Vote for Party Peace

For those who follow the machinations of Virginia Republican politics, the past two weeks have been a nonstop parade of debates and drama over Saturday’s expected vote on 2017’s method of nomination – that bright red line between RPV’s feuding factions and source of the all-consuming debate.

At the end of the day, after all the fundraisers and phone calls, signs and stump speeches, rallies, meetings, and volunteerism has finished, the underlying purpose of all RPV’s efforts lies not in winning a vote to hold a convention or a primary, but rather, winning general elections in November when Republicans come together and put their minor differences aside.

Saturday’s vote is not what matters once the dust settles. It’s a means to an end; not unlike the airplanes holiday travelers board before Christmas. Nobody remembers the plane while sharing the warm glow of the fire with family, yet nobody will ever forget that broken plane which leaves them stranding and missing the holidays, somewhere between Chicago and Timbuktu.

This internal friction didn’t begin two weeks ago when it overwhelmed websites and social media feeds. The current attention is but the terminal phase of a process which began a year ago, when the squabbling factions within the party recruited their candidates for unit leadership and began planning to capture unit leadership positions by packing mass meetings.

In those mass meetings, some effective unit leaders with proven records of local organizing were cast aside for those who would vote the “right” way on their district committees. Some of the open seats weren’t any less divisive.

Next came the district conventions. Although some delegates were moved by appeals to ideals of good governance or histories of service, most convention outcomes broke down along factional lines. Whichever side turned out its people won the seats.

Next came SCC’s internal elections. In June, the committee packed into an overheated room in Charlottesville for an entire day,making speeches, casting ballots, and tallying votes for positions ranging from Secretary to Vice Chairs. Not surprisingly, those too concluded along factional lines.

After this year-long poker game, both sides are finally ready to lay their cards on the table tomorrow.

After some token speechmaking which will change no minds, the vote itself will be over in an instant most people who aren’t in the room will miss. They’ll hear a final report trickle out as the anticlimactic ending to an action-packed year.

Before they know it, it’ll all be over. Don’t blink.

Somebody will win, somebody will lose, and after that every Republican in the Commonwealth will have to live with the result, whether they know it or not.

From there the party faces two choices.

Republicans could choose to spend as much time and energy arguing over the vote’s result as was invested preparing for the vote to be held, as the ghosts of 2013 smile on, feeding off the infighting which seems so necessary in the moment but so pointless when the Democratic governor’s vetoes are announced.

Or, the hard feelings over the vote could last no longer than vote itself, if Republicans should commit to leave that room in Richmond united.

Despite all the high-stakes bickering, hyperbole, and predictions of bad things yet to come, what remains unsung in the primary-vs-convention debate are the good motives of almost everyone on State Central. Objectively, someone is right and someone is wrong in choosing which method is more effective, but few ever face that choice unless they first believe in what’s doing best for the Republican cause.

Everyone take a deep breath.

Those who support primaries do so because they want to win elections and believe primaries to be best for the party.

Those who support conventions do so because they want to win elections and believe conventions to be best for the party.

If everybody is in agreement that we should win elections by doing what’s best for the party, then why not start tomorrow by burying the hatchet?

While this eternal Virginia debate isn’t going away forever, it doesn’t have to occupy the next two years at the expense of a focus on good party governance and winning general elections.

After the big vote, Virginia Republicans have two years to run a united party with great focus on the mechanics of victory.

Take the tough vote and get it over with.

Then vote again for peace.