Ignorance alive and well in Virginia

As most people are aware by now, the fairly recent mass migration to Northern Virginia has turned the state from a solidly Republican state to a swing state that has leaned Democratic in the last few statewide elections (Governors Kaine and Warner, Senator Webb).  This caused McCain advisor Nancy Pfotenhauer to comment that McCain has support in “real Virginia.”

Jon Stewart and the Daily Show responded with an hilarious piece on this that can be viewed here.

Marc Fisher of the Washington Post responded with an article searching for the dividing line between “real Virginia” and “fake Virginia,” which can be read here. And he found an appalling level of ignorance.

First, one Virginian by the name of Mitch Dickinson said he was

going to vote Republican to protect against radical socialist communist views. It’s also about faith: I don’t see how any person who believes in Jesus Christ could vote for Obama or any Democrat.

I don’t know where to start with the ignorance in this statement. Obama certainly isn’t a pure capitalist by any means and he does have some policies that lean socialist, but to call him a “radical socialist communist” shows a lack of understanding of all three of those terms. There are differences between socialism and communism, and neither a “radical communist” nor a “radical socialist” would ever take part in the American political system the way Obama has already done. As far as no Christian ever voting Democrat, the Republicans have advocated torture, started two wars (one unjustifiably, at least in my opinion), and ushered in an era of greed with their economic policies and deregulation. Apparently those are Christian values now. The problem with this line of thinking is that it equates Christianity solely with a few strongly Republican issues, like being pro-life and opposed to gay rights, without thinking of the other Christian values or considering that the President does not have a large effect on these issues.

Dickinson also expressed concern that if Obama is elected, “the homosexuals will get their rights passed.” He does have a legitimate concern. It really would be a shame if the country founded on the concept that “all men are created equal” actually lived up to that ideal.

The next gem comes from Angela Greene, who worries that “we’ll become friends with Iran.” Of course, she fails to consider that the only way the US would ever become friends with Iran is if they abandoned their nuclear program and stopped threatening Israel. Would it really be a BAD thing to turn an oil-rich enemy pursuing nukes into an ally? Certainly there would be concerns if Obama or any other president aligned themselves with Ahmedinijad as he acts now, but that simply isn’t going to happen regardless of who is in the White House.

As appalling as those statements are, it only gets worse from there. Here’s an except from the article:

“There could be small riots, because people don’t like that amount of change,” says Willy Humphreys, a farmer and construction worker in Stafford who, at 39, plans to cast his first vote ever, for McCain. “I’ve noticed that a lot of younger people are kind of into Obama, but for a lot of people my age, it’s always been a Caucasian male.”

“We’re not ready for a black guy,” says Angi Kraft, 39, a mortgage processor who has been laid off three times since February. “I’m scared he will be killed. I don’t trust him. And I’m telling you, we are becoming a minority — and a Northern state. They’re all coming down here, the Northerners.”

Small riots? What evidence is there that ANYONE would riot because of Obama’s policies? Our country has a civilized, orderly political process. If Obama or any other politician tried to push through change that was too much for the American people, there are plenty of opportunities to stop it in an orderly, systematic fashion long before riots became necessary. And for both of these people to be concerned about Obama solely because he’s black? That’s nothing but unapologetic racism. As if that wasn’t bad enough, Angi Kraft continues by resurrecting this division between the North and the South. The only legitimate point she makes is that Obama could be a target of white supremacy groups because of his race, yet she seems oblivious to the fact that the people who may try to assassinate a black president are simply a more extreme version of her own ignorance.

I grew up in Western New York, and many people there hold a lot of stereotypes about the South. The people in Fisher’s article reinforce a lot of them. In the interest of full disclosure, I will be voting for Obama, but I’m not trying to suggest that everyone should be doing the same. I, too, have reservations about some of Obama’s policies. If these people had said they disagree with Obama’s tax plan or think he’s weak on foreign policy or even that they don’t like his stance on abortion, those would be legitimate arguments. Yet, they didn’t take that route. They had to invoke racism, homophobia, xenophobia and general ignorance. If that constitutes “real” Virginia, I’ll gladly stay in “fake” Virginia. Or move back North.