poverty, religion, and education.
I am a white southern male who was born in Arkansas, lived in East Tennessee for 15 years, and am now back living in Arkansas. I live and work with many of the southerners that people are complaining about on KOS and I suffer through my own interactions with rampant southern conservatism daily. That said, the question that begs to be answered is, what is the problem with the South?
I believe that the southern problem is directly related to poverty, religion, and education.
Poverty has historically led people to religion and because the South has had more than its fair share of poverty for many decades now, it is not entirely surprising that religion is very strong in the South. It is my contention that religion more than anything else causes many people in the South to consistently vote against their own interests.
The odd thing is, having a strongly religious South was not always a bad thing. There was a time when southern people were united against the "robber barons" and the church had no problem with that. The church at that time was about helping the common man and people in the South routinely voted for Democrats simply because it made sense. The Democrats clearly had the best interests of the common man at heart while the Republicans worked for the corporations.
Some people would argue that racism in the South led many southerners to abandon the Democratic Party beginning in the mid 1960s following the civil rights movement (and to some degree they would probably be correct). However, I would argue that the real change happened when religion and politics fused sometime in the 1980s. It was at that time that many religious leaders decided to make abortion and gay rights the only two issues that really mattered to the church and they then began using these issues to drive their flocks toward the Republican Party.
Once the church became political and began pounding into peoples heads the idea that abortion under any circumstances was evil and anyone who supported a woman’s right to choose was equally evil, how could any truly religious person ever vote for a Democrat? After years of being fed this message, many people now believe that there is no other issue that is capable of trumping the abortion issue. This is especially prevalent in the South.
Which leads me to education.
The less educated that people are, the less willing they are to accept ideas based upon logic and facts. And, people simply cannot be taught what they do not want to learn. For southern religious conservatives to suddenly discard what they have been taught for years and embrace the ideas of progressive Democrats is just not something that many of them are willing to consider. They are so committed to being conservative on religious grounds that no amount of logic or physical proof can ever dissuade them.
The problem is that many these southern conservatives have been led astray by charismatic religious leaders who have over the years helped them form deep seeded beliefs that are counter to what is in their own self interests. Consider the following real life examples...
I work with a guy who is very religious and who is very involved in church activities and other honorable organizations like the Cub Scouts. However, he is a religious conservative and he is against all that is "Democrat." He is against a public option in health care, disbelieves global warming and even hates the idea of "Cash for Clunkers." In other words, his religious conservatism prevents him from being for anything that might directly help him or his family.
If this weren’t bad enough, this guy is the sole bread winner for his family as his wife stays at home and "home schools" his four children. He is probably just barely getting by and is only a slight downturn in our industry from being unemployed and without insurance for his entire family.
Another religious conservative that I know is a very good friend of mine. Similar to the aforementioned person, she too is very religious and is always willing to help out a fellow church member in need. She is truly a top notch person. She has three kids and both she and her husband are hard working self-employed people. They eke out a living doing odd jobs as neither is a degree holding professional. Care to guess where she stands on the key issues of the day?
That’s right; she is against health care reform despite the fact that it would help her family immensely. In fact, she is against most of President Obama’s policies because she doesn’t feel like the government should be in the business of helping people. And amazingly, the reason for her beliefs is directly related to what she has been taught by her church.
I would like to suggest to those people who want to bash the South to temper your words a little bit. Please understand that many of these conservative southerners are good people at heart, but are people who have acquired their deep rooted political beliefs following years of conservative religious teaching. What we all really need to figure out is how to get through to the southern religious conservatives and somehow let them know that God is not a Republican. If any of you have any ideas on that topic, I think we could truly have a constructive discussion.
One last thing... Not ALL southerners are conservatives and we southern progressives actually have a much tougher battle to fight here than those of you living on the coasts. Keep that in mind before you decide to bash everyone from the South.