Virginia has the most extreme identity crisis of any state in the Union

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                                                             Above: Crystal City, Virginia

 

 

 

                                              THE COMMONWEALTH OF VIRGINIA 

The dichotomy between the DC/NOVA region and the "real" Virginia keeps growing. 20 years ago or further back, you did not see such a blatant schism as you do today. Virginia both  Mid-Atlantic and culturally Southern, is now really the most divided state possibly in the country . Given it's smaller geographic size in comparison to New York and California, there is is  much less land mass to tolerate such opposing microcosms. The Northern most 3 counties are now deciding our presidential and state wide elections , swinging it to the left politically, while the majority of Virginia is still more like South Carolina. Someone said recently  if you slapped the state of New Jersey on the back of South Carolina, that is exactly the gulf between Northern Virginia and the real Virginia. Go to rural Goochland, Powhatan, or even Culpeper County, and it's a world away from the   culture bubble of the DC Metro.


 

 Now we all know that Richmond, Charlottesville, and even the  Hampton Roads area are not "NOVA" and they are liberal. However, "Southern liberal" is different than Yankee liberal, and while Richmond is large, it is nowhere the influence and population density of Northern Virginia. The three counties of Loudoun, Fairfax, Prince William, along with the cities of Alexandria and Arlington boost the stream of political power in the state. With the high density of foreign born citizens, political swamp creatures, and simply put, "carpetbaggers", Northern Virginia walks all over Virginia citizens. The Northeast liberals visited Washington DC and they stayed. Now I feel Virginia is about to bust soon, and split yet again. I would not want to venture to guess what that would look like. 

 Pictures are worth a thousand words. If you are in Central/Southern Virginia, you see more images like the above. If you are in the Northern Virginia region, you'd be more likely to find a far east Chinaman than a native Virginian. The culture, the politics, the religion, even the economy is in a schism like never before in Virginia. We will have to see if Virginia may swing in the middle direction soon and balance out the two extreme world views. Let's hope and pray that it does!



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