You all know this woman. She is an embarrassment to the American people and a truly despicable human being. Here are just a few of her greatest hits:
"[Our bill] will be pro-life because it will not put seniors in the position of being put to death by their government"
"We have more to fear from the potential of that [health care] bill passing than we do from any terrorist right now in any country."
"[People in foreclosure] are continuing the welfare mentality"
That's Virginia Foxx of North Carolina, of course, a woman who makes Jesse Helms look moderate by comparison. Despite her clear insanity, which you'd think would be a selling point, teabaggers in her district are going to field a right wing candidate against her in the general election. And that opens up this race to good guy, Billy Kennedy, the progressive Democrat who is running against Foxx.
Blue America is endorsing Kennedy today, and Howie and John will be hosting a chat over at C&L at 11 am if you'd like to meet him.
There aren't going to be any clearer choices between an advocate of people-oriented good government and an advocate of maintaining the status quo on behalf of the wealthy, powerful special interests than the race in NC-5 between Billy Kennedy and Virginia Foxx. Foxx doesn't think her wealthy backers should be forced to pay taxes to educate a bunch of poor people's children. Billy has a very different perspective on the role of government in a healthy society:
America needs a vibrant middle class and successful small businesses to survive. The middle class depends on quality public education available for all and jobs that pay a living wage... People have been benefiting from government programs for a long time in this country and still are. What would our Fifth District be like had the rural electric cooperatives not been started by the government? The government is our common wealth, our school systems, secure banking, police and fire departments, roads and water systems belong collectively to us all. And it’s our responsibility to manage our collective wealth wisely.
No one makes it all on their own. We all benefit from successful government programs. Virginia got her B.A., M.A. and E.D. from our outstanding public North Carolina universities, and she’s been on the dole ever since. She’s been living off the N.C. taxpayers, gaming the system, and now she wants to deny the same opportunity she had to everyone else. Just last weekend she said that she didn’t believe that federal funds should be used for education.
I went to college with the help of federal programs. Last year’s federal stimulus money went to our colleges and local schools, supporting, and in some cases saving teaching positions, in this tough economy. Students don’t get a second chance; you can’t abandon them. If their basic educational needs are not met, they become economically disadvantaged, costing us all more in the end. Countries with higher literacy rates have more developed and thriving democracies. Investing in education is money well spent. We need an educated workforce to compete. We need good jobs. We need to be leading the world in new technologies, green technologies. We need to promote these new green technologies with tax credits at the state and federal levels. We need to renew our manufacturing base. Bring the work back home.
Between a Tea Party candidate campaigning against Foxx from the right and Billy's plainspoken on-the-ground outreach, the anti-incumbent wave building nationwide this year could unseat an entrenched Republican in a red district, which is just what Alan Grayson and Eric Massa did with our help last year. Please consider contributing directly to Billy's campaign here at the Blue America page.
There has never been a better time to oust incumbents and there's no reason that it can't happen in North Carolina. Virginia Foxx is an embarrassment to all Americans, but she's a very special embarrassment to her district. They have a chance to correct that.