By James P. Gannon Special to the Rappahannock News

By James P. Gannon Special to the Rappahannock News

Is Northern Virginia gradually moving toward seceding from the Old Dominion, the great Commonwealth of Virginia?

That intriguing notion was raised by The Washington Post in a news article on Sunday, Aug. 4. The story reported that elected leaders in four Northern Virginia counties and five municipalities “are poised to become vastly more powerful this fall if voters hand them $5 billion over the next two decades” to build more roads and mass transit.

The scheduled referendum in Northern Virginia to raise the sales tax to pay for road projects, if passed by voters, would create a powerful new transportation authority that would no longer answer to the governor or the legislature. It would be its own barony, like a feudal state, with vast tax income, detached from the rest of the state’s political structure.

As the Post noted, “It is a historic shift in Virginia, where power is usually reserved for state government. In time, some political observers say, the state could end up ceding all control and money concerning roads’, bridges and rail lines in the region to the authority. It would be a kind of Northern Virginia secession.”

Of all the delicious ironies that have surfaced recently, this is my favorite. Perhaps the Northern Virginians, so eager to break free from the conservative strictures of the government in Richmond, may now begin to glimpse how most Virginians felt in the days leading up to the Civil War. Isn’t it wonderful to hear the leaders of the liberal part of the state, that home of political correctness—where displaying a Confederate flag can lead to riot in the streets—now speaking the language of secession?

Personally, I think this is a notion that should be encouraged. Yes, Northern Virginia, you could secede and form your very own state! Having become the capital of congestion and the seat of sprawl, you deserve the fate you have built for yourself. By all means, get your own gov