VDOT: Traffic Alert for Warren County from June 17-21, 2024

You may be a minority in your hometown, but in statewide and national elections, every vote matters a lot. – That was one of the messages delivered by Virginia U.S. Senator Tim Kaine during a luncheon on the outdoor patio of Vibrissa Beer and Kitchen in Front Royal’s historic business district on Tuesday, June 11. Also in attendance and answering questions alongside Senator Kaine was Democratic candidate Ken Mitchell, who will challenge Republican incumbent Ben Cline in Virginia’s Sixth District congressional race this year.

The WC Democratic Committee is promoting the visit of Senator Tim Kaine and 6th Congressional District challenger Ken Mitchell to historic downtown Front Royal. And we’re informed that the promised coffee was provided by Doppio Bunny Coffee – add a little extra caffeine, please. Graphic courtesy of the WC Democratic Committee

And while every vote is important, it looks like local Democrats won’t get that vote until the November general election. As Jessica Reynolds, vice chair of the Warren County Democratic Committee, told us, neither Mitchell nor Kaine will face challenges within the Democratic Party in the June 18 primary. However, five Republicans are vying to challenge Kaine for his U.S. Senate seat. They are: CL “Chuck” Smith Jr., Edward “Eddie” C. Garcia Jr., Hung Cao, Jonathan Emord and Scott Thomas Parkinson.

Kaine stressed the importance of the upcoming presidential and congressional elections as the concept of our democratically based constitutional republic appears to be increasingly challenged. This appears to be based on some Republicans accepting Donald Trump’s claim that his recent hush money trial of Stormy Daniels, his trial in court and conviction in New York City were a politically manipulated fraud, as opposed to a trial based on legitimate evidence that would have put every American citizen before a jury of their peers, including a former President of the United States.

Kaine described his experiences as a young man in Honduras, when there was a dictatorship with no voting rights: “I was naive, but by the end of the year I was not naive. I thought, wow, dictators really do exist, authoritarian regimes really do exist. You can’t just assume you can vote, because when I lived in Honduras you couldn’t vote. And the people I lived with were praying for the day when they might be able to choose their own leader. So I came back in 1981 feeling like, okay, now I’m not naive. I understand what’s going on out there in the world.

“But I was still naive”

“But I was still naive because I never thought I would see this authoritarian impulse here in this country. And yet we see it all over the world, we see it in Hungary, in El Salvador, in the United States. The struggle between democracy and authoritarianism is not a foregone conclusion. No, it is a live issue. And we are about to celebrate our 250th anniversary as a nation in 2026. And the burden, the responsibility and the opportunity has been placed on our shoulders to be a generation that revives the functioning democracy that we have today and then puts it in the hands of our children and grandchildren.

Tim Kaine and Ken Mitchell (the latter speaks below) discuss the primary campaign, but with an eye on November, as there will be no primary challenge for either Democratic candidate on June 18. – Photos by Royal Examiner, Roger Bianchini

“And I believe we are capable of doing this, the people of Virginia are capable of doing this, I think the American people are capable of doing this, and I think that’s why we will be successful in November,” Kaine told his audience of Democrats and independent voters to applause.

The Democratic candidates also had to face some tough questions regarding the Biden administration’s apparent support of Israel’s ongoing counterattack on Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, where they have been relocated as a stateless people with no military defense system, with only a breakaway, terrorist minority organization, Hamas, claiming to act in the interests of the Palestinians, which many Palestinians would questionably claim. Hamas’s attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, reportedly resulted in 1,200 Israelis killed and 250 taken hostage. The Israeli military actions that followed, which are still ongoing, are widely defined internationally as genocide, with Palestinian casualties estimated at at least 38,000 and now approaching 40,000 or more. A woman who asked Kaine about the Israeli-Palestinian situation mentioned 14,000 children among these Palestinian victims.

The “situation” in Gaza

“What you call a ‘situation’ in Gaza is more than 14,000 children killed. I have a five-year-old child. In each of these children I see my child,” she began emotionally, adding: “And I tell you, yes, it would help to talk about a two-state solution where Palestinians and Israelis can live in peace. But I don’t know if that would be enough for me to vote Democrat,” she said of the upcoming elections in November.

“I’m completely torn because it’s the lesser of two evils: We’re still supporting genocide. And how can you support and stand behind people who haven’t stopped it yet but have the power to do so?” she asked, apologizing for her nervousness. “But I had to be here to tell you this in person,” she added, citing her frustration that “calls to the White House, emails and protests are not getting results.”

“It is not enough to see children like my child who had the privilege of being born in this country rather than there. There is no difference between her and the children of Palestine,” she concluded, drawing applause from much of the audience.

Kaine did not shy away from a meaningful exchange with a mother (pictured below) who is critical of the Biden administration’s stance on the Israeli-Palestinian situation in Gaza. It is a “situation” that has reportedly resulted in over 14,000 children killed, she said, and nearly 40,000 Palestinian deaths during the 8-month Israeli response to the October 7 Hamas terror attack that killed 1,200 Israelis and kidnapped another 250.

“And that’s true. I’ve spent time with hostage families whose loved ones were kidnapped and abused,” Kaine began in response. “And I’ve spent time with Israelis who have lost families, and I’ve spent time with a lot of Palestinians. And with Americans who have been in Palestine, like doctors on medical missions, who come back with heartbreaking reports. It’s just, it’s heartbreaking, it’s absolutely heartbreaking,” Kaine said, adding the observation: “And the U.S. is not in a position to just change the situation in another part of the world. We have influence, we have more influence than most,” he admitted, adding: “And frankly, it took too much influence to get Israel to increase the pace of humanitarian aid…

“But Israel has actors in the Middle East: Hamas, Iran, Hezbollah that want to wipe it out,” Senator Kaine noted of the complex political chessboard in the Middle East. However, the Senator added, “That does not excuse similar violence against Palestinians in the West Bank. That does not excuse cutting off humanitarian aid to Gaza. That does not excuse the indiscriminate actions that may hit someone from Hamas but also wipe out many civilians,” Kaine noted of what a majority of UN Security Council nations seem to define as genocide against Palestinians, namely Israel’s response to the October 7 Hamas attack.

“That is why it is very difficult to figure out how we can defend Israel and at the same time take advantage of the hoped-for better behavior of the Israeli leadership,” Kaine asked rhetorically, referring to a situation that he observed has become problematic since 1948 in the wake of World War II and the West’s response to the Nazi Holocaust of European Jews.

Kaine cautiously pointed to some developments in recent days that gave him hope for progress in resolving the now one-sided conflict that has now lasted eight months following Israel’s response to the October 7 Hamas attack. However, in response to a similar question from another person, Senator Kaine noted that current Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s past statements and actions do not appear to support a two-state solution that would create a Palestinian state that could coexist on equal terms with its neighbors, including Israel.

The reporter is reminded of a comment he read a few years ago by an Israeli peace activist who commented on the first three or four years of Netanyahu’s leadership and his treatment of the Palestinians: “Israel is like the abused child who grows up to become an abuser herself,” she complained.

Welcome to the national election year of 2024 in America, where the world is in increasing turmoil.