You Get What You Don't Vote For: A Cautionary Tale

My home district in Virginia is the 10th Congressional District. My Congressman, regrettably, is Frank Rudolf Wolf, otherwise known as "the Walnut," because - well, because he resembles a walnut. Frank's been my representative since I was a young newlywed, and he's basically a party man, or a company guy, who's done little but serve his own interests.

Still, even a broken clock is right twice a day, and I'll give Frank credit for being the only Republican Congressman to stand up in the House and slam the living cack out of Grover Norquist, branding Norquist a tax terrorist.

However, I also take a bit of an interest in the 5th Congressional District, which is a rather large one, covering Charlottesville and all points South, to the Carolina border. I went to college in Charlottesville, taught school there and met and married my British husband there (for better or worse).

The 5th District is sorta kinda eclectic, in that it comprises the ueber-cosmopolitan university city of Charlottesville and then ... Deliveranceland. But in 2008, the area elected a bona fide Progressive Congressman and a Democrat, Tom Perriello.

Things were looking up.

Then came the 2010 Midterms and the fabled Progressive sulk-out, and Perriello's short-lived Congressional career was at an end. Now Republican Robert Hurt is the 5th's Congressman, and how's that working out for the District?

Take it away, Mark Brooks:-

At a time when some localities in the 5th Congressional District have high unemployment rates, our congressman, Robert Hurt (R-Chatham) has been doing exactly as he is told. His masters in Congress give him the instructions. This means voting against extended unemployment, voting against actual job plans brought to the House, and voting to restrict abortion in 40 different ways. (approx.)

Wait, he is voting on abortion bills that will go nowhere, while his constituents lose their houses and have lost their livelihoods and can’t afford even the necessities?

Welcome to the 112th Congress, where the Republicans stonewall everything but socially conservative legislation in the House. Bills that will go nowhere, that Robert Hurt has voted affirmatively on, bills that deal mostly with abortion, contraception, women’s rights to determine her health decisions, and more.

Lots of time has been wasted, and unless they are putting on a show, the Republicans seem to scratch their heads and wonder why all those bills die in the Senate, and then vote and pass more of them (going nowhere).

While people in Martinsville, Danville and many other localities suffer at the hand of this cruel economy wrought by Bush, Robert Hurt and his colleagues have decided to do nothing to improve job creation. They say that the bills they pass are “jobs bills”, but they are 100% centered around business and what the House can do to make it easier for businesses to do business.

This is a nice idea, but totally wrong and totally misguided.

Right now, we don’t need Ned to start a cabinet shop and hire two people. We need large, well established businesses to open locations in the 5th District. For instance, IKEA has a factory in the southern part of the district.

We need 20 more IKEA-sized business to come to the 5th District and provide hundreds of jobs. 15.6% unemployment is inexcusable. This climate is tearing at the very fabric that makes the localities, the 5th District, and Virginia a great place to live and raise a family.

(snip)

Do we really have to wait now and see what another Republican who just follows orders will do to improve the plight of all the residents of the 5th District? We have an opportunity in November to go back to the kind of independent thinking and unbought representation we had before Robert Hurt. What I mean of course, is electing a Democrat to that seat.

15.6% unemployment in Martinsville, when Virginia's average unemployment is below the national norm? And this guy does nothing but give a pass to cruel and misogynistic legislation, which has a snowball's chance in hell (at the moment) of passing into law?

In any other profession, this dude would be a time-waster and he'd be given his marching orders with instructions not to let the door hit his ass as he left.

If anyone cannot see the good common sense in electing Democrats after this bit of seminal idiocy, if anyone cannot see why the House must be regained and the Senate kept in Democratic hands with an even bigger majority, then "anyone" is either blind or stupid.

Whatever the reason, sulking out the vote because instant gratification is simply unattainable gets you the Robert Hurts of the world.

Good things come to those who wait, but not if you don't vote.