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out, a tax reduction is a tax reduction no matter how symbolic, and he has pledged there will be no tax increases during his administration. The clear message to economic interests fearful of Wilder’s liberal past is that a new era of fiscal prudence has dawned upon Virginia from an unexpected source.
That doesn’t mean Gov. Wilder can now bask in glory for the next three years and approximately 10 months of his term. Sooner or later those more liberal elements of the state Democratic Party with their broad social agendas will remind him they didn’t given him their votes to enable him to win the approval of Republicans and conservative Democrats. How Gov. Wilder responds to that will eventually test both his political luck and his skill.
Meanwhile, though, the governor who may have national aspirations on his mind can spread the word to his party in other states that if they are looking for a leader, one who happens to be black, he can show them how the “New Mainstream” in Virginia has been forged to unify the Democratic Party and win over the electorate.
And Mr. Wilder, the most visible symbol of a black Democrat with great appeal to white voters, can start to shove to the sidelines an unelected Jesse Jackson whose presidential ambitions are founded not on practical politics and consensus but on rhetoric and confrontation.
In that respect, Gov. Wilder will be saying much the same things as Virginia’s Junior U.S. Senator Charles S. Robb, a former governor and moderate Democrat. The two have publicly quarelled in a fading past when Mr. Wilder felt Gov. Robb wanted a national Democratic Party that was a mirror-image of Ronald Reagan’s Republican Party. But Doug Wilder is now demonstrating he understands that a foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of a political ambition that realizes unless the moment is seized, it may be lost forever.
John Goolrick, a former polit ical reporter, is now an aide to Seventh District Congressman D. French Slaughter Jr. Opinions expressed are his own.
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