Cathy

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?

I started listening to the audiobook of Alexandra Rowland's "A Taste of Gold and Iron" and just couldn't get into it; I was wondering why everyone was raving about it? I think the narrator was just not good (for example, she pronounced "Kadou", the main character's name, four different ways(*) in the first chapter).

Have started reading it with my eyes instead of my ears and it's going much better.

(*) If the four different pronunciations had been in dialogue I might have bought it? based on a comment he made, his name is transliterated into not!Turkish from not!French and he explicitly mentions that the not!French origin word ("cadeau") is pronounced differently. But I think all the uses of his name in that first chapter were either in the narration proper or by speakers of not!Turkish, so it should have been consistent. Pretty sure based on what he said that the not!Turkish pronunciation is KAH-doh?)