Virginia Politics

Until the last post on Peter Vieth's letter to the editor, I have stayed away from the Governor's race on this blog and I will probably continue to do so. There are plenty of perfectly good Virginia political blogs and I don't really want to add to the fray. (If you want my "Virginia politics" links, post in the forum and I'll send them to you.) Also, ever since I have been alive (and I've lived in Virginia since I was a year old), I have never observed a true sense of or an appreciation for this Commonwealth's history or traditions in any of Virginia's political leaders of any persuasion. Sure, there is some some citation of Senator Byrd's "pay as you go;" and there are occasionally empty, parrot-like name-checks-with -quotes of Jefferson, Washington, Madison and Patrick Henry, but overall I have never gotten the sense that any of Virginia's leaders of the last 40 years have really been interested in or instructed by the history of the Commonwealth. I guess you have to give the voters what they want, but it seems to me like Virginia's politicians are avoiding a hell of a good birthright.