finished American Nations, and now I'm depressed.

[cathyw]

I've talked about how the Republicans aren't good faith partners in democracy... but that's not the problem, the problem is that the political classes among Deep Southern whites were never good faith partners in democracy, and even the Tidewater gentry wanted to limit it to their idealized-to-the-point-of-myth "yeoman farmer".

We can't shame Mississippi into improving their health and education systems (or their representatives into improving the nation's) by pointing out "you're dead last" because the political class among Deep Southern whites is somewhere between "doesn't care" (those who deserve education and medical care will still get it) and "actively hostile" (why are we wasting tax money on education and medical care for the rabble???)

I've also talked about how the "heritage" of the Appalachians has nothing to do with the Confederate battle flag, that the forebears of the Appalachian people who wave that flag fought for the Union - but it does accurately represent their "heritage" of screaming "you're not the boss of me!!!" at anyone who seems to be telling them what to do. Fly that flag, boys, I won't argue with you anymore. (My heritage is still "shooting at people flying that flag" though...)

And then (and ask me how many times I heard this from my half-Appalachian mom) there's the resentment politics of "they are getting something for free that I had to work my ass off for." ("If we had a bigger budget for freebies, you could have gotten it for free too..." "No, I'm proud of how hard I work! Everything I have, I got on my own...") (and I guess that's still better than 'The Company gave me everything I have and I'm grateful for it')

and meanwhile my Yankee ass is up here like "what do you mean deserve education and medical care???" "what do you mean, 'on my own'? you went to public schools, you drive on public roads, the government insures your bank deposits and makes sure the people who sell your food aren't poisoning you...")

We used to find common ground to agree on even if we had to straight up make some up. The Supreme Court used to occasionally make us put on a get-along shirt. (Mileage varied as to whether the Yankees or the Deep South got to decide which way we were collectively going...) But there doesn't seem to be the willingness to do that anymore, and the Supreme Court is definitely letting the Deep South steer right now...

How can we have a functional society when a third of the people don't even agree that we live in one?

Comments

[cathyw]

one specific thing I remember my mom being resentful of: "when I was in college there were prisoners in some of my classes, getting the same education my daddy was paying for me to get, but for free." "think of it as an investment in making sure they stay out of prison when they get out?" "they could stay out of prison without a college education if they just didn't crime, why should my taxes pay for that?"

[cathyw]

...is this like 450 years of generational trauma from Henry VIII forcibly relocating people from the lowlands to Northern Ireland? "the government is gonna take our stuff and give it to someone else"...

[cathyw]

also mom this was the '60s when the states still actually funded state universities so the taxpayers were paying a lot more of your tuition than your daddy was.

[lunarriviera]

this post belongs in the goddamn new york times opinion section. it's something that has ALWAYS frustrated me, as a born-and-raised southerner, that the liberal coasts just never really GET how IMPOSSIBLE it is to reason with people whose entire basis for thought is fundamentally different. i have bashed my head into it time and time again with my own family and there is no converting people who are stubbornly entrenched in the misery of and loyalty to their own terrible choices.

[cathyw]

have tried to explain this to the people who were like "white women, go get your girls who picked Donnie over Hillary".

"the problem is, they're not our girls, they're the girls of a completely different category of white women who have intentionally hitched themselves to the patriarchy and will not unhitch themselves on the word of an outsider, especially since in many cases that would involve going against what they've been told from birth that Jesus expects them to do." ("Jesus didn't..." "I agree, Book Jesus didn't, but they have their own fanon.")

[lunarriviera]

when defeated, hillary took to the hiking trails, canon jesus wept, man. he wept.