Make A Run For The Border

Politics are exhausting. I live in Northern Virginia where every other ad is for the November 2nd Gubernatorial election between Glenn Youngkin and Terry McAuliffe. Meanwhile, all of the other ads are for various sports betting websites and apps. Anyway, this post isn't about any elections or the debt ceiling or any other Congressional legislation. It's about sore losers. Specifically, those politicians who think all of their problems will go away if they change states.

You may remember in early 2020 when Jerry Falwell Jr. wanted parts of Virginia to secede and become part of West Virginia. By the way, it's so nice that we don't hear from Falwell Jr. anymore. He really is/was the worst. Now, it's Maryland's turn. 

A handful of Republican lawmakers from western Maryland are plotting a run for the border, and want to drag their counties along with them.

I'd like to congratulate Pamela Wood and Bryn Stole of The Baltimore Sun for not including a Taco Bell reference in this or the next sentence. I definitely would have!

The secessionist cadre -  a group of five state legislators from Garrett, Allegany and Washington counties - sent a pair of letters to top West Virginia officials asking whether they might annex their westernmost piece of the panhandle and make Mountain Maryland a permanent part of the Mountain State.

The article continues by stating that this isn't going to happen, and that the legislators want attention and resources for their side of the state. I mean sure Garrett and Allegany counties have populations of 28,806 and 68,106 respectively, so why shouldn't they have equal representation and funding than Baltimore? (Washington County is bigger with over 147,000 people, but it's a strange county geographically. You have the area that borders Virginia and West Virginia at Harpers Ferry plus Hagerstown, and then it goes all the way up to the Pennsylvania border. I'm now completely fascinated with Washington County and want to learn more about its history. There can't be many counties that border three separate states. I'm getting way off track.)

So my guess is that these legislators feel like they're more simpatico with the politics of West Virginia. We'll ignore the fact that Maryland has had a Republican governor since 2015, but maybe Larry Hogan isn't conservative enough for them. While I'm not trying to denigrate West Virginia which is absolutely beautiful and I'll always have a soft spot for Morgantown, according US News & World Report, West Virginia ranks #47 in health care, #45 in education, #48 in economy, and #50 in infrastructure. (Maryland is #6, #14, #35, and #38 in these categories.) Try telling your constituents that we don't agree with Annapolis, so we're going somewhere with worse health care, infrastructure, education, and economy. Oh, but gun laws are better in West Virginia. That's quite a selling point!

Look, if you're elected to serve your constituents, serve your constituents. Yes, you're the minority in the state legislature, so you might need to negotiate and compromise with the majority to get things done. Actually, shouldn't your own county commissions and boards be doing more here? By the way, if these politicians feel like their communities are being neglected by Maryland, why would West Virginia share their resources with you? Unless of course they are getting some really sweet discounts at the Hagerstown outlets!