Oh, Please….

By Douglas Wright

Here we are friends, another week on the Republican Campaign Trail. Our district’s convention is looming on May 19. Another article is in one of the Republican electronic outlets. This time the article is by John Wood in The Bull Elephant. These articles follow a formula.

First, establish yourself as a thoughtful Republican leader. Years of service to the party and our country. Second, highlight the dastardly doings of several of the candidates who are in the race for congress. Express shock and dismay at things like the tone of the rhetoric or the ridiculous nature of any perceived insult or slight. Finally, proclaim an epiphany and hold your candidate up as a guiding light for our party. Summarize by telling all how you finally came to realize your candidate is best for the party and our future.

I am not a politician. I am a health care provider and a businessman. I think I have a pretty good ‘bull-shit’ meter. I am truly disappointed at our party and the level of the conversation. I almost typed in the word ‘dialogue’ but a dialogue requires a back and forth in the conversation.  This article, and others like it, are more “declarative” and not dialogue.

As one of the eight congressional candidates running in the 6th District, I was recently accused of being in a conspiracy with Haywood and Cline by the Dunbar campaign. In an email from the Dunbar campaign I was accused of being a ‘career politician’ who was involved in a ‘smear campaign.’

I am not a career politician and not in a conspiracy with any of the other candidates. Cynthia Dunbar knows this. Instead of speaking or writing about her positions on the issues, she remains silent. She speaks only about the constitution and allows others to fight on her behalf. I have heard very little about the issues from the other campaigns as well.

Winston Churchill once said, “When the eagles are silent, the parrots begin to chatter.”

Regarding the congressional campaigns for Virginia’s 6th District, I think this means we will get more of these kinds of articles, Facebook messages, and text messages because there is nothing to elevate the congressional campaign. When one of us gets to Congress, we will face some tough issues. These include:

– Infrastructure funding. We must find funding and support for improving our inner state highway system starting with I-81.

– The farm bill is up for review in 2018. The farm bill of 2014 was a $489 Billion (BILLION!) expenditure with 80 percent of the bill set aside for food supplement programs.

– Fixing the Veterans Administration.

– Fixing the broken military procurement system.

The list should go on. There should be an ongoing conversation about how to fix what is broken in Washington, how to improve every necessary service AND eliminate every redundant, outdated or un-constitutional program on the books.

The delegates need to know and deserve to know which candidate has the intelligence, creativity, and enthusiasm to fix the problems we all face.

The chattering, bickering, and name calling is something I left in high-school. I think the delegates deserve better from us that the petty infighting. I think the voters in November will expect more.

I think our delegates deserve to review policy statements from each of the candidates typed by their own hands. Between now and the convention I will be posting my ideas about the issues on my campaign’s Facebook page. I encourage my fellow candidates to reply and post their ideas and their rebuttals on my page as well. Let’s use this as a forum to elevate our conversation for the benefit of our party and our country.

“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” –Winston Churchill

Also by Douglas Wright: Virginia Needs More Militia

Douglas Wright is a candidate for U.S. House of Representatives in the 6th Congressional District who lives and works in Rockingham County.