Southerners: Question

When LBJ signed the Civil Rights legislation in the 1960's, he said we (dems) would lose the south for a few generations. So, after this horrendous and totally unnecessary catastrophe, what is your read in how the south will vote now? I know we are ALL looking for leadership some place, but the repigs have attempted to make the south their fiefdom. After this, what is your read on the future?

As for me, I am voting them all out. I live in Alaska, as far from this tragedy as it gets. But I am still going to vote them all out.

our 18-35 year olds voted over whelmingly for Kerry, by over 60%.

You ask a good question, here in MS we have come so far in the last 40 years.

Bill Bryson said the same when he visited Oxford for his book Made in America, he was shocked to see the overall racial harmony on the Ole Miss Campus.

I think that the south is waking up.

The South still has a long way to go.

I'll tell a story of pre-Katrina, pre-Bush II, etc.

August 1996: I've moved into my dorm at Ole Miss. Clinton was running against Dole. About 6 of my new dormmates were in someone's room and the impending election came-up. We were all white, with 4 from Mississippi; a friend & I were from New Orleans. Two of these guys from MS got into a dialogue..

Person A: So.. who are you votin' for?

Person B (who doesn't pay much attention to politics): I dunno. Who're all of the n*ggers & f*gs votin' for?

Person A: Clinton.

Person B: In that case, Dole. Haha..

My friend and I looked at each other but (much to my shame now) didn't speak-up. The conversation carried-on as usual.

*snip*

That was 1996, when the GOP hadn't become as emboldened as they are now, holding all three branches of government. Nowadays, I see even more arrogance, the same level of hush-hush racism, and more moral certitude.. some of it in my own family, I'm embarrassed to admit. To put it bluntly, no, I don't see much hope for my home, the South.

Just my experience..

hide it.

GAY MARRIAGE! ABORTION! GAY MARRIAGE! ABORTION! EVOLUTION IS ONLY A THEORY! THEY HATE AMERICA! PRAYER IN SCHOOL WILL RAISE TEST SCORES!

First of all, "the south" is a varied place. That's where my family comes from, so I can give you brief glimpses into various places. Arkansas had the greatest number of Marxists of any US state prior to the 1950s. There is a very long and storied union history there, too. Texas is a mixed bag - about divided down the center. I have family there who still refer to black people as "colored" and make nasty remarks about anyone not white and heterosexual (those people, I don't talk to a lot), but I have family there as liberal as anyone in California.

The southern Appalachian region was largely non-aligned during the Civil War, due to - in part - the fact so many hillbilly folk were descended from escaped Scots-Irish slaves. One of my ancestors had to leave home to join the Confederacy, because he lived in the Carolina mountains. There's an intense distrust of the Federal government there, stemming from (a) the old revenuer days and (b) the outright theft of the Appalachian lands from countless hillbilly families during the early part of last century - creating the poor white trailer trash of myth and legend, and the Great Smoky Mountain National Park encircled by rich people estates by the dozens. There's also the factor that the infant death rate and life expectancy, to say nothing of ratio of indoor plumbing/electrical availability is similar in the hillbilly areas to a Native American reservation.

I've always wondered if there wasn't some deep concern in the right-wing that the south might one day go rabidly socialist. There's a mindset in the south which is very nearly Marxist - the old Irish idea that you "don't get above your raisin'". It's what caused Sam Walton to live in a 1600 square foot home until he died. In many regions of the south, if you are rich, you don't show it. It's just not done. Ostentatious displays of wealth are considered unseemly and even rude.

In short, I think the racist problem is only a surface one, caused by a hammerlock of a bunch of right-wing fundie bullies (the ones who popped up to "replace" the Klan) who bully everyone else into agreeing with them. My grandparents were very progressive people who encouraged their daughter (my mother) to have friends from all ethnic groups. They invited my gay cousin over to Christmas dinner when he was thrown out of his father's house when my cousin came out.

It's a mistake to try to generalize about any region. In many ways, places in the south are less racist/right-wing than Idaho, for instance.

He and two girls from his class ditched school and marched with MLK from Senatobia to Holly Springs.

He may have been one of the few whites in the crowd but he was there.

There are plenty of liberals in the south; our existance, unfortunately, is ignored by most of the country.

I wish people would wake up and realise that we are here fighting a pretty hard fight.