Independent Labor Day BBQ: Moving Red & Blue

While the mainstream media and Washington insiders seek to advance agendas or perpuate the divisive nature of modern politics for their own personal gain, many Americans are beginning to tune out such mediums and hunker down in terms of this election season.

Speaking with quite a few Virginia conservatives, both Democrat and Republican, and Independents at the Labor Day BBQ and cookout it has become obvious that the middle is rejecting the politics of division and committing to making determinations as to what is best for the country and not respective Parties.

People need to understand that it is in their best interest to put their communities first and not look to Washington as the place that should be shaping our lives. Certainly, the nations capital plays a role but those that impact our daily lives the most are those local leaders that rarely if ever get held accountable for actions taken that directly effect our schools, roads, safety, and quality of life.

What we learn with having civil discussions within the community independent of forced ideological differences by those forces that seek to profit from such divisions created the Parties is that in most of us all seek the same things for our lives and our families. Everyone wants our children to be provided the very best opportunities to succeed, that our neighborhoods are as safe as possible, that our elderly or respected and cared for, that our roads and infrastructure are funded, and that their is a balance between the contribution of the business community and the individual in terms of tax revenues to fund budgets.

Citizens want leadership not politics. In 2006, citizens voiced opposition to the status quo only to hand over Congress to the same crowd that simply wears a different hat. The past two years we have witnessed the most incompetent leadership in Washiongton, both in the Congress and in the White House. There is varying degrees that everyone will agree, but there is no denying that Washington is broken on every level.

Citizens cannot sit idlely by and allow their County or City governments to go the same way. We have seen the problems in the City of Richmond that has disturbed many residents and triggered the overwhelming rejection of Regionalism in the greater Richmond area. Taking government back does not begin with lofty rhetoric but with real change and real leadership whose only vested interest is moving the country and its future in the right direction.

This election will be all about faith. Not faith in the traditional mainstream media portrayal but faith in the men and woman we elect to office on a real personal level. We have to be confident in the individual that they truly represent change and are willing to work for change regardless of the personal and political cost. These leaders should be servants of the will of the people and not the will of a few Party bosses.

My concensus is in talking with folks is that most Virginians that are true conservatives or at least lean that way feel they have two ways to express what they feel the direction should be and what the focus should be through our upcoming elections. Its is apparent that these Virginia conservatives and Independents will be supporting:

President: John S. McCain/ Sarak Palin (R)
Senate: Mark Warner (D)

Indepedents have always seen McCain as one of the champions, but the backlash to the media constant attacks on Sarah Palin are moving Conservatives (both Democrat and Republican) to McCain as well. Of course, the social conservative wing of the GOP here in Virginia embrace Mrs. Palin, but I think that the national groups are underestimating the quality of judgement that Virginians display in Presidential elections. It reinforces why Virginia can have a Democratic Governor and Assembly at times and still support Republicans for President. The mainstream media like to place Virginia up as a toss-up State for the upcoming election, but frankly I think they are misjudging the overall will of the people and are banking on the center made up of conservatives of both Parties and Independents moving toward Barack Obama.

There is absolutely no sign of that happening on the ground. Liberals will point to the latest polls where Obama is beating McCain before his selection of Palin 47-45, but 26% of those responding are Independents and 8% are Undecided and the same respondents say that 75% of them (Democrats, Republicans, Independents combined) support Mark Warner for US Senate.

Why? You will not find any explaination from the left or its blogs nor will you at major media outlets because now in August it does not serve their agenda. In fact, it undermines it. If Virginia is such a toss-up State, how can there be such a disparity between the number of folks supporting Mark Warner and those Obama from the same polling pool?

The answer? The middle/center of Virginia conservatives. Most Independents are conservatives in ideology not liberal, but on many issues are closer to the libertarian point of view on issues or have left the GOP in rejection of the GOP platforms focus ona pure pro-life agenda which they may reject but are aligned on a greater number of other issues than they are with the liberal, controlling arm of the Democrat Party.

Mark Warner has proven to conservatives his ability to govern from a moderate point of view on balance. People realize that he raised taxes, but also that on balance as a Democrat he is on the complete opposite end than say an Obama or Howard Dean. His speech at the convention reinforced this idea. He spoke of bipartisanship.

If the center supports and gets John McCain elected, who better to work with a McCain administration than a moderate Democrat over a Jim Gilmore who represents the far right of the Virginia GOP. I ask many people here, "downstaters" as the liberals in NOVA like to passionately call us all, if Tom Davis would have made a difference and most folks answered Yes.

Tom Davis in my view would have appealed greater to the center and all Virginia conservatives than Gilmore has and with any surge in McCain's numbers would have helped the GOP in that Senate race. The insiders dealt their hand and in the end they will suffer for it from a political perspective. In short, for a majority of the center to have voted against a Warner campaign, Tom Davis should have been the selection.

That said though. There is no indication from conservative I speak with daily that Mark Warner is delivering those that support him over to supporting Barack Obama. The case has not and is not being made by the Warner campaign as they have within the scope of Virginia shifted to the Obama lines of attacks in an attempt to get behind Obama which is alienating the center from supporting Obama. Fact is, they know Warner and have connected with him on issues but not Obama. The more they learn about the platform the less inclined it seems they are to embrace Barack Obama.

Throw in the attacks, personal and political, by the media and blogs against Sarah Palin and the anarchists marching on a Convention is such a destructive manner that most Americans find dispicable spells real trouble with conservatives.

So, Virginians are moving both Red (Presidential) and Blue(Senate) all the while this goes unnoticed by the mainstream media who just a few short months ago were stating how Democrats Kaine and Warner and Webb would deliver Virginia to the Obama camp and support a Democrat for the first time in virtually thirty years. It was a great talking point to influence the "change" mantra brought about by the favorable media coverage of Obama back then but the reality on the ground it seems is not working in that way frankly.

When we turn our focus on this election and the debates, we need to make sure that we do not forget or take our eye of those leaders here at home that are impacting our lives with EVERY vote they cast.

In speaking with those from Chesterfield ,I know we have alot of work to do here in getting our County back on track and while the current Board of Supervisors may be in its infancy there is a large amount of frustration with the direction the Board is moving. More on this to follow.