Yep, I said it. Stop screwing around. Write it off. Do it now. I'm guilty as charged. Pico recently posted a well thought out, and recommended diary that took issue with those progressives who would "write off the south", whatever that means. Well, by the very loose definitions being tossed around, I'm guilty as charged.
Now I'm that most despised creature of turn of the century American politics - a Massachusetts liberal - so if I said "screw you Texas, what goes around comes around" I'd certainly be within my rights. Fact is, there's no payback for the stuff that's been said about me the last twenty years. Southern progressive, before you go looking for my help, you need to take a long hard think about what yer God fearin' neighbors done been saying about me all those years. Lord knows I ain't forgot.
But that's water under the bridge - it's not why I say write off the south. To find out why, follow me below the fold ...
Right off the bat, the accusation of "writing off the South" is a straw man. For pico or anyone else to say that "some people suggest writing off the South" is the same as Dick Cheney saying that "some people want to let the terrorists win" in Iraq. Straw man. In other words, I call bullshit.
What I've said, and this goes for everyone I've heard opine on the subject covers pretty much the same topics. There are twelve of them, and since I'm a liberal, I'll call them principles instead of commandments.
- Civil rights are rights, not possessions lent by a benevolent majority to deserving minorities.
- There are amendments other than the second. They all get the same respect. In the Army they say "we salute the rank, not the man". Well in a constitutional democracy, citizens honor The Law, not the particular statute.
- We don't all agree on religion and we never will, and because of that it must be kept separate from the one thing that we must work together on - our government.
- Recognizing that we don't all agree on religion, we can not use the common resources to advance the special interests of any one religion for its own sake at home or abroad. Supporting any of them leads inevitably to childish fighting about fairness and is A Bad Idea.
- Piety is no more of a qualification for public office than table manners, good grooming or a deep interest in movie trivia.
- Science is a way of figuring out how the physical world works. It operates according to well accepted principles, and we argue with it on its terms. If your religion conflicts with science, then for the purposes of public policy, your religion is wrong. You are free to disbelieve science in the privacy of your own home.
- Money doesn't grow on trees, and this principle applies whether you use the money to buy big screen TV for death row prisoners or a really, really, really smart bomb to drop on a mud hut in Anbar province.
- Our current level and structure of fossil fuel consumption is not working out for us or for anyone else on the planet and must be changed.
- The military is useful for one thing - protecting us from other countries that have attacked us, or are about to attack us. Everything else in international affairs is the province of diplomats.
- "Kicking ass" is a tactic, not a strategy. If kicking ass is your strategy then you don't have a strategy and you need to cede control of strategy to someone who has one.
- The international community is not a bunch of thugs, barbarians and pansies, but groups of people with different interests than ours. We will get the international community we deserve - treat it with contempt and it will act contemptibly.
- We are a nation of 300 million on a planet of 6 billion. Right now, we're on top, but some day we won't be, and on that day every shitty thing we did when we were on top will come back to haunt us.
I don't give up on anyone - if you have a vote, I don't care where you live, I want it. But I'm not going to bullshit you to get it. There are principles involved and no long term good can come from compromising them. That's where the DLC loses me. They're saying one thing to you, and something else to me which means that at least one of us, probably both, are getting bullshitted.
I'm flexible (supple strength, not noodly spinelessness), and if someone has a problem with one or two of the principles but still wants to be on the team, I can boil them down a bit - God doesn't make policy, shooting is the last resort, the scientific method is the only measure of good science and none but an existential threat is reason enough to trim the rights guaranteed by the constitution and bill of rights.
Now here's where the southern white guy comes in. He doesn't buy it. No matter how common-sensical, reality-based, vaguely defined and loosely enforced these principles are, he doesn't buy them, and the more someone says the exact opposite of these twelve principles, the more likely southern white guy is to vote for him. See if any of these Anti Principles sound familiar.
- Civil rights are a code phrase for infringing on the natural rights of white people.
- The right of armed self defense is the basic liberty. All others flow from it.
- The United States is a Christian nation.
- The government of a Christian nation should be propounding Christian virtues at home and abroad.
- Public piety is an indicator of moral fiber and a prerequisite for holding public office.
- Science is a law of the physical world, but the law of God supercedes it.
- Tax cuts generate revenue.
- There's enough oil to last forever.
- Our country is the best, and our military is the best. No one can beat us, so there's no point considering alternatives - if we set our military to it, it will happen. If our military fails it's undoubtedly domestic betrayal, not inherent weakness or bad policy that caused it.
- "Kicking ass" is often the simplest way to ensure the national interest is served.
- Most other countries are primitive failures or decadent has-beens that are based on the wrong religion, jealous of our success, have no interests in common with us, and no perspective worth considering. Most foreigners are going to hell.
- The United States is the only superpower because God has decreed it and we will stay that way as long as we are more righteous than other nations.
Southern white guy, like the DLC which so covets his vote, is a mindset, not a region or a physical entity. So it works in reverse. Even if you live in Philadelphia you can be a southern white guy. Just reject the principles.
Southern white guy isn't going to vote for my guy even if my guy is an articulate, moral, telegenic, crewcut, decorated war hero who lost 2 legs in Iraq and his guy is a convicted felon who eats babies on live TV. If my guy stands for The Principles and his guy stands against The Principles his guy gets his vote. In his shoes, I'd do the same thing because I'm right and he's wrong. So write him off. Stop screwing around. Do it now. Except for that 60% that are potential progressive voters.