At least somebody in this year's gubernatorial election is focused on what counts.
Unfortunately, that somebody is the editor of Bacon's Rebellion, one of the Commonwealth's longer-running, better-written online resources.
Yes, Jim Bacon is back from hiatus, and he's not especially happy about the state of the race between lackluster Creigh Deeds and spit-and-polish Bob McDonnell. Deeds is running a losing campaign straight out of 1988, while McDonnell brings just a touch more shine to the race -- just enough to make you forget that he's about as incompetent as the last fellow.
Meanwhile, the Commonwealth of Virginia is being reshaped in major ways, as Bacon notes:
This fall, Virginia will elect one of two men for governor -- Bob McDonnell or Creigh Deeds -- at a historic inflection point in the U.S. economy and political system. The federal government is careening towards fiscal armageddon, with incalculable consequences for the nation and, of course, the 50 states that will be left to pick up the pieces. Simultaneously, in a trend only temporarily masked by a worldwide recession, global energy supplies grow tighter, threatening to render Virginia's dysfunctional human settlement patterns even more dysfunctional. Meanwhile, Virginia's population inexorably grows older, putting pressure on state Medicaid/social service expenditures and tax revenues, straining our health care system, and creating an urgent need to build more senior-friendly communities.
These three inter-related crises will define the politics and economy of Virginia and America for the next generation. Yet both candidates have framed their campaign issues in utterly conventional terms, as if there were nothing at all urgent about the times in which we find ourselves.
It would be nice if some journalists and news organizations would take their kid gloves off and start covering politics, play hardball and force the candidates to talk about Virginia's future -- not its past.
While we wait, there's Bacon's Rebellion.
