jgkojak has a diary on the recommended list that asks us to be nicer to our southern brethren and I agree with her sentiment. However I want to be clear that I will and we all should criticize our "rump " when they have gone too far............and they have gone too far.
I have been in the south for 27 of my 50 yrs of life. But I am not a southerner, not by any stretch of the imagination. There is a lot to be fond of here. My wife is very southern (and totally democrat) and of course my son was born here and is now a Dawg, so I am entrenched here.
During most of my time here it has been great but of late I have been.........less than enamored with my.........................environment, shall we say. I was wondering what has changed besides the obvious election. These guys(its mostly the SWMs I'm referring to) have always been passionate, boastful, surly at times, cocksure and anti a lot of things. You certainly know what they DONT like pretty quick. But til the last year or so my level of desire to pushback against some of their views has been low. Now, the intensity level of their critcisms of things has risen to new levels. I've risen as well.
I really think what I'm experiencing is two fold. In my 27 years here there have been 19 yrs of "their guy" being in charge and their region having great influence on the national stage. Even Clinton, whom most hated down here ,was an Arkansas boy (he just got all "lily livered') . Now they are outside looking in and they are scared. I hear the word "frightened" or "scared" in my employee lounge EVERY day. Also, I'm in a totally different phase. I came here at 23 a young professional, married a local girl and just got along with everybody. It isnt hard for me to get along, it wasn't an effort or anything, but I was also A-political. I was a young father during Clintons years and just not interested in talking politics. As the 2000s wore on and my son headed for adulthood I started caring about some things that maybe I had neglected to care about for too long. Now, I'm fifty. College aged son looking at a shitty job market and i'm surrounded by guys who would just as soon shoot a sitting president, ask their state to secede (AGAIN!!......how'd that work out the first time guys?) or hole up in a mountain cabin and take on the libruls. Am I just gonna sit around and let these YAHOOS (sorry jgkojak sometimes the shoe fits) drive their party to drive MY country in to the banana republic aisle? Hell No
I do not want to purely bash "southerners" but from my seat, there are plenty that need to be criticized harshly and called out for their ridiculous views. I have made a pact with myself to refuse to act as if something that is said deserves equal consideration in regards to truthfulness. There are more than two sides to each issue and the one these people are taking on many things is not just wrong but absurdly wrong. Failing to point out the absurdities of their positions is irresponsible IMO. Bipartisanship with this crowd is like having a date that you are trying to figure out what to eat, you say Chinese and she says" Ohhhhh how 'bout shards of glass covered in motoroil with dog shit on the side". The universe that these guys exist in is totally bizarre. Throwing out the words "socialist" or "communist" at the drop of a hat. Bizarre infatuation with firearms and NEVER absolutely NEVER admit that a black person may have a point when they raise the specter of discrimination. How ever find every reason to feel like your Christian faith is being persecuted while white men are now the new oppressed group. (The level of persecution that has been perpetrated against them is........mind boggling, how'd I miss it)
Now lest you think I am throwing too wide a lasso, realize that I have 27 yrs of experience in this place. There are lots of very good, very kind people in the south as everywhere, but the extreme rightward movement of republicans to the point where we have a center right party and the crazies (as Bill Maher points out) is directly attributable to SWMs. I refuse to act as if crazy people are sane.
I do agree with the sentiment of jgkojaks diary but IMO at this time southerners are the leaders of the republican party, the republican party is actively trying to destroy our democracy and people whom previously have shown no tendency to be politically crazy are acting/talking strangely and in many instances dangerously. IT MUST NOT BE IGNORED, IT MUST BE CONFRONTED.