Too far right for most constituents

lewleadbeater.com

notes from the edge

Home

Email Me

				THE
Column Archive				VIRGINIA GAZETTE
				WILLIAMSBURG, VIRGINIA
Too far right for most constituents				October 9, 2004

Rep.Jo Ann Davis (R-1^st) and I have what you might call a bipolar relationship. I sit down here in James City and pen passionate epistles to her in opposition to extending the USA Patriot Act and other legislative horrors, while she sits in her office up in Washington and pens me non-passionate letters telling me to buzz off. In other words, we’ve developed a mutually agreeable working relationship. I promise to keep writing her desultory notes about her wonky legislative agenda, and she promises that she will keep my positions in mind and vote against them every time.

This is not to say that I dislike Davis, because I don’t. To her credit, she’s worked diligently to rid us of the James River ghost fleet, and, contrary to administration policy, is lending her support to the importation of drugs from Canada. Just recently, she was appointed to the House Select Committee on Intelligence, and that’s no small feather in her cap.

I suppose what bothers me most about Davis’ candidacy this year is the fact that she’s running virtually unopposed. Her sole opponent is a fellow from Spotsylvania running on a platform to end all federal spending.

As a result, there will be no debates and almost no close examination of her record. This does a great disservice to the voters in the First District, and especially to those, including moderate Republicans and just about all Democrats, whose political agenda is vastly different from that of Davis.

One of the most troubling proclivities I see in Davis is her penchant for bulldozing Jefferson’s wall of separation between church and state. While I have no problem with Davis’ personal religious views, I do become nervous when they intrude upon her legislative activities. For instance, Davis recently co-sponsored a bill to post the Ten Commandments on the walls of the Senate and House chambers.

I suppose even that wouldn’t bother me if they posted the whole text of the Ten Commandments, but they won’t. Leaving out the business of a jealous god who would punish children to the third and fourth generation or who subtextually condones slavery, they want to post only the Headline News version of the laws. I would be much more supportive of this wall-breaching if they posted something like the Beatitudes. Allowing the meek to inherit the earth and blessing the peacemakers always struck a more resonant chord in me than the negative imperatives of the Ten Commandments.

In addition to posting the Ten Commandments, Davis also co-sponsored a bill that would “recognize the need for fasting and prayer to secure the blessings and protection of Providence for the people and the Armed Forces during the conflict in Iraq.” Dangerous it is indeed when an allegedly secular government presses its citizens to fast and pray because of its own colossal preemptive military scam and what we have recently learned were unforgivable intelligence blunders that have caused thousands to die for no rational cause.

Another tendency on the part of Davis is to foster legislative extremism by waxing gaga over constitutional amendments. During the last session of Congress, Davis co-sponsored amendments to prohibit the desecration of the flag, to restore religious freedom, to ban gay marriage, to outlaw real and virtual child pornography, to make English the official language and to balance the budget.

Returning to her religious roots, Davis is ever on the warpath against gays, and, in addition to the constitutional amendment banning gay marriage, sponsored a bill of her own that would define marriage in Washington, DC as consisting of the union of one man and one woman. As for the amendment to “restore religious freedom,” it is nothing more than a feeble attempt to enable such sanctimonious bloviators as Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson to get the IRS off their backs when they openly endorse political candidates from the pulpit.

If nothing else, Davis is the epitome of ironic contradiction. Can you imagine the chutzpah of someone who would endorse a balanced budget amendment when her own administration has shoveled us into an unfathomable pit of deficit and debt in the name of tax breaks for the wealthy?

Or the gall of someone who demands that the United States pull out of the United Nations’ UNESCO organization because it encourages family planning for Third World women, while co-sponsoring a bill that berates Iran and China for their suppression of women’s rights?

Or who supports Operation Iraqi Freedom while voting for extensions of the Patriot Act that would make it even easier for our government to carry out covert operations against the freedoms of its own citizens? Davis supports fully the government’s right to snoop into your reading habits and voted against a bill that would have removed libraries and book stores from the intrusive Orwellian legislation in which this administration so delights.

Nor should we overlook Davis’ sponsorship of a bill to expand dental and vision benefits for federal employees and their dependents. This while 45 million Americans have no health benefits at all.

There is nothing more undemocratic than an uncontested election. Unfortunately, we in the First District who are not devotees of the radical right’s evangelicalism are likely to be disenfranchised for years to come. Only a more moderate Davis could hope to represent the majority of her constituents, but such a transformation is not likely to be forthcoming.