By chance, I happened to be in Charlottesville this weekend, partly to scout for a possible retirement relocation and partly to reunite with an old friend. Also by chance, the AirBnB booking my wife made was at a farm run by a young guy who is VERY active in the Republican party of Charlottesville. I’ll get to the point right away: The young GOP of Charlottesville wants nothing to do with the fascists who invaded the town.
As we drove around the town looking at neighborhoods that we might want to move to, we saw the three-language welcoming signs everywhere—in fact, more prevalent than where we live in New Jersey. We were told that these sprang up after the previous fascist invasion.
When we settled into the farmhouse where we would be staying and got to talking with the proprietor, he quickly made it clear that he despises Donald Trump. He also said that he has done everything he could to keep alt-right people off the Republican committees. Interestingly, he noted that the younger Republicans are the most vehement against letting the alt-right play a role; the older Republicans are less hostile to these fascists.
On Saturday, the day of the fascist rally, our host and a friend—who was the campaign manager for the district’s Congressman, a Republican—went downtown with signs to denounce the fascists. The gist of their signs was that Jason Kessler, one of the main organizers of the rally, is a hypocrite because he’s on welfare. The campaign-manager friend also took to social media to denounce the rally and received a death threat from one of the fascists. Late Saturday evening, they went to the scene of the rally and left some flowers in sympathy for the victims of violence.
I mostly respect these GOP activists, although I differ with them on most political issues. However, I should note that they all supported Trump for president, and it’s hard to forgive them for that. Our host explained that he thought that Trump would have no interest in governing and would let Pence run things, much as W let Cheney run things. They are establishment Republicans who are comfortable with Pence and his ilk. I find Pence scarier than Trump in a few ways.
I really like Charlottesville and know that the town is mostly progressive, as evidenced by the three-language signs and their progressive mayor. The fact that even the Republicans there are not crazy is good to know. In a year or two, we may add two Democrats to the voting base there and drive the GOP further into a minority.