I think this is a political example of the statistical phenomenon known as mean revision — in which a string of unusually high data points is often followed by a string of low ones, bringing the trend back towards the long-term average.
If you look at it that way, it’s no surprise Virginia politics has been churning out dimwitted racist assclowns for the the better part of the past 200 years. It takes a heap of mean reversion to compensate for Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Mason and Monroe.
But now that the state has given us Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson and George Allen in such quick succession, it’s pretty clear the pendulum has swung too far. Virginia is almost down to the Texas level now, which is about six standard deviations below the mean.
Billmon at Whiskey Bar, a “16th generation Virginian,” commenting on the George Allen flap.