By Jarret Herrmann

ONE OF SEN. John McCain’s aides has shown a particular lack of grasp of Virginia history and American ideals. One Nancy Pfotenhauer said this week at an event in Woodbridge that McCain was going to win this state because he has support in the conservative Southern areas that she called “Real Virginia.” This brings up several questions.

Should Northern conservatives be left out of this new state? What if an Obama office opens in a conservative rural area, like the one in my own town? Am I no longer a real Virginian? Ms. Pfotenhauer painted Northern Virginia as being literally invaded by Democrats from the District of Columbia, as though we were all living in a surrealistic version of Iraq or the post-war confederacy.

Never mind the idea that Democrats born and raised in Virginia are not real, or the inference that folks who dare to move here with different political ideals are little better than carpet baggers. What truly irks me is that she believes Virginia is required to be a conservative, Southern state, to tow her party’s line above our own interests.

Ms. Pfotenhauer, I address this letter directly to you and your friends in the campaign. Virginia is, first and foremost, for Virginians. If we believe Barack Obama can benefit our state, we will vote for him. Whether you consider our votes “real” or not is of no consequence to us. And Virginia is not as conservative as you might believe.

The reason for the belief that the Real Virginia is Republican goes all the way back to the Solid South, and the hatred for the party that had freed the slaves and declared all men equal. Actually, it was the Republicans that did this great deed, and for a century or so the “real” South, including “real” Virginia was reliably democratic!

This changed when Harry S. Truman and most of the Democrats decided that civil rights and equal opportunity were a democratic ideal and the Southern democrats left the party to support their own splinter groups and anti-integration Republicans. But even during the Civil War, Virginia was still different.

For instance, I’m sure you’re aware that Virginia seceded. You might not know that we were the second to last state to do so. We did not jump at the chance to break up the union, to join the “real” states to the South. We were willing to abide by the progressive laws of the U.S. government until finally we heard the calls for help of our friends and family further South, and we heeded those calls and indeed held the Southern banner aloft by our might and blood for four terrible years.

And it was during this time that a Virginian decided that black folks ought to be equal to white ones, that they should be allowed to fight for their freedom alongside their countrymen. Robert E. Lee was his name, and he was not alone in his beliefs about equal opportunity and self-determination. A staunch Baptist named Gen. Thomas J. Jackson, another Virginian, was also opposed to inequality. The reason the plan that Lee supported was delayed and not implemented is that the “real” Southern leaders did not support it.

Virginia, as you can see, has a clear history of forward thinking, of choosing to do difficult things rather than take the easy path. Of supporting causes such as states rights. For instance, states rights to choose what the nature of marriage is, a right Sara Palin would like to revoke.

As such, I am proud to call myself a real Virginian, and don’t at all mind sharing my home state with folks who have different ideas about where our nation should go. But I cannot stand by and see people looked upon as less than natives of this great state simply because they are more forward thinking than your campaign. Calling a Virginian a fake for being a Democrat is a short step away from calling an American a fake for exercising his American rights and voting Obama, and that is something that cannot be allowed either in this state or any other, lest we become again a country torn asunder.

The point with my argument has thus far been history, and there’s a reason for that: Virginia has a proud history of choosing its own future. And our young people are that future. Education and integration with our brother Virginians have purged many of the incorrect ideas that led to the solid South.

You claim that those college educated younger voters in the North of the state are not real Virginians? I say that they are the future of Virginia, and that future will be decided by them, and not by the whims of John McCain and his campaign.

Herrmann lives in Luray.