Blue in a Sea of Red

After the national elections this past November, I was afraid to look at the returns in the local newspaper, because I was certain that the results in the previous election had begun a trend that was likely to continue, since Virginia had become such a solidly Republican state. Till just recently the county where I reside had remained Democratic, and I especially remember, two elections ago, feeling so great when I saw Nelson depicted on a political map as a lone "blue" spot floating in a very large sea of Republican "red." But in the next election the bloody disease had spread over even this enlightened jurisdiction.

I was surprised and happy then to be told, just the other day by a friend, that in the just concluded election Nelson had gone Democratic again, though only by 4 votes. He couldn't exactly recall, but he believed that this gave Nelson the great distinction of being the southernmost county (excluding places in the West) to go for Kerry.

I think the reason for Nelson being able to resist the lemming call is the fact that it still has a lot of oldtimers who vividly remember the Depression, and they fondly recall Franklin Delano Roosevelt and his efforts in fighting that calamity. And they are combined with an unusually large number of progressives like myself, with refugees from New Jersey liberally represented.

General speaking, this is a weird and out of the ordinary place anyway, as Virginia counties go. It is strangely unpopulated, to be so pretty and so close to the teeming swarms that surround Washington, D.C., only 170 miles to the north. As far as I know there isn't a traffic light in the whole county...or a jail. The county seat has only 400 people. The biggest industry is the school system. A lot of the other jobs are in the adjoining counties. But there are plenty of churches, lacking only a synagogue. The county's chief virtue is its geography.

It does have a number of places, however, that people from outside are surprised to find here. It has a genuine Thai restaurant. It has a genuine race track even if not much in the way of grandstands. It has a coffeehouse with all the trappings and then some of the 1960's and even of the Parisian 1890's. And tucked up in one corner of a county in which modesty of means is very much the rule, there is a big ski resort.

The people here plainly have their craniums split between pro-growth and anti-growth, and there are plenty of advocates for both, among the natives as well as the newcomers. So far the anti-growth has prevailed.

I think the general feeling is that that's not all bad, though it does strike me as having a definite Oregonian "pull up the ladder" air.