Wingnutopia: Please explain Virginia to me?

[fencesitter]

Virginia is a fabulous state, I love it... mountains, beaches, history galore, great state parks, national parks, top notch universities, big R&D industry, BUT... apparently it's controlled by narrow minded inquisitors determined to take civil rights back to 1863. I'm from PA, so I know once you get away from the enlightened coastal regions (why is that?) awareness and intelligence seem to drop exponentially the further west you travel, but I don't understand why Virginia, home to Jefferson and Washington isn't more progressive?. It's' economy in the north is linked entirely to DC, making it very dependent on successful federal policy. It was a confederate state in the 19th C. but, not deep southern, and secretly divided during the war. Obama won VA in 2008. Both senators are democrats(?) So...why is VA, how is VA, being led by the balls to shit like vaginal probes, voter ID requirements, referring to health care reform as "economic rape", and the whole litany of upside-down, bizarro world RW posturing? What's up, Virginia?

[kestrel91316]

1. I think you mean 1363.

[fencesitter]

2. huh?

Ooohh....I get it.

[NRaleighLiberal]

3. Yup. We think of North Carolina as "less southern" than Virginia - maybe because we live in the

Triangle area, so there are more progressives around. But with the exception of a few spots, VA feels really conservative (uncomfortably so) to us - even in Charlottesville (aside from right near the college). Very odd place....we can't figure it out either.

[no_hypocrisy]

4. I'll try.

I attended Sweet Briar College (independent liberal arts women's college) in Amherst County, a respected institution. We were referred to by Jerry Falwell as the Harlots on the Hill. Dunno why, maybe he couldn't handle our superiority to his Liberty Baptist College.

Going on. Amherst County is where they maintain segregated cemeteries. So much for Death being The Great Equalizer. Also, until the late Nineties, the County Seat had two pairs of public bathrooms with a tape across the words "White" and "Colored". Amherst County was the originating court for Buck v. Bell, where a poor white single mother was declared "enfeebled" by the Court (confirmed by the U.S. Supreme Court) and forced to be sterilized by the State.

Moving on to Lynchburg. The city was named after a farmer who used to hang his "disobedient" slaves by their thumbs, hence the origin of "lynching". Besides Jerry Falwell, Lynchburg has the legacy of its "Training School" where hundreds of poor people were involuntarily sterilized by court orders. (See the previous paragraph.)

Yet you have the tradition of Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe. And the University of Virginia, Washington and Lee, etc.

The state is a contradiction, a dichotomy. Some parts and some people are truly very very nice and then there are the other parts and other people.

[fencesitter]

5. the other parts..

and the other people..are now in the majority? Geez.

[customerserviceguy]

6. It's simple

Every state has urban areas with decent size populations that vote reliably progressive when things are going good. They're populous enough to outweigh the relatively smaller population out in the boondocks, who almost invariably vote Repuke.

However, when the mushy middle out in the suburbs of the urban areas get scared, sometimes they go Neanderthal, and vote Rethug. Then, when the votes of the hicks in the sticks add in, the state goes red that election. I would imagine the same dynamic is represented in a state's legislature, giving rise to the craziness you cite.

[AnnieBW]

7. There's a lot of Fundies in the southern part

It's the home of Liberty University. It's got Pat Robertson on one side, and Jerry Falwell's organization on the other. And a whole lot of stupid in between. Once you cross into Loudon or Prince William Counties, you're heading into Redneckistan.

Of course, my own two states aren't much better. Maryland has it's own Redneckistans - Western MD and the Eastern Shore. And then there's Pennsyltucky - otherwise known as the "Alabama between Pittsburgh and Philadelphia."

[Blue_Tires]

8. i'll be able to answer your questions in the morning

marking this thread for later...

[Blue_Tires]

9. For starters, we've been pretty conservative since Reconstruction, if not earlier

Remember this is a state that some counties famously decided to close entire school systems down before to resist integration...

We have some liberal pockets in NoVa, parts of Richmond, C'ville and Hampton Roads, but most of the rest of the state is fundamental/chamber of commerce fuckwittery, led by our current governor and his toady attorney general...

And do not get me started on our DINO senators...If that wasn't enough, the current Democratic senate candidate is more conservative than them both, if you can imagine that...