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You’ve probably seen the latest ABC News/Washington Post poll, but I’ve seen also a startling yet unsurprising statistic, if that isn’t a contradiction. We have a breakdown of support here for the President by region; in general, the South has Obama’s approval at 27-68, while the rest of the US reverses that score, with a favorable of 67.
If the south were excluded from the equation, our President would have a 67% approval rating, and all the disgusting idiot nonsense – birthers, death panels, Faux Noise and Limbo – would simply not be there. Supposing, instead of
and then
ol’ Abe had’ve allowed those dissidents to simply vanish from the rolls and be left alone to cause trouble for themselves alone. The question of dissolution has been spoken of by the Supremes, you know, immediately postbellum, and in the decision (STATE OF TEXAS v. WHITE, 74 U.S. 700 (1868)) there was the usual boilerplate:
The Union of the States never was a purely artificial and [74 U.S. 700, 725] arbitrary relation. It began among the Colonies, and grew out of common origin, mutual sympathies, kindred principles, similar interests, and geographical relations. It was confirmed and strengthened by the necessities of war, and received definite form, and character, and sanction from the Articles of Confederation. By these the Union was solemnly declared to ‘be perpetual.’ And when these Articles were found to be inadequate to the exigencies of the country, the Constitution was ordained ‘to form a more perfect Union.’ It is difficult to convey the idea of indissoluble unity more clearly than by these words. What can be indissoluble if a perpetual Union, made more perfect, is not?
..but also:
The act which consummated her admission into the Union was something more than a compact; it was the incorporation of a new member into the political body. And it was final. The union between Texas and the other States was as complete, as perpetual, and as indissoluble as the union between the original States. There was no place for reconsideration, or revocation, except through revolution, or through consent of the States.
Emphasis mine. As a thought experiment, imagine how we would soar like the eagle if Texas and South Carolina and such others as cared to join them were to offer to secede, and be accepted.The level of public discourse in the US would rise up tremendously, and international respect would grow accordingly, and much of fear and loathing would simply vanish.
The only downside I can think of is that Keith Olbermann would probably have to take up sports reporting full-time.
11 Comments
Any chance that Liberals’ snotty attitude towards the South might be a factor in how they feel about the Left?
I’m a liberal and live in the South. Y’all need to stop thinking we’re all dumb and stupid down here.
I’ve met some Yankees too stupid to pour piss out of a boot, so STFU!
As a liberal southerner… I wonder what the heck those who approve (from any region) are thinking.
We thought we won the War with the south, but it turned into an insurgency that will never die.
They will never think like the north, act like the north, or really go along with the north. They enjoy what the north supplies them, but really don’t want to be part of it.
There are liberal’s in the south, including me, but we’re outweighed by the other side.
“They will never think like the north, act like the north, or really go along with the north.”
I hope not: I’m kinda fond of that whole diversity thing, melting pot, “From many: One,” etc.
If the plain and pedestrian is your lot, then you must cherish “common sense” and simplicity to the exclusion of all else for self-protection. The south has great fear and much loathing for education, complexity, the cosmopolitan, yankees, the north and east generally, and it absolutely has nothing to do with “attitude” on the part of the offending party. A yokel lout senses his own lack of heft in the general scheme of matters, so he must see that as a conspiracy by aliens to deny him what he deserves.
I was raised on those flatland Texas plains, and it was recommended tacitly you never use terms nor sport ideas which were not accepted generally. There is prejudice in other neighborhoods throughout the land, it is true, but down south you will see hegemony of ignorance like nowhere else. Maybe streets in big cities are cordoned off between the Jews and the Italians, but in the south the white boy is king in many domains.
I also have some ideas about southerners who profess progressive attitudes yet so identify with their heritage as to resent simple truth, but I’m out of space here …
Approve of what?
Hey Grumpy, If being diverse is going to church in the morning, having sex with your sister in the afternoon, sucking down some shine, then putting on Your sheet and running around a bonfire. Go for it.
You’re the one in the South, Dude: I’m in CA, but thanks for the insight into your daily life.
More seriously, since a good Liberal would never spread unfounded stereotypes I assume you have personal knowledge of church-going, incestuous, KKK moonshiners?
I’m tired of being lumped together with the sleeping-with-your-sibling/father/uncle, sheet-wearing idiots just because of where I was born and raised and my resulting drawl, y’all. I resent the idiots being allowed to claim being Southern as an excuse and encouraged to use it as such. A Southern liberal is more a paradox than an oxymoron.
Tell you a story. Happened a long time ago.
When first I arrived in CA, I was shocked at incidents of open and unabashed racism. I have heard “I don’t like Tutsis” as casually as I might make a Strawberry Statement. I remember telling one Italian lady – Santa Cruz, CA, land of refugees, circa 1975, that she sounded just like Rhoda, and that one groaned, “And she’s Jewish too!”
Here is a special category. Anbody who is alert is challenging. I want to see who I am in relation to my environment. Where does me end and my shadow begin? This works out in the south as renunciation of the overt bigotry of the generation passing. Therefore, were you to encounter, say, a renegade Texian out on the coast in the late sixties, she would be more likely to object to prejudice than one who had been born in the manor and yet never thought about it.
Never send to know from whence the crow flies;
It flies from thee.