My friend Maria McGowen, a Democrat from South Carolina, sends me this quotation:-
I think that is abundantly true. Do you know why? Because all of us, raised in the South and who are liberal, most generally come from parents and grandparents who bedrocked the Democratic Party since its inception. Yes, our ancestors probably fought on the wrong side in the Civil War, but those of us descended from those Democrats, who are still Democrats today probably share the same basic attitude as those losers did so long ago:-
The Civil War ended in 1865. We lost. Get over it.
Our parents and grandparents voted for Roosevelt. Then Truman. Then Kennedy and Johnson. Our parents and grandparents were the ones who didn't leave the party, but changed with it and embraced its change.
And we know, more than anything, more than anyone on the Professional Left Coast or up in Saint BernieSandersLand, that it's not about a division based on skin colour, it's about a division based on have and have not.
Like our African American brothers and sisters, we hear the patronising dog-whistling practiced by the Professional Left. After all, they're the ones who brand us dumb. Stupid. Inbred. They embraced John Edwards as the great progressive hope - they just wanted him to sound different.
It was a Southerner who bestowed the title "Professional Left" on those hacks who hide their racism behind code words like "spineless," and "cave" and "poor negotiator" and "weak," as well as, perfidiously "Obamalover" and "arrogant."
It was also a misguided Southerner who railed at the weaker end of the Progressive tranche, imploring them not to vote in the 2010 Midterms. As we say in my Commonwealth and his, "His mamma oughta beat his ass with a two-by-four."
Even we have rotten fruit which clings to the vine.
But it's true what Courtney Davis, whoever he/she be, says ... Southern liberals are better at being liberals than Yankee liberals. It's slow living in the South, and Progress is incremental.
Guess what? Incremental progress is progress that lasts. So we're patient with our President, to whom we always refer by his proper title and not his surname alone. That would be rude and disrespectful. So all y'all Yankee Liberals, you keep on whining and wailing and calling the President every name short of that awful six-lettered one which begins with an "n," and we'll just keep on supporting him.
Looks as though the Civil War's moved North and never stopped.
Update 11.12.2011: Here is why we're forged in fire. We evolved with our Party. Southern liberals cast aside cultural prejudices and recognised what Dr King was saying about judging people by the content of their hearts. We also realised that that racial inequality was a sham foisted on the working classes, which enabled the remnants of the old elite to maintain their idea of the status quo. The real inequality exists between the "haves" and "have nots."
Bobby Kennedy, a Yankee, got that, and went South and into Appalachia to convince and to convert. We stayed with the party and waved goodbye to those poor souls who signed onto Nixon and Lee Atwater and pledged themselves as fledgling Republicans, whilst calling themselves Reagan Democrats.
We came from that fire into the cauldron of the prissy, pissy Progressive Left, who - in their own way - are just as exclusive, just as restrictive, just as patronising and narrow-minded as the Southern racist fundamentalists they believe us all to be. They preach post-racial equality whilst looking past people of colour as if they don't exist, and when they protest to make their voices known, the Progressive nannies shush them and inform them that they will speak for them.
We're forged in fire because we're seeing them consistently undermine the most Liberal President of the United States in the past fifty years. We watch them wantonly criticize him, nitpick and parse his every word, offer snidely-worded "advice" and react in the ugliest fashion when he does anything that they perceive to be against their perfection ideal.
We have to fight them, whilst they punch down at us.
But at the end of the day, we have the common decency and respect and courtesy to refer to the President of the United States by his title and not his surname.
"Southern liberals are quantitatively better at being liberals than Yankees. We are forged in fire." - Courtney Davis.
I think that is abundantly true. Do you know why? Because all of us, raised in the South and who are liberal, most generally come from parents and grandparents who bedrocked the Democratic Party since its inception. Yes, our ancestors probably fought on the wrong side in the Civil War, but those of us descended from those Democrats, who are still Democrats today probably share the same basic attitude as those losers did so long ago:-
The Civil War ended in 1865. We lost. Get over it.
Our parents and grandparents voted for Roosevelt. Then Truman. Then Kennedy and Johnson. Our parents and grandparents were the ones who didn't leave the party, but changed with it and embraced its change.
And we know, more than anything, more than anyone on the Professional Left Coast or up in Saint BernieSandersLand, that it's not about a division based on skin colour, it's about a division based on have and have not.
Like our African American brothers and sisters, we hear the patronising dog-whistling practiced by the Professional Left. After all, they're the ones who brand us dumb. Stupid. Inbred. They embraced John Edwards as the great progressive hope - they just wanted him to sound different.
It was a Southerner who bestowed the title "Professional Left" on those hacks who hide their racism behind code words like "spineless," and "cave" and "poor negotiator" and "weak," as well as, perfidiously "Obamalover" and "arrogant."
It was also a misguided Southerner who railed at the weaker end of the Progressive tranche, imploring them not to vote in the 2010 Midterms. As we say in my Commonwealth and his, "His mamma oughta beat his ass with a two-by-four."
Even we have rotten fruit which clings to the vine.
But it's true what Courtney Davis, whoever he/she be, says ... Southern liberals are better at being liberals than Yankee liberals. It's slow living in the South, and Progress is incremental.
Guess what? Incremental progress is progress that lasts. So we're patient with our President, to whom we always refer by his proper title and not his surname alone. That would be rude and disrespectful. So all y'all Yankee Liberals, you keep on whining and wailing and calling the President every name short of that awful six-lettered one which begins with an "n," and we'll just keep on supporting him.
Looks as though the Civil War's moved North and never stopped.
Update 11.12.2011: Here is why we're forged in fire. We evolved with our Party. Southern liberals cast aside cultural prejudices and recognised what Dr King was saying about judging people by the content of their hearts. We also realised that that racial inequality was a sham foisted on the working classes, which enabled the remnants of the old elite to maintain their idea of the status quo. The real inequality exists between the "haves" and "have nots."
Bobby Kennedy, a Yankee, got that, and went South and into Appalachia to convince and to convert. We stayed with the party and waved goodbye to those poor souls who signed onto Nixon and Lee Atwater and pledged themselves as fledgling Republicans, whilst calling themselves Reagan Democrats.
We came from that fire into the cauldron of the prissy, pissy Progressive Left, who - in their own way - are just as exclusive, just as restrictive, just as patronising and narrow-minded as the Southern racist fundamentalists they believe us all to be. They preach post-racial equality whilst looking past people of colour as if they don't exist, and when they protest to make their voices known, the Progressive nannies shush them and inform them that they will speak for them.
We're forged in fire because we're seeing them consistently undermine the most Liberal President of the United States in the past fifty years. We watch them wantonly criticize him, nitpick and parse his every word, offer snidely-worded "advice" and react in the ugliest fashion when he does anything that they perceive to be against their perfection ideal.
We have to fight them, whilst they punch down at us.
But at the end of the day, we have the common decency and respect and courtesy to refer to the President of the United States by his title and not his surname.
Another great post Emilia
ReplyDeleteIf the great Robert Gibbs never acomplishes another thing in his life he will always have my gratitude for calling out those clowns. I have roots in South Carolina and have wresteled with my southern heritage, but I am glad to have found you and other southern libs. Thanks.
Kath
It's all about patience, imo. Change comes slowly, especially in the South. The value of patience and persistence in working towards one's goal(s) seems to be something that the PL and liberals in other parts of the country don't understand. What I don't understand about them is their tendency to give up so easily and their questionable loyalty. For example, the issue of Plan B has some liberals now saying that they won't vote for PBO in 2012. They remind me of kids stuck in an endless loop of temper tantrums like a group of two year olds. If they don't realize that PBO is their best chance of getting some of what they want, they're dumber than a box of rocks.
ReplyDeleteBoth my parents were born and raised in Oklahoma and MS respectively, and they have always been Democrats. Even though I was raised on the West Coast, I have always had a problem with the fleeting loyalties of 'progressives' and silly leftists.
ReplyDelete