Virginia History X

Ever see American History X?  If you have you'll never forget it.  If you haven't, I'd suggest taking an asprin or maybe a valium beforehand.  It's not for the weak of heart.

It's the story of two brothers and their experience as one becomes the leader of an urban white-supremecist gang.  Here's a speech the older gives his new group of skinheads as they reenact the Berlin "Kristallnacht" of 1933, this time terrorizing a korean-owned local grocer.

         DEREK

     (to the group)

We're here tonight cause we got

immigration problems spiralling out of

control. We got Asians up the ass...

taking over our land with their

fucking Yen. Mexicans...flocking into

this place like some giant fucking

Pinata was shattered.

From The Script for American History X by David McKenna

 

Watching it, you think "People can't really feel this way in America, can they?".  Unfortunately, they can, and they do.

Remarkably, I'd never seen the movie American History X.  Maybe it's kismet.  I'm a big Edward Norton fan, and I was told it's his best role, but somehow I missed it, until last night.  

So you won't be surprised that this particular jackbooted scene was at the top of my awarness when I read the front page of the Washington Post today.  

Imagine my surprise as Virginia Candidate for Governor, Jerry Kilgore, was quoted with an amazingly similar empassioned plea to his would-be followers as he declaimed Virginia supports for Day Laborers.

"We face a fundamental decision in Virginia," Kilgore told reporters in a conference call. "Will we reward illegal behavior with hard-earned dollars from law-abiding citizens? I say the answer to this question should be an easy one: No."

The night the skinheads bust up the grocer here's what Ed Norton's character, Derek has to say:

 

          DEREK

We're here tonight to show the

government how we feel about

minorities taking over our country.

The treat us like criminals while they

reward them with jobs and ...

welfare checks. And it's only getting

worse.

Jerry Kilgore has veiled his bigotry better before now, speaking of "hard working Virginians" (translation: white) and failing "Richmond" schools (translation: black).

I think it's quite refreshing, honestly to have such an overt forray into racism.  When slime is uncovered, the stink is burned off by the rays of the sun.  

What I find fearsome is that this man may actually become Governor of Virginia.  If he does, it will take us back years financially, and centuries socially.  How far back can Virginia afford to go?

Four years of the best leadership and management in the nation, thanks to Mark Warner and Tim Kaine, has brought us forward.  Thanks to bipartizan action, under powerful Democratic leadership, Virginia has actually reached the light at the end of the tunnel:  Balanced budgets, smart government, healthy families, fully funded education.

That light at the end of the tunnel has eluded our nation as a whole for 6 years of under the backward, divisive, autocratic, immature radical leadership of George W. Bush.  Jerry Kilgore is cut from Mr. Bush's backward cloth.  He's more akin to national "spend like a drunken sailor" republican than anything like the fiscal conservatives we find in Virginia.

The promise of Tim Kaine's Leadership is unity, strength and inclusiveness.  The reality of national GOP irresponsibility is weakness, division, and bigotry.  

Nobody in this nation exemplifies the bizarre direction of the National GOP better than Jerry Kilgore.  

No Leader in this nation is needed more than Tim Kaine, the next Governor of Commonwealth of Virginia.  

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Find out how to help Tim Kaine become Governor of Virginia here.