How prevalent is the "Virginia Way"?

[secretkeeper12]

Reading some NYTimes articles, one thing that came up was how Virginians were shocked their former governor was accepting bribes because of their culture of lax laws and trust in one another [http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/23/us/politics/with-virginia-way-state-thought-it-didnt-need-rules.html?rref=politics&module=Ribbon&version=context®ion=Header&action=click&contentCollection=Politics&pgtype=article]. The whole thing sounds sorta like stereotypical Canadia, except its apparently a pretty big thing in the far-eastern state.


Any residents wanna help set the record straight? (And while we're at it, what's the deal with West Virgina?)

 

[Redlin5_v1legacy]

The whole thing sounds sorta like stereotypical Canadia

I don't know what you mean by that phrase.

And bribes in State governments? All governments have a degree of corruption in them so this isn't terribly shocking. It should be punished though. >.<

 

[Weaver]

The whole thing sounds sorta like stereotypical Canadia

Why do I get the feeling you really know anything about Canadians or Canada?

 

[Barbas]

The whole thing sounds sorta like stereotypical Canadia

I don't know what you mean by that phrase.

And bribes in State governments? All governments have a degree of corruption in them so this isn't terribly shocking. It should be punished though. >.<

I think he's talking about how Canadians are really nice and trusting and form a polite, cohesive society. Bribery in a place like that would be seen as shocking, an unthinkable breach of trust and possibly the unravelling of society as it is known. See "Escape From Canadian Alcatraz":

Spoiler

 

[x EvilErmine x]

I completely miss read the title of this thread, man was this something different from what i was expecting. Kinda disappointing though, i was curious to find out what it was.

 

[Eldritch Warlord]

The whole thing sounds sorta like stereotypical Canadia, except its apparently a pretty big thing in the far-eastern state.

"Far-eastern state"? Who has ever called Virginia that (besides you and the presumably singular person from whom you picked up the terminology)?

Anyway, political corruption is commonplace in the US since our corporatist Supreme Court decided that money is speech. So if that's what you mean then the answer is "extremely prevalent."

If you meant a general culture of trust in the openness of politicians then I'm pretty doubtful that it even happened in Virgina.

 

[legend of duty]

I cant speak for virginians, but for my georgia small town, there is a lot of apathy for local government as we receive very little services and change in return for our input (taxes and votes). Even when I moved to a larger town, the apathy was still there. I think thats why many southern and rural states are conservative as they rely on very little government assistance and services. Not that there is anything wrong with implementing government programs in the community.

 

[Weaver]

The whole thing sounds sorta like stereotypical Canadia

I don't know what you mean by that phrase.

And bribes in State governments? All governments have a degree of corruption in them so this isn't terribly shocking. It should be punished though. >.<

I think he's talking about how Canadians are really nice and trusting and form a polite, cohesive society. Bribery in a place like that would be seen as shocking, an unthinkable breach of trust and possibly the unravelling of society as it is known.

Except we aren't really that nice, trusting, or polite. Our country is politically fragmented to a near boiling point; including an entire province that still wants to separate. We also, generally, do not trust politicians. I'll assume no one has heard of the Liberal Party Sponsorship Scandal (which was effectively the reason they lost to the conservatives in 2006). In which a MUCH more widespead, elaborate, corrupt, and costly money taking scam than what's in the OP (which ran for years) was finally cracked by the RCMP. What about Rob Ford? Is Toronto in ruin because of him?

 

[Branovices]

What's the deal with West Virginia? Do you mean... why does it exist? If I remember correctly, they split during the American Civil War and the antipathy after the war was strong enough that they never reunited again. Today there'd just be no reason to.

 

[Mylinkay Asdara]

Okay, I live in the state where if our governors don't go to jail while they're still in office, we feel like we did good picking them.

Seriously.

Virginia huh? It's one of those places no one not from there really cares about, but it's nice that they are usually not as corrupt as they could possibly be, I guess? Bummer for them now, but they'll get over it. I assume their state can boast actually still having a snowball's chance in hell of being able to fund themselves for the year. Not all of us can.

 

[MysticSlayer]

I lived in Virginia for a few years, and saying it was any more politically trusting than any other state seems almost laughable. There were people who didn't think about it until it came up, and there were people who thought corruption was common place. In other words, it was like everywhere else in the United States. Maybe the laws don't reflect that, but I don't think the state's residents are particularly trusting of government any more than anyone else in the nation.

(And while we're at it, what's the deal with West Virgina?)

Are you asking why it exists? That's due to numerous cultural differences that existed between the area of Virginia that now occupies West Virginia and the rest of Virginia, not the least of those was that slavery wasn't profitable in the West Virginia area and therefore not used. It broke off from Virginia around the time of the Civil War, as the residents in that area weren't very much in favor of slavery or secession. That's an oversimplification of it, but it does give a general rundown.

 

[Nielas]

The whole thing sounds sorta like stereotypical Canadia

I don't know what you mean by that phrase.

And bribes in State governments? All governments have a degree of corruption in them so this isn't terribly shocking. It should be punished though. >.<

I think he's talking about how Canadians are really nice and trusting and form a polite, cohesive society. Bribery in a place like that would be seen as shocking, an unthinkable breach of trust and possibly the unravelling of society as it is known.

Except we aren't really that nice, trusting, or polite. Our country is politically fragmented to a near boiling point; including an entire province that still wants to separate. We also, generally, do not trust politicians. I'll assume no one has heard of the Liberal Party Sponsorship Scandal (which was effectively the reason they lost to the conservatives in 2006). In which a MUCH more widespead, elaborate, corrupt, and costly money taking scam than what's in the OP (which ran for years) was finally cracked by the RCMP. What about Rob Ford? Is Toronto in ruin because of him?

Let's not forget the massive corruption in the Quebec construction industry that has been causing a succession of mayors to resign in disgrace.

You can go back to the begining of Confederation and find rampant nepotism, bribery and corruption. The scandal around the building of the continental railroad brought down Sir John A. MacDonald's government.

There is also the current Senate scandal where the Conservatives had to throw three senators under the bus because they were claiming hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of expenses on their expense reports that were for personal use. The Prime Minister's chief of staff had to resign because he tried to give one of the senators a "loan" so he could pay of the fines and would not testify in an audit.

 

[viranimus]

Any residents wanna help set the record straight? (And while we're at it, what's the deal with West Virgina?)

As someone born, raised, and currently returned to West Virginia, I will wait to see what "deal" you are referring. Who knows, maybe you don't mean the states existence, and mean our freshly contaminated water supply. /shrug

 

[Ihateregistering1]

Yeah, I really hate to say "well people in __________ (state/country/county) believe this, and this is why it happened". In addition to obvious odd stereotyping aspect, it sometimes feels like people are searching for a deeper story than really exists. I lived in Virginia for 4 years, and while many people there certainly do stuff like always refer to it as a "commonwealth" instead of a state, I wouldn't say that they necessarily think their state government is all sunshine and rainbows.

I spent most of my life in Georgia, and I certainly wouldn't say we're more likely to cheat than any other people, but that didn't stop this from happening:
http://www.cnn.com/2013/04/02/justice/georgia-cheating-scandal/

 

[kurupt87]

Not being American, imagine how disappointed I was when I realised OP had misspelt Virginia and not vagina.

 

[Thaluikhain]

Not being American, imagine how disappointed I was when I realised OP had misspelt Virginia and not vagina.

Eh, nothing stopping you from starting your own thread on the Vagina Way, if you think it worth discussing.

 

[b3nn3tt]

So there was bribery in government, but no laws existing to prevent it? That's pretty much what I'm getting from the article, and it does seem hopelessly naive. People quoted in the article saying things like 'That sort of thing doesn't happen here' just shows a level of optimism that I find rather baffling. I think it's good that the new governor has already put measures in place to limit the gifts that elected members of government can receive, hopefully the laws will build from there.

That being said, I'm somewhat confused as to the discussion value of the original post. There's the link to the article, but no real discussion of it.

The whole thing sounds sorta like stereotypical Canadia, except its apparently a pretty big thing in the far-eastern state.

I'm also going to join everyone else in not really knowing what this refers to. I'm not really aware of any stereotypes about Canada, other than the belief that everyone there says 'Eh' all the time, which I'm pretty sure is untrue anyway.

 

[Imperioratorex Caprae]

I don't really know, but politics is corrupt in practice it seems these days. Back in high school, one of my best friend's father was a circuit court judge. He was straight as can be, to the point of publicly refusing to take bribes. Because of that, elements in the local government decided he was unfit to be a judge and ran a smear campaign against him to the point of even bringing him up on trumped up charges. He officially resigned because he didn't want to stress his family out any more than they already were (death threats on him and his kids were coming in daily). I felt so bad for the family because they were all such good people and it was literally tearing them apart. He passed on a few years back and people wrote a seriously nasty editorial about him in the local paper saying how he was a corrupt and disgraced judge even though none of the charges were proven and he resigned. Politics are fucked up.

 

[FalloutJack]

(And while we're at it, what's the deal with West Virgina?)

Look, some people like moonshine. You're just gonna have to accept that.

(Actually, I have no idea what you mean here. My brother is a Priest serving in that area, so the only deal I'm aware of is how he's currently dealing with those in Wheeling.)

 

[Launcelot111]

Virginian here, and while I'm not pleased with McDonnell (who was actually a decent governor outside of this deal), I'm not too worried about the implications. Families in southern Virginia (aka not the DC suburbs) have often times been there for many generations, so all the notable politicians and business leaders have grown up knowing each other and their families. Thus, it would be less than respectable to ask for bribes of close friends, and what's the point of that because your friend would gladly help you with whatever policy or business deal you're trying to put in place.

Northern Virginia is more migratory due to the nature of all the government facilities drawing people in, and I think that trend is spreading south and breaking down the old boy network a little bit. Virginia does lean on its "birthplace of presidents" deal a bit much at times, but we are one of the most historical states and we do love our traditions.

As for West Virginia, they separated during the Civil War and are now a state full of natural beauty and crippling poverty. They're also the butt of every American incest joke.