Merli Column: Fringe conservatism is not the answer

I suppose the good news for Democratic gubernatorial hopeful Creigh Deeds Monday night in his televised debate with GOP candidate Bob McDonnell is that the latter rarely responded directly to Deeds’
latest charges of McDonnell’s being held captive (as it were) by the religious right and still holding outdated views on women in the workplace.

The good news for McDonnell may be that most Virginia residents don’t actually watch gubernatorial debates, especially in off years when we like to hold such elections.

While I’ve said before in this space that Creigh Deeds surely could have used charisma transplant before the campaign began (not that McDonnell is any fireplug, either), I continue to have this nagging
feeling that either getting to move into the governor’s mansion in Richmond is a step backwards for the Commonwealth — compared to the crop of statewide elected officials we’ve had in both parties in
recent years.

Still, McDonnell seems a bit more backward ideologically than most, even in this weird, angry, frightened political climate of 2009 that’s seemed to have gripped both Virginia and the country.

As we should have surely learned by now, what Virginia politicians tell us, and what they actually wind up doing in office, are often two very different things. (Remember Jim Gilmore’s campaign promise
years ago to rid us of that evil car property tax? Uh huh.) Issues come and go, and we’d need a crystal ball to be able to forecast exactly what any governor will be faced with in his four years in office.

So a candidate’s basic beliefs — his or her core values and basic philosophy towards people and society’s constant challenges — is perhaps the best way to evaluate how he would respond in those
many unforeseen circumstances that lay ahead. In that regard, party affiliation and other partisan political factors take a backseat to the assessed personal qualities and empathies (if any) of the
candidate himself.

Despite the obvious short-term benefits of negative campaigning, Deeds quickly has evolved into a one-note candidate — leaving the impression that by spending nearly all his money criticizing his
opponent on past issues, he also avoids having to talk about what he actually stands for.

Yet McDonnell’s core values seem woefully outdated and glaringly at odds with a Virginia that seemed to set apart from its archaic grip on the politics of the past in November 2008. McDonnell’s actions
go well beyond a term paper of 20 years ago. He proudly served on the board of Regent University, the ultra-conservative Christian institution, until 2004. According to Deeds, the school (whose
recruitment motto should read “Welcome to the Fifties”) was adhering to “scriptural family policy” during the years McDonnell served into this current decade, which is Bible code for meaning women are
subservient to men in the workplace and in the home.

That interpretation is pretty much irrefutable, which is perhaps why McDonnell chose not to respond, or address it at all, in this week’s debate — not once, but both times Deeds brought it up. Regardless
of what specific stances McDonnell may hold on other issues of the day — and despite Creigh Deeds’ apparent shortcomings as a candidate in the media age — are some of his self-acknowledged “past
views” enough to seriously question what type of chief executive he might be? I believe it is.

According to the latest polls, McDonnell may well be our next governor. And if that happens, political pundits from coast-to-coast will sing the praises of a “renewed GOP” (and no doubt try to blame
Obama for Deeds’ defeat, as well). Surely those sweeping conclusions would be wildly out of proportion to the task we voters face here in only one of 50 states on Nov. 3. But as one of the only games in
town, our off-year elections are always over-analyzed by the hungry 24-hour news monster (not to mention the “other party” at any given time, desperate for some good news).

If given a chance, no one can say for sure what type of governor Creigh Deeds might turn out to be, but in some of those basic fundamental ways, Bob McDonnell may loom as exactly the wrong person
to lead the Commonwealth at exactly the wrong time.

John Merli has been a Prince William County resident since 1984, and a Potomac News columnist since 1985. E-mail him at j.merli@comcast.net.