Politico: Red States are a millstone around America's neck.

[RandySF]

Last edited Sat Jul 4, 2015, 06:40 PM - Edit history (1)

Minus the South, the rest of the U.S. probably would be more like Canada or Australia or Britain or New Zealand—more secular, more socially liberal, more moderate in the tone of its politics and somewhat more generous in social policy. And it would not be as centralized as France or as social democratic as Sweden.

As a fifth-generation Texan, and a descendant of Southerners back to the 1600s, I don’t want to encourage lurid stereotypes of a monolithic South. The states of the former Confederacy include ethnic minorities like Louisiana Cajuns and Texas Germans, along with African Americans. And the dominant conservatives in the South have always been challenged from within the ranks of the white community by populists, liberals and radicals.

But the South really is different from the rest of the country. Here are some examples of how the South skews American statistics.

Today there is more inter-generational social mobility in Europe than in the United States, contrary to the American myth that the United States is still the world’s No. 1 land of opportunity. The Economic Mobility Project of Pew Charitable Trusts has shown that children are far less likely to rise above the socio-economic levels of their parents in the U.S. than are those in Britain, Canada and Australia, as well as Germany, France and the Nordic nations. The American South, with the lowest rates of intergenerational social mobility in the U.S., clearly skews the national statistics, creating an embarrassing and depressing version of American exceptionalism.



http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/07/how-the-south-skews-america-119725.html#ixzz3ex8mENnb

[murielm99]

1. The real solution is

stopping voter suppression and stopping the gerrymandering. If we can do that, it will show what the country really prefers.

[Mbrow]

2. Good point!

Good OP

[former9thward]

3. This is the third South bashing thread I have seen today.

Using the exact same material. I guess the word went out...

[murielm99]

4. I guess I don't see the bashing here.

I don't like South bashing, either, or any other kind of regional bashing.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

5. Dems have a history of thinking of the South as "Republican"....

Which has left the people there at the mercy of Republicans.

[former9thward]

6. The greatest concentration of black folk in the U.S. are in the South.

Tens of thousands are leaving northern cities every year and settling in area like Atlanta.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

11. Exactly, and Republicans wrote the book on how to eliminate their vote.

[bonniebgood]

9. third south bashing? what's wrong with the truth? nt

[Enthusiast]

7. The United States has the potential to become the land of opportunity once again.

[ileus]

8. Too bad we can't take the right to vote away from the South.

[bonniebgood]

10. ileus, there are a number of ways. nt

[NaturalHigh]

12. So only people who vote like you get to vote, then.

Stay classy.

[bonniebgood]

13. Tell the classy gerrymandering thugs that. voters should pick their

candidates not the 'gerrymandering' picking their voters.

[NaturalHigh]

14. That still doesn't mean that Southerners should lose the right to vote.

[Marr]

15. This has only been possible because our political establishment has made social issues their only

line of scrimmage. Economic/class issues are always off the table with the party establishment-- on both sides.

I think a person who speaks frankly about class and wealth in this country will be splitting the vote in a wholly new way.