McDonnell’s thesis does matter
Published: October 12, 2009
Does a position paper written when Bob McDonnell was 34 years old matter? To suggest otherwise would come as a surprise (and perhaps even an insult) to most 18- to 34-year-old registered voters. When most of us reach 34 years old, we have already established our core values.
Creigh Deeds turned 34 years old in 1992. Eight years prior, in 1984, he earned his law degree from Wake Forest University. From 1988 to 1992, he served as commonwealth’s attorney for Bath County. Like most of us, he was no kid when he turned 34 years old. Rather, he was a mature adult.
In that position paper, his 1989 master’s thesis, Mr. McDonnell presented his opposition to a “dynamic new trend of working women and feminists that is ultimately detrimental to the family.”
Send Mr. McDonnell a message next month by voting for Creigh Deeds (governor), Jody Wagner (lieutenant governor), Steve Shannon (attorney general) and Cynthia Neff (delegate).
Advertisement
Reader Reactions
Actually, he has my vote because of some of the things he wrote about in his thesis.
Mr. Martin says McDonnell’s thesis matters and he implies that people’s values don’t often change after age 34. Wrong.
I was a life long democrat, and my family still is. I voted for, worked for democratic candidates and almost ran, in a local campaign for office as a democratic. My father and I belong to unions. Yet I voted for my first republican at age 46 and switched to the republican party in my early 50s. Arlen Specter just recently became a Democrat. People often switch political alliances and values later in life.
Many people switch religions later in life, foregoing ideology learned early on. Tony Blair and Newt Gingerich recently converted to Catholicism. So people do change their ideologies and beliefs later in life.
McDonnell, I believe, was an opportunist. He attended Pat Robertons’s university and he most probably knew to get his degree and get good grades that he must espouse the doctrines they espoused. Every child knows that in order to get good grades you must convince the teacher that you have learned and accepted what he or she taught in the classroom. So you learn to play the game. I learned the hard way in graduate school that you play the game. The same is true if you want to be successful in your job or career. Your values should coincide with those who hire you or at least you must openly espouse them.
So what McDonnell wrote 20 years ago may not necessarily be those ideas that he today proposes. There are many possible explanations of what happened .
So if he says today that those are not his values today, I believe him. I provided one of the possible scenarios which may explain his position.
But the truth of matter is people do and often change in all ages of their life span.
Advertisement