A Pilgrim’s Digression

The ultimate truth started to get blurry

For some strange reason it had to be

It was all a dream about Tennessee

Arrested Development, “Tennessee”

There are really only two races I am paying attention to, this election year. My local Senate race, Allen versus Webb in Virginia, is of primary importance, of course. But I think the Tennessee Senate race between Bob Corker and Harold Ford is as interesting and as important for the country as a whole.

In Virginia, I’d say that Webb has about a fifty/fifty chance of winning. When I moved to this state in 1998, it was strongly Republican and I wouldn’t give a Democrat a snowball’s chance of winning a statewide election. But things have changed. Virginia has elected a Democrat Governor twice in a row, and obviously Jim Webb is doing well enough to make George Allen sweat.

Personally, I want to see Allen defeated, partly out of a desire to send Republicans to the woodshed to reevaluate who they are and what they believe. Partly, I just don’t believe the same things as Allen any longer.

And then there is the fact that Allen chews tobacco. When he was governor, they had to put spittoons in the governor’s mansion. Jim Webb chews tobacco, too, for that matter, so they both have that strike against them, as far as I am concerned. However, I still have more values in common with Webb than Allen. They were both asked about their tobacco use on Meet the Press, and neither one defended it. Is it significant, or am I just joking about this being a factor in determining how I am going to vote?

I think it speaks a little to a politician’s character that he won’t or can’t give up a vice for the sake of the message it sends to children. It’s not quite the same as if Allen or Webb were lighting up a cigarette on national television, but for those who know about their addiction, it’s disconcerting and I think it undermines trust in their character.

The question is, although I want Allen defeated, am I ultimately hopeful that Allen can be defeated? I am not a hopeful or optimistic person by nature, so I would say no. John Kerry lost Virginia by a considerable margin in 2004. Virginia is still a conservative state, even if Northern Virginia trends liberal. George Allen is a local football hero from a prominent family; he has already been a Governor and Senator for the state. I don’t foresee Virginians tossing him out.

In terms of an upset, Tennessee is the Senate race really worth watching. Republican Bob Corker versus Democrat Harold Ford. This race should really light a fire under Democrats. Harold Ford is an attractive, young, charismatic black man who seems to be handily whipping his traditional white-male Republican opponent.

The Opinion Journal at the Wall Street Journal has an excellent article about this race in today’s edition, titled Ford Foundation. Earlier this week, the RNC ran an ad suggesting that black women are stupid and will vote for Harold Ford because he is handsome, and that white women also like Ford for the same reason (there’s a great analysis of the ad on youtube). When I heard about this ad, and specifically the intimations that Ford had attended a Playboy Superbowl party, my first thought was: the RNC just lost the election for Corker.

If the Republicans are going to make an issue out of Harold Ford attending a Playboy Superbowl party, they are only going to increase Ford’s reputation among men, black or white. Attending a Playboy Superbowl party is every rational, red-blooded American man’s dream. And as for women, it probably increases his attractiveness, as well. On TV, stories about this controversy all include video of a youthful, smiling Ford admitting that he does indeed “like women.”  In our society today, there is no moral opprobrium reserved for a playboy. The only people who might have a problem with his attendance at such a party are elderly white women.

No wonder Ford is smiling a lot, these days. His opponent now looks both racist and prudish.

At first, Corker said he could not force the RNC to take down the ads. Apparently, someone on his staff took a look at how badly the ad was going over with people and decided Corker could soften his position a little. Now Corker says the ad ought to be taken down. Nonetheless, I doubt it will help.

Ford’s campaign is of importance for Democrats, not just because he may be the first black man elected to the Senate in the South since Reconstruction. Ford is running a winning campaign in the South not because of his race, but because he is presenting voters with a viable ideological alternative to the Republican party. He runs to the right on foreign policy and social issues, such as Iraq and gay marriage, and he runs to the left on economic policy. This race just confirms something I’ve always suspected: when you get down to it, Americans are by and large moderate to liberal in terms of economics.

Americans generally have no sympathy for the rich and how much taxes they pay. Americans are generally suspicious of corporations. Americans are generally supportive of laborers and Unions over business interests.

Yet on issues such as foreign policy and war, a candidate had better be tough.

I am not saying that Democrats need to start campaigning on the issue that if elected, they will invade North Korea. I am saying that Democratic positions that emphasize speaking softly over using the big stick–whatever the big stick may be–too often come across as weak. The Democrat who can walk the line between beligerance and diplomacy is the Democrat I want to vote for.

If I lived in Tennessee, Harold Ford would be that Democrat, for me, and I’d be proud and happy to vote for him. As it is, I am voting for a tobacco-chewing former Republican, Jim Webb. We can only vote for the candidates we’ve got, though, rather than the candidates we wish we had.

However that may be, what really stirs me is that the two best hopes for the Democratic party are Black men: Harold Ford and Barack Obama. Maybe it’s just a dream, but I would love to see an Obama/Ford ticket one day (or a Ford/Obama ticket). I do not believe traditional Democrats such as Hillary Clinton hold the key to reviving a flagging, once great political party. Democrats need to look outside the mainstream.

I hope Ford wins for that reason alone. Politicians look to winning campaigns for future strategy. Ford is an example that all Democrats ought to take to heart.