New Year, New Life

Nearly two years ago, I wrote a blog titled “Advantages of Living in the Swamp,” explaining the reasoning behind my three-month long absence from this blog; namely, my life-changing internship with the National Journalism Center in Reston, Virginia.  I closed the blog by noting that “I remain optimistic about a possible return to the Swamp in the near future.” I can now report that my long-desired return to the Swamp has finally become a reality.  I have spent the past couple of weeks getting acclimated to my new surroundings as I wait to begin my new job, which will involve a lot of writing and policy research involving one of the most important political issues facing the country, next week.

Living in the Swamp has presented me with a new set of challenges; after all, living independently means big changes for someone who has spent all but three months of his life living with his parents. After considering Wi-Fi a given at my parents’ house, I have struggled with securing Wi-Fi at my Airbnb that I will call home until an apartment in the same complex becomes available at the end of the month. I have since secured limited Wi-Fi at the Airbnb but I still have to go to the library if I want to watch Fox News. At home, I could do laundry “for free,” here, I have to pay to use a washer and dryer in a large room separate from my apartment. On the bright side, I can do multiple loads of laundry at once because of the numerous washers at my disposal; enabling me to keep my time in the laundry room to a minimum.

Don’t get me wrong. In spite of these challenges, I cannot wait to start my new job and officially “become an adult.” I know that the Swamp presents many wonderful opportunities for someone like me who has chosen this particular career path; especially in contrast to other big cities where people eager to devote their careers to writing about politics would choose to reside. The Swamp itself only has about 700,000 people and the metro area comprises just over six million people.  Contrast that with New York City, which has about eight million people and a massive metropolitan area consisting of roughly 20 million people. While the city of Washington, D.C. itself overwhelmingly favors Democrats by an even larger margin than the five boroughs of New York City and the ultra-liberal city of San Francisco, the core of the Washington Metro Area includes a swingy state with lower taxes: Virginia.  The core of the New York City Metro Area, on the other hand, consists of deep blue counties in deep blue states; which translates to extremely high taxes and an astronomical cost of living. The New York City Metro Area technically includes the swing state of Pennsylvania, which has much lower taxes than neighboring states; but a commute from any suburb in the Keystone State to the Big Apple would take far too long; especially in traffic. The New York City subway system only serves four of the five boroughs; it does not extend to the borough of Staten Island, the suburbs of Long Island, the Hudson Valley, or New Jersey. The Washington Metro, on the other hand, extends into the states of Virginia and Maryland; making it easier for residents of the suburbs to avoid the horrendous traffic that makes life a living hell for commuters in the beltway.

In the neighborhood of Arlington, Virginia where I have elected to reside, I can walk to the Metro station and get to DC’s Union Station within 20 minutes. From there, I only have a short walk until I arrive at my place of employment. As someone who spent more than an hour traveling to and from college every day, which included riding on a city bus that often stopped incessantly to pick people up at stops just feet apart and frequently got stuck in rush hour traffic, I have determined that I don’t want to spend that much time commuting if I don’t have to.  Based on my current situation as a single man, my living arrangement works out just fine.  Should my marital status change, I would likely have the intrinsic desire to pursue the American dream and purchase a single-family home with my beautiful bride. 

As I explained in my blog post highlighting my internship in the Swamp, “The biggest disadvantage to living in the swamp is the cost.  To use a phrase popular in New England, living in the Swamp is ‘wicked expensive.’” This especially goes for the real estate market. In order to find a house with a price tag under $300,000, I would have to move all the way to West Virginia or a part of Virginia that would give me a commute north of an hour if I decided to take the train, drive all the way to work in DC, or drive to a Metro station in western Virginia and ride the Metro the rest of the way. To use a cliché, I guess I’ll have to cross that bridge when I get to it.

After a week in Arlington, I have concluded that the city consists of two groups of people: the professional class and the people who serve them. Because of the absence of the white working class that serves as the backbone of today’s Republican Party, Arlington votes overwhelmingly Democratic in presidential elections.  In the Congressional District where I currently reside, my vote will have little impact on the predetermined outcome: a landslide victory for the Democratic candidate. Both of Virginia’s most competitive Congressional elections will take place far outside of DC; where impeachment-supporting Democrats will have to defend Trump-won districts based in Virginia Beach and the Richmond suburbs. In state and federal elections, however, my vote could have much more of an impact. In addition to having an opportunity to vote in the presidential race as all 50 states, Virginia will get to decide the fate of its senior Senator, Democrat Mark Warner. Republicans probably had a better shot at ousting Warner back in 2014 when Warner just narrowly held on in the Republican wave that enabled the GOP to dethrone Harry Reid as Senate Majority Leader. Thus far, Republicans have failed to recruit a top tier challenger and appear to have decided to spend most of their resources fighting to hold onto their own vulnerable Senate seats at the national level and focus their efforts on Virginia in winning back Trump-won house districts that Democrats won in 2018.

Based on a series of polls that have just come out, it looks like my choice to live in Virginia as opposed to deep-blue Maryland or DC, where my vote would count even less than it does in Rhode Island, might actually pay off in the 2020 election.  While the past three election cycles have probably convinced most Republicans that Virginia has become a lost cause thanks to our immigration policy, recent polling has suggested that the GOP should not give up on winning the Old Dominion’s 13 electoral votes just yet.  In a poll conducted by Mason-Dixon, only Joe Biden beats President Trump; with the three other candidates, Bernie Sanders, Goofy Elizabeth, and Mayor Pete, trailing the President in head-to-head match-ups. I have met many conservative patriots who did not live in Virginia four years ago who have since moved here (and hopefully registered to vote.) Their votes could help shrink the Democrats’ massive margins in Northern Virginia.  A Republican win in Virginia will require stronger performances in the rural western and southern parts of the state and Virginia Beach to cancel out the Democrats’ inevitable dominance in the DC suburbs, Newport News, Norfolk, Richmond, and Charlottesville. It will also help if many of the people who supported spoiler candidate Evan McMuffin in 2016 end up supporting Trump in 2020.

In spite of my short time here, I can already tell that I have relocated to an important political battleground.  Having watched local TV a lot over the past two weeks, I have found myself subjected to a Michael Bloomberg ad attacking President Trump as a monster for daring to criticize Obamacare and touting the former New York City Mayor’s record of protecting “reproductive health” multiple times. Gag. Considering the fact that Bloomberg has opted out of participating in the four early state primaries that take place in February, the Virginia Democratic primary as well as all of the other races taking place on Super Tuesday could make or break his campaign.

While the New Year means a new life and a new set of challenges for me on a personal level, it will also bring a new set of challenges at the local and federal level. For instance, just in the first few days of 2020, it has become clear that dealing with Iran will present one of the toughest challenges for President Trump as he decides whether to listen to those in the establishment who have wanted a regime change war with the country for a very long time and those who feel differently about how he should handle the always volatile and never black-and-white situation in the Middle East.

A new year also means insane new progressive legislation marketed as “criminal justice reform” will go into effect in the state of New York. This legislation will provide a set of new challenges for law-abiding New Yorkers. As CBS New York reported, “New York’s (new) bail reform law eliminates pretrial detention and cash bail for the vast majority of misdemeanor and non-violent felony cases. Hundreds of offenses such as stalking, grand larceny, assault as a hate crime, and second degree manslaughter will no longer be eligible for bail or pretrial detention.” In addition, “3^rd degree Arson, 4^th degree Arson, (and) 5^th degree Arson” as well as “obstructing governmental services with a bomb” and “killing a police dog or police horse”  While “extreme conservatives” who believe in the right to life, traditional marriage, and the Second Amendment might not have a place in the Empire State in 2020, it appears as if the state of New York has rolled out the welcome mat for criminals hoping to violate the 7^th Commandment, set fires, and kill police animals. From its passage of the Reproductive Health Act in 2019 to the implementation of “bail reform” in 2020 to the high taxes that defined the state long before the Democrats first gained a trifecta in 2018, I can definitely give thanks that I do not live in New York State.  However, because of the Democrats’ complete takeover of the Virginia government, these same legislative initiatives could end up arriving at my back door sooner rather than later.  

Just 11 days into the new year, I can already tell that 2020 will bring opportunities and challenges at a personal level and present similar opportunities and challenges to leaders at the federal and local level as well as the people they govern. Even though I may not have the time to weigh in on these aforementioned challenges on this blog like I used to, I look forward to the opportunity to provide crucial information on the important issue of immigration on a much larger platform. Stay tuned.