Tag: Gordon C. Morse
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Autumn’s Unsettling
by Gordon C. Morse It’s mid-summer and hot. Let’s imagine the fall, cooler air and assume James Carville is right. “The Democratic Party,” he wrote in The New York Times, “is steamrolling toward a civilized civil war.” Carville would hold off the fight temporarily. Need more Democrats in Congress, he says. Focus on the 2026…
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Righteousness Repeated
Virginia leads the way. by Gordon C. Morse George Kennan, one of the titans of 20th century American diplomacy, appeared in April, 1951 at the University of Chicago to present a series of lectures. He was there to explain, more or less, the first half of the 20th century. “In the fabric of human events,” Kennan said,…
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The Democrats Respond
Bedlam compounded. by Gordon C. Morse A long time ago, in a city far, far away (Richmond during the 1970s) there existed AM radio station WGOE. It combined the progressive rock of Frank Zappa and Captain Beefheart with a collection of on-air personalities who you knew – just knew – were stoned from morning to…
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Binnie Peay, Then Jim Ryan
by Gordon C. Morse Jim Ryan resigned as president of the University of Virginia today and there goes a man of integrity who followed his own lights and acted upon his own beliefs. But then the political winds shifted, outside forces cranked up the pressure and it finally got to be too much. Wait, this…
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Standards and Expectations!
Part deux by Gordon C. Morse Let me pick up where I left off last, because these process/procedure questions sit at the heart of representative democracy. It matters how you get there and keeping proper order isn’t an idle, wonky issue. It’s pretty much the only way we avoid settling things in the streets. It’s…
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Standards and Expectations
Along with other Virginia Senate hallucinations by Gordon Morse May a committee of the Virginia Senate act on behalf of the entire body? That appears to be question raised by a group of Senate Democrats and, if the answer is yes, it would contradict legislative norms presently held most everywhere. Maybe there’s an exception in…
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Car Tax Redux
The Fifth Dimension Beckons Once More by Gordon C. Morse There’s a “sign post up ahead.” Planet car tax looms before us. Once again, we’re on a journey to a wonderous land whose boundaries are only that of imagination. Jim Gilmore -– a cosmonaut of the first order — launched this trip in 1997, when…
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In the Governor’s Race
Do not yield to the enemies of promise. by Gordon C. Morse The 2025 race to be Virginia’s next governor enters summer a lackluster affair and it need not continue in that condition. Both candidates have inherently interesting backgrounds and, you know, it’s okay to talk about yourself. The key being that it’s you doing…
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A Peninsula Tale and a Commission’s Work
Captain Newport hits a reef. by Gordon C. Morse Thanks to The New York Review of Books, we have this 1994 observation by the late Yale historian Edmund S. Morgan: “The distinguishing mark of American politics has been the absence of irreconcilable differences between the two parties that successively dominate the national government. Each party…
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Memorial Day 2025
by Gordon C. Morse You can tell a few things simply from the limited information that appears on these headstones. Pvt. Moseley served in the 38th Infantry Regiment of the 3rd Division and died on July 23, 1918. That would have put him, in all likelihood, along the Marne River near or east of Chateau-Thierry.…
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Not About Aaron Rouse
The growing habit of being great to be here. by Gordon C. Morse Steve Martin, meet Aaron Rouse. Early in his career, Martin would walk out onto the stage and say, “It’s great to be here.” Then he’d move a few feet away and say, “It’s great to be here, too.” He would keep shifting…
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Having It Your Way
Or all sorts of ways, as the case may be. by Gordon C. Morse Abigail Spanberger, the Democratic candidate for governor, says she’s opposed to repeal of Virginia’s right-to-work law – but, you know, maybe we can work something out. That appears to be the suggestion. The obvious retort: “She just wants to have it…
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Farewell, Jeff Schapiro
by Gordon C. Morse Columnist Jeff Schapiro vacated the Richmond Times-Dispatch rather abruptly last Sunday and for a man of many words, he had little to say about it. Four decades of scribbling and he throws out a few lines at the end of his column, not at all dissimilar to the Woody Allen dialogue…
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Sorting Out What’s Right
And what’s not. Not easy, but necessary. by Gordon C. Morse All the business about John Reid, the Republican candidate for Virginia lieutenant governor – who did what and why — has made for a strange week. There’s a sense (a little more than that, actually) that things said, asserted and claimed may suffer from…
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When Did Democrats Begin to Resemble the Rockettes?
Virginia Democrats long defended and preserved the state’s “right-to-work” law. They’re shifting in unison. by Gordon C. Morse Join a labor union, if you like. Or do not join a labor union, if you like. Your choice. Virginia law says that no one can force you to financially support a union as a condition of…