Wow. What an idiot.
Democratic Virginia state Sen. Lamont Bagby, during a floor debate on the Democratic Party’s dishonest gerrymandering scheme, was trying to refute Republicans who argued that Democrats don’t understand the needs of that rural Virginians they are trying to disenfranchise.
So he said this. He really did. No, I wouldn’t make this up, I’m an ethicist!
“I grew up watching ‘The Waltons.’ I grew up with Opie. I even watched ‘The Dukes of Hazzard.’ I think I know a little bit about rural America “I’m not just here for Theo. I’m not just here for Arnold or Willis. I’m here for Opie, John Boy. Blossom, Topanga.”
Bagby was saying that he understands 21st Century rural communities in Virginia because he watched a TV show about a Virginia mountain family during the Depression, an idealized Sixties sitcom about a small town sheriff in North Carolina, and a notorious good ol’ boy TV farce about bootleggers in Georgia that lowered one’s IQ by several points every time one watched it. This is on the same plane as arguing that you are qualified to work for NASA because you were a fan of William Shatner’s “Star Trek.”
As for his other TV references, they make even less sense. “Blossom” lived in Los Angeles. “Boy Meets World,” which is his “Topanga” reference, was set in the Philadelphia suburbs. “Different Strokes” (Arnold and Willis) was set in penthouse at 900 Park Avenue on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, New York City.
This moron couldn’t even get his own ridiculous argument straight. I’ll tolerate political cretinism, but when these fools start misrepresenting old TV show, I really get angry.
Be proud, Virginia Democrats. This is the quality of the people you chose to govern your state.
Ethics Alarms 
Having grown up in the South, I always got a kick out of “Andy of Mayberry’s” version of North Carolina. It is the South as envisioned by Jewish television comedy writers from Brooklyn living in Los Angeles and sitting in a writer’s room. The only time they’d ever been in the South was while visiting their parents on Miami Beach.
Our son loved watching “The Dukes of Hazzard” when he was six. Hilariously, he mistakenly called them “The Dupes.”
“Lamont Bagby?” Sounds like a character in “Gone with the Wind.”
At least he didn’t say that he forged his entrepreneurial skills by watching “Sanford & Son.”
jvb
Never saw those TeeVee shows (I will look them up on YouTube) but I am curious what was the one “a TV show about a Virginia mountain family during the Depression”. Kind of sounds interesting. Wasn’t there a whole bunch of important photography projects of rural people in the Depression time? Communistic artists out in force …
“The Waltons.” Here is a wikipedia link:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Waltons
jvb