Letters from Occupied Virginia

Driving south out of D.C. into Virginia is not just a snarled, tangled mess of traffic but for me a metaphoric journey through the landscape of a divided America. On this commute I witness the diametrically opposed forces that vie for soul of a nation; the monuments of statism and corporatism and the once open countryside being drowned in a sea of suburban sprawl and corporate offices all fed by the exploding Goverment-Industrial Complex.

As I make this drive through Arlington and other sprawling northern Virginia communities, I can’t help but mythologize an era of gentile Virginian sensibilities. Perhaps naively longing for the time when men like Washington, Madison and Jefferson sought to build a republic based on lofty notions of individualism, limited government and freedom. While driving through the detritus of big government expansion invading the rolling hills of northern VA, I can’t help but feel that my worldview and existence is an anachronism.

Would Madison, Washington and Jefferson even recognize the country that claims to have been founded on their principles?

How ironic is it that the state that birthed the Constitution and many of America’ most important leaders is now experiencing a slow invasion from the north—not of Armies as in Civil War, but of statist ideology and burgeoning government ruling class of contractors, civil “servants” and their patrons in the Government/Military Industrial complex. The expansive farmlands that once bred a class of American gentry are now being eviscerated to build the temporary McMansions of a generation of men and women whose wealth and livelihood depends upon the perpetual continuation of big government spending from which they draw their profit.

After slogging my way through the congestion of traffic, which serves as an almost poetic reminder of government growth and inefficiency, I am tremendously relieved when the suburban sprawl recedes and gives way to rolling farms and green pastures of “real Virginia.” From Madison county all the way to Albemarle I start to feel at home in “my America” the America that speaks to my desires for a simpler life.

So, musings aside, I have entered the world of blogging to channel my objectivist, Libertarian and Classical Liberal sensibilities and comment on the farce and hilarity of the curren

t political discourse in our republic.