Bob McDonnell

Robert Francis "Bob" McDonnell (born June 15, 1954) is an American attorney, businessman, politician, and former military officer who served as the 71st governor of Virginia from 2010 to 2014. A member of the Republican Party, McDonnell also served on the executive committee of the Republican Governors Association.

As the family goes, so goes the nation.

Quotes

The giftedness of the Republican philosophy is that it embraces the talent and worth of all peoples, while Democrats seek to shepherd a nation of powerless incompetents.

Now, therefore, I, Robert McDonnell, do hereby recognize April 2010 as Confederate History Month in our Commonwealth of Virginia, and I call this observance to the attention of all our citizens.

For at least 8 years, Republican domestic policies have demonstrated that man is capable of doing good only in an atmosphere of liberty and faith, not compulsion and atheism. However, man's basic nature is inclined towards evil, and when the exercise of liberty takes the shape of pornography, drug abuse, or homosexuality, the government must restrain, punish, and deter.

The people of Virginia have spoken by a margin of 57-43. They’ve already enshrined in the Virginia Constitution that gay marriage is not permitted, so unless there is another effort to change the Constitution, that matter is settled. That is the law of the land and, look, reasonable people can disagree on these things. That’s what the law is now. That’s something that I support. That was the right decision.

The Republican Party's Vision for the Family (1989)

The Republican Party's Vision for the Family: The Compelling Issue of the Decade. 99-page thesis submitted by McDonnell at the College of Law and Government, Christian Broadcasting Network University in Virginia Beach, Virginia, in 1989 for his Master of Arts in Public Policy and Juris Doctor in Law. The actual length of the thesis itself is 69 (nice) pages.

• The vast majority of American children have been educated in the American public school system, in which textbooks and courses of instruction are increasingly oriented to reflect humanist views and a secular philosophy. 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. Values that had historically provided strength to the family, such as firm discipline and corporal punishment, patriotism, and academic achievement, were either attacked, or given token attention.
  • p. 6-7

• The United States Supreme Court dealt among the harshest blows to the American family and traditional morality. A century ago, the Court demonstrated profound respect for the traditional views of marriage and family, stating in Maynard v. Hill that "marriage is the foundation of the family and of society, without which there would be neither civilization nor progress." However in 1965 with Griswold v. Connecticut, the court embarked on [a] dualistic path by attempting to create a view of liberty based on radical individualism, while facilitating statist control of select family issues. The Court postulated a new view of marriage by asserting that "preservation of marital privacy" precludes state interference with the right to use contraceptives, even though the state had long been empowered to regulate the legal and sexual relationships of marriage. In Eisenstadt v. Baird the activist Court illogically extended the Griswold notion of "marital privacy" to unmarried persons, at a time when every state in the union made sexual intercourse between unmarried persons a crime.
  • p. 7-8

• In 1973, the Court in the Roe v. Wade decision gave the individual the right to destroy the unborn through abortion, and three years later in Planned Parenthood v. Danforth it extended the supremacy of individual privacy over parental authority in the child's abortion decision. In his seminal article on the Court's role in shaping a national family policy, scholar Peter J. Riga suggests that in Danforth, "marriage is seen as a tenuous union formed by the consensual agreement of the two individuals who remain autonomous and independent throughout the relationship." He further asserts that by the end of the 1970s, the Court had, for all practical purposes, obliterated the difference between marriage and non-marriage, replacing the sacred covental view of marriage with the "positivistic view that a marriage is but an act of the state, which powers the state may delegate in appropriate cricumstances." In other cases, the abuses of the judicial doctrines of "in loco parentis" and "parens patriae," particularly in such areas as education, discipline of children, and child custody, have fostered subversion of the role of the parent in favor of ultimate decisions on family and children matters by the state and federal governments.
  • p. 8

• Professor Henry Holzer of the Brooklyn Law School believes that together the Belle Terre (1974) and Moore (1971) decisions stand for the proposition that it is a collectivist-statist ideology, not a concept of individual rights, that lies at the base of official government thinking about the family. Further, when the Court reviews state definitions of, or intrusions into, the family, "the determinative criterion will be the importance of the state interest involved." Riga concludes that in 15 years of Supreme Court cases ending in 1979, the view of marriage as an indissoluble lifelong commitment had been abandoned. In its wake is the perverted notion of liberty that each individual should be able to live out his sexual life in any way he chooses without interference from the state. The consequences of such thinking have been previously discussed, and ironically create the very problems that society now calls on the federal government to solve.
  • p. 8-9

• For at least 8 years, Republican domestic policies have demonstrated that man is capable of doing good only in an atmosphere of liberty and faith, not compulsion and atheism. However, man's basic nature is inclined towards evil, and when the exercise of liberty takes the shape of pornography, drug abuse, or homosexuality, the government must restrain, punish, and deter.
  • p. 20

• In Republican rhetoric and policies on crime and welfare reform, one discerns a view of man as an accountable and responsible moral agent. In their positions on economic growth, Republicans endorse the provision of opportunity, not guarantees, by getting "government out of the way, off the backs of households and entrepreneurs, so the people could take charge." In principle the party has supported a pro-family agenda: religious freedom to include voluntary prayer in public schools; a human life amendment; the appointment of judges at all levels who respect the sanctity of human life and traditional family values; and the right of private property as the cornerstone of liberty.
  • p. 21

• Republican policies must aim at the most destructive trend in the family disintegration: the undermining of parental authority through parental abdication and government usurpation. Notwithstanding Democratic rhetoric to the contrary, it is not uncompassionate and anti-family to mandate parental consent for all decisions made by minors in and out of school, and to refuse government aid to those who reject the traditional values of responsibility and accountability. While no government program can make people be good, policies should reward people when they are, and not subsidize them when they are not. For example, every level of government should statutorily and procedurally prefer married couples over cohabitators, homosexuals and fornicators. The cost of sin should fall on the sinner not the taxpayer. While such thinking may be attacked for lacking political realism in a changing world, it is imperative that government stand firm in support of traditional family values.
  • p. 65

• Fight any attempts to redefine family by allowing special rights for homosexuals or single-parent unwed mothers.
  • p. 66-67

• The giftedness of the Republican philosophy is that it embraces the talent and worth of all peoples, while Democrats seek to shepherd a nation of powerless incompetents.
  • p. 67

• As the family goes, so goes the nation.
  • p. 69

2010

• WHEREAS, April is the month in which the people of Virginia joined the Confederate States of America in a four year war between the states for independence that concluded at Appomattox Courthouse; and
  WHEREAS, Virginia has long recognized her Confederate history, the numerous civil war battlefields that mark every region of the state, the leaders and individuals in the Army, Navy and at home who fought for their homes and communities and Commonwealth in a time very different than ours today; and
  WHEREAS, it is important for all Virginians to reflect upon our Commonwealth's shared history, to understand the sacrifices of the Confederate leaders, soldiers and citizens during the period of the Civil War, and to recognize how our history has led to our present; and
  WHEREAS, Confederate historical sites such as the White House of the Confederacy are open for people to visit in Richmond today; and
  WHEREAS, all Virginians can appreciate the fact that when ultimately overwhelmed by the insurmountable numbers and resources of the Union Army, the surviving, imprisoned and injured Confederate soldiers gave their word and allegiance to the United States of America, and returned to their homes and families to rebuild their communities in peace, following the instruction of General Robert E. Lee of Virginia, who wrote that, "...all should unite in honest efforts to obliterate the effects of war and to restore the blessings of peace."; and
  WHEREAS, this defining chapter in Virginia's history should not be forgotten, but instead should be studied, understood and remembered by all Virginians, both in the context of the time in which it took place, but also in the context of the time in which we live, and this study and remembrance takes on particular importance as the Commonwealth prepares to welcome the nation and the world to visit Virginia for the Sesquicentennial Anniversary of the Civil War, a four-year period in which the exploration of our history can benefit all;
  NOW, THEREFORE, I, Robert McDonnell, do hereby recognize April 2010 as CONFEDERATE HISTORY MONTH in our COMMONWEALTH OF VIRGINIA, and I call this observance to the attention of all our citizens.
  • Proclamation issued by McDonnell in April 2010 reinstating April as Confederate History Month in Virginia; this designation had been previously recognized by the Virginia state government in 1992-2002. The original proclamation was modified, then rescinded by McDonnell later in 2010 due to heavy criticism, and has not been re-designated since. As quoted in The Washington Post, "Virginia Gov. Robert F. McDonnell's original Confederate History Month Proclamation", April 7, 2010.

2011

• The people of Virginia have spoken by a margin of 57-43. They’ve already enshrined in the Virginia Constitution that gay marriage is not permitted, so unless there is another effort to change the Constitution, that matter is settled. That is the law of the land and, look, reasonable people can disagree on these things. That’s what the law is now. That’s something that I support. That was the right decision.
  • Statement from McDonnell at a press conference, referencing a referendum on 5 May 2011 wherein Virginia voters approved a proposed amendment to the Virginia constitution to ban same-sex marriage; the amendment was made unconstitutional in the ruling of Obergefell v. Hodges in 2015. As quoted by Anita Kumar, "McDonnell: Gay marriage ban was “the right decision”"

2013

• This has been both a heartbreaking and humbling period of time for me and for my family. But what I can control is how I react to things and what I can control is how to make Virginia a better state.
  • Quoted on The Huffington Post, "Bob McDonnell Laments Scandal: A 'Heartbreaking And Humbling Period Of Time'", December 5, 2013.

2014

• We are broke, have an unconscionable amount in credit card debt already, and this Inaugural is killing us!
  • Maureen McDonnell, quoted on Daily News, "Former Virgina Gov. Bob McDonnell and wife indicted on corruption charges", January 21, 2014.

About

• I don’t think any politician wants to be exposed as doing the things Bob McDonnell did. It doesn’t matter if it’s a crime or not.
  • Barak Cohen, a former federal prosecutor who does white-collar defense work at Perkins Coie, quoted on Washington Post (January 29, 2016), "McDonnell’s case might help others accused of corruption"