The moribund Virginia governor's race, where Democrat Creigh Deeds faded into irrelevance following his upset primary victory, has been shaken by the emergence of Republican Bob McDonnell's law school thesis (PDF) from Liberty Christian Broadcast Network University (now known as Regent).
At age 34, two years before his first election and two decades before he would run for governor of Virginia, Robert F. McDonnell submitted a master's thesis to the evangelical school he was attending in Virginia Beach in which he described working women and feminists as "detrimental" to the family. He said government policy should favor married couples over "cohabitators, homosexuals or fornicators." He described as "illogical" a 1972 Supreme Court decision legalizing the use of contraception by unmarried couples [...]
"Leaders must correct the conventional folklore about the separation of church and state," he wrote. "Historically, the religious liberty guarantees of the First Amendment were intended to prevent government encroachment upon the free church, not eliminate the impact of religion on society."
He argued for covenant marriage, a legally distinct type of marriage intended to make it more difficult to obtain a divorce. He advocated character education programs in public schools to teach "traditional Judeo-Christian values" and other principles that he thought many youths were not learning in their homes. He called for less government encroachment on parental authority, for example, redefining child abuse to "exclude parental spanking." He lamented the "purging of religious influence" from public schools. And he criticized federal tax credits for child care expenditures because they encouraged women to enter the workforce.
"Further expenditures would be used to subsidize a dynamic new trend of working women and feminists that is ultimately detrimental to the family by entrenching status-quo of nonparental primary nurture of children," he wrote.
The 1989 thesis, written well past his youth, is nothing surprising for an old-school Southern Republican. While the thesis lacks overt racism, bashing women and homosexuals is far more socially acceptable (heck, welcomed!) among base Republican voters, and shouldn't present the same kind of troubles George Allen faced after his Macaca moment.
However, a less-noticed passage is potentially more explosive, and could form the foundation of a potent narrative if the Deeds campaign ever gets off its ass and runs a real campaign. Turn to page 55 of the McDonnell thesis:
It is also becoming clear in modern culture that the voting American mainstream is not willing to accept a true pro-family ideologue because as then-Representative Trent Lott (R-MS) observed, "Americans
think of themselves as conservatives; they want government reduced. But in their hearts they are liberals, they want all the goodies coming in. Leadership, however, does not require giving voters what they want, for whimsical and capricious government would result. Republican legislators must exercise independent professional judgment as statesman, to make decisions that are objectively right, and proved effective."
Got that? "Leadership" means hiding your "true pro-family" ideology from the voters, who don't want it and aren't willing to accept it, but then governing in that fashion once elected. It is the height of cynicism -- openly violating the trust of the voter by pretending to be something you are not, masking your true intentions from an electorate that would never endorse that agenda with their vote.
Given McDonnell's open admission of dishonesty, how can any of his "moderate" policy pronouncements be taken seriously?
Read that Washington Post story I link above -- McDonnell runs away from many of the views in his thesis. It was written when he was a wee student! He was 34. He'd forgotten the thesis even existed! Except he brought the thesis up when chatting with a Post reporter. He now thinks women can work! He doesn't think homosexuality is a disqualifier from public office! As for a ban on all abortions, even in cases of rape or incest, and his promotion of covenant marriages, well, his legislative record on those fronts are too clear to pretend otherwise.
Yet how can he be trusted on any of this? His very own blueprint demands he hide his ideology to appear more palatable to voters who would otherwise reject his beliefs. In fact, he calls that "leadership".
That's who McDonnell is, in his own words. Whether the Deeds campaign can communicate that effectively to Virginia voters remains to be seen.