Virginia in the Vanguard: Political Leadership in the 400-Year-Old Cradle of American Democracy, 1981-2006

Frank B. Atkinson

Bloomsbury Publishing PLC, 2006 - History - 337 pages

Virginia in the Vanguard continues the story, begun in the Dynamic Dominion, of Virginia's reemergence as a competitive, trend-setting state. In the 1980s, with Reagan's revolution underway in Washington, Democrats led by Chuck Robb and Doug Wilder, the nation's only African American elected governor, reclaimed the governor's mansion and focused attention on a centrist formula as a prescription for Democratic renewal nationally.

In the 1990s, hard-charging Republican George Allen reversed the party's fortunes and propelled the GOP toward control of the state's legislature and both U.S. Senate seats. Virginia in the Vanguard describes these and other dramatic events that have placed the 400 year-old cradle of democracy back in the forefront of American politics and produced two dynamic leaders-Republican Senator George Allen and former Democrat Governor Mark Warner-widely touted as presidential timber.

Contents

• REVERSAL OF FORTUNE THE DEMOCRATIC SOUTHERN STRATEGY: 1
• THE WATERSHED ROBB VICTORY OF 1981: 15
• IMPROBABLE JOURNEY WILDERS WAY TO THE TOP: 43
• SWINGING SUBURBS MAKING MONEY AND MAKING HISTORY: 79
• GEORGE ALLEN AND THE VIRGINIA RENAISSANCE 19931999: 117
• REAGAN POPULISM AND THE POSITIVE POLITICS OF REFORM: 119
• FROM INSURGENT TO INSIDER THE 1993 ALLEN LANDSLIDE: 149
• JOHN WARNER AND THE POLITICS OF INDEPENDENCE: 175
• NEW WORLD AMERICAS OLDEST LEGISLATURE TRANSFORMED: 213
• MARK WARNER AND THE SENSIBLE CENTER 20002006: 255
• TAXING TIMES AND THE TACTIC OF BIPARTISANSHIP: 257
• A CONCLUDING REFLECTION ON VIRGINIAS LEGACY OF FREEDOM: 293
• BOOKS ARTICLES AND BROADCASTS: 307
• INDEX: 319
• ABOUT THE AUTHOR: 333

Popular passages

Page xiii - There is a tide in the affairs of men Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune; Omitted, all the voyage of their life Is bound in shallows and in miseries. On such a full sea are we now afloat; And we must take the current when it serves, Or lose our ventures.

Page xv - So it is the policy of the United States to seek and support the growth of democratic movements and institutions in every nation and culture, with the ultimate goal of ending tyranny in our world.

Page xv - Main have, one after another, been carved out of Virginia, by grants from his majesty's royal predecessors. All that part of the northern American continent now under the dominion of the king of Great Britain, and stretching quite as far as the cape of Florida, went at first under the general name of Virginia.

Page xv - ... been carved out of Virginia, by grants from his majesty's royal predecessors. All that part of the northern American continent now under the dominion of the king of Great Britain, and stretching quite as far as the cape of Florida, went at first under the general name of Virginia. The only distinction, in those early days, was, that all the coast to the southward of Chesapeake bay was called South Virginia, and all to the northward of it, North Virginia.

Page x - To be a Virginian, either by birth, marriage, adoption, or even on one's mother's side, is an introduction to any state of the Union, a passport to any foreign country, and a benediction from the Almighty God.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Virginia in the Vanguard: Political Leadership in the 400-Year-Old Cradle of American Democracy, 1981-2006; G - Reference,Information and Interdisciplinary Subjects Series
• Author: Frank B. Atkinson
• Contributor: University of Virginia. Center for Politics
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC, 2006
• ISBN: 0742552101, 9780742552104
• Length: 337 pages
• Subjects: History / United States / State & Local / South (AL, AR, FL, GA, KY, LA, MS, NC, SC, TN, VA, WV); Political Science / American Government / General; Political Science / American Government / State; Political Science / General; Political Science / History & Theory; Political Science / Political Process / Campaigns & Elections; Political Science / Political Process / General; Political Science / Political Process / Leadership; Political Science / Political Process / Political Parties