day, he lost out by including them as a selling point. The
Republicans should learn from this moment and stick with what they do best: less government. The social issues are too divisive and make them unappealing to people who would otherwise be supportive of those ideals.
This election furthered the trend that Virginia has been moving toward for a while. It is no longer a red state but purple. Northern Virginia is full of upper class intellectuals and a diverse population, but they have been pulling the state to the left for a solid couple years. It is certainly an interesting trend to watch.
In the end, this election put a sour taste in many mouths. It is important to get involved and it is always vital to vote, but how can people vote for candidates that they don’t believe in and don’t agree with? Choosing the lesser out of two evils is growing tiresome.
