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You are here: Home / Politics / Domestic Politics / Montani Semper Liberi

Montani Semper Liberi

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Peggy Noonan comes to West Virginia:

I have just been there for the first time, and it is a jewel of a state. It is like an emerald you dig from a hill with your hands.

You know when you’ve passed into it from the east because suddenly things look more dramatic. You get the impression you’re in a real place. All around you are mountains and hills and gullies, gulches and streams. The woods wherever I went were thick and deep. From Morgantown to Ballengee a squirrel can jump from tree to tree. It is a tall state–the hills, trees and mountains–and shadowy-dark, with winding roads, except for where it’s broad and beige and full of highway, courtesy of Robert Byrd. The highways are perfect looking, unstained by wear and tear, and not many people seem to use them.

Nice story. And while she makes it sound like a conservative paradise that might strike you libs as hell on earth, it isn’t. People here are just, well, sensible and easygoing.

(Via Don Surber)

Reader Interactions

14Comments

  1. 1.

    Steve

    There is a tendency for elites of whichever stripe to romanticize their party’s “base.” Visit The Corner sometime and listen to them elegize NASCAR watchers as the heart and soul of America, even though none of them would have the faintest clue if you asked them the number of Jeff Gordon’s car.

    One of the things that makes places like West Virginia pleasant is that people know better than to stand around talking politics.

  2. 2.

    demimondian

    Peggy Noonan has been one of my favorite fiction writers ever since she served Ronald Reagan as truth-blighter…err, I mean, speech-writer.

  3. 3.

    Mike S

    Are there a lot of dolphins in WV?

    Seriously though. I’ve been through WV and it is a beautiful state.

  4. 4.

    Doug

    She forgot to mention the tops blasted off the mountains. But, I don’t know if that’s a liberal or a conservative thing.

  5. 5.

    John S.

    She forgot to mention the tops blasted off the mountains. But, I don’t know if that’s a liberal or a conservative thing.

    You may (or may not) be surprised to learn that the Coal Mining industry has been giving nearly 90% of their contributions to the Republican Party for the past four years. The moving average for the last 15 years is around 80%.

    So blowing the tops off of mountains is definitely a conservative thing.

    Source: Open Secrets

  6. 6.

    Gary Farber

    Almost heaven? Mountain momma?

    Sorry. Sounds great. Each of our States has outstanding aspects. (As does most of the world, but these are mine and held together by a Constitution I would swear to whenever asked.)

    God save the United States of America. And what it stands for.

  7. 7.

    Don Surber

    John, thanks for the link.

    Apparently she drove from Morgantown to Charleston via the New River Gorge Bridge. This was not a day trip.

    My question: Did she go further south and have breakfast at the DQ in Hinton?

  8. 8.

    tBone

    Never been to WV, but I hope to visit there someday.

    And I hope I don’t bump into Peggy Noonan when I do. She gives me the serious heebie-jeebies.

  9. 9.

    Doug

    I went camping in W.V. a few years back. Beautiful territory. I hope to go rafting out there at some point. Hopefully the economics can be made to work where the state can wean itself off of extraction industries and make a long term profit through tourism and whatnot.

  11. 11.

    norbizness

    I liked Roy Edroso’s summary of the column: “Tourism copy like this can be yours for a mere $50,000 per assignment (kill fee 100%). Contact me at my New York office… what? Move to West Virginia? You gotta be kidding!”

  12. 12.

    DecidedFenceSitter

    Parents live near New River Gorge. Beautiful, beautiful area there. They came down and stayed for a couple of weeks around my 21st, liked it and built a house down there.

    I’ve been down for a couple of Bridge Days, which are fun.

  13. 13.

    Luddite

    “Each of our States has outstanding aspects. (As does most of the world, but these are mine and held together by a Constitution I would swear to whenever asked.)”

    Thank you Gary! I have done a lot of travelling in the USA and every state does have beautiful, often breath taking parts as well as some real shit holes too. Nothing wrong with being proud of your home state. That is actually a good thing. But all of this “my state rules, the other 49 suck” is really just BULLSHIT! (tip of the hat to Bob Novak for helping me with my post)

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