Reply #39: Great post! [View All]

[LeahMira]

For some, it represents a time when Yankees "came down here and told us what to do." Even people who had no slaves didn't like someone from another region of the country telling them what to do, just on principle. Would you like it, regardless of whether your lifestyle was right or wrong? No one likes being told what to do, that part is simple.

For many, it seems to me that the issue is states' rights. I think the people believe they are both moral and wise, and who is going to tell them they are not? They resent someone in Washington, DC telling them that their children must go to school with black students and they resent someone in Washington, DC telling them that they must hire homosexuals to teach their children. They want the Ten Commandments in their Courthouse and they resent someone in Washington, DC telling them that they can't have it that way, especially when they see Moses represented in the U.S. Supreme Court building. They expect the Federal government to limit itself to only what the Constitution specifically says are the responsibilities of the Federal government and they want the rest of the decision-making to go on in the individual states, even if that means that each state has different rules. They resent being held up as the example of all that is immoral in the world because they had slaves over a hundred years ago, and they insist that some of those slaves even fought for the South and after emancipation they stayed with their "masters" and in fact only a relatively few "masters" even existed who were wealthy enough to own plantations. Most white folks were not much better off than the slaves, so they say.

All these grudges are wrapped up in the Confederate flag... not just the slavery issue. It seems that the South sees its past as an era that was not only moral, but also a lot more polite, genteel, and honorable. At least that's what I hear from Southerners I know. Maybe they are representative or maybe they aren't.

I really don't know if Dean's remarks were a good thing or if he reinforced a stereotype that the South resents... the pickup and the Confederate flag. I do think that some attitudes that exist in the South also exist in the Midwest, and that unless some understanding can bring these folks to support what comes out of "distant" Washington, DC and the "liberal east coast establishment," the Democrats are going to lose them to the group that's positioning itself as the group that not only understands but will defend states' rights and keep the Federal government out of all our lives.

I think the Democrats need to start listening.