Bacon's Rebellion

Democracy Thrives in Sunlight

Virginia as Southern-Most Yankee State

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by

James A. Bacon
in

Want more proof that Virginia is turning into New Jersey? The percentage of Virginia-born legislators in the General Assembly has declined to 49%, according to data published by the Virginia Public Access Project — with the biggest jump taking place in the last election. I don’t know how many out-of-state legislators were actually born in the Garden State, but I’ll wager that most of them come from states north of the Mason-Dixon line. As a consequence, we are now engaging in serious debates over such things as $15-per-hour minimum wages and ending the Right to Work law.

Darn those Yankees! Of course, as my Tarheel wife never ceases to remind me, I am technically a Yankee myself. I was born in New London, Conn. — in the hospital across the river from the submaine base in Groton, where my dad was stationed. Moreover, my mother’s side of the family is from New Jersey, and my dad’s side is from Delaware. But that doesn’t count. Because.

–JAB

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21 responses to “Virginia as Southern-Most Yankee State”

  1. Steve Haner Avatar
    Steve Haner

    “…on your mother’s side…” is how I claim it. But her Shufflebarger ancestors pre-date the Revolution. Like you, a military brat, born in Texas. This stat is interesting but I suspect it is true of many states now.

  2. V N Avatar
    V N

    I’d vote for a limit.

  3. Hamilton Lombard Avatar
    Hamilton Lombard

    The General Assembly is lagging Virginia’s population a bit. A little after 2010, native Virginians became a minority in the commonwealth. The NYTimes has a great graphic on this:https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/08/13/upshot/where-people-in-each-state-were-born.html#Virginia

    Among Virginians between 40 and 65, close to two-thirds were born outside Virginia. You might not expect it, but one of the few places where the native Virginia share is increasing is in NOVA.

    1. djrippert Avatar
      djrippert

      “You might not expect it, but one of the few places where the native Virginia share is increasing is in NOVA.”

      A lot of people born in NoVa stay in NoVa. The reason is a dirty four letter word, J-O-B-S.

  4. Peter Galuszka Avatar
    Peter Galuszka

    This post skates awfully closely to virginia xenophobic racism. What is it that makes snobbish virginia? More diversity? More italians? More jews? After all although he was not born there Albert Eisnstein lived there. If this is supposed to be funny, i do not find it there. How about if jerseyites found virginians fancy cavaliers and backwoods shitkickers?

    1. James A. Bacon Avatar
      James A. Bacon

      Peter, you’re a stitch! Xenophonic racism? Only you could see that in what I wrote.

      How about if jerseyites found virginians fancy cavaliers and backwoods shitkickers?

      Don’t have to go to New Jersey to find such sentiments. They sound “awfully close” to some of your views!!!

    2. djrippert Avatar
      djrippert

      Being a Virginian who has temporarily lived in New Jersey twice (Hackettstown and Budd Lake) I can assure that New Jerseyites do not consider Virginians to be “fancy cavaliers and backwoods shitkickers?” First, they wouldn’t know what a fancy Cavalier was (neither do I really) and shitkicker would generally be a compliment. Moreover, they don’t consider Virginians to be fancy Cavaliers or shitkickers because they don’t consider Virginians at all. I doubt the average New Jersey resident thinks of Virginia more than once every three years – mostly when on I95 heading to the Carolina beaches.

      Only to those in Richmond does Virginia symbolize the center of the universe, the center of America or the center of the South. Everywhere else, it’s just another state. Virginia’s status as a pre-eminent state died just about the same time as Thomas Jefferson. Gone were the founders and in came the plantation elite. Preeminence lost. A steady decline to catastrophic failure in the Civil War begun. But good news, we’ve raised ourselves to consistent mediocrity thanks to the Federal government.

      Virginia will never become great until we throw out our ruling class and write a new state constitution.

      But never fear. Our Imperial Clown Show in Richmond works feverishly to get attention for Virginia, put the Old Dominion top. Here’s an example:

      http://schwarzeneggerinstitute.com/theworstpartisangerrymanders

      A 2019 study study that finds Virginia the worst state for partisan gerrymandering.

      Yeay Virginia! Go Virginia Way!

      1. James A. Bacon Avatar
        James A. Bacon

        But, Don, Virginia is the center of the universe. It’s simple geometry. Project a line in any direction from the state capitol building and it extends infinitely. Project a line in any direction you want, and the line extends infinitely! Ergo, the state capitol is at the center.

        1. djrippert Avatar
          djrippert

          Given the proposed legislation I have been reading this year, the only lines in the state capitol are made of a powdery white substance. These people must be high!

  5. S. E. Warwick Avatar
    S. E. Warwick

    Some of us assimilated. You have no control over where you are born.

  6. Dick Hall-Sizemore Avatar
    Dick Hall-Sizemore

    As the saying goes:
    “To Be A Virginian either by
    Birth, Marriage, Adoption,
    or even on one’s Mother’s side,
    is an Introduction
    to any State in the Union,
    a Passport to any Foreign Country,
    and a Benediction from Above.”

    Those “foreign born” legislators are now Virginians by way of adoption.
    But I just checked the VPAP article. Some of those legislators were born to parents who lived in Virginia but chose to have their babies in hospitals just across the Potomac River. So, they grew up in Virginia from infancy, so I would count them as native Virginians.

    1. djrippert Avatar
      djrippert

      I, for one, will not support the adoption of Dick Saslaw as a Virginian.

      1. Dick Hall-Sizemore Avatar
        Dick Hall-Sizemore

        OK. He was born in D.C. and went to the University of Maryland. So, you can justifiably reject him as a Virginian, although he has lived in Virginia a long time and has operated his business in this state.

    2. Reed Fawell 3rd Avatar
      Reed Fawell 3rd

      “Some of those legislators were born to parents who lived in Virginia but chose to have their babies in hospitals just across the Potomac River.”

      That’s been going on a long time. My mother, born of an Arlington County family up from Bowling Green in 19th Century, was herself birthed across the Potomac in DC in the Columbia Hospital for Women in 1913. Why not Arlington County? Did it even have a hospital for birthing women back then? When did women start going to hospitals in Virginia to birth babies at all? What a crass, revolutionary idea!

  7. LarrytheG Avatar
    LarrytheG

    I think if you break it down by region or county, you’ll find correlations. Much of rural Virginia is going to have large percentages of native Virginians, families – tied to the land.

    UVA and Tech have always brought in folks from all over and some stayed.

    NoVa is basically HQ for the Military and many GOvt agencies that draw folks from all over as they advance.

    We could do far worse than New Jersey – their public school system is often ranked #2 in the country.

    1. idiocracy Avatar
      idiocracy

      Probably, too, New Jersey’s state DOT isn’t run by a bunch of meth addicts.

  8. johnrandolphofroanoke Avatar
    johnrandolphofroanoke

    Blow Gabriel Blow! This is worse than Appomattox!

  9. djrippert Avatar
    djrippert

    I guess the tarnished brass of Virginia’s plantation elite are now too lazy to seek part-time employment in the General Assembly in order to steal their way to bourbon and branch water on the antebellum porch. The shame! I’m sure Harry F Byrd Sr is rolling in his grave. What’s that you say? Even Harry F Byrd wasn’t a native Virginian. Oh the humanity!

    1. LarrytheG Avatar
      LarrytheG

      DJ – newsflash – the Dems have taken over the GA and put a NoVa person in charge!

  10. Acbar Avatar
    Acbar

    The irony of this post, coming so soon after the previous one on Shades of Charlottesville, and coming just before a post lauding Northern Virginia’s contribution (even by New Jersey standards) to Virginia’s economic health, is remarkable!

  11. idiocracy Avatar
    idiocracy

    No, Virginia is NOT turning into New Jersey.

    Instead, what we will get here are “Yankee taxes” for “hillbilly infrastructure”.

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