Disagree on all counts. Fuck the dirty racist lazy plague ridden parasite infested cousin raping ass south
As someone born and raised in the south with two perplexingly republican parents (despite the fact that one keeps their old green card locked away in a safe), I frequently feel this way. I managed to leave for a time, and after returning a few years ago, I am still constantly frustrated by how often the loudest southerners live up to the stereotypes... ...but the entire south is not that. There are plenty of blue pockets in this part of the US that don't deserve that level of contempt - they need support. Gerrymandering is a real problem here - If districts were drawn fairly, you would find the south is more blue than the current political leadership would like you to think. Saying "fuck the south" altogether is also saying "fuck all the people who are constantly stifled and made invisible by the dirty, racist, plague-ridden, parasite-infested, cousin-raping idiots in power"...because that invisible half of the south is pretty big. And the answer shouldn't always be "just go live somewhere else."
... who haven't cared enough to change things... like people did in Oregon, or Colorado, or Texas, or anywhere else where people have risen up against The Stupid and made it known that they reject and do not support The Assholes, and have changed things for the better of everyone. For example, I, as a Seattleite, can only give so much to the campaign to unseat Mitch McConnell. But people who live there can actually VOTE him out. You, the "blue South", have ALWAYS had this ability, and chosen not to use it. In this election, the median age of an American is 37. For possibly the first time in living memory, there are more people under 40 than there are over. If even 1/4 of them showed up on November 7th, everything would change. But they don't. And they won't. So yes... gerrymandering is one hurdle amongst many. But, honestly, "fuck the blue south" for not getting off their asses and doing something about it, and passively accepting the status quo and allowing themselves to be utterly dominated by the conservative minority, when they have ALWAYS had the power to change everything, just by showing up on one day (Nov 4th) out of 1460 days in a 4-year term. "Saying "fuck the south" altogether is also saying "fuck all the people who are constantly stifled and made invisible by the dirty, racist, plague-ridden, parasite-infested, cousin-raping idiots in power"...
I can appreciate your feelings on the matter, but it's genuinely not that simple. What you're saying is the classic Liberal (in the polisci sense, not the way our news networks use it) argument of "everything comes down to personal responsibility." You need to look at things as a series of systems, not just as a bunch of individuals you can blame. Sometimes, no amount of personal responsibility can fix the system in one fell swoop. The problems that exist, and are baked into politics all over the US, aren't as simple as a single vote, or even a decade of votes, they're problems that have to be solved generationally by fundamentally altering systems.
I absolutely agree with you. AND, there is a "be the change you want to see in the world" part to tall of those systems, the way they are built, run, and managed, that allows the "little man" to have an impact on the system as a whole. One bigoted fuckwit decided she wasn't going to do her sworn duty, and refused to issue a marriage license to a gay couple. That blew up and went viral. She was fired. Big high-powered right-wing lawyers took up her case "for God's sake" and took it all the way to the Supreme Court. (Who refused to hear the case, but that's not germane to my point: She stood her ground, stood for what she saw as "right", and took it all the way. Liberals don't do that. They are too "nice" and try to play nice.) And yes, I agree, those systems need to be fundamentally altered. But that literally cannot happen without making little changes over time. It's tens of thousands of City Council meetings, and small district legislative campaigns, and regulation (or deregulation) that are pushed through, that change the perception of what is possible and "normal", that shift these ossified systems into a new way of operating. Lasting change can only happen over time, with concerted effort. Liberals suck at that. They run off and chase shiny things too often, while shitty religious conservatives quietly beaver away in the background eroding the policies and principles that make our society civil.
I think we’re all, who are in this discussion, fundamentally on the same page. But that’s why you shouldn’t shit all over the “blue South” as you put it. You’d be genuinely surprised by how hard those of us down here work to keep the pendulum from swinging too far right. If there weren’t tens of thousands of people trying to keep the worst of the worst in check, our politicians would be lynching people on street corners by next Tuesday. The South continues to be a battleground, and it’s one where the forces of evil and bigotry have a huge leg up in legacy, institutional systems, and money. But the whole reason that the South doesn’t have town square hangin’s is exactly the kind of small action you’re talking about.
And that, right there, is why I give money to local campaigns in the South. I KNOW there are good people there who are trying to do the right thing and beat back the assholes... but it's tiring work. And not enough people do it. There are plenty of people to turn the tides... they just gotta show up.
True words--Tennessee is a great example. Demographically, Tennessee is a blue state. But no one left of "we should still be allowed to own slaves" gets the slightest form of representation here. The damage done to the South through the engines of political machination is extraordinary.
Hah! Man, those almost sound like lyrics to a good punk song, or maybe some death metal. I can see a band with a name written in a font you can't read having a song titled that.