My view is that the American South never fully took to liberal democracy. And I think we have to reckon with that to face the moment we’re now in. I wrote about it for @thebulwark.bsky.social
https://www.thebulwark.com/p/liberal-democracy-american-south-vance-bourbons
https://www.thebulwark.com/p/liberal-democracy-american-south-vance-bourbons
Comments
I spend a lot of time thinking about how I and some of my peers were able to change.
I can say that now I am an outsider here. The Majority openly suppresses other.
What changed?
My “very catholic” family members say this pope is “not theirs”.
Also, many are now anti-vax.
Fox News is even on at the gyms.
They found commissioner Willie under the house after he took a $90k bribe from commissioner Childers.
Childers served 3 years but nearly got his pension back and conviction removed.
In 2025, the graft is just open and public.
https://www.pensapedia.com/wiki/Willie_Junior#:~:text=Willie%20J.,Commission%20since%20the%20Reconstruction%20era.
-native Tennesseean
That's when they think America was great.
Btw, I grew up in the Deep South and none of this “governing” is a surprise. Sickening for sure, but not a surprise.
It's so good, now I am reading another Egan book.
Thanks for the title!
The “religious right”.
Aren’t really religious. They’re indoctrinated.
With peacefull public disobedience of course. Which I would still prefer over a bloody fight with Canadians and their Allies.
In some respects, I see DonOld's point about immigrants...
I know he doesn't like 'em (aside from Norwegians ... and now South Africans). We can skip that part.
Why wouldn't that motivate individual conservatives into acts of terror on the liberal Nation?
They'd have a nation that would celebrate them as heroes
I don't see us ever having peaceful coexistence
However the idea of a special strongman who saves the people from the barbarians needs to be thoroughly discredited
It should be made to be as ridiculous of an idea as a king
...
It's probably best that our exchange ends here.
Of course, there were.
How many of Northerners were regularly lynching African Americans or enforcing Jim Crow oppression systematically throughout the state?
Not many.
I know what I’m talking about.
“The Cause: The American Revolution and Its Discontents, 1773-1783” by Joseph J. Ellis
Sets an interesting context for present times.
by Ty Seidule
I will never set foot below the Mason-Dixon Line again.
I spent some time living in east Georgia and definitely learned about a different kind of South.
I would argue however that most billionaires financing this Trump 2.0 are not from the American South. Ultra wealthy corporations might as well be very northern/californian/liberal, but their allegiance to money is larger than that /1
Surely, xenophobia and lack of education play a role advantaging neoliberal-fascists like Trump to find many voters there.
But that always was true.
It's the shift of legiance of capital that is really changing the game.
This is hardly explainable with culture, rather than with /2
The very rotten logics of extreme financialization, which brought 2008 crisis, they were never Southners' fault, regardless of how racist and illiberal they might be.
The system of power and interests born in the most advanced parts of US is exploiting this cultural weakness /3
I see the same thing happening in the US.
And technically, the system that has allowed for these companies to be born is liberal.
The question is: the fact that these /1
Let's go 'vote' wink wink
The political decision to select Andrew Johnson as Vice President has become the Achilles-heel of Lincoln’s legacy and laid the groundwork for what you’ve presented here from shutting down Reconstruction, Jim Crow, the Southern Strategy, and current-day single-party dominance.
#MAGAIsWeird
NEVER EVER EVER EVER BE PEACE ON 🌎
guess we're finding out
They’ve never cared about democracy. They only care about subjugating the “others” that they love to hate.
See, e.g., The Mind of the South, by W.G. Cash.
They're bankers, they're lawyers, and they are even judges.
When was it a liberal democracy?
But hey that's just how it looks from up here 🇨🇦.
I was born in South Carolina in 1975; so, I know.
Tying our sins today onto the Confederacy goat is specious. The simple fact is we all benefit from white supremacy, and simply won't admit it.
We are not committed to equality today, as evidenced by the impossibility of passing the Equal Rights Amendment, the Equality Amendment, or the Equality Act.
The planters maintained a culture to convince poor whites they were higher status than Blacks. This kept the rural whites on board with a society that was very bad for them too.
Trump is pulling a similar trick today.
Institutional racism is today's manifestation it.
The election of Trump is consistent with a culture protecting white supremacy and misogyny. All men are NOT created equal.
Racism and Trans, a distraction parade.
While cutting rich taxes and Medicaid.
MAGA liked him demonizing vulnerable.
Will they notice no seat at the table?
Given past performance, I'm not optimistic.
Also, if I may ask, are you related to Mark Elrod who now teaches at University of Central Arkansas?
Yeah, he’s my dad!
But I heard him speak many, many times, and a number of my dear friends loved him fiercely. He was a delightful soul.
He’s beloved at UCA now, as you’d assume!
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/381323406_The_liberal_party_idea_and_American_ideology
It feels right, but I am slow to trust that feeling alone.