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Democrat The Newsletter of the Fairfax County Democratic Committee

July 2016 Volume 3, Issue 5

www.fairfaxdemocrats.org

By Ellen Strauss, Clinton Delegate

My friend Jill, an 8th District Bernie delegate, and I, an 11th District Hillary delegate, didn’t think we’d see much of each other at the convention but, happily, we were wrong. She sat in the last row of the 8th District section and I sat directly behind her in the first row of the 11th District sec-tion and we thoroughly enjoyed the proceedings.

The first highlight for me was Tilly Blanding sing-ing her soulful rendition of the Star Spangled Ban-ner. The purpose of the convention was to select delegates to July’s Democratic National Conven-tion in Philadelphia, but we also had the oppor-tunity to hear state and party leaders speak their minds on topics dear to us all.

Most impressive was our Governor, Terry McAuliffe, who made a case for the importance of not just electing Hillary Clinton to the presidency, but also looking ahead to 2017 and the guberna-torial election of Lt. Governor Ralph Northam. He spoke of Northam, a physician, as “a brick wall to stop the dangerous ideological agenda that tries to put politicians in between a woman and her doctor,” and also praised Northam’s ability to continue to build on Virginia’s economic progress and promote new innovations in health care and in technology jobs.

Attorney General Mark Herring sparked the crowd of 1,455 delegates as he repeated some of Donald Trump’s controversial comments about Hispanics, Muslims, immi-

By Mari Clarke & David Fishman,

Sanders Delegates After a hellacious 5-hour drive from Fairfax Coun-ty, we arrived in Richmond, greeted old CD 11 Sanders friends, made new ones, and met Sand-ers people from all over Virginia. Friday night we ventured out to a Vietnamese food and beer pub in CD 7, west Richmond (suburban Dave Brat country). We learned how the process works and talked with Clinton supporters in the hotel bar about shared values and our concerns about her too-hawkish foreign policy views. Polling infor-mally, we learned that about 3/4 of the Clinton people had been to a Virginia Democratic conven-tion before, while only about 1/3 of we Sanders folks had. As Bernie stressed two days earlier, we discussed how to win state and federal elections for Democrats district-by-district, 2016 and be-yond, by maintaining our campaign’s energy. We heard a Hillary supporter say how odd she felt being called “establishment,” since she entered politics to overthrow the racism and sexism of the old Byrd machine in Northern Virginia well before many younger Sanders supporters were Virgini-ans.

Saturday began convention business, as we learned minute-by-minute about delegate selec-tion and how to win elections. (Note to CD 10: talk to the CD 1 chair about the part of Prince Wil-liam County that is in your congressional district in order to beat Comstock). In plenary session, we were inspired by remarks from Governor Terry McAuliffe about the im-

Perspectives: Democrats Convene in Richmond

(continued on page 4) (continued on page 5)

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Deadlines for The Democrat

August 2016 Edition

Sunday, July 31, 2016

September 2016 Edition

Wednesday, August 31,

2016

Articles/ photos must be submitted as attach-ments to thedem-ocrat@fairfaxdemocrats.org. All submissions are subject to a word limit and editing. For more information, contact the-democrat@fairfaxdemocrats.org.

Published monthly by the

Fairfax County Democratic

Committee 8500 Executive Park Avenue

Suite 402

Fairfax, VA 22031

Tel: (703) 573-6811

Fax: (703) 560-7004

http://www.fairfaxdemocrats.org

Editorial Team: Michael Fruitman,

Florence Upson, and Linda Waller.

Production: Terry Matlaga Bell

Views expressed do not necessarily

represent those of the FCDC unless

expressly approved by an appropriate

committee resolution.

Message from the FCDC Chairman Sue Langley

When the Democratic Party of Virginia met in Richmond on June 18, activist Democrats from all over the Commonwealth came together at the Richmond Convention Center. The assem-blage selected additional (statewide) delegates

to the National Convention in Philadelphia July 25–28, elected five members of the Democratic National Committee to 4-year terms, and chose two additional electors to cast the votes for president when the Democratic candidate wins the state’s 13 electoral votes in the November election.

In addition to speeches from our elected representatives, the 1,474 delegates to the convention heard Governor McAuliffe, Senator Kaine, and Senator Warner give their official endorsements to Lieu-tenant Governor Ralph Northam, in his bid to succeed Terry McAuliffe as the next governor of Virginia in the 2017 election.

Each speaker emphasized the critical importance of electing the Democratic candidate for president, and the unacceptable conse-quence of a Donald Trump presidency. Unity among Democrats was a recurring theme in the speeches all day long.

The National Convention in Philadelphia promises to showcase uni-ty, unlike the splits Donald Trump seems to have caused among Re-publican delegates to their convention in Cleveland. Beau Corell, a Republican delegate from Winchester, even sued not to be required to vote for Donald Trump, despite Trump‘s having won the Virginia primary. National names such as George Will (who renounced being a Republican), Bill Kristol, and Bush Treasury Secretary Henry Paul-son have all refused to support Trump. The Democrats have a good chance to avoid this type of split, to join together, and to march to victory this fall.

Editor’s note on design: We are experimenting with replacing

all of our RED text with BLUE, as blue is the common Demo-

cratic color. Let us know what you think!

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What an extraordinary year in American politics. We Democrats must take full advantage of it.

In recent days and weeks, I am even more aware of the urgency in our national conversation and the significance of our looming elections.

The extraordinary sit-in on the floor of House last month, led by civil rights icon John Lewis and joined by most Democratic members of Congress and many Democratic senators, underscored the already-obvious need to elect people willing to consider new gun safety measures. I was moved and inspired by that day and night, and by how many of you contacted my office to offer sup-port. With nearly 33,000 gun deaths last year, this is not an issue that can wait.

Last month’s Supreme Court decisions on abor-tion, affirmative action, and immigration—the first two deeply affirming and the immigration

stance heart-wrenching—reminded us that for-ward-looking policies affect hundreds of thou-sands of lives in the deepest and most perma-nent ways. It is this ability to change lives that brings us all to politics.

There are so many issues beyond these: policies on renewable energy to lead us away from cli-mate change, civil rights, infrastructure funding, and passing a sensible federal budget. We have seen not a difference in policy from Republicans, but rather intransigence to engage or pass mean-ingful reforms.

It is time to have a Congress that will address these matters of national importance. We must take full advantage of this disturbing chapter in GOP history, and show American voters that we are the party of reason, inclusion, and intelli-gence. And then, once we emerge with a new Congress, we must roll up our sleeves and get to work.

Capitol Hill Update

Rep. Don Beyer (8th VA-D)

LuAnn Bennett Campaign Rolls On in the 10th;

Comstock Seen as Vulnerable

On equal pay for women, immigration, and wom-

en’s health, Donald Trump and Barbara Comstock

share an agenda that is out of touch with North-

ern Virginia. Both Comstock and Trump oppose

equal pay for women. Even though the 10th Dis-

trict has the highest pay gap in Virginia, Comstock

has repeatedly voted against requiring employers

to pay men and women the same for doing the

same work.

Both Comstock and Trump oppose comprehen-

sive immigration reform. During her 2014 cam-

paign, Comstock said we should be able to track

immigrants like FedEx packages.

And both Comstock and Trump oppose a wom-

an’s right to choose. Comstock has voted to out-

law some forms of birth control and to force

women to undergo an invasive transvaginal ultra-

sound.

Increasingly diverse, suburban swing districts like

Virginia’s 10th are where Donald Trump is going

to have the most negative impact on down ballot

Republicans. Fairfax Democrats need to make

sure voters know that Donald Trump and Barbara

Comstock are much closer than they might think,

and that their values and agenda are not in sync

with Northern Virginia.

To get involved to help elect LuAnn Bennett,

please contact Meredith Nakayama. LuAnn’s

Fairfax County office is located at 6888 Elm

Street, Suite 1C, McLean. There are lots of doors

to be knocked on and phone calls to be made.

The campaign also now has yard signs available!

This is going to be one of the most hotly contested

House races in the country! Don’t sit on the side-

lines; be part of it.

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portance of his sustainable veto to block reactionary legislation, his courageous restoration of voting rights to felons who’ve paid their debts to society, and the unfinished business of ex-panding Medicaid for 400,000 poor Virginians. We then heard Lieutenant Governor Ralph Northam talk about how he will build on Terry’s achievements. We cheered our own Congress-man Gerry Connolly as he said, ”It takes two wings to fly” and “If you’re a Clinton supporter, hug someone from the Sanders cam-paign; if you’re a Sanders sup-porter, hug a Clinton support-er.” (Mari gave Gerry a big hug.)

The convention produced the most progressive platform in Vir-ginia Democratic history through negotiations of Clinton and Sand-ers drafters. It adopts many key issues first raised by the Sanders campaign: climate change, non-partisan redistricting, nondis-crimination in practice regarding voting rights, women’s rights, etc. It outlines practical steps for addressing economic inequality that are at the core of the Sand-ers message: raising the federal minimum wage to $15/hour by 2020. It also addresses tuition-free admission for community college and technical school stu-dents, extended financial institu-tion regulatory oversight, phased-in expansion of Medicare to cov-er all Americans (not only those

over 65), continuing the fight for Virginia Medicaid expansion, and opposing the Trans Pacific Part-nership treaty. Compromise also covered rethinking the future of super-delegates and voting for DNC representatives, with Clin-ton supporters helping Sanders nominee Yasmine Taeb win the highest total.

As the candidate caucus activities began, and a wall literally rolled out across the hall, the Sanders caucus moved to the business of delegate selection. After rousing chants of “Bernie! Bernie!,” our group had important reconcilia-tion issues to tackle related to the national campaign’s lack of transparency—probably inad-vertent, given the pressures of running in 50 states—in explain-ing the Sanders delegate selec-tion process for Philadelphia. Concerns included the advisabil-ity of candidate slates versus in-dividual voting, but the primary grievance was the national cam-paign’s exercise of its right to eliminate a large number of peo-ple desiring to run for At-Large National Delegate seats without up-front explanation of their cri-teria. Sandra Klassen presided most ably, assisted by CD 11 Cau-cus Chair Bryan Graham with a roving mic; Nic “Me, Not We!” McCarthy; and parliamentarian Bob Zwick. Sandra did a great job explaining these issues, allowing people to express their views,

and guiding our caucus to go on record formally protesting (1) the decision itself; (2) the lack of transparency in the process; and (3) the DNC rules that permitted this to happen, with a recom-mendation that the rules be changed for future conventions.

Saturday evening, official busi-ness over, many Sanders col-leagues met for nourishment, reflection on what we had learned, and further getting ac-quainted at the Southern Railway Taphouse in Richmond’s Shockoe Slip district. It was a great oppor-tunity to continue meeting many of our leading lights, elected offi-cials such as Supervisor Koran Saines of Loudoun County and newly-elected DNC member Yas-mine Taeb. We Sanders people have much work to do to ensure that the issues we’ve raised and the energies we’ve mobilized are carried forward to Philadelphia and beyond. Our Clinton col-leagues also—and kudos again to Gerry Connolly and similar re-marks by Representative Bobby Scott, whose references to the importance of Bernie’s issues and his people were unfortunately missing from the remarks of oth-er speakers—have much work to do between now and November to bring our visions together for victory.

.

Democrats Convene in Richmond By Mari Clarke & David Fishman, Sanders Delegates

(continued from page 1)

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grants, and women. He referred to Hillary Clinton as our great alternative to Trump, but in so doing rankled the Bernie Sand-ers supporters who spent a few minutes chanting, “Bernie, Ber-nie, Bernie….”

When Ralph Northam appeared he said he was humbled and honored to have the endorse-ments he’d received and that he was determined to continue the “legacy of job creation, fiscal responsibility, and vision for cre-ating a commonwealth where every Virginian has the oppor-tunity to reach their full poten-tial.” I think Ralph Northam will be an excellent governor, but he needs a bit more zing in his de-livery.

My personal favorite of the day was my congressman, Gerry Connolly, whose speeches al-ways contain a bit of history and a lot of inspiration. He spoke passionately about inclusivity as the American way and our need to come together against Trump. “The stakes, my friends, this year are as high as they’ve been in our lifetimes.” Kind of gives me chills just to think about how true that seems to be.

Congressman Don Beyer spoke next, quoting President Obama’s reference to Hillary Clinton as the most qualified candidate for president ever, and said of her, she “holds not just the woman’s

card, but every card.” I liked that one! And he was the first to mention global warming and its threat to the health of life on our planet.

Believe it or not, we were sub-jected to a Donald Trump video, ugh!, as a means of pointing out how important it is for everyone attending the convention to help get out the vote by marching in parades, canvassing, holding phone banks, and registering voters, to make sure we dump Trump.

Levar Stoney, a candidate for Richmond mayor, spoke in favor of his former boss, Terry McAuliffe’s, Restoration of Rights Act, which restored voting rights to about 200,000 felons. A moving video was shown about disenfranchisement (Jim Crow poll taxes, literacy tests) before we took a break.

Food was a bit of a problem as there was only one vendor to service all 1,455 of us. Fortu-nately, not everyone gets hungry at the same time, and for those who had to wait in long lines, it gave us a chance to meet new Democrats from around the state.

It was during this break that I got a chance to meet Jeremy McPike, who I’d been looking to meet since Gerry Connolly’s St. Patrick’s Day feast. When I first

read about Jeremy in The Wash-ington Post, he was referred to as a volunteer paramedic for the Dale City Rescue Squad where my son, Jesse, had been volun-teering for years. When I told Jesse that Jeremy was running for State Senate, he told me I would have to make sure he was elected because Jeremy was what our future needed. So I volunteered to canvass for Jere-my and was overjoyed when he won his election. Walking up to talk to Ralph Northam at the convention, I introduced myself to the stranger beside him who was, you guessed it, Jeremy, who got a big hug, and this story from me.

OK, back to business. In the afternoon, delegates were sepa-rated into two physical spaces, one for Hillary, one for Bernie. We were given three ballots, with very specific directions on how many candidates we could choose from each ballot. I had no trouble voting for many de-voted Democrats that I’ve worked with at FCDC, and was later pleased with the results.

I loved my convention experi-ence as it gave voice to my need to participate. I hope everyone reading this spends some time helping elect Democrats in No-vember.

Democrats Convene in Richmond By Ellen Strauss, Clinton Delegate

(continued from page 1)

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Following the fiery speech by Labor Secretary Thomas Perez at the Virginia Democratic Par-ty’s Jefferson Jackson Dinner last month, we applauded his passionate oratory and pro-gressive values. We should also celebrate Secretary Perez for his significant achievements in adopting policies that protect and support workers. Notable among these initiatives are ex-panded rights to overtime pay, a strengthened silica dust standard, and transparency in corporate anti-union cam-paigns.

Under the new overtime rule, the income threshold for quali-fying for overtime pay will rise from $23,660 to $47,476, and homecare workers have gained the right to overtime pay. This could raise wages for more than 4 million people. When the current threshold was set in 1975, it covered more than 60% of employees; now only

8% of salaried workers qualify. Economist Jared Bernstein stat-ed, “Without Congress, I’m very hard-pressed to think of a poli-cy change that would potential-ly reach more middle class earners than this one.”

Exposure to silica particles at work can lead to silicosis, a dis-abling and sometimes fatal lung disease. Safety experts have urged a tightening of silica standards since the 1970s. Un-der the new rule, companies must reduce exposure, keep records of employee exposure, and provide medical exams every 3 years. Approximately 2 million construction workers will be affected by the rule, which could save 600 lives and prevent 900 new cases of silico-sis every year.

When workers try to organize unions, corporations often hire consultants to craft sophisticat-ed anti-union campaigns aimed

at convincing workers that their jobs and benefits are at risk if they unionize. The Labor De-partment has adopted a new rule that requires companies to disclose in government filings the hiring of any such consult-ants, including the amount of fees involved.

Because of these and other ini-tiatives—including helping re-solve the Verizon strike—many believe that Secretary Perez has done more for working-class Americans than any Labor Secretary since FDR’s Frances Perkins. Another example prov-ing that elections matter!

Virginia JJ Dinner Speaker Secretary Thomas Perez

Has Made a Difference for Workers

By Virginia Diamond, Chair, FCDC Labor Committee

Pictured:

U.S. Labor Secretary Thomas Perez

Staffing the Fairfax Democrats' booth at Celebrate Fairfax! June

10-12 were, pictured from left, Grayson Bulo-va, Dad Del. David Bulova, Jerry Schneider, Rose Chu, and Christopher Schaffer. Twenty eight voters were registered, including one former felon; and over 200 Voting Made Easy flyers were handed out. DPVA volun-teers ensured sufficient staffing all weekend.

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Once upon a time, long ago in a distant land called the Bronx, Bar-ry Goldwater and conservatism occupied my political perspective. Some of that allegiance has en-dured, especially in connection with respect for this country and its founding history. For this rea-son, the mindless jingoism par-roted by bare bodies and baseball-hatted bumpkins is annoying because the message is co-optive, exclusive, and makes me mad as hell.

A recent Sunday New York Times op-ed column lamented the ad-vent of Donald Trump upon the political scene and decried the potential effect of his candidacy upon the Republican Party and its “core views.” The author cited a set of such elements: limited gov-ernment, economic liberty, moral traditionalism, and American par-ticipation in world affairs as “conservative.” Donald Trump has declared that the Republican Party is not the Conservative Par-ty while its presidential candi-dates pilloried one another for failing to be sufficiently “principled” or “consistently” conservative.

Coincidently and ironically, I—a Democrat—believe in those same principles. It is likely that no Re-publican will agree with my view of the factors and components that constitute those principles but they remain core views of mine nonetheless. So, just when did the Republican Party co-opt those principles and promulgate them as core to the party? To the

contrary, as an example, for years the GOP has allowed and encour-aged the dog whistles of racism to flourish within its electorate. When might the media again be able to highlight a Republican leader confronting xenophobia as did Senator John McCain in the famous “no ma’am, he’s not an Arab” response? This malaise has contributed to the emergence of Mr. Trump and his so-called pop-ulist message.

“Make America Great Again” is exactly as Hillary Clinton has de-scribed—a return to a nostalgia for the good old days of Archie Bunker. Certainly, it’s clever and devious at the same time, allow-ing Trump to promise restoral of manufacturing jobs, which he knows will not occur; or de-porting 11 million undocumented persons; or building a wall at the U.S. border with Mexico; or elimi-nating judges with whom he disa-grees. These are a natural pro-gression of the brand of conserv-atism that the Republican Party has failed to purge or confront. Instead, the party and its leader-ship prefer to declare President Obama a one-term president; tear up every page of Obamac-are; rescind every presidential executive order; and proselytize voters with empty promises and belligerent rhetoric.

The Republican Party cannot, at this juncture, control, convert, or circumscribe Trumpism. For this very reason, many registered Re-publicans may find the core views of the Democratic Party more to

their liking in November. I’m mad as hell that the Republicans have, or perhaps their conservative leadership has, for so long, adopted beliefs properly the ge-ography and perspective of a general civic culture, permeating a broad electorate, and sought to brand them solely as Republican. It’s time for the GOP to conduct that promised 2012 post-mortem and craft a set of political princi-ples that are unique without try-ing to covet those of others and desist from blurring the political dialogue.

By the way, this is the essence of a two-party system, distinguish-ing, defining, and sharpening po-litical choices for voters. It’s time to call out the “conservatives” who have hijacked the party of Lincoln and remind them that their principles co-exist in the Democratic Party. What distin-guishes the two camps are the avenues used to achieve those goals. November 2016 is a mo-ment to remind the general elec-torate that these core values claimed by conservatives also belong to Democrats and demo-crats. Then, we can conduct a civil dialogue; be mad as hell with one another about our differ-ences; and campaign and vote with passion, not insults.

[What do you think? Agree? Disa-gree? Send us a letter to the edi-tor!]

I’M MAD AS HELL! By Jim McCarthy, Springfield District

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With Reign of Error, Diane Rav-itch adds a strong dose of hard data to the discussion of educa-tion reform, to combat the an-ecdotal evidence that usually dominates the conversation. The book provides detailed dis-cussion of what standardized test results actually show. She argues that our schools are not getting worse—we are edu-cating more students with more varied challenges than at any time, and the results are trend-ing favorably. Anecdotally, some reforms have great suc-cess stories, but overall test results are comparable be-tween charter and traditional public schools. Furthermore, standardized tests are com-pletely inappropriate as a meas-ure of teacher performance, since there are so many factors both inside and outside the classroom that can affect the student’s ability to learn and the teacher’s ability to teach.

It may surprise readers that Ms. Ravitch served in the Depart-ment of Education under Presi-dent George H.W. Bush, strong-ly supporting the standardized testing approach to educational

reform. But unlike many “reformers,” when she saw the results of that approach, she went back to the drawing board. With this book, she attempts to redirect our ap-proach to education to focus on underlying cultural problems of poverty and segregation.

Providing a background of the test-based reform movement, she finds bipartisan failure, starting with No Child Left Be-hind and continuing with Presi-dent Obama’s Race to the Top. She points out that these re-form efforts are largely the work of groups who believe that there is nothing the gov-ernment can do as well as the private sector. Privatization has provided a huge opportunity for

private businesses to make profits by advising schools, providing test prep resources, and taking over management of “failed” schools, so it’s not sur-prising that Republicans are on board. It’s not clear, however, why Democratic leaders have been willing to go along with this approach.

In the final chapters, Ravitch details her recommendations for improving education, starting with better prenatal care for mothers, better early childhood education, and more respect for the profession of education. Her bottom line is that you can’t isolate education from the problems in the socie-ty that surrounds it, as much as we might want a simpler solu-tion. Given how critical it is to a democracy to have a broadly educated populace, and the interdependencies among edu-cation and other societal needs, this is clearly not a responsibil-ity that we can hand off to the private sector.

National Affairs Committee (NAC) Book Review

Reign of Error: The Hoax of the Privatization Movement

and the Danger to America’s Public Schools by Diane Ravitch

Reviewed by Beverly Bacon, Mount Vernon District, NAC Member

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The Democrat Survey: An Update

By Michael Fruitman, Editor

The response to our survey has

not been overwhelming: we

have a return rate of 3 percent.

Part of the difficulty, however,

may be in how The Democrat

is—or is not—actually distribut-

ed each month. We are working

on this with our executive direc-

tor. In the meantime, please

remember that a link to the cur-

rent issue can always be found

on the front of the FCDC web-

site. We are keeping the survey

open for at least another month

(it was sent to all FCDC mem-

bers).

Please remember that the fol-

lowing percentages that we are

reporting are of the 3 percent

who responded to the survey—

some 29 people.

Monthly readership: 45% of

respondents read (17%) or skim

(28%) the issue every month.

Most months: 10%. Some

months: 21%. Never: 24%.

How read: Online: 83%. Print

out first: 17%.

Delivery preferences: Online:

50%. Print and/or mail: 50%.

Some said they miss paper cop-

ies. A few said they would like

to see individual stories posted

online that readers could simply

click on. [Editor’s note: We

would need more tech know-

how.]

Favorite features: Info about

my district, updates from offi-

cials, opinion, campaign news,

projections of Democratic victo-

ries in upcoming elections, DNC

perspectives, candidates’ posi-

tions, photos of events, book

reviews, controversial issues,

and policy discussions.

Least favorite features: Con-

gressional district updates,

“mundane” FCDC business,

listings of upcoming events, so-

cial issues, announcements, pol-

icy discussions, and photo

spreads.

As you can see, even from just

29 people, opinions are all over

the map. If you have not yet

done so, please fill out your sur-

vey. We will continue to track

responses as long as they con-

tinue to be received. And if any

of this prompts a response,

please send us a letter to the

editor, which will be published.

New items I’d like to see cov-

ered: Grassroots info, local

news, Democratic issues, mem-

ber profiles, electeds’ profiles,

guest columns from Democrats

outside of Fairfax, strategy/

research, schools, and differing

views on an issue—including

Democrat versus Republican

and Democrat versus Democrat.

Transition to more think piec-

es? Yes 90%, No 10%.

Comments/Suggestions: More

Capitol Hill updates * keep all

announcements in one place *

links to district newsletters

(such as Hunter Mill and Dra-

nesville) * behind-the-scenes:

what does FCDC do on a daily

basis? * where are volunteers

needed? * fewer fundraising

requests * more on GOTV *

more on Congress * more on

Dems in the community * facts

with which to answer GOP

attacks * video links.

[Editor’s note: Write for us! On

an occasional or continuing ba-

sis. Is something on your mind?

Is there an area you’d like to

explore? Contributions encour-

aged!]

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Memories of the Virginia Democratic Convention, June 18, Richmond, Virginia