Charlottesville, The Capital Of Blue Virginia…

Well, as recently discussed here, the Charlottesville Dems were successful on Tuesday in their effort to “retake” the City Council, ousting the only Republican to have served on it in the last 16 years and thus eradicating the one voice that provided the “diversity” that is so celebrated by those Dems when it doesn’t cost them anything.

Ironically, Republican Rob Schilling’s major accomplishment, bringing the Council’s 4 Democrats, kicking and screaming, finally to accede to his efforts to convert the school board from appointed to elective may have done him in, since hotly contested campaigns for seats brought out many more Democratic voters in the city.

In a comment whose unselfconscious fixation on race is so typical of Democrats everywhere, City Councilor Kendra Hamilton frankly regarded the city’s first election of school board members as a “litmus test” for future elections. Did she mean a test to determine what electoral methods were best for the city in some general sense? No, she didn’t.

Many Charlottesville officials are using Tuesday’s School Board election – the first in the city’s history – as a barometer to gauge how future elections should be conducted.

The city is studying a possible switch from at-large elections to a combined system that would elect School Board candidates both at large and from newly drawn wards. Anywhere from two wards to seven wards have been suggested.

City Councilor Kendra Hamilton said there are points for at-large elections and points for a mixed ward, at-large change, but she has not made up her mind which to support. The process of electing board members at large offered “a test case for whether an African-American could get elected at large, and we see the results,” Hamilton said.

As noted by my title for this post, Charlottesville, a college town, is capital of Blue Virginia and in many ways is emblematic of the new, culturally elite Democratic Party everywhere. This week’s C-Ville, for example, had three short entries that nicely represent the transition that has ocurred here in Mr. Jefferson formerly sleepy, conservative, Southern “academical village” over the past few years.

Page 5 sports an ad asking, “Is your Dog scared of vet visits, thunderstorms or car travel?”

We can help your pet! Our HomeoPet solutions are clinically proven alternative natural remedies that relieve stress, fear, separation anxiety and motion sickness.”

In the old days, Southern voters were called, and called themselves, “Yellow Dog Democrats,” because they’d always vote the straight Democratic ticket even if the candidates was “a yellow dog” (as they often were). Now they’ve become anxious dog Democrats.

Later on in the same issue, an article explains “What Fusion Means Now, in the context of reviewing a new restaurant featuring Himalayan fusion food.

First off, [Rekha] Mukhia [the owner] explained, “fusion” in this case doesn’t mean that Asian fare will join with American. Instead, she aims to re-create the cuisine of her native Darjeeling, India, where Indian, Nepalese and Tibetan foods mingled to delicious effect….

There’s even some Chinese influence….

Sadly (to me), the same article reports that “There’s no Culture any more.”

Folks, Southern Culture (which has been for sale for some time) is now closed up as tight as a drum. No more brunch, no more shrimp and grits on the W. Main Street patio—unless, of course, someone buys the place and brings back the old ways.

I’m sure Himalayan Fusion will be good, and it will bring even more “diversity” to Charlottesville (which can’t get enough of it, except on the City Council). But now I’ll have travel over the mountain to The Dining Room in Staunton, in the heart of the Shenandoah (Red) Valley, to get my shrimp and grits.