Red SWVA, The Blue Wave, and The Death of Appalachia

So the elections have come and gone. I’m feeling…conflicted. On one hand, since I DO live in Virginia, and we flipped the Assembly, I’m happy. As an member of the LGBTQ community and a resident in general, that can only be good for the values I hold near and dear. However, I live in SWVA-Washington County. Not quite the coalfields, but Appalachia, still. While I love where I live in many respects, this election brought me up short. When I went to vote, I was confronted by a veritable wall (and I use that word deliberately) of WOMEN wearing MAGA hats who urged me to go cast my vote for the President.  I mildly, esp. for me, told them I wasn’t aware that he was on the ballot in my precinct and proceeded to vote. Not that it did any good. Republicans swept the ballot, with the exception of Josh Cumbow, who somehow retained his position.  Here’s my take:

We frequently lament that the powers that be think that Virginia stops at Roanoke. Well, with this vote that we just did? It might as well. Unless the folks we are sending to the GA are prepared to work in a mighty bipartisan way-and, yeah, REPUBLICANS are SO known for that ability, we don’t exist. We have NOTHING to offer the rest of Virginia, except a cautionary tale: we are what the state ONCE was like in terms of cultural mores and hopes to put to rest. God, guns, and babies might play well in the pulpit, and it sure turned voters out here to vote for “Trump Republicans”. But has it GAINED us anything, in terms of political, economic, or other benefit? I would argue not. We still can’t attract businesses, b/c who wants to bring employees here to a place that literally has so little to offer, except for gorgeous terrain? Young folks leave as soon as they can,  b/c it is regressive and going backwards rather attempting to find ways to change.  We seem to be militant in our embrace of stagnation and, dare I say, stupidity.

I speak as one who is a transplant. I love this region and have called it home for many years.  I do not want to see it die. But dying it is, far as I can tell. And the folks who live here it are in large part hastening Appalachia’s demise. And that’s a shame.