Why D.C. is a 'Village'.

[SirNitram]

Link

On The Origins And Meaning Of The Term, “The Villagers”

Okay, a number of you — including my editor — have asked me to explain the meaning of the term, “The Villagers,” and where it came from. So here goes.

“The Village” and “The Villagers” are terms frequently used in the liberal blogosphere as a derisive epithet for the Beltway media and political elite. The term “Village” appears to be a reference to a famous 1998 article written for The Washington Post by D.C. society hostess and WaPo writer Sally Quinn, in which she explained the Beltway establishment’s outrage over Bill Clinton during the Monica Lewinsky scandal.

Quinn wrote, without irony, that Establishment Washington — which she described as “the high-level members of Congress, policymakers, lawyers, military brass, diplomats and journalists who have a proprietary interest in Washington and identify with it” — is “not unlike any other small community in the country.”

“They call the capital city their `town,’” Quinn wrote. Thanks to the Lewinsky mess, she added, “their town has been turned upside down.”

From this description of the Beltway the term “Village” was born. It is believed to have first been used in this fashion by Digby, though I have not yet confirmed this. It was popularized, and is still frequently used, by the blogger Duncan Black, a.k.a. Atrios, as well as other bloggers such as Jane Hamsher, Markos Moulitsas, Glenn Greenwald, and many others.

To these bloggers, Quinn’s description of Washington as a “town” gripped with prudish outrage over the behavior of the rude and common impostor Bill Clinton seemed to capture a larger truth about the Beltway. Thus, to the bloggers, the term “Villagers” refers to the Beltway elite and the kind of small-town insularity, prudishness, clubbiness, status anxiety and addiction to catty gossip that D.C.’s elites are prone to on occasion.

In political terms, the term “Villagers” denotes a kind of small-minded refusal to think outside an “acceptable” center-right consensus, and a refusal to acknowledge it when a majority of the American people take a view on a particular issue that is not in line with that center-right consensus. Thus, the “Villagers” include, in part, Democratic elected officials and consultants who insist that their party can’t succeed unless they ally their party with that center-right consensus; think-tankers who churn out position papers designed to prop up this elite consensus view; and elite pundits who insist that mainstream liberal views are radically leftist and insist on “bipartisanship” for its own sake, damn the consequences.

This elite consensus, in the view of the bloggers, represents this particular Village’s hidebound small-town values, which must be maintained at all costs to protect this elite’s status and interests.

So there you have it. That’s the best I can do. More on the term here.

If nothing else, it is a good reminder that the Beltway is a gigantic summoning circle to some circle of Hell, populated by retards.

[Lonestar]

If nothing else, it is a good reminder that the Beltway is a gigantic summoning circle to some circle of Hell, populated by retards.

These are ballsy words from someone that lives in West Virginia.

BY the way, this "prudish Town" is probably going to legalize Gay marriage wwaaaayyyyyy before most states.

[SirNitram]

If nothing else, it is a good reminder that the Beltway is a gigantic summoning circle to some circle of Hell, populated by retards.

These are ballsy words from someone that lives in West Virginia.

Are you kidding? I recognize the stink from Boone County's border! I'm an expert!

(Explanation: Boone County is where virtually every joke or exaggeration or generalization about Appalachians, rednecks, and hillbillies are true. I have yet to find, in my days as a CDC interviewer, someone who had more than 7 teeth there.)

[CmdrWilkens]

Anyway to Lonestar's point, there are two different DC's. The first is the one most people think of as the major party, the federal government and the associated lobbyists, opinion makers, and the general chatting classes who pay CNN and Fox News' bills. That DC mostly lives in the suburbs, commutes to K street, parties it up in Georgetown, and then goes on Sunday talk shows to pontificate on what "real America" thinks. The OTHER DC is the city of 600,000 which swells to 1.5mil+ everyday when the federal government is working. That DC is heavily Democratic (like 95% Democratic) and struggling to make a city work when it has virtually no control over its own finances. They've already worked to make a major city public school system something other than a joke (though there is still a LONG way to go), they've pushed money in to better transit and environmental protections (no more plastic baggies to pollute rivers, Streetcars instead of cars) AND they have passed legislation which recognizes gay marriages performed where it is legal as valid in DC.

In other words the actual city and not the chatting class is one of the foremost bastions of progressive ideals this side of the Mississippi. Sure its got corruption issues, a huge debt to pay off in terms of the monstrous cost of bringing Baseball back to town, and a crumbling infrastructure. It has all of those and more but its a city and a vibrant one that is trying to fix 30 years of decline and doing so with some success. For the first time in memory more folks are moving in to the city than out.

[Vympel]

The vote would be a good thing for DC, I imagine. I still can't believe they don't have it. Personally I'd refuse to pay tax.

[darthdavid]

The vote would be a good thing for DC, I imagine. I still can't believe they don't have it. Personally I'd refuse to pay tax.

And then because you'd be arrested. Isn't America great?

[Duckie]

Oddly enough, DC almost got the vote this year, but the NRA threatened to mark down any legislator who voted for DC Representation so support collapsed lest they lose their coveted A+ 100% Ratings. I'm not even joking.

Why does the NRA care whether DC has the vote? Don't they usually vote on guns and suck? Well, they're (annoyed/terrified?) by the idea of a US State having a comprehensive firearms ban and would prefer to keep DC as an only vague represented entity until that can be struck down, or perhaps forever just in case they try again.

[CmdrWilkens]

The vote would be a good thing for DC, I imagine. I still can't believe they don't have it. Personally I'd refuse to pay tax.

At the time of the founding of Washington it made sense. You can't have the seat of federal power be subject to a local government and you can't subvert a state government to the workings of the federal government. Neither solution was tolerable so it was decided that an independent city run by the government as its seat of power would be the best solution. In a country with massive land holdings and, even for the time, relatively low density outside of Boston and Manhattan 100 square miles was almost nothing.

What has arisen since then is obviously a contradiction but that is mostly because no one expected at the time of its founding that more people would live in DC than the least populous state or that within the bounds of its original jurisdiction DC (with Alexandria and Arlington now added back in) would be the 45th most populous state. I think retrocession of all but the core city to Maryland would probably be easiest since it solves the vexing problem not just of DC's lack of federal representation (well voting representation) but also remove the Federal government's ability to overrule the city council.

[MKSheppard]

I think retrocession of all but the core city to Maryland would probably be easiest

Hell no

We have enough problems with PG County. We don't need a whole new ghettozization zone added; and we most certainly do not want Marion Barry to be a Politican in Maryland.

[D.Turtle]

You can't have the seat of federal power be subject to a local government and you can't subvert a state government to the workings of the federal government.

Why not? Almost every other country in the world does it that way.

[CmdrWilkens]

You can't have the seat of federal power be subject to a local government and you can't subvert a state government to the workings of the federal government.

Why not? Almost every other country in the world does it that way.

Near as I can tell most subordinate the local to the federal whereas in the US that would be an abrogation of State's rights that would be anything from unwelcome today to completely unacceptable in the time at which the constitution was written. Remember that many seats of government descend from sovereign territorial rights that were slowly given over to some form of local authority whereas with DC it was an entirely new creation that would either have seized State territory (unthinkable at the time) or immediately subject itself to State authority which would have made the nullification crisis of the 1820s all the more acute and the likely cause of a national split that would permanently shatter the country.

I think retrocession of all but the core city to Maryland would probably be easiest

Hell no

We have enough problems with PG County. We don't need a whole new ghettozization zone added; and we most certainly do not want Marion Barry to be a Politican in Maryland.

So Mark do you have any reason that isn't blatantly racist? I mean there are plenty out there some of which I even agree with but fear mongering is what gets us Ehrlich and the defunding of the University System of Maryland and the public health services in the state. So color me unimpressed with THAT as a reason against retrocession.

[MKSheppard]

So Mark do you have any reason that isn't blatantly racist?

The fact that large parts of PG County and DC are essentially shitholes and demilitarized zones?

You have some areas that are okay, like the area around the National Mall and University of Maryland College Park -- but overall, the place is a grotty run down area.

Granted, you can get some good housing prices (which is a rarity in DC) in the Anacostia/SE Washington; but the fact that the place is basically a DMZ on a good day more than offsets cheap prices.

My brother is taking law enforcement courses at U MD, and volunteers with their police auxiliary on weekends etc.

He's told me about the basic 'feel' of people taking the courses, and from the Officers who come in to lecture the classes.

Basically, NOBODY wants to be a MPD or PG County officer. Basically too much damn trouble and I get the feeling that it's basically because they don't want to spend their career valiantly fighting a losing fight against a tide of crap -- and would rather work for a place that isn't so fucked up.

Fear mongering is what gets us Ehrlich

Considering I voted for Bob Erhlich, I find your argument of fearmongering unimpressive.

and the defunding of the University System of Maryland

Funny how the University of Maryland is still there. Define 'defunding' more clearly.

and the public health services in the state.

Define this more clearly. Again, you've given me vague generalities.

That said, other than his tax increases (damn sales tax), O'Malley seems to be doing okay in the same vein as Ehrlich.

That said, ANYONE is more competent than Parris Glendening.

Anyway, Maryland already has one run-down urban area that we're trying to revitalize (Baltimore); we don't need the addition of another area (DC) to sap state funds.