So Hillary Clinton’s running around West Virginia saying, in effect, “As goes West Virginia, so goes the nation.” At least, that’s what this says. Her argument: That no Democrat has won the White House without West Virginia since 1916, and that “If West Virginia had voted for our Democratic nominee in 2000 and 2004, we wouldn’t have had to put up with George Bush for the last seven and a half years.”

First point first. Message to Hillary: It’s 2008. History is changing. Or haven’t you noticed that a (half) black man is about to be the presidential nominee of a major party? You can’t run all over the country for a year and a half and say we’re about to make history, and then act like all that matters are the lessons of the past. It’s one or the other.

Second point. It’s true that if West Virginia had voted for Gore or Kerry, we would have avoided Bush (unless he and his cohorts had found another way to steal these elections, which isn’t inconceivable). It’s also true that if ANY other state had voted for Gore or Kerry, that would have happened. Moreover, if an asteroid had crushed Crawford, Texas when Bush was there sleeping any time up until November 2000, we would have been spared George W. Bush. In other words: It doesn’t matter. It’s that past thing again, that thing that seems to confuse you, that thing you like to use some times and ignore other times. (As when, say, you vote to attack nations that haven’t attacked you first, and then change your rationale repeatedly.)

As regards West Virginia, can it truly matter that much? Sure, it’s the site of the nation’s first 4H Club, and the first federal prison exclusively for women, and it’s got the third-largest cave in the United States. But it’s never done one of my plays.

This entry was posted on Monday, May 12th, 2008 at 10:43 pm and is filed under Thoughts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.