The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Artur Davis Speaks To Fairfax County GOP 19Jun2012

Posted on | June 20, 2012 | 12 Comments

by Smitty

Artur Davis is somebody you want to know more about. The Grio, from 30 May 2012:

Former Alabama congressman Artur Davis, once considered a rising star in the Democratic Party and a potential member of Obama’s cabinet, announced this week he is switching parties and becoming a Republican.
Davis, who lost the Democratic primary for governor of Alabama in 2010, had been broadly hinting at this move for months, writing pieces in the conservative National Review and speaking of his frustration with the Democratic Party in public appearances.

Davis in his own words, on 29 May 2012, formatting mine:

As I told a reporter last week, this is not Bill Clinton’s Democratic Party (and he knows that even if he can’t say it). If you have read this blog, and taken the time to look for a theme in the thousands of words (or free opposition research) contained in it, you see the imperfect musings of a voter

  • who describes growth as a deeper problem than exaggerated inequality;
  • who wants to radically reform the way we educate our children;
  • who despises identity politics and the practice of speaking for groups and not one national interest;
  • who knows that our current course on entitlements will eventually break our solvency and cause us to break promises to our most vulnerable—that is, if we don’t start the hard work of fixing it.

On the specifics, I have regularly criticized an agenda that would punish businesses and job creators with more taxes just as they are trying to thrive again. I have taken issue with an administration that has lapsed into a bloc by bloc appeal to group grievances when the country is already too fractured: frankly, the symbolism of Barack Obama winning has not given us the substance of a united country. You have also seen me write that faith institutions should not be compelled to violate their teachings because faith is a freedom, too. You’ve read that in my view, the law can’t continue to favor one race over another in offering hard-earned slots in colleges: America has changed, and we are now diverse enough that we don’t need to accommodate a racial spoils system. And you know from these pages that I still think the way we have gone about mending the flaws in our healthcare system is the wrong way—it goes further than we need and costs more than we can bear.

Taken together, these are hardly the enthusiasms of a Democrat circa 2012, and they wouldn’t be defensible in a Democratic primary.

It was a treat to hear Artur in person, with a brief, punchy speech. There was little time to light off the camera. Fortunately, the World’s Youngest Blogger was on my arm as I tried to shoot this. The first half of the camera work is kind of disrespectful to the subject matter. And YouTube did a nice job of smoothing. Listen to the words.

Category: GOP, Video

Comments

12 Responses to “Artur Davis Speaks To Fairfax County GOP 19Jun2012”

  1. MM
    June 20th, 2012 @ 11:33 am

    I am, of course, suspicious. This wasn’t Bill Clinton’s democratic party four years ago when Mr. Davis endorsed Obama. He is saying all the “right” things, but he strikes me as an opportunist who lost an electoral bid and is searching for greener pastures. He sees the handwriting on the wall, namely that dems are in hot water for the next few years, and he is switching sides in name only. I don’t trust him at all.

  2. smitty
    June 20th, 2012 @ 11:54 am

    Time will tell, but the first impression was favorable.

  3. Shawny Lee
    June 20th, 2012 @ 12:15 pm

    Exactly right and we had better be done with resting opinions on what they say instead of what they do.  I’m a Libertarian from way back but I was impressed with many of Obama’s lies.  He knew exactly the right things to say.  Hell, I was REALLY impressed with Allen West too, but he lost my support when he voted for that Pigford fiasco, the special budget committee that was a complete and total failure, the extension of the Patriot Act, NDAA.  If we’ve learned nothing else it had better be to do a lot more research and be a lot less trusting.   

  4. ReaganiteRepublican
    June 20th, 2012 @ 12:35 pm

    This guy is great, saw him on Fox

  5. Shawny Lee
    June 20th, 2012 @ 1:46 pm

    lol……I rest my case. 

  6. Shawny Lee
    June 20th, 2012 @ 2:06 pm

    O/T, but important.  I see by the Twitter feed that RSM is thinking about doing an “Everybody Blog About Neal Rauhauser Day”.  I’d like to ask when or if he plans to issue a statement about the email conversations submitted by Paul Lemmen.  Particularly whether or not he has determined if that information on Neal Rauhauser is in fact credible.  I’m not making any judgement.  I’m fairly new here and my opinion isn’t likely to weigh anything.  But the utter silence in the face of serious allegations about the credibility of a source says a great deal. 

  7. justaconservativegirl
    June 20th, 2012 @ 6:24 pm

    I am so glad you got a video.  I was way in the back and it just wouldn’t work for me.  

  8. justaconservativegirl
    June 20th, 2012 @ 6:25 pm

    Oh, sorry I missed you.  I would love to me WYB in person.  Maybe next meeting.

  9. Wombat_socho
    June 20th, 2012 @ 10:08 pm

     Stacy blogs about what he wants to blog about on his blog. Which, in case you’d forgotten, is how this blogging thing works. You want him to write about what YOU want, I suggest you make him an offer via the tip jar.

  10. Shawny Lee
    June 21st, 2012 @ 5:00 am

    Apologies for the off topic question.  I’ll take that as a no but haven’t been coming here long enough to forget how it works.  I’m an admin on another conservative blog and repost some of the excellent commentary here.  I try to make sure what I post is accurate and try to go to the source to confirm.  Thanks for the reply. 

  11. Bob Belvedere
    June 21st, 2012 @ 8:17 am

    Trust, but verify.

    We don’t need any more RINO’s.

  12. Bobbymike34
    June 21st, 2012 @ 10:24 pm

    Here those cheers when he said ‘fellow Republicans’?

    Racism!!