Earlier today, John McCain sent senior adviser Nancy Pfotenhauer on MSNBC, where she was asked about Virginia. In fit of pique, Pfotenhauer assailed Northern Virginia where John McCain's campaign headquarters are located, and spoke of "the rest of the state, 'real Virginia." Given a chance to dig herself out of the hole she had just climbed in, she soldiered on, saying "I did say outside of north – well, I mean real Virginia, because northern Virginia is where I’ve always been, but real Virginia I take to be the – this part of the state that is more southern in nature, if you will."
This isn't the first time some tone-deaf Republican claimed the "Real Virginia" was south of the Rappahanock. The last guy I could think of who did it also took a shot at anywhere inside the beltway after pledging to run a positive, constructive campaign. (He also loved to say "My friends!")
His name was George Allen.
I have a confession. My name is Kenton Ngo, I'm an Asian-American in Northern Virginia. I've been "welcomed to America" by clueless white folks, mistaken for a Chinese food delivery boy while canvassing, but I'm still a Real American in the Real Politics of Real America. But according to Sarah Palin, I don't live in a pro-America part of the country. According to John McCain's brother, I live dangerously close to "Communist country". Democratic success in my county, according to local Delegate Dave Albo, is because Fairfax County, a county with a median income roughly equivalent to that of Orange County, was beset by a wave of food stamp holders.
I've worked for Democrats because I believe in one Virginia, and in one America. I've watched the Virginia Republican party implode as it stakes its claim on smaller and smaller groups they claim to be real, true Americans. Virginia Republicans specialize in the politics of the outsider, scoring political points against gays and immigrants, Northern Virginians and anyone who dares utter multisyllable words. If anything, my experience as a blogger crashing the gate of the political establishment shows why the Democrats are the party of the future, while Republicans remain wedded to the past.
This was no gaffe. This is a pattern. The entire Republican electoral strategy relies on a loosely defined, nebulous group of real Americans fighting against the unknowns and defending the way things used to be. To Republican eyes, the Real Virginia is more "Southern" or rural in nature, where effete elites are nowhere to be seen, scary immigrants relegated to dicey urban neighborhoods, and where the Christian faith dominates political discourse.
They hold on to a romanticized view of the South, disconnected with the 21st century engine driving the economies of Northern Virginia, North Carolina's Research Triangle, and Atlanta. They mythologize rural, white America as the true representation of patriotism, and have convinced our country that our urban and suburban areas are somehow fake, and less real.
They've lost touch with the rest of Virginia. They've lost touch with reality. They've lost touch with the future.
I don't live in the fake Virginia or the real Virginia, the fake America or the real America. Democrats will win this election because we believe in one Virginia, and one America. Smashing the mythology of a Real Virginia where liberals are not to be found on November 4 will be only too sweet.
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