From George Allen's "hoedown" comes this picture of Allen dressed up as a cowboy with a bolo tie and a football in a pastoral setting with lots of neat fencing. That's very nice, I suppose, if you yearn for the mythological America of, oh, 1820 or so.The question is this: does the picture of "Cowboy George" Allen, with a football, in a rural setting, say anything meaningful about the way that Virginia has been evolving, and is likely to keep evolving, into the 21st century?
A few factoids might help:
*In 2005, according to the USDA's Economic Research Service a whopping 85% of Virginians lived in urban or suburban settings. That's 6.5 million Virginians out of 7.6 million total. The remaining 15% lived in rural areas.
*According to the same source, Virginia's rural population has remained approcimately flat since 1980, while the urban/suburban population has grown by over 2 million people (from 4.3 million to 6.5 million).
*Interestingly, the average age of farmers in Virginia was around 57 as of 2002, and that age is increasing.
*Virginia's gross state product in 2004 was $329 billion. Of this, only $1.2 billion (about 0.4%) was from "agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting." The other 99.6% was from a variety of non-rural, non-agricultural sectors, including: 1) "government" (17%); 2) "real estate, rental and leasing" (12%); 3) "professional and technical services" (10%); 4) "nondurable goods manufacturing" (7%); 5) "finance and insurance" (7%); 6) "retail trade" (6%); and 7) "health care and social assistance" (5%).
*Per-capita income in rural Virginia was $24,495 in 2004. In contrast, per-capita income in "urban" Virginia was $38,144 (54% higher than rural) in that same year.
*The rural poverty rate in Virginia was 13.9% in 2003, nearly 50% higher than the 9.3% poverty rate seen in "urban" Virginia.
*The percentage of people completing college was 13.1% in rural Virginia in 2000, less than half the 32.6% college graduation rate for "urban" Virginia.
In sum, "rural" Virginia - the Virginia of "hoedowns," "cowboys," and picket fences - is an extremly small, relatively poor, and rapidly shrinking part of Virginia. Overwhelmingly, Virginia today is an urban and suburban state, a highly educated state, a prosperous state, and a highly diverse one as well. And it is become more that way - fast!
Let me emphasize that I believe a rural life can be a wonderful thing, and there's certainly nothing wrong with it whatsoever. All I'm pointing out here is that the Virginia of George Allen's fantasies - not that he personally has ever lived it, coming from Southern California and now residing in a wealthy part of southern Alexandria - is a small and rapidly shrinking part of our state.
As we move forward into the 21st century, it is likely to shrink even further as we move increasingly towards a high-tech, highly educated, urban/suburban, service-sector, globalized, highly-value-added economy. The question is, does George Allen understand the New Virginia, or is he forever dreaming of the old Virginia, one that he didn't grow up in, one that he doesn't live in - although he certainly makes a big show of visiting it during election seasons (can we say "overcompensation?") - and one that hasn't existed for decades, if it ever existed at all? I wonder.
Lowell Feld is Netroots Coordinator for the Jim Webb for US Senate Campaign. The ideas expressed here belong to Lowell Feld alone, and do not represent those of Jim Webb, his advisors, staff, or supporters.
Frankly, it makes me sad to see us losing so much of our rural identity. The gulf between rural and urban in this state is quite wide, and sometimes right next door. I have family in Berryville. They live hand to mouth on minimum wage jobs. If you count the exes in the family they stretch down the mountains all the way to Staunton. They tend to be undereducated, underpaid, uninsured, and ardently and unthinkingly Republican. They know little about actual politics, but buy one hundred percent into the Republican line about the Democrats wanting to take their guns and give the country away to minorities. They feel marginalized and forgotten, and resent very much the implicit assumption held by a lot of liberal whites that white and poor is not as bad as black and poor. They're annoyed at the outsiders who are expanding into places like Berryville and then demanding that the farms not smell, the fire siren not sound for the volunteers (too noisy), that people stop parking their pickup trucks near the river so they can fish. The list goes on, and the locals are pissed.
Jim Webb is the first Democratic candidate to come along in a long time who has the bona fides to appeal to this segment of the population. I agree that there is increased urbanization and education in Virginia, but it tends to be concentrated in the North and East. Travel down the Valley and hook right, and almost nothing's changed, and not likely to change much, except maybe to get worse. These are the people who need to hear from Jim Webb. Their mountains are being strip-mined for coal and their rivers poisoned. They've been taken for granted by the Republicans as a solid reliable vote for years. We need to get them thinking again, but it means adjusting our own thought processes.
I am proud to be a citizen of the GREAT Southwest! Furthermore, Jim Webb as a statesman with a true connection to southwestern Virginia would certainly disagree with your characterization of his ancestral home place. However, you are correct about one thing, George Allen has fooled many with his “good old boy” image, not only in rural areas, but suburban and urban areas as well. A native of southern California, he does not represent Virginia’s values.
Thanks for your quick reply.
And Allen's opponent, Jim Webb, Scotch Irish in heritage with a family that has lived in Mountain Virginia for over 200 years, who exemplifies the values and history of the mountain rural South is scorned by phony Southern Allen as not being a real Virginian. Yet it is Webb who says that we need to level the playing field, that programs similar to affirmative action need to be devised to help all the disadvantaged, including those in rural areas. It is Webb who says raise the minimum wage (without any fancy extra tax benefits to already over-benefited businesses); it is Webb who says we need full access to affordable health care for everyone. It is Webb who advocates a 5 percent tax reduction for veterans (a disproportionate number of whom come from the poverty-stricken rural areas). And so on.
How can Allen by comparison ever be considered a representative of the rural Virginian?
My husband calls Allen a "damn carpetbagger". Me, a "transplant Virginian" myself... I think he's just a Rhinestone Cowboy, who misheard the text of the song and thought it said "I'm a right strong cowboy"
PS He sure does seem to invoke his father -- one way or another -- every chance he gets, no? Here he is, in a cowboy hat, amongst the rolling hills and fences of -- supposedly -- rural Virginia (nicely mowed rolling hills and not a sign of an animal capable of leaving cow-pats, horse-apples or sheep-droppings
I guess it's quite wise, given that a horse is even harder for him to control (vide Buena Vista Labor DAy Parade) :)