It is probably the best intentioned, most misplaced, most misunderstood concept in all of government, this notion of “working together.”
Our Founding Fathers understood it-and were scared to death of it-especially Jefferson, who wrote at length, publicly and privately, on the utter necessity, the primacy, of a democratic doctrine frequently ignored or forgotten now: separation of powers.
Said he in an 1807 letter to George Hay: “The leading principle of our Constitution is the independence of the Legislature, Executive and Judiciary of each other.”
The leading principle, yet…
There is not a legislator alive who hasn’t promised to “work with the governor” at one time or another. (If you Google the phrase, twenty nine million hits come up.)
The leading principle, yet…
There has never been a governor-ever-anywhere-who didn’t express willingness to “work with the legislature” at one time or another. (Nearly sixteen million hits.)
Not only do they “work together,” governors and legislators routinely caucus and collude together-Democrats with Democrats, Republicans with Republicans-on legislation, appointments, strategy, tactics, and so on. Favored legislators routinely “carry” governors’ bills-and make no bones about it, make no apologies for “working with” their governors.
(What Jefferson, no saint himself when it came to party politics, and other matters, would have said about blind, frothed-at-the-lips party fealty must be left to speculation.)
Thank God the process is not so common where the judiciary is concerned. In Virginia, most judicial appointees undergo committee interviews more akin to cattle calls than caucuses.
And yes, Virginia does subscribe to “separation-of-powers”-at least on paper. (After all, this is Jefferson’s Virginia.) It is set forth in Article III of our constitution: “The legislative, executive, and judicial departments shall be separate and distinct…”
How you’re supposed to maintain such a firewall when two of the three routinely raise campaign funds for each other is…well…more than I can sort out at the moment.
So…what’s really lost when these lines are blurred?
Independence is lost-gone. And hard, critical, thinking is, more often than not, traded for mush.
Don’t believe it?
Pull yourself up a chair. The show is about to start in Richmond.
“The show is about to start in Richmond.”. The (clown) show in Richmond has been ongoing for centuries. From the useless special sessions on transportation to the unconstitutional transportation legislation to the hastily recinded abusive driver fees. Want more? The car tax repeal, Mark Warner’s 13 campaign promises to not raise taxes before quickly doing so once elected. Not enough? Massive Resistance, the corrupt Byrd machine, the 1902 constitution (passed without a popular vote). Need more? Being the capital of the Confederacy, stubbornly and stupidly planting tobacco until the soil failed.
The show is about start? What channel have you been watching for … well, for all of your life?
Groveton, if you’re going to hyperventilate, do it with vigor. Here, I’ll help you.
Birds Of The Commonwealth:
A Field Guide To Virginia Republicans
1. The Crazies File Early Republicans (Sift through the pre-filed legislation for the coming session. Some of these bills will scare you. See: Praise The Lord And Pass The Ammunition Republicans.)
2. Praise The Lord And Pass The Ammunition Republicans (Think carrying concealed weapons into churches is a good idea.)
3. There Is No Higher Calling Republicans (No higher calling than teaching—nor better paying if you’re a sitting state senator with a teaching gig at William and Mary.)
4. The Flat Earth Republicans (Old, reliable wing of the party. Want everything. Want to pay for nothing. Counting on the Tooth Fairy to build our roads and bridges.)
5. The Palinaires (Bright-plumed. Perky. Stupid.)
6. The Waiting For the Rapture Republicans (They all think they’ve been abducted by aliens at one time or another. Use the word “smite” a lot.)
7. The Tin Foil Republicans (They wear skull caps made out of Reynolds Wrap when they go to bed at night– to keep the rays out. See: Praise The Lord And Pass The Ammunition Republicans)
8. The Tea Party Republicans (Distinctive red faces. Pronounced neck veins. Prone to screaming)
9. The Rotary Club Republicans (Endangered species. Small business Main Streeters into plaid. Big on lapel pins. Wingtips. Ten pounds overweight. Perpetually confused. Bewildered by what they see happening to the party. Feel like they’re at that bar scene in the Star Wars movie.)
10. The Black Helicopter Republicans. (The ninja wing of the GOP. Some have chip implants in their heads. A mutant, emerging strain. Also known as the ‘Cooch Corps’)
11. The Both-Front-Feet-In-The-Trough Republicans (Commonly known as “The Double Dippers.” Found mostly along the rich feeding ground shores of the McDonnell cabinet.)
12. The Privitizer Republicans (Think you can lay off a $30-an-hour state employee and hire him or her back as a $60-an-hour consultant and save money. Only known wild species that wears cowboy boots and dips snuff.)
13. The Bandito Republicans (Usually dressed in pinstripes. Usually shod in cap toes. Found mostly in boardrooms, and on golf courses. Oppose any and all government involvement. Except in bailouts. And in bonuses.)
14. The Hey, I’ve Got Mine Republicans (Believe it’s every dog for himself when it comes to health care. Cross-strained with the Virginia Swift Boaters, Eric Cantor helmsman.)
15. The Log Cabin Republicans (Don’t know which end is up. Delusional. Think Republicans care about them.)
Groveton’s Brief History of Virginia:
1. Virginia’s original European settlers were Englishmen. In fact, they were a rather few Englishmen who (on occasion) intermarried with the Native Americans. The most noteworthy of these marriages was between Pocohontas and John Rolfe. Many of these settlers were English nobility and were give land grants by the King. They became what was called the southern aritiocracy in the colonies.
2. As Virginia developed as a colony a small group of families came to dominate the government, business and theologiocal affairs of Virginia. These families have, at least in modern times, described themselves as “Descendants of Pocohontas”. They also describe themselves as “the first families of Virginia”. These families were concentrated in Norfolk but moved to Richmond as Virginia’s capital moved. They understood all too well that being close to the seat of government helped ensure a disproportionate share of the state’s wealth would go to themselves.
3. These “first families” were never particularly good leaders although they certainly knew how to maintain power - by hook or by crook. They pushed Virginia in one direction and then another as the citizens of the state went from boom to bust following the vagaries of the tobacco harvest.
4. The “first families” were, by and large, Tories. The English monarchy granted them their priveleges and they reponded with loyalty to the crown.
5. The founding fathers were not among the “first families” of Virginia. They did not claim to be descrnded from Pocohontas. They did not live in Richmond. By and large the founding fathers were the men from what was then the hinterland of Virginia - Charlottesville (Jefferson), Fairfax County (Washington and Mason), Orange (Madison). They were rebelling not just against the King but against the King’s agents in the colonies. They were, in part, rebelling aginst the “first families” of Virginia and their royal entitlements.
6. After the rebels won the Revolutionary War the real leaders of the Revolution - Jefferson, Mason, Madison, Washington - assumed positions in the national government. Through the Constitutional Convention and the census of 1790 Virginia maintained a dominant role in the new United States. But the seeds of decay were sown. The real leaders were in the national government leaving the state back in the hands of the “first families”. And these “first families” quickly went back about the all important business of enriching themselves at the expense of Virginia’s future.
7. The “first families” were (and remain) traditionalists. They don’t like change. From their perspective this is understandable. By the early 1800s these familes had dominated the most important colony (now state) in the US for hundreds of years. Change was a threat. Change was their enemy. Those new fangled manufacturing devices being made in England had no place in Virginia. Slaves toiled in the fields under the supervision of the poor white overseers and the poor white overseers worked for the “first families”. This plantation economy benefited the “first families” and they saw no good reason to deviate from it. As would become their hallmark, they failed to grasp the big picture preferring to fall back on their odd sense of genteel manners and propriety. Virgina lagged as the rest of the nation moved forward.
8. As the world and then the United States began to finally understand the true horror of slavery the “first families” found they had a problem. Unable to grasp either the global revulsion to slavery or the impending automation of agriculture the “first families” thought their 300 year old economic stranglehold on the state of Virginia might be coming to an end. They couldn’t imagine a future that was any different from the past and this guy Lincoln was trying to undo the “instituition” of slavery. So, the “first families” had a real problem. If they said they wanted to fight a war to preserve slavery they couldn’t raise an army. The vast majority of white people were poor and had no expectation of ever owning slaves or a plantation. Why would they fight for the wealth of a very small percentage of the population? They wouldn’t. So, the “first families” engaged in some old fashioned propoganda. They claimed that this was a war for “states rights”, a war of “Northern aggression”, it was the “second Revolution”. The poor and poorly educated whites marched off to war. A war to preserve the economic status of the state’s “first families”. A war that the South could not win. A war from which many would never return.
9. Utterly defeated in war with thier personal economic engine (i.e. the state of Virginia) in a shambles, the “first families” sought to disenfranchise the state’s former slaves lest the “first families” lose even more of their economic power. For a while they had to contend with Yankee management of the state. The Underwood Constitution of 1870 established black sufferage, provided for public schools and mandatory attendance for all children. The “first families” tried to resist by first refusing to vote for delagates and then by ridiculing the proposed Constitution as the “Negro Constitution”. However, Virginia was under military rule and the “first families” were outflanked. During this brief moment of hope the constitution was approved by a vote of 210,585 to 9,136. It became the law of the land. The Readjuster Party sprang to life with a new vision for Virginia’s future. Its stated goal was to “to break the power of wealth and established privilege”. It’s brief but bright time went from 1870 to 1883. After that, the Conservative Democrats took control and kept it for the next 80 years. This recidivist group was a “who’s who” of the first families of Virginia including Barbours, Martins and Byrds.
10. Unfortunately for Virginia, the Yankees left. Naturally, the “first families” regained control. By 1902 they had consolidated control to the point that they were ready to rewrite the 1870 Constitution and disenfranchise the African American residents of the state. Poll taxes and literacy tests all but eliminated the black vote. In fact, the literacy test also cut deeply into the poor white vote. The 1902 Constitutional Convention began with a pledge that the new constitution would be put to a popular vote. This pledge was quckly discarded as the “first families” realized that a constitution designed to disenfranchise all the African Americans and many of the white Virginians wouldn’t pass a popular vote. So, the political elite passed the 1902 constitution with no popular vote. This abomination would remin in force longer than any other constitution passed by the state. One of the hallmarks of this “declaration of war against the people of Virginia” was the segregation of schools.
11. By this point the “first families” were firmly back in control. They waved Confederate flags as they put the “recent unpleasantness” behind them. This recent unpleasantness included a war to preserve an abomination, the deaths of thousands and thousands of Virginians, the almost total destruction of the state and a complete economic collapse.
12. The period from 1902 to 1954 was something of a “Golden Era” for the “first families”. They ran the state through the Byrd Machine. Their power was unrivaled in any other state. They formed the high society of Richmond and their children went to lilly white schools. Meanwhile, the poor whites and blacks of the state faced a lack of economic opportunity and an essentially non-existant educational system.
13. The 1950s and 1960s were a stressful time for the “first families”. Brown vs. the Board of Education forced the issue of segregated schools to the forefront. Harry F. Byrd (a proud member of one of Virginia’s “first families”) declared his policy of massive resistance. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 proved that a Southerner (Lyndon Johnson) could put aside racism and do what’s right for America and Americans. However, the political elite in Virginia proved that there were still plenty of people who couldn’t come to grips with the “all men were created equal” philosophy of those long dead patriots from the hinterland of the state. So, the politicians closed the schools rather than see their children attend class with kids of African descent.
14. Like slavery and the Civil War the “first families” couldn’t stop progress no matter how hard they tried. The federal government was once again stepping into Virginia politics to put a muzzle on the immoral behavior of the state’s political elite. In 1964, the Supreme Court upheld an order requiring that the Prince Edward County Public Schools be re-opened. Faced with a choice of prison or intrgrated schools, the politicians decided they could live with integration. Sort of. It was not until 1986 that the final chapter in Richmond’s court mandated desegregation battle was closed. The “first families” had lost and lost big. But they had lost before and come back and that’s what they intended to do again.
15. The Virginia Constitution of 1971 was born of civil rights legislation at the federal level. Gone were the days when a small group of power hungry “first families” could railroad a racist constitution through the convention and have it adopted without a popular vote. The new constitution was a major step forward in providing fair and equal treatment to most of Virginia’s citizens. However, it still allows plenty of “wiggle room” for the shady deals and favoritism that keeps the “first families” afloat.
16. Virginia was one the pre-eminent British colony in the NEw World. It was, in the early days of the United States, clearly the pre-eminent state in the union. However, those early advantages were squandered by a narrow group of political elites who publicly describe themselves as the “first families” of Virginia. This list does not include names such as Jefferson, Madison or Mason. However, it does include names like Byrd and Dabney, Fitzhugh and Warner. Virginia’s fall from prominence was swift and catastrophic for a large portion of the state’s population. Now we are reduced to hoping that a business magazine will rate us the best state for business.
What a shame.
Groveton, I love reading you, here and elsewhere. Thanks for this,,,ahh…history. Thank God I was born, raised, and educated, if marginally, in…well…let’s just say I’ve got tar on my heels that won’t come off. I’m here on a green card. Expect deportation daily. Most of my people were “first” in nothing–unless chewing tobacco, preaching, stealing chickens, and bootlegging count. I come from a line of regular Olympians in those endeavors. You are a good writer. And I pick and choose carefully in saying that. Best. BKD