The Rpvs Slide Into Irrelevance?

The Republican Party of Virginia has just sent out a stem-winder of a fundraising email, which is reproduced below (The subject line was “Stop the Democrats and their Union cronies”):

But I’m not attaching it as a request for contributions. If this is the best approach RPV has, we’re in for a long Republican drought in the Old Dominion. Here’s why:

First, whatever anyone thinks about the stimulus package, the idea that tax cuts lead to new debt – and there are significant amounts of tax reductions in the law, not least the AMT fix – is, I thought, a Democrat idea, not a Republican one. And there’s a difference between $787 billion and $1 trillion. Hyperbole has its place, but 22 percent is over the line.

Second, the letter refers to a figure of 600,000 government jobs from the stimulus package. I assume it comes from the President-Elect’s careless remarks in his January 3 radio address about 3,000,000 new jobs, 80 percent of which would be in the private sector. I’m all for reminding the voters of bad quotes and flip-flops, but connecting this with “infrastructure projects” – the quotes here are RPV’s, not mine – is just not smart politics here. Why is “creating a million new” jobs, even if many are held by union members, a bad idea? I think I would rather be Tim Kaine or Jim Webb at a transportation project ground-breaking in 2009 or a ribbon-cutting in 2011 than to be a Republican who voted against transportation at either the Federal or Virginia level. And of course transportation projects are “PAID FOR BY YOU” – where’s the scandal there? How else do Republicans propose to get these done? Bond issues are “PAID FOR BY YOU,” too.

Next, the letter claims that President Obama wants to abolish right-to-work laws. If he in fact endorsed last year’s HR 6477, I’m not aware of it. Some evidence here would have been helpful and made the argument more compelling.

But the pièce de resistance comes when discussing a Democratic fundraising dinner and a protest outside a hotel, which all three Democratic candidates for Governor joined. Of all the media outlets to cite, RPV chose the People’s Weekly World.

Quoting the Communist Party newspaper? In Virginia? In 2009? Are RPV contributions being used for a subscription? Sure, people joke about living in the “People’s Republic of Alexandria,” but please. If they insist on going down this tired, even childish path, at least RPV could have made a nod in the direction of new media (and humor) by perhaps linking to Mikhalkov and Alexandrov’s stirring “Hymn of the Soviet Union” (Warning: the devil has better music, and this one will stick in your head for a while.) Or is this just RPV cadres’ late-night fantasizing about imposing democratic centralism on those fractious northern Virginians who might – gasp – actually want to impose smoking restrictions in restaurants?

Right to work is a very important issue in Virginia and has undoubtedly helped the state’s economy grow. But there are better ways to defend it than to raise the spectre of Communism. The economy’s bad, but it’s not quite 1848 yet.

Instead, how about some quotations from Tim Kaine or Jim Webb or the gubernatorial candidates? Or from one of those “union bosses” actually targeting Virginia? Or even “Jim Webb and Mark Warner refused to rule out voting to abolish Virginia’s right-to-work laws” (if they try and fail to get statements to that effect)?

Bob McDonnell, the Republican candidate for Governor, is a smart and serious guy who has served well as Attorney General. While the fundraising letter is admittedly a unique genre, this one would probably make him wince.

What do we stand for, rather than just standing against? What are our new ideas for the Commonwealth?

Otherwise, we’re just seen to rail in opposition. Even if it brings in some money, what does this letter convey about the Republican brand?

For this letter, people may just click “Delete.” A couple more like this, and people may start to click “Spam.”