Conservative Southern Values Revived: How a Brutal Strain of American Aristocrats Have Come to Rule

[marmar]

AlterNet / By Sara Robinson

Conservative Southern Values Revived: How a Brutal Strain of American Aristocrats Have Come to Rule America
America didn't used to be run like an old Southern slave plantation, but we're headed that way now. How did that happen?

June 28, 2012 |


It's been said that the rich are different than you and me. What most Americans don't know is that they're also quite different from each other, and that which faction is currently running the show ultimately makes a vast difference in the kind of country we are.

Right now, a lot of our problems stem directly from the fact that the wrong sort has finally gotten the upper hand; a particularly brutal and anti-democratic strain of American aristocrat that the other elites have mostly managed to keep away from the levers of power since the Revolution. Worse: this bunch has set a very ugly tone that's corrupted how people with power and money behave in every corner of our culture. Here's what happened, and how it happened, and what it means for America now.

North versus South: Two Definitions of Liberty

Michael Lind first called out the existence of this conflict in his 2006 book, Made In Texas: George W. Bush and the Southern Takeover of American Politics. He argued that much of American history has been characterized by a struggle between two historical factions among the American elite -- and that the election of George W. Bush was a definitive sign that the wrong side was winning.

For most of our history, American economics, culture and politics have been dominated by a New England-based Yankee aristocracy that was rooted in Puritan communitarian values, educated at the Ivies and marinated in an ethic of noblesse oblige (the conviction that those who possess wealth and power are morally bound to use it for the betterment of society). While they've done their share of damage to the notion of democracy in the name of profit (as all financial elites inevitably do), this group has, for the most part, tempered its predatory instincts with a code that valued mass education and human rights; held up public service as both a duty and an honor; and imbued them with the belief that once you made your nut, you had a moral duty to do something positive with it for the betterment of mankind. Your own legacy depended on this. .....................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/visions/156071/conservative_southern_values_revived%3A_how_a_brutal_strain_of_american_aristocrats_have_come_to_rule_america_/

[Populist_Prole]

1. Good stuff, that

I see that dynamic in people very often anymore. All too many have a feeling of "It's not for me to say" and a blind "respect" for authority, in a very "because they said so" kind of way.

[RobertEarl]

2. Bushies are not a southern family

They are yankee carpetbaggers.

Really, our biggest problems come from the big northern cities. Those cities are not sustainable. And their dis-ease is spreading.

[dixiegrrrrl]

3. Sounds like a promising article.

bookmarking and rec'ing.