http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WpicD6UIq8A

Of course todays Dems who live in Virginia are less conservative than the former. That is what I have been saying all along, these people are new to the State and many moved from liberals area, because those areas have been ruined by liberal polices. Yet, because these liberals know no other way, they keep voting for people who will enact liberal polices that will of course ruin the State.

Is it safer in Virginia now? Or was it safer forty years ago? Is the quality of life better now? Or was it better forty years ago?

Were people more friendly forty years ago? Or, more friendly now?

Have you watched the video of Mark Warner, the fake Virginian insulting real Virginians? Yet, somehow he finds living in a State that is more conservative
better than living in liberal State like Maryland.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?

So because we do not support the murdering of babies we are bad people. Yup, that makes sense to a liberal and fake Virginian. Because we support the Bill of Rights, we are bad people.

Today’s Virginia Dems are far less conservative than the Virginia Dems of the 1950s. Of course, the same could be said for California and everywhere else. My point is that they are still relatively conservative Dems.

Politically, Virginia’s Republicans have too large a “fringe faction” of people who consider themselves “real Virginians”. This is a major drag on the Republican prospects in the Commonwealth.

The greatest “real Virginia” moment ever was August 11, 2006. That was the day George Allen - born in southern California and living in Fairfax County - went to the “real Virginia” for a political rally to gin up support among the other self-proclaimed “real Virginians”. In the following 1:02 video clip he starts by saying the he was going to run a “positive and constructive” campaign and then calls a young man - born in Virginia and attending the University of Virginia - mecaca. The young native born Virginian’s sin? He was filming George Allen’s public appearances. And George “real Virginia” Allen’s answer? Hurl a racial insult while watching the young man film him. He ends by welcoming the Fairfax born university student to “the real world of Virginia” and “the real America”. Presumably, then Senator Allen eventually left the rally in “real Virginia” on a private jet bound for Regan (he shouldn’t be allowed to set foot in an airport named after Ronald Regan - but that’s another rant) and took a limo to his home in Mt. Vernon. That’s the guy the “real Virginians” in the video think of as one of their own.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r90z0PMnKwI

Webb and Warner may seem conservative when matched up next to their fellow National Dems, but they hardly fit the mode of the traditional VA Dem, who was not for abortion, not for social programs, and not for big Government.

I think most of the Democrats holding office today in Virginia are pretty conservative. Senators Webb and Warner are hardly far left politicians. State Democrats like Chap Peterson are pretty much middle of the road too. We have Tim Kaine - he’s definitely a lefty in my book but he’s on the way out too. The Southern Democrats were Conservative (relative to other Democrats) and I think Virginia’s Democrats (today) are Conservative (relative to other Democrats). So, I think too much is made of the shift from Republican to Democrat in Virginia. And, we may all benefit from that shift in that Virginia was a “swing state” for Obama and Obama won the state. In politics, debts are repaid so that future “chits” are preserved. I assume that Obama will run for re-election in 2012. Virginia may well be a swing state again. I think he’ll reward Virginia with some of the (unfortunate) vastly expanded federal spending that is about to occur. So, perhaps bad for future generations of Americans (as the national debt escalates) but maybe lucky for us as we preserve jobs on the back of the federal government (as has been Virginia’s history for years now).

I have been to Lexington, New Market and Front Royal. Yes, they are different from NoVA but they are different from the City of Richmond and Newport News and Charlottesville and (increasingly) Henrico County, etc. I maintain that the change occurring in Virginia is between small town/rural Virginia and urban/suburban Virginia. Not between NoVa and elsewhere other than to the extent that NoVA is part of the urban/suburban change. All of the urban/suburban places in Virginia are becoming more Democratic (and somewhat more liberal). This is where the Republicans are going off the rails. They think that they have an unsolvable problem with NE liberals moving into NoVa and electing Democrats. Instead, they have a solvable problem of a state moving from small town/rural - centric to urban/suburban - centric. California, Connecticut and Minnesota all have Republican governors. Theoretically, this is where the liberals moving to NoVA come from.

I also believe that many NoVA localities are seeing more foreign born transplants than NE liberal transplants.

As for out of state plates - don’t you have to convert to Virginia plates once you move here?

Finally, Virginia has been changing for the last 400 years. Think about the leaders of the American Revolution from Virginia - Jefferson, Washington, Madison, Mason. How many were from the political center of Richmond - Williamsburg - Norfolk? None of them. In some ways the American Revolution was a political clash between traditionalists (often Tories) in Virginia’s power center and firebrands from Virginia’s hinterlands. At the outbreak of the US Civil War a group of Virginia counties refused to fight for the Confereracy. They left the Commonwealth. Those counties are now West Virginia. Hell, Robert E. Lee was from Alexandria (he grew up there even if he wasn’t born there). Today, Virginia’s population is shifting from small town / rural to city / suburban. If this creates a ‘real Virginia” vs. “fake Virginia” then I reserve the right to go back to a prior time. Since Fairfax County produced two of the most important leaders of the american Revolution I declare Fairfax County to be the only place which should be designated as the “real Virginia” or perhaps even the only place to be designated the “real America”. Pretty ridiculous? Yes. Just like it’s pretty ridiculous to say that Front Royal is more like the City of Richmond than it’s like the City of Alexandria. Richmond and Alexandria are far more similar to each other than either is similar to Front Royal.

You do know that Southern Democrats were Conservative, and it was because the National party went liberal that caused once Southern Democrats to become Republicans(which surely stung our ancestors). So while the party label might have changed, real Virginians have remained pretty conservative over the years.

Though, I do agree the hatred of Bush played a role in the election, and the fact McCain ran a bad campagin.

It is proven that many people from the NE and in particularly PA have relocated to Virginia(NOVA), mostly unless of course you have not paid attention to the number of out of State tags seen while driving in this area.

You also must realize the demographics of the City of Richmond and Petersburg. UVA is a liberal college town, so it makes sense they voted for Obama

Have you even visited places like New Market, Lexington, Broadway, Pound, Blue Grass, Front Royal etc? If so, then you surely would know there is a huge difference between those places and NOVA.

Though, I do like how you use fake to describe those people who have come here from more liberal places to only want to change this place into the same type of place they moved from.

Maybe we just agree to disagree. I don’t think NoVA has changed much more than a number of other places in Virginia (Charlottesville comes to mind). And I don’t see Virginia as homogenous outside of NoVA.

I believe that many places in Virginia has urbanized in the nearly 50 years I have lived here. In my opinion, it is the urbanization of many parts of Virginia that has changed Virginia. This is certainly true in NoVa. However, it is true in Williamsburg, suburban Richmond, Charlottesville, Virginia Beach, etc. So, I have a hard time finding a distinct line between NoVA and elsewhere in Virginia. In fact, the line is so blurry that there is no accepted definition of NoVA. I’d understand people who define Virginia as urban/suburban vs. rural. Maybe the “real Virginia” is rural Virginia to those people. If so, they’d have to consider Fredricksburg and Crozet as having moved from the “real Virginia” to the “fake Virginia” over the last 50 years.

I hear the NE liberal migration to Virginia argument all the time in a political context. Republcans claim that they lose in Northern Virginia because NorthEast liberals have moverd here in great numbers in recent years. They never seem to have much quantitative evidence for that argument. Additionally, all of Virginia was heavily Democratic before it became reliably Republican only to go back to Democratic again in recent years. Did the liberals from the NE move out for a while? Voting data also fails to support this Republican hypothesis of failure.

Here’s some data. Let’s compare the last 4 presidential elections between Fairfax County (fake Virginia) and Henrico County in suburban Richmond (real Virginia). Note: There are only 4 presidential elections online at the state board of elections site.

Fairfax County:

1996 - Republican: 51% Democratic:49%
2000 - Republican: 51% Democratic:49%
2004 - Republican: 46% Democratic:54%
2008 - Republican: 39% Democratic:61%

Something changed between 200 and 2004. My guess is that it was the rising stench of the Bush administration more than an exodus of liberals from Long Island (or wherever) but who knows.

Henrico County:

1996 - Republican: 57% Democratic:43%
2000 - Republican: 56% Democratic:44%
2004 - Republican: 54% Democratic:46%
2008 - Republican: 44% Democratic:56%

Something’s been changing down in Henrico too. Are the Long Island liberals moving into the “real Virginia” and voting for Democrats?

I realize that two counties and four preseidential elections don’t tell the full story. However, I have “eyeballed” the election results by locality for a lot of elections in Virginia since 1996. All of the urban and densely populated suburban areas seem to becoming more Democratic. And where did Obama carry the highest percentage of the votes? Fairfax County? Not even close. The so-called People’s Republic of Arlington? Nope. The city of Petersburg where Obama carried a staggering 89% of the vote followed by the City of Richmond where he carried 79% of the vote. He also carried a higher percentage in the City of Charlottesville than any NoVa locality and the City of Norfolk was a “dead heat” with Obama’s biggest margin in NoVA.

So, based on the last election, the dividing line seems to be more about population density than lattitude within the Commonwealth. Or maybe it’s about racial demographics. Maybe the theory is that the good parts of Virginia are the whitest parts of Virginia. Sadly, that would be in keeping with the history of the “real Virginia”.

I am not defending the person at your party. All I am saying, and you have as well is that NOVA has changed much over the last 30 years and for the most part the rest of the State outside of this area and the other more populated areas have not.

Given that at one time NOVA was like the other parts of the States and for the most is not longer it makes sense to ask which is exactly the real VA? Add the fact that many people from other States, mostly from the NE, have moved to NOVA, a huge disconnect has grown between this area of VA and other parts.

So, that is why people including myself say once we are out of NOVA are in the real Virginia.

Groveton, your neighbor sounds like a snobbish redneck.

Try walking up to someone on the street in Newport News or many parts of Richmond and say hi. Ask Michael Vick to take your dog for a walk. Richmond has recently had one of the worst murder rates in the United States. As for Alexandria, I say hi to people all the time when I am there. I wave at every jogger I see going the opposite way on the W&OD running path in Reston/Vienna. Everybody either says “hi” or waves back.

I agree that NoVA has changed since I was born here years and years ago. Everywhere has changed. Manhattan has changed. Charlottesville has changed. Chicago has changed. London has changed. If being “real” means not changing then there aren’t many “real” places in the world.

As for the genteel friendliness you miss in NoVA - how does that translate into insulting someone who has invited you to a party? I hear a lot of BS from people who claim to be “real Virginians”. They largely seem to be rude, dimwitted dipsticks. Hardly the warm and friendly people they claim to represent. And again - I know lots of Virginians from outside NoVA. The vast majority are very nice people. However, if someone tells you that they are a “real Virginian” or “from the first families of Virginia” you should fire up your “dipstick radar” because you are invariably dealing with a clown.

30 years ago many parts of NOVA were not that much different from the rest of the State. However, that is not the case today. If you don’t agree, try going up to someone on the street in Arlington or Alexandria and say hi, and see what happens. How often do you wave to a passing car here in NOVA?

Now, try that in South Side, and you will get a completely different reaction. And that is why so many people say once you get out of NOVA, you are in the real Virginia.

So, I am holding a party at my house for my kids’ friends and their parents (my kids were also born in Virginia, go to school in Virginia, etc) and this guy walks up to me. He asks me where I am from and I reply, “Virginia”. I see the guy visibly react to this news. He asks, “What part of Virginia?”. I tell him I grew up on Huntington Ave just south of Alexandria. He sighs and says, “Oh, I thought you meant the real Virginia”. He goes on to tell me about the great town where he grew up in Southern Virginia. Turns out he’s lived in NoVA for the past 25 years having left his hometown when it became obvious that there were no jobs to be had. His kids were born here, they go to school here, etc. etc. So, I tell him that I’ll pay for the gas to fill up his car if he’ll just promise to leave and go back to wherever the hell he’s from. In fact, I’ll buy him a new Chevy Suburban if he needs more cargo space. His kids can stay - they can live with me. But he needs to leave and go back to the “Real Virginia”. The guy has the audacity to act hurt. He says that he can’t believe I said that to him. I’m staring at him like he has bright green skin. He belittles my hometown where his kids were born and where he fled to get a job 25 years ago and I’ve insulted him? And I never even met the clown before that day. Then I notice he’s drinking one of my Dominion Lagers. I take it and throw it in the trash. No sense him polluting his 5′10″ 275 lb “real Virginia” self with beer from “fake Virginia”. He huffs off saying he’s going to collect his wife and kids and leave. I tell him my offer to buy the gas is still good if he promises to leave forever.

Give me the choice between an illegal immigrant from Mexico living in NoVA and that clown - I’ll take the immigrant every time.

Postscript - I felt really good about finally telling one of the self-proclaimed real Virginians to go to hell. My good feelings lasted about a day. Then my wife heard about the conversation from somebody else who was at at the party. Yikes. Turns out she doesn’t see the poetic majesty of telling a neighbor that I’ll buy the gas if he’ll just leave forever. I guess that’s what I get for marrying a Mid-Westerner who doesn’t understand the subtleties of the real and fake Virginia(s).

And yes … I know there are lots of good people from all over Virginia. Yes, I know that the vast majority of Virginians are good people - regardless of where they live or where they are from. But there are too many self-proclaimed “real Virginians”, self-proclaimed “first families of Virginia”, etc. And those of us who are apparently not “real Virginians” and not from “first families of Virginia” put up with way too much BS from the few clods who believe God annointed them the only true representatives of Virginia.

A “Yankee” goes home.

So true. Though, we are not as bad as Kentucky, who consider folks from the next County over to be foreigners.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2008/oct/13/obama-tax-cut-refunds-those-who-dont-pay/

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2158791/posts

http://hotair.com/archives/2008/10/13/obama-plan-tax-cuts-or-demogrants/

You are one hundred percent Right.

We shod do all we can in order to stifle any progress that the Obama administration tries to do. I am quite happy with the status quo. It irks me that he now wants tax cuts. Can you imagine.

This probably deserves its own thread. Montgomery County is doing a 180:

Re the WPO article…….No wonder Prince Georges county is called the rectum of D.C.

That is funny but true. I read an article about a lady who lived in far SW Virginia and had lived there for 50 years after marrying a local. Even after 50 years, she was still considered to be an outsider.