Maryland vs. Virginia: Some Never Tire of the Battle

Good wine or good roads? The Old Line State or the Old Dominion?

In a Washington Post battle of the bloggers, the great states of Maryland and Virginia duke it out in the ongoing fight over which state has it right.

Essentially this fight goes thusly:

“Virginia bans gay marriage; Maryland allows it. Virginia taxes cars; Maryland taxes, well, everything. Virginia discourages unions …; some observers say Maryland is run by them.” 

Further, to paraphrase:

Virginia has good wine and ample bars, Maryland has moved on to green beans and $10 corking fees; Maryland has professional sports teams, Virginia just deals with the team members' antics; Virginia is blood-thirsty, Maryland is an “extension of Whole Foods with Whole Foods prices.”

“Perhaps it started during the Civil War, when they took opposite sides. For whatever reason, Maryland and Virginia have a rivalry as long and deep as the Potomac River that divides them,” Post bloggers Tom Jackman and Michael Rosenwald proclaim.

We challenge Mr. Jackman and Mr. Rosenwald to go back to eighth-grade history class, where we’re sure they will recall the lines weren't always so clear cut. Both Maryland and Virginia were slave states, and while Marylanders hesitated to secede, unlike their more southern neighbors, unionists didn’t quite believe Maryland, and the state spent most of the war under martial law.

Anyway, it’s true now that Maryland and Virginia are at odds and have been for years. 

What do you think? Which state is better?