The Kitchen Table: Augusta GOP Afraid for Country

For this week's Kitchen Table, we dropped by a GOP picnic last Saturday in Augusta County, one of the state's most longstanding Republican strongholds. On a sunny afternoon interrupted by a brief spray of rain, over a lunch of barbecue and cole slaw, party activists in this Shenandoah Valley community expressed an overwhelming concern that their country and culture were being threatened by forces in Washington.

Featured speaker Patrick McSweeney, former state GOP chairman and founder of a new think tank called Restore the Founders' Vision, said his son was becoming so concerned with current affairs that he was considering moving to Costa Rica. Del. Steve Landes accused the White House of keeping tabs on Republicans, some of whom he said live in a climate of fear, and evoked the always-dicey Hitler comparison.

"They're afraid because they're afraid their neighbors are going to tell on them," he said. "When you've got a White House that's keeping names of people that don't agree with them, that reminds me of what went on the Soviet Union and in Nazi Germany."

Other attendees were more upbeat as they described Republican gubernatorial candidate Robert F. McDonnell's chances this fall, as you'll see in this video. While the graduate school thesis that has been the focus of this week's news on the governor's race is not likely to sway any of these voters away from McDonnell, please keep in mind that these interviews were conducted on Saturday, one day before the paper was publicized.