“Seek Yahweh while He may be found. Call upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return to Yahweh, and He will have compassion on him. Turn to our Elohim, for He will abundantly pardon.”

Isaiah 55: 6-7

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I Used to Be a Democrat

See “GOP’s House wins show some Dem voters ‘connecting the dots’ on liberal left, lawmaker says”:

Republican U.S. House candidates shattered expectations in the 2020 election, in part because independents and some Democratic voters “connected the dots” between liberal Democratic governance and the economic deterioration in their communities, according to one GOP lawmaker.

U.S. Rep. Tom McClintock of California, a Sacramento-area Republican and member of the House Natural Resources Committee, said on Fox News’ “Hannity” that people in liberal and Democratic precincts have seen firsthand how the left’s policies have failed them.

He said that in many places where there is a uniform left-wing hold on political power, constituents are often left dealing with rampant homelessness, high taxes, failing public schools, unemployment and skyrocketing energy costs.

Growing Up in Georgia

I grew up in Georgia. While I was there, the Democrat Party ruled the roost. The winner of the Democrat primary went on to win the general election in a landslide.

Things in Georgia have changed since then, but the changes took place after I departed in 1979.

Moving to Virginia

Jimmy Carter won the presidency in 1976. He was in office when I arrived in Virginia in August 1979 to begin my career as a professor at the University of Virginia.

Jim McIntyre was Carter’s OMB director. He had grown up in South Georgia, too, and I knew him. In 1979, we weren’t bosom buddies, but I knew him well enough to invite him to speak to my strategy classes. Later, Jim and I co-authored a book, and I taught his daughter at UVA.

In the fall of 1979, Carter was preparing for his 1980 re-election bid. When the sitting OMB director showed up in Charlottesville to talk with UVA students, it caught the attention of the local Democrat Party machine. They wanted to know a lot more about me.

Eventually, I became chair of a group called Young Virginians for Carter. That gave me statewide visibility in the Democrat Party. In 1981 when Chuck Robb was elected Governor of Virginia, his executive assistant for policy, Tim Sullivan, called and asked me to look over their plans for regulatory reform. I did as he asked and gave him my feedback.

On the strength of my recommendations, I was asked to serve as the governor’s policy advisor for regulatory reform. I agreed and spent the next 4 years burning up the highway between Charlottesville and Richmond.

In November 1985, Gerry Baliles, a Democrat, was elected to succeed Robb as governor. He had been Attorney General of Virginia during Robb’s term, and I got to know him well. Baliles transition team called me and asked me to serve in his administration, too. The position was to be determined.

By that time, I knew enough about the Democrat Party to know that I wanted no part of it. Since I liked Baliles, I agreed to chair a Governor’s Conference on Small Business for him, but that was it. At the end of the conference, I was through with the Democrat Party.

We Eat Eggs, Don’t We?

While I worked for Robb, I took advantage of every opportunity to push for serious restrictions on abortion. One day, I was talking with Tom Michie, a Democrat state senator from Charlottesville, and I told him about my concerns. Tom was an attorney and a very smart man, so his response floored me. He said, “Neil, we eat eggs, don’t we?”

Tom served in the Virginia House of Delegates for 9 years and in the Virginia Senate for 12 years. He spent more than 2 decades participating in debates about abortion, and at the end of it all, the best he could come up with was equating eating chicken eggs and killing unborn children.

Tom asked me that question in such a matter-of-fact way that I knew his mind was made up. He didn’t want to think about it, much less talk about it.

Where abortion was concerned, Tom was like almost every other Democrat I got to know. Their minds were made up. Talking with them was a waste of time.

Virginia Republicans were No Different

George Allen, a Republican, represented the Charlottesville area in the House of Delegates while I worked for Robb. I got to know George and his campaign staff well while we ran against them. I liked them, and they liked me. Although we were in different parties, we had a lot in common.

In 1991, George was elected to Congress. Eventually, he became Governor of Virginia and a U.S. Senator from Virginia.

When George won a seat in Congress, the Chairman of the Albemarle County Republican Party called and asked me to meet with the search committee for a candidate to replace George in the House of Delegates. I agreed to meet with the committee, and this is the first question I asked them: “You know that I was a Democrat. Why are you interested in me?”

Without batting an eye, the committee chair said, “We need to take abortion off the table. We think you can do that for us.”

Obviously, George and his staff didn’t know me well enough. I told the search committee that I would support their candidate, but I was not interested in running.

Voting Democrats out of Office will be Easier than Changing their Minds

For Democrats, connecting the dots simply means that they are beginning to realize that they must sing a different tune if they want to remain in office. It has nothing to do with their underlying beliefs.

That’s why Democrats can’t be trusted. They will turn on a dime when push comes to shove. To hold onto power and to get plum assignments, they will say and do just about anything. Principles don’t matter to them.

The hearts and souls of the Democrats I know are in the gutter. They won’t change their minds. Talking to them is like talking to a rock. Candidly, I have a hard time suffering idiots and morons. Most of the Democrats I know are smart people.

If the Democrats who are supposedly beginning to connect the dots are serious, they should abandon the Democrat Party. By now, it should be obvious to them that the Democrat Party is the Party of Perversity. If they can’t see that, they are in the right place.

The establishment Republican Party is almost identical to the Democrat Party. I’ll leave it at that.

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“I pray…that they may all be one, even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me. The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one. I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me and loved them, even as You have loved Me. Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am, so that they may see My glory which You have given Me, for You loved Me before the foundation of the world.”

John 17: 21-24

See “His Name is Yahweh”.