Bacon's Rebellion

  • Toward a More Perfect Meritocracy

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    Virginia’s Left and Right agree that merit matters. They disagree about what merit is—and how institutions should recognize it.

    by Kenrick N.G. Brown

    Image credit: Grok

    The Constitution begins with an aspiration. “We the People,” it declares, seek to form “a more perfect Union.” The wording matters. The Framers did not announce that they had created a perfect country. They described political union as an unfinished project—something capable of improvement, correction, and refinement.

    Virginia should think about meritocracy in much the same way.

    Nearly everyone claims to support merit. Republicans support merit. Democrats support merit. University administrators, civil-rights organizations, business leaders, public employees, and taxpayers all invoke merit when defending their preferred systems of hiring, promotion, and admission.

    Yet agreement on the word disguises disagreement over its meaning.

    The political Right generally locates merit in common and measurable indicators: grades, examinations, professional credentials, technical qualifications, work experience, and demonstrated performance. The political Left generally defines merit more contextually, placing greater weight on unequal opportunity, obstacles overcome, historical exclusion, personal experience, and demographic inclusion.

    The resulting debate is not always a conflict between supporters and opponents of meritocracy. More often, it is a conflict between rival conceptions of merit.

    (more…)

  • Frustrated in Fairfax

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    James A. Bacon

    by Chap Petersen

    Last week, my “Sleepless in Stafford” newsletter detailed how County officials had ignored state law in restricting a homeowner’s right to use her own private residence via short term rental.

    It’s not confined to Stafford County, folks.

    Two years ago, a Fairfax County resident purchased a 4-acre undeveloped property off Wolf Run Shoals Road in Clifton for his dream house. If you know the area, it’s the “rural” part of the County, with two-lane roads and natural spaces. The residential property he purchased was primarily open space — like in “Field of Dreams” — perfect for a soccer pitch or baseball diamond.

    The resident hired an architect, obtained plans and approached the County with a site plan to begin construction. They informed him that he needed to plant 239 mew trees — at a cost of nearly $300,000 — before he would be allowed to begin construction. Alternatively, he could make a direct contribution to the County’s coffers.  

    (more…)

  • Not Corruption, Just Raw Political Power

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    Steve Haner

    by Steve Haner

    I have been charged with defaming a great Virginia company and major employer. One of my regular readers high up in Dominion Energy Virginia, someone often complimentary of my efforts, called yesterday to push back on any implication from me that the company is corrupt or engages in corrupt practices. 

    The basic point of the column from four days ago, “Dominion Sale is a Warning Sign on Virginia’s Weak Ethics Laws”, was that Virginia’s General Assembly should impose campaign finance limits across the board, along with other specific legal recommendations to limit corporate influence at the Capitol or improve utility regulation. The focus was indeed on Dominion. 

    After pointing out that many of the methods of political persuasion used by NextEra Energy and Dominion are similar, methods I and others have complained about, I wrote “Virginia must fight the corruption across the board.” Yep, with that I applied the word to the company. “Guard against” would have been a better choice than “fight.” Or “overwhelming special interest influence” could have replaced “corruption.”

    (more…)

  • Mark Warner: Spreading Falsehoods On National TV

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    James A. Bacon

    by Kerry Dougherty

    My, my, my. Who would have guessed?

    Seems ABC’s White House Correspondent, Jonathan Karl is more familiar with Virginia voting laws than Mark Warner, Virginia’s senior senator. You know, the guy who pledged to serve just two terms but is now running for his fourth.

    Here’s Warner getting schooled by Karl on ABC’s Sunday show, “This Week”:

    Continue reading.

  • Virginia Beach Reneges on Vow to Compensate Business Owners

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    by Kerry Dougherty

    Just when you thought the midwits running Virginia Beach had reached peak incompetence with this spring’s idiotic resort-area shutdown, this happens:

    After inviting businesses to file for compensation if they lost revenue during the moronic closure of the resort area in April, the city has denied every single claim.

    Color me unsurprised.

    A city that showers its favorite developers with loot, that helped build a wave park two blocks from the ocean as a playground for wealthy surfers, is giving the middle finger to the little guys struggling to stay afloat along the lawless stretch of Atlantic Avenue from Rudee Loop to 31st Street.

    Let’s back up.

    There were two mass shootings at the oceanfront this spring. One in March, another in April. A total of 14 people were injured.

    What the council won’t say out loud, but I will, is that spring is Thug Season at the Beach. Gang bangers, urban youth and college students descend on the resort area, fights break out and so do guns.

    Instead of wading into the crowds, making arrests and taking the guns from the miscreants, Virginia Beach police are what they call (behind the chief’s back) “blue scarecrows.” They stand, adjacent to the hairballs, hoping their mere presence will be a deterrence.

    It isn’t.

    Instead of rounding up kids with guns on the resort strip, the city boasts state-of-the-art “shot spotter” technology that tells authorities where shots were fired so that ambulances can get there quickly to transport the wounded to the hostpial.

    Frankly, that’s embarrassing.

    Wringing their helpless hands in April, city council members decided that the couldn’t control the undesirables that swarm the beach every spring – hey, no one wants to be called racist – so they instituted a 9:30 adult curfew on weekends. Continue reading.

  • Jeanine’s Memes

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    James A. Bacon

    View more memes at The Bull Elephant.

  • Smoke Does Not Stop at the Border.

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    Neither does the climate.

    by Derrick Max

    The thick haze now covering much of the East Coast arrived without requesting a permit from Virginia regulators.

    It did not stop at the Canadian border. It did not recognize state lines. It did not distinguish between jurisdictions that have adopted aggressive renewable-energy mandates and those that have not. It did not care if it was over a red or a blue state. 

    Smoke from Canadian wildfires is degrading air quality across large portions of the United States. The fires themselves are in another country, but their consequences are visible in Virginia’s skies and felt in the lungs of all Virginians.

    The lesson to be drawn from this smoke should produce some humility in Richmond: Atmosphere is global.

    Virginia has just authorized a new State Climate Office at George Mason University. Yet, as these fires reinforce, there is no Virginia climate. There is only a shared atmosphere in which smoke, emissions and weather systems move freely across state and national boundaries. That reality should make policymakers skeptical of expensive new state climate offices and environmental mandates presented as though Virginia can regulate its way to a different climate from the rest of the planet or even impact the global climate.

    (more…)

  • Jefferson and the Cheap Bait of White Nationalism

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    James A. Bacon

    Peter Onuf and Francis Cogliano’s latest book slander defenders of Thomas Jefferson in the worst possible manner. Was it really necessary?

    by Shaun Kenney

    I was looking forward to reading Peter Onuf and Francis Cogliano’s Thomas Jefferson Survives right up until page 12 of the Introduction.

    Once upon a time, I had the pleasure of reading Jeffersonian Legacies in my younger days as a consumer of all things Virginia history, which was the result of a conference on Jefferson headed up by Onuf.

    The late Daniel P. Jordan — whose long tenure with the Thomas Jefferson Foundation helped shape the Jeffersonian renaissance — capstoned the conference celebrating Mr. Jefferson’s 250th birthday with the following tribute:

    While the conference and essays allow fresh voices to be heard on aspects of the Jefferson legacy, good and bad, at times they merely echo partisan arguments about Jefferson’s life and politics going back to his own era; in other ways they provide a 1990s standard of judgment. The centrality and complexity of Jefferson’s ideas and career, his extraordinary versatility, his gift of felicitous prose, and the exceptional corpus of letters he left behind will assure that Jefferson will remain a fascinating and compelling subject to examine and ponder for edification and inspiration, for admiration and admonishment, for generations to come.

    For those interested in how profound the shift has been on Jefferson from paragon to parasite, Ken Burns is your answer. His 1997 Thomas Jefferson documentary treats Jefferson as a Founding Father, yet his 2026 documentary on The American Revolution only begrudgingly admits George Washington as the indispensable man. In fact, all of the accomplishments of the Founding Fathers are footnotes rather than pivotal moments in history — and if pivotal, then most certainly imperfect. From this treatment, Jefferson has provided a deep mine from which countless historians have delved and picked apart to exhibit and even invent the very worst of imperfections in an industry rewarding grievance. God forbid to see what a Ken Burns documentary on Jefferson would look like today.

    What should fascinate and compel us presently at the 200th anniversary of Jefferson’s death and the 250th birthday of these States United is that Jordan’s commitment to pluralism and the collision of ideas has been eclipsed by a 2020-ish standard of judgment seeking to recapture Jefferson for the 21st century political left — or worse still, abandon Jefferson to a caricature and label it as “far right”, a tactic which has proven to be very useful to organizations such as the SPLC.

    (more…)

  • To Be Continued…

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    The three little words that should terrify every Virginian

    Gov. Abigail Spanberger signs a package of gun control legislation on June 16, 2026, in Richmond, Virginia. (Allyse Pulliam/ Times-Dispatch)

    by Jonathan Arnott

    What do John Tyler, James Monroe, and Thomas Jefferson have in common? They are the three Virginia governors who have gone on to become president. Just a couple of years from now, the United States could sleepwalk into adding a fourth name to the list: Gov. Abigail Spanberger.

    Spanberger is a choice beloved by the Left—a moderate in front of the cameras but effectively a democratic socialist—often more liberal than Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, when voting in Congress.

    Leading up to last November’s election, Spanberger presented herself as a mother and former law enforcement officer who cared deeply about affordability, the economy, and public education.

    The question on every Virginian’s lips after November’s election was: How would Spanberger actually govern in practice? Would she govern for all Virginians, or would she remain a radical wrapped in moderate’s clothing?

    That’s a question the Virginia Institute for Public Policy has been working to answer. Partnering with a dozen conservative organizations across the Commonwealth, we presented “Power of the Pen,” a wide-ranging book of recommendations to the governor for the veto session.

    In “Power of the Pen,” we offer recommendations on which bills should be signed, which vetoed, and which amended. We try to be collegiate, asking her to take mainly actions which a moderate could reasonably take. In 2025, we gave the Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin the same test, perhaps even a little tougher. Youngkin scored 86.2%.

    When Spanberger scored 32.5% this year, it was bad. It’s not the kind of result you’d expect of a moderate, with the governor scoring 0% on energy and 0% on the Second Amendment.

    (more…)

  • Bacon Meme of the Week

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

  • Do CNBC ‘Best States for Business’ Rankings Mean Anything at All?

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    Last year, CNBC ranked Virginia as the 4th best state for business. However. as Dwayne Yancey observes at Cardinal News…

    Over the past year, Virginia has lost more jobs than [almost] any other state.

    Only two other states have lost jobs at a faster rate. Federal job cuts are a big driver, but not the only one. Virginia is also losing manufacturing jobs at a faster rate than any other state.

    Politically, there’s plenty of blame to spread around. Read the whole thing.

  • And Standards Just Keep Eroding…

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

  • Proud Moments in Virginia Governance

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

  • Virginians Question Power-Hungry Data Centers’ Expansion

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    Image credit: Grok

    by Rich Tucker

    Newton’s third law indicates that every action produces an equal and opposite reaction. In Virginia politics, that is showing up in the push-and-pull over data centers.

    The state is already peppered with data centers, and developers are rolling out plans to build more. In almost every location, local residents quickly rally to oppose their expansion.

    “Virginia hosts the largest data center market in the world and is home to 35% of all known hyperscale data centers worldwide,” according to the Virginia Economic Development Partnership. “Virginia offers an exemption from retail sales and use tax for qualifying computer equipment purchased by data centers that meet statutory investment and employment requirements.”

    A debate over whether to keep that tax break, which is in place through 2032, held up approval of the state budget for months. In the end, lawmakers and the governor agreed to maintain the break, but they will increase taxes on the energy that data centers consume to raise revenues.

    A recent report from the Virginia State Corporation Commission, which regulates utilities in the state, provides a preview of the scope of the problem. Electric utility Dominion Energy has approved 111 new data center projects that it said will be connected to the grid by the end of 2031. It also has 200 more projects in the approval process. If all these data centers were connected, they could draw 70 gigawatts of electricity, enough to power more than 60 million homes.

    (more…)

  • Dominion Sale is Warning Siren for Virginia’s Weak Ethics Laws

    Posted on

    by

    Steve Haner

    by Steve Haner

    Let me get this straight. A main argument against letting Florida-based NextEra Energy buy Virginia-based Dominion Energy is that the giant and rich new company might be so politically powerful that it will corrupt Virginia’s governance processes. That was the big argument from this fellow on the Richmond Times-Dispatch website.

    Shall I tell him or would you like to? What he writes about Florida Power and Light’s behavior pretty much parallels my 20 years of close observations, interactions and occasional outright conflicts with Dominion right here in Richmond. FPL and Dominion are peas in a pod.

    I remain skeptical that the size of the pod will matter to the average residential or business consumer. The new corporate holding company executives will likely be little different from the ones we have now, who are going to get very, very rich off this transaction and scoot to their retirement. But the wild west, anything goes environment has to disappear, and fast.

    The proper and intelligent reaction to what is coming is to make it far more difficult for either Dominion, or NextEra after swallowing Dominion, to keep getting away with it. Virginia must fight the corruption across the board. There must be:

    (more…)

Now Available

Book cover of 'Dust Mites: A Second American Revolution' by James A. Bacon, featuring astronauts planting a flag with a blue and white emblem on a lunar landscape, with Earth visible in the background.
For sale on Amazon.com

The year: 2075. The American colonies on the Moon are getting restless under Washington’s tyrannical rule….

This second edition of “Dust Mites” has a snazzy new cover, includes helpful lunar maps, and is 5,000 words tighter than the original. The sequel, “Trogs,” is scheduled for publication this summer.

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Bacon’s Rebellion is Virginia’s leading politically non-aligned portal for news, opinions and analysis about state, regional and local public policy. Read more about us here.

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