A. Barton Hinkle on the Tea Party Impulses of Northern Virginia Democrats

You can't get a whole lot more Democratic than Fairfax County, just outside of D.C.  Barack Obama carried Fairfax 60-38 against John McCain in 2008. That's six percentage points higher than Obama's statewide margin, which Fairfax helped inflate because it is the commonwealth's largest locality: 13.5 percent of Virginians live there. Four years before, George W. Bush carried Virginia with 54 percent of the vote—but not Fairfax, where John Kerry got 53 percent. The county board of supervisors reflects the split as well, writes A. Barton Hinkle. Seven of the 10 members are Democrats. That makes its recent stance on state government—"Please try to leave us alone"—rather amusing.