Obama's election will end twenty straight years of "Southern" control of the White House

[ruggerson]

Yeah, I know the Bushes are faux Texans, but they do live there, W was the Governor and they promote all the worst of the state, not the best. Bill Clinton was a fairly prototypical Southern Dem Governor, trying to push a partly progressive economic agenda, but with fairly conservative cultural Southern instincts.

I know there are tens of millions of diehard Southern Democrats who have been fighting the good fight all along, and who have fared even worse than the rest of the nation, because they live in a state often controlled by racist, xenophobic, misogynist, anti-working class, homophobic whackjobs, so they have gotten hit by a double whammy: both their federal and state governments solidly in Republican control. We have lately seen a bit of a resurgence of Democrats taking control of Southern Governorships - let's hope it's a trend.

New England and California have been demonized on the national stage by this Southern Republican movement as the bastion of "liberal elitism." Not-so-subtle racism and homophobia has been the standard, coded wink and nod for Southern politicians to play to the worst, most base instincts and irrational fears of the American voter.

One of the biggest benefits of an Obama election is an end to this Southern cultural hegemony in our national discourse. The rest of the country is, quite simply, not as bigoted or fearful or xenophobic as white Southern Republicans, and having a President hammering home a very different message to the American people for eight years should have an enormously positive impact on the inner dialogue America has with itself about its very nature and purpose as a country.

Disclaimer: this is not meant at all as a bashing of the South. The South also has wonderful traditions, a rich political history, a rich literary history and has recently produced some courageous progressives, notably Ann Richards. But, concurrently, what white Southern politicians have tried to do in the past few decades to this nation on the federal level has been both destructive and reactionary.

Ending this Southern domination of the White House marks the end of an era. And hopefully the beginning of a renewal of American purpose and commonality.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

1. Respectfully

We should judge folks by the contents of their character, not their zip code...The two most progressive presidents on civil rights; Lincoln and Johnson were born in the south...

[ruggerson]

2. I agree

but I'm referring to the last twenty or thirty years. Johnson himself was the one who famously proclaimed that he was signing away the South for a generation when he signed the civil rights act. Turned out, it was more like two generations.

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

3. I'd be tempted to say 28 years, in practice

Reagan wasn't a southerner but his public persona was that an unreconstructed Confederate sympathizer of some sort.

[ruggerson]

4. Didn't he notably

launch his '80 campaign in Mississippi from a town with historical links to white supremacists?

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

5. deleted out of embarrassment

[DemocratSinceBirth]

6. No

It was where Cheney, Schwerner, and Goodman were killed...

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

7. Thanks

[ruggerson]

9. Philadelphia, MS?

[DemocratSinceBirth]

10. Yeah

A funny story...

My mom and I were walking out the theater after seeing 'Mississippi Burning' when we "bumped" into two of her co-workers, one black, and one white who was born in Mississippi, entering the theatre...

[ruggerson]

11. Here's an old WaPo piece

encapsulates much of my feelings about Reagan -

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A39345-2004Jun13.html

btw, hope you're doing better - I've been there and it's rough :hug:

[ellisonz]

22. ...

:spray:

[Tanuki]

8. "control of the White House"? Dick Cheney is from Wyoming, not the South! n/t

[Recursion]

12. And 44 years of "the south or California"

No elected President has been from outside of the South or California since JFK.

Every ticket of both parties has had someone from either California or the South on it since 1948 -- that's 60 years of these two regions having a deadlock on Executive power.

[ruggerson]

13. and both of the Californians

preyed on Southern Republican bigotry to get elected. As Kurt noted above.

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

15. ---

[Recursion]

17. CA and the Southwest were more involved in the Civil war than many think

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_in_the_American_Civil_War

And note what part of the state Nixon and Reagan lived in...

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

19. Idiot me... I thought I had deleted that!

I wrote something about California, then remembered CA was a union state and didn't post it... but I guess I did. whoops.

Yes, CA was a union state and AZ was a pro-union territory.

[olegramps]

14. The South has wonder traditions

Whipping Slaves and selling cotton and waiting for the return of Robert E. Lee. Doesn't sound like a tradition that I would care to be associated with, especially since I don't see much of a dramatic change in their views concerning Blacks.

[ruggerson]

20. I was

being gracious :) seriously, I do respect a lot of Southern tradition, but mixed with that is a history of carnage, bloodshed and hate.

[deadmessengers]

16. McCain has deep Mississippi roots...

...just sayin'

[Recursion]

18. What "roots"? He got shuffled off to Meridian NAS

Meridian is kind of famous as a place people the Navy wants to go away get sent. Is there another MS connection?

[deadmessengers]

21. His family is from there:

Here is his grandfather's Wikipedia bio: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_S._McCain,_Sr.

[Honeycombe8]

23. Well, I don't know if we want to split the country into north and south. We have enuf divisions.

Don't you think? Besides, I've never considered TX a true southern state. It's more southwest and midwest.

I live in TX and hail from LA (a true southern state).

[whistler162]

24. Since when are either Bush considered Southern?

Southern New England maybe!

[RollWithIt]

25. Reagan was not southern.... but without the south he doesn't get elected....

Just pointing that out.

[ruggerson]

26. the last twenty years

have been Bushes and WJC. Reagan was president before that.

[RollWithIt]

27. You edited....

From 28 years to 20....

[ruggerson]

29. Uh, no

I didn't edit the OP. You misread it.

[Tiggeroshii]

28. HW was from Connecticut. He really had no real southern grounding.

At least GW was a governor, which counts him as at least a partial southerner by at least the people he governed