Virginia might actually get a liberal leader…while the DNC gets…something else

McAuliffe also brings a political portfolio well to the left of Democrats Mark R. Warner and [Tim] Kaine, who toiled in the state party for years before they were elected governor by pledging bipartisan cooperation and campaigning as moderates. (From the AP via WTOP, emphasis added)

It has been quite the weekend for political announcements. Our illiberal President-elect is consolidating his takeover of the Democratic Party by appointing another illiberal to head the DNC – Tim Kaine, outgoing governor of Virginia. Meanwhile, Terry McAuliffe  has announced his formal bid for the governorship of Virginia.  (Click anywhere below to go to the video announcement on Terry’s site.)

As a liberal, I applaud Terry McAuliffe’s decision to run for governor of Virginia. Terry has worked hard for other liberals, most obviously for Hillary Rodham Clinton’s presidential campaign. I heard Terry give his reasons for supporting Senator Clinton on various occasions. He supported her candidacy because he believed (as did I, and millions of others) that she was both the most qualified member of the field and the most liberal of the field, in the American tradition of liberalism. That tradition calls upon people to work hard for their personal successes. Consider, for example, Terry’s own work to build a number of successful businesses, work that meant he has neither needed nor sought a salary for his work in politics, including his stint as DNC Chair, when he actually managed to put the DNC on a sound financial footing (an accomplishment soon squandered by the now almost-never-heard-from Howard Dean). American liberalism also calls upon government, applying measures available within its Constitutionally delimited sphere, to provide an equal opportunity for anybody’s hard work to pay off.  Although nobody is guaranteed a pay off in this tradition, everybody is guaranteed a fairly level playing field, at least in principle.

During the 2007-08 Democratic primary campaign season, I heard Terry state many reasons both for his support and his hard work on behalf Senator Clinton. That she is a woman was not one of them.  Yet not only does liberalism favor Terry McAuliffe, so does feminism. I supported Senator Clinton because she was the best qualified, most liberal candidate in the field; I became active in her campaign when I saw opposition to Senator Clinton mount despite these pluses, and I saw this opposition come from people who would ordinarily also favor the most qualified and liberal candidate for the Democratic Party nomination. Yet these people seemingly could not stand to see a woman given an equal opportunity to gain the Democratic Party nomination. Terry fought against this illiberalism, which, in that context, operated in the guise of sexism.

I have no idea if Terry McAuliffe identifies himself as a feminist.  My own view of feminism is not that it requires support of any woman for any position but it does require vigilant resistance to those who would deny any woman her rightful opportunity to pursue any position in civic life, in the political arena or any other public stage. In a less misogynist, less sexist society, to identify oneself as a liberal simply would be to identify oneself as feminist. This is because in a truly liberal society, one in which being male or female neither presumptively advantaged nor disadvantaged a person, all one would have to be vigilant about would be liberalism itself, not the subcategory of feminism. Feminism becomes necessary in a society where hatred, contempt, and under-appreciation of women are systemic.

In 2007-08, Terry McAuliffee worked harder than virtually anybody else I observed to see this country elect a true liberal to the Presidency, a true liberal who also happened to be a woman. If the people of Virginia elect Terry McAuliffe their Governor, and he brings his commitment to liberalism – to opposing absolutism, to being willing to experiment with all ideas except those that conflict with the fundamental tenets of liberalism, to being committed to supporting fellow liberals regardless of their sex – to the state of Virginia, then the state of Virginia’s future should be brighter. Whether an actual liberal can win high office at the state or national level remains to be seen.

(A related post appears here.)