Republicans urged to ‘Fight. Grieve. Cry. But don’t give up.’
Many rural Virginians feel cut off after their state turns blue
Wednesday was a depressing day for Ivar Van Korten.
“I’m completely demoralized,” the Manassas, Va., truck driver said, referring to President Obama’s re-election and win in Virginia. “I thought Obama was going to get smoked,” adding that the president was reelected by “clueless people.”
Van Korten, 48, voted for Mitt Romney, and he said he thinks the country’s economy is “going to be hard to fix, irreparable” with Obama in office for another four years. He’s preparing for an economic meltdown.
Van Korten, a self-described “prepper” with a year’s worth of food in his house, is contemplating buying a hand-operated water pump and “more guns, before they get outlawed.”
He took a break Wednesday from his truck route to check out the offerings at Clark Brothers, a popular gun shop and shooting range on the outskirts of this town in the foothills of the mountains of Shenandoah National Park.
Warrenton was Romney country on Tuesday, a hub of Fauquier County that went for the Republican presidential candidate by 20 percentage points over Obama.
On the day after, deep Republican pockets like this were feeling cut off not only from other parts of Virginia, but also from the nation as a whole. And conservatives, from the grassroots to talk radio, were lamenting what they said was a missed opportunity to save the country from financial ruin.
“I’m not in the silver-lining business,” syndicated radio host Dennis Prager said. “Maybe I will be next week.”
He urged his listeners: “Fight. Grieve. Cry. But don’t give up.”
Some were sounding as if they were about to, though.
“I don’t see any hope for our country, to tell you the truth,” said retired engineer and Navy veteran Richard Davis, 72, who volunteered for Republican campaigns in Warrenton. “A guy who has screwed up so bad, has no idea how the economy works (was re-elected). I feel sorry formy grandkids.
“I’m completely demoralized.” Ivar Van Korten, 48, a truck driver
They are the ones who will have to pay off this debt.”
He said his weekly breakfast with a half-dozen men from his church was especially down Wednesday, the day after the election. They talked about how Obama’s “whole idea is that government creates jobs,” Davis said. He said he told a 20-something breakfast companion: “You don’t even know the world that I grew up in.”
The Virginia slice of that world is becoming more diverse, both racially and ideologically, than the solid-red state it was before Obama became the first Democrat since 1964 to win it four years ago. With the election of Gov. BobMcDonnell three years ago, Virginia Republicans thought they were on the rebound. But after their second-straight loss to the president, Republican Party officials, from the grass roots on up, face forced reflection.
Joseph Nowlin, 50, works in cable TV sales and chairs the Ashland district of the Hanover County Republican Committee, a strong Republican pocket near Richmond. He said he does not see a need to change party principles, and attributed losses here on Tuesday — including a comeback attempt by former senator George Allen— to failure to attract fresh new candidates.
But he also acknowledged that changing demographics in the Washington, D.C., suburbs of Northern Virginia present problems for his party.
Exit polls showed the dramatic divides in Virginia. While Romney won more-rural central and western Virginia, including Fauquier County, by 60%-38%, and while the two virtually tied in the Richmond area and in the outer exurbs ofWashington, D.C., Obama took the dense inner suburbs of Northern Virginia by 63%-35%, according to exit polls. Nearly one out of five Virginia voters on Tuesday lives in those suburbs.
“You have tons of people there who work for the government,” Nowlin said.
But “I don’t think these swings are ever permanent,” he said. “I think things swing back and forth. I think every place has gotten more (tied to) big government; as the overall economy has gotten worse, people look to the government as a savior.”
“But I think people were dissatisfied with Obama’s first term, and I think they’ll be even more dissatisfied with his second,” Nowlin said. “So we have to keep communicating our message, that liberty and free enterprise create opportunities, economic and otherwise, for everyone.”
Some wonder if that will be enough.
Scott Bannon, 50, runs a construction contracting business in Ashland. He is a Republican who voted for Romney, and said he wasn’t happy with Virginia’s shift toward Democrats. He said the party faces a tough decision going forward.
“Do you stick to your position, or do you compromise?” Bannon said. “I guess that’s what (party leaders) are going to have to get together and figure out.”
Carol Hofer, 53, a Republican who owns Chiffarobe Antiques and Gifts in Ashland, split her ticket, voting for Obama for president and Allen for Senate.
She said she thinks party means less to people than it used to, and that the GOP’s conservative approach to social issues may be driving people away.
“There are a lot of new people coming in,” she said, referring to Virginia. “People are voting more now for who they like, rather than the party they like.”