There is but one America.
Yet, you'd never guess it by listening to the folks residing in the Southern portion of it. I've raised the topic a few times here, and the resulting slugfest has usually led to the thread coming perilously close to lockage.
I'll try again.
Why can the South not manage to get over a war that happened well over a century ago? Why does it re-live that war on a seemingly daily basis? Why do they say that they have been punished ever since? Why do they continue to play the role of the victim of the United States so steadfastly, while at the same time being the first people to want to beat the snot out of anyone who burns its symbols?
We see the South's bitterness through a myriad of things:
1) Attacks on politicians for hailing from a north east state. Last time I checked, they too were Americans. Or do you not see them as every bit as American as you? So why the automatic disdain? Are you just not over the war yet? Were your feelings hurt? Do you need another 130 years to get over it?
To sulk about it?
2) Attacks on education and universities. Yeah, like it's a bad thing to be educated. "Ohh no! More elitist educated shysters!" At this point I'd be remiss if I didn't point out that your southern boy president George Bush was born in Connecticut, went to high school in (gasp!) Massachusetts, then went on to Yale.
3) Attacks on the news media. Never mind the fact the press serves as (these days) the one remaining body who is still willing to provide a check on the government - as so carefully protected by the founders. Alas, in a free country - there is no alternative. I'm not sure what the Southerners would like it replaced with, but I'm pretty sure that a free press is better than Pravda. There was a guy on FOX the other day seriously proposing the formation of yet another government agency - A United States Bureau of Censorship. Kid you not. What - pray tell Southerns, would you have in a free press' stead?
4) Attacks on Hollywood. Who gives a crap? If a movie sounds interesting, go see it. If it doesn't? Stay home. All the hand wringing in the world won't change it, and yes - even people in the south pay good money to see them time and time again. It all just sounds like meaningless hysteria from you guys.
5) Attacks on science. This one totally baffles me. Schiavo's marvelous chances for recovery, anti-stem cell research, the Earth being created 6,000 years ago, the out of hand dismissal that six and a half billion people don't really effect the environment. In a perfect world, just what - exactly - would y'all have us believe?
6) Attacks on the government itself. This one in particular resonates with the south. Why would they trust a federal government when it's that same federal government that has inflicted so much pain - one hundred and thirty years worth of it - on the south? Instead, they vote for people who have nothing but disdain for government. No surprise then that the people that they elect have absolutely zero idea as to how to govern.
Watch as they rape the treasury. Watch as they commit their boys to a fiasco of a war. Watch as they run health care into the ground.Watch as they throw their hands up in the air and turn the keys over to one corporation after another. Watch as they sit there stupefied looking at the horror show that is their governance, only mustering the ability to legislate on such significant issues such as flags and gays and video games. They very literally are capable of nothing else.
Then watch as they sit back and say "See? Government sucks."
7) Attacks on Gays. Get a life.
Attack, attack, attack...
Bitter? Yeah, I think so.
On the weekend I heard this song on the radio. It was a country song. I like a ton of country, but this song was one of those recent songs that seems to resonate with the south and lead to album sales.
The guy was saying something like "I don't wear no baggy pants - I got blisters on my hands, I got no peircings, I'm a blue collar worker, I work hard, you bums don't, I'm a cowboy from the south and I basically can't stand you."
Or something very, very close to that. At least a few of yas must know the song I'm talking about.
Now..... Go ahead and point me to something on the charts that has anyone else even bothering with some kind of attack on southern culture.
Something like: "Horses are teh ghey, and what the hell is up with a cowboy hat anyway? I make my minimum wage in working in Dennys, and Texas is too hot for me."
As if.
Victimhood. Oh woe is me. A very southern trait, and one that is laser-beam focused on tearing the entire republic into shreds.
Happy Independance day.
So I guess the grand question is: What the hell is up with y'all feeling so damned victimized all the time? What causes you to lash out at and seek to destroy everything that makes America the great country that it is?
A war? 130 years ago?
Do you not feel that you're really part of America now? Can you not get over it?
And finally... Never mind for a second what it is that you don't like (lord knows we've heard enough):
What exactly would make you guys happy?
