courtesy of ‘acebal’
WaPo broke the story over the weekend about the 90 page thesis that the Republican Gubernatorial candidate wrote when he was 34 years old. It’s a paper he wrote about his overall political philosophy and was written in 1989, about a year before he announced he was running for public office in VA. While I am not here to take a partisan stance on any of these issues or races, I must say that this thesis is simply disgusting and absolutely has the potential to be a game changer in this race. McDonnell blatantly discriminates against women and gays with 1950’s like views.
The paper, written while he was attending an evangelical school in Virginia Beach, discusses how women entering the workforce, and feminists, are detrimental to family and also describes how he feels that unmarried couples should not be allowed to use contraception, citing how he felt a Supreme Court case saying as much was “illogical”. His writings also cite the following for the downfall of our society: how working mothers are materialistic people that have made decisions that the government now has to support, women who work to “break their perceived stereotypical role bonds and seek workplace equality and self-actualization”, child care programs that encourage working women and feminists, information about birth control which increases promiscuity, and generally how the participation of women in the workforce is a symptom of the breakdown of society. While the majority of the outrageous points are focused on women, he also discusses how the government should discriminate against gays, unmarried couples and “fornicators”.
It’s hard for anyone, Republican or Democrat, to read this and think that they want to support someone with these beliefs. Of course this was written 20 years ago and McDonnell says he has changed his mind on a lot of these things, but when you match his voting record in the state legislature up with his plan – there are definitely many similar points. The thesis is more on the extreme side though, so it is up to you to determine if a man that wrote these words still believes them or has completely changed. If this was written by a naive college student in 1952, I could understand that. But written by a 34 year old in 1989? I’m having a hard time buying that one. This thesis is disgusting.
I remember this coming up four years ago when him and Deeds were running for Attorney General, and I think it helped make that a very close race. I have no problem with the Post backing Deeds, but I roll my eyes when they “break the story” again.
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