| One thing you learn early in Washington is that the incentives there—the way fundraising works, the culture of Capitol Hill—are set up to push legislators away from a progressive vision. Which is why it turns out to matter a shocking amount whether a politician actually cares about making the country more just. The path of least resistance, particularly in a district like [Tom] Perriello's, is to triangulate, distance yourself from the national party and get a seat on the Financial Services Committee so you can raise millions from the banks.
Perriello pretty much took the path of most resistance. On domestic issues he embraced progressive politics instead of shrinking from them. Of the forty-nine Democrats who represented districts that McCain won in 2008, Perriello was one of only five who voted for the Recovery Act, cap and trade, and healthcare reform. (On the wars, Perriello was a disappointment, voting two times to continue funding the war in Afghanistan.)...
In the wake of Perriello's loss, it's tempting to conclude that conviction politics simply doesn't work. But the fate of Perriello's fellow Virginia freshman Democrat Glenn Nye suggests it's not so simple. Nye also beat a Republican incumbent in 2008, though in a district Obama won—rather than lost—by a narrow margin. But he took the opposite tack from Perriello, distancing himself from the national party and the president almost immediately, voting against cap and trade, healthcare reform, patient protection and extending unemployment. Fat lot of good it did him. He lost his race by seven more points than Perriello did.
Strange as it is to say, the lesson of election night, in Virginia and nationally, may be that Congress members' voting records don't matter all that much.
If that's the case, you might as well vote for what you think is right. The point of being in Congress isn't to get re-elected; it's to make the country better while you're there—something that seems to have been lost on so many Democrats who took the easy way out. On election night, Perriello told his supporters that his father had told him when he got into politics, "Judgment Day is more important than election day. It's more important to do what's right than what's easy.... I'm proud of what we've done and what we've accomplished."
Everything from the tenor of his voice to his wistful smile communicated that he meant it. |
