One of the stranger attributes of Virginia’s conservatives is their cheesy, Calvinist streak.
Their world view tends to celebrate the rich and powerful, regardless of whether the individual worked diligently and creatively to generate the wealth or if it was inherited. For example, one man (not a Virginian) whom I respect described the attitudes of the old Richmond elite this way: “I got mine from mah Daddy and to hell with everybody else!”
This form of self-entitlement stretches into making moral judgments. If someone is poor and perhaps sick, then it is their fault. They have not punished themselves enough. They have not worked hard enough. If you give them too much, they will just stay that way.
Which brings me to a Washington Post editorial this morning that really rang true. It notes that Gov. Robert F. McDonnell had to be bludgeoned by Democrats into expanding Medicaid for the poor in order to get his convoluted but needed tax hikes to help save the state’s road system.
Why was this quid pro quo necessary? Good question.
Virginia, the Post notes, is a top 10 state for wealth but is No. 48 in per capita spending on Medicaid which protects needy, low income people who can’t afford health insurance. ObamaCare would let the states expand coverage to 400,000 Virginians who need help. The feds will pick up the tab for the first three years and 90 percent to 2020. Later, it’s a half-half split. Republican governors in Arizona, Florida, Michigan and Ohio have gone along with the expansion, seeing little value in denying the needy.
So why was McDonnell holding his nose?
Because hard right conservatives with a Calvinist streak have too much power, that’s why. McDonnell is paying a price for his tax hikes on roads. The Conservative Political Action Conference, for instance, is not inviting him to their upcoming confab. Arch rival and conservative Ken Cuccinelli is invited.
At the end of the day, who cares what the hard-right thinks? The point is to help the poor, especially when a rich state like Virginia can help.
As conservatives gnash their teeth after their November drubbing and try to find a new bearing point (or drift as the case may be), they need to come to a better idea of compassion.
It might not go down well with the Baconauts and Boomergeddons, but flinty Calvinism and strict dogma on lifestyles, income levels and immigration are not the future. Just ask the millions of Hispanic-Americans in this country who did not exactly support Mitt Romney.
What’s needed in this state is more compassion, not more lectures on how to be successful from the right wing chattering upper classes who probably got their’s from Daddy and Mommy anyway.