The South is holding America hostage

[Fresh_Start]

http://www.salon.com/2013/10/13/the_south_is_holding_america_hostage/

There is another thread about South homage to civil war and the "lost cause of the confederacy"...
which had a lot of interesting tangents including one on how the South viewed the loss of the civil war as punishment from God which increased the power of religion in the south...

following these links I found this article...which basically suggests that the southern elite (?) are one of the forces leading to the economic warfare in the US... It matches the pattern I recall where the rustbelts loss of jobs started with an exodus to the sunbelt..

thought it was an interesting perspective

[HassleCat]

1. Kind of holding our party hostage, too.

Ever since Lyndon Johnson signed civil rights legislation, the south has been more and more Republican. The benefit to us is that it purged our party of Dixiecrats. The problem is, we had to commit to racial politics, countering the party shift in the south by pitting blacks against whites. The religion thing you mention splits along racial lines, as well. Sometimes I regret that the union was preserved.

[roamer65]

3. Most of the problem goes back to the election of 1876.

Reconstruction was ended way too early by Rutherfraud Hayes, in a deal to secure the Presidency.

[oldandhappy]

5. I also regret not letting the southern states go.

[GulfCoast66]

13. Yeah

Then all those darn black voters would not be preventing Bernie from achieving his rightful place as the nominee. Because they would be, you know, slaves

Un-fucking-believable that anyone on DU would post shit like this!

[cwydro]

14. Oh, were you there?

I guess Lincoln would have disagreed with you.

Good lord, the crap I read on here. Smh.

[Skittles]

15. "happy" is probably not the adjective I would use

[LiberalArkie]

2. Yep, really got started with Sam Walton and then John Tyson, Witt Stephens, Charles Ward

all of Arkansas.

[AlbertCat]

4. civil war as punishment from God which increased the power of religion in the south...

yeah... it has nothing to do with the poverty.

[paleotn]

6. the key is southern social stratification....

...it is very old and ingrained in much of the South to this day. To feel good about one's self, you've got to be on a rung higher than someone else. African Americans have always been on the absolute bottom rung. It has very Calvinist roots. The thinking goes...those who are poor or enslaved are obviously not loved by god and thus are likely to be on the short end of predestination. So why not exploit them for one's financial gain? They're damned to hell anyway. The rich are obviously blessed by god and are thus the elect, elite and on their way to heaven, no matter what. Now they'll profess to have an Arminian view that salvation is equally available to the rich and poor alike, but deep down, that doesn't fit with their views on economics, ie. enriching themselves no matter what. The economic oppressor is obviously loved by god, or he/she wouldn't be in a position to oppress and visa versa.

It's like Ayn Rand crossed with Protestant Fundamentalist Evangelicalism. Don't confuse them with the Constitution or rule of law. Sure, we're all equal they think, but some are more equal than others.

[YOHABLO]

9. Protestant Fundamentalist Evangelicalism .. narrow minded bible thumpers .. Dominionists

[Duppers]

11. Nailed it.

There are some very liberal folks in the south but we are outvoted and snubbed.

[yallerdawg]

7. How is this working out?

The Dixiecrats gave us Democratic majorities that enabled Kennedy/Johnson and that Congress to move this country WAY left!

Blue Dog Democrats - Democrats who had to be fiscal and social conservatives to get elected and reelected in the South - gave us Congressional majorities with Obama that passed the most progressive legislation since Johnson!

Both eras the country responded with a lurch back to the right, and the left entrenched and went even more left while purging the "impure" party representatives.

Democrats who know their history are seeing it repeat again. Santayana "yada yada."

If you'll look at the recent southern primaries, you'll see we remember "our history." We are just trying to help the Democratic Party win for a change!

Winning will help change the South - again!

[GummyBearz]

8. I dunno... wall street is holding america hostage as well

At least the south does it via voting instead of creating an oligarchy

[ancianita]

10. I saw that politics decades ago. The South invented the politics of spite. Which has recently

given rise to the hostage taking and the crabs-in-a-basket style of falling all over being first in line with global oligarchs.

Their whole aristocratic southern culture always been the outgrowth of pretentious asshole Tories who keep to their greater loyalty toward all things monarchic.

Of course, the oligarchs keep them around.

[maddiemom]

12. Industry started to move to the South in the decades following WWII to escape the unions.

The South was largely anti-union. From there it became an exodus to Mexico, then off to more third-world countries overseas. (Funny, but we didn't lose all that much industry to Canada). The only thing Trump is right about (or sounds good if he means it) is that we should be charging "HUUGGE" tariffs on goods manufactured off our shores, no matter where headquarters are located.

[Kang Colby]

16. Salon is a trash dump.

This post is vile. The South nominated President Obama.