You remember how McDonnell said we shouldn't pay attention to his thesis? (Updated)

How it was written a looooonggggg time ago and he's grown and changed?

Yeah. Not so much.

From his thesis (link to full text) all emphases mine:

"...Perhaps the most discernible empirical evidence of a changed view of family is the:

'Massive shift of nurturing and care-giving tasks away from the family and into the hands of institutions. America is changing from a society in which the family was the basic provider of care and nurture, to a society in which institutions are basic and the family is marginal.'..." (page 3)

"...The modern American experience can be seen as an ideological battle between the forces of democratic capitalism and socialism, with the latter's attempt to 'substitute the power of the state for the rights, responsibilities, and authority of the family.'..." (page 4)

"...The vast majority of American children have been educated in the public school system, in which textbooks and courses of instruction are increasingly oriented to humanist values and a secular philosophy." (page 6)

"The undermining of respect for parental authority in favor of state direction or individual autonomy, and the contemporaneous purging of religious influence in the public schools has impaired the development of healthy family members..." (page 7)

"The foregoing discussion should lead one to reasonably conclude that the American landscape of the traditional family and its moral code is being marred by social permissiveness and government programs." (page9)

"...A central premise of this thesis is that the preservation and strengthening of the traditional family unit by government will, in the long run, substantially eliminate the need for a comprehensive and expensive federal bureaucracy to resolve domestic problems." (pp 9-10)

"...Families are to be the primary caretakers of and providers for each of its members, and extended families must become self-reliant economic units, although they are to seek help from relatives as a first recourse in times of need, with the church as a secondary source..." (page 15)

"...government is enjoined from replacing family functions with agencies of the welfare state, such that dependency and apathy are generated...'the view that unfettered discretion in the use of government power as a force for the social good and as an instantaneous problem solver when private sector solutions are slow in coming, is a delusion and an impediment to true progress.'" (page 16)

And from his conclusions on page 66:

"...5.Continue welfare reform to promote work and eliminate all anti-family provisions, with an ultimate goal of transferring social welfare responsibility to the private sector in local communities.

6.If public benefits are to be paid, utilize the voucher system which maximizes freedom of choice for families and others in the area of housing, education, and medical care."

So for the people here who voted for Bob McDonnell, if you bought into the "I've grown and changed" horse puckey, I hope you regret your gullibility and that you will learn from it.

If you didn't buy into it and if you agreed with his thesis, then I'm surprised you're here, reading this blog and I hope that you didn't participate in the "it was a long time ago and he's grown and changed" meme. Because that level of dishonesty is just disgusting.

For those people here, who, like me tried our best to keep him from becoming Governor, I hope we can learn from this too. I spent waaaayyyy too much time talking about his bigotry and misogyny and not nearly enough time focussing on his plan to gut social services. I will do better in the future.