Bob McDonnell’s Far Right Social Agenda Would Cost Virginians Jobs and Hurt Virginia’s Economy

By now, anyone who’s paid even a little attention to the Governor’s race in Virginia has heard about Republican Bob McDonnell’s thesis. The paper – which McDonnell authored just two years before winning elected office for the first time – articulates a right-wing social agenda. It argues that working women are a “detriment to the family” and denounces “equal pay for equal work.”

Bob McDonnell says this election is all about the economy and creating jobs. He says his ideas about social issues won’t affect the way he handles Virginia’s economy.

But he’s wrong. His far right-wing views would directly threaten Virginians ability to get a job and make a living.

From 1996 to 2004 McDonnell served on the Board of Trustees of Regent University, which has a long-held practice of giving hiring preferences to men over women. In effect, the school’s policy says distinctions based on sex are sometimes legally permissible and regularly denies otherwise qualified women jobs – a hiring policy McDonnell repeatedly approved of during his decade-long tenure on the Board.

McDonnell has also promised to revoke a Virginia law – an executive order signed by Virginia’s last two governors – that prohibits discrimination against LGBT Virginians in hiring decisions.

McDonnell’s thesis wasn’t the result of misguided youth (he was 34 years old when he wrote the thesis), and it’s clear his far right wing ideas haven't stayed in academia (he also pursued a socially conservative agenda during his 14 years in the Virginia Assembly).

Denying otherwise qualified women jobs and denying LGBT Virginians protection from discrimination in the workplace (a law that’s been on the books for 8 years) can be directly traced back to the radical ideas laid out in his blueprint for governing thesis. McDonnell isn't only denying Virginians basic civil rights – he’s also denying them basic economic security.

Comments (1) «

Regent College?

Isn't that the same outfit whose graduates Bush packed the Justice Department and whose actions were investigated by Congress? These were the ones that were firing federal prosecutors because they would not indict Democrats that might win elections?

It was one of the reasons AG Gonzales was hung out to dry by even Republicans on the Justice Committee?

You have to think that McDonnell is going to head Virginia as a theocracy. What century are these conservatives living in? Don't they realize you can't use your religion as an excuse to break the law?

This guy thinks he's going to take Virgina back to the days before women's suffrage? Someone should put a proposition on the ballot in Virginia (and all other states for that matter) to revive the ERA in 2010.

We need to get the Republicans on the record as being against equal rights for women. They have been allowed to operate under the radar for way too long. Let's spell it out in a proposition. Let's have them acknowledge that they are against Title IX and equal pay.

How did a RNC official recently put this bigoted attitude? He said Nancy Pelosi should be "put into her place". Her place is the third highest post in the land...Speaker of the House.

The Republicans need to be put into their place. Actually, we did that last November.

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SandyH on October 14, 2009 at 09:52 PM

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