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Alternet editor Sara Robinson will tell us how backwards-thinking Southern Aristocrats have taken over the GOP.
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July 19, 2012 -- This Week on Ring of Fire!
September 27, 2012 -- This Week on Ring of Fire!
Romney doesn’t understand what it is like being part of the poor class.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cu5Rm-hAaxo
I haven’t posted these kinds of videos in almost a year – play Romney off, Keyboard Cat:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sis3xjpAkl8
Another problem Jay is that as Mike stated on the show last year or the year before, poor whites have been beatened down by “The Man.” Despite all this talk about Americans stating up to authority, you look at our history we have been mostly a bunch of sheep for almost of our 236 years as a country, and we tried to fight like rams, “The Man” doesn’t hestitate to slaughter the lambs by sending in the dogs (corrupt police, private security firms, National Guard, and the Regular Army). In addition, you had workers that would not hestitate to betray you for a few dollars more, a coveted position and/or promotion, or they share “The Man” attitude that labor movements are evil; however, they are more than willing to take union pay and benefits.
Dear Jay:
I don’t how you give the poor whites a better life when they are constantly brainwash by the Southern elites aided and abetted by the media and the religious right wing leaders with the appalling attitudes. As Booker Washington say “You can’t hold a man down without staying down with him.” As Mike or Bobby stated that who dominates the Southern region of the USA also dominates the rest of the country. For example, as long as wages remain low and unions are non-existent in the South, it can and does affect the rest of the country. Of course, it doesn’t excuse the rich people and corporations in the North and West from the way they treated their own workers. As Mike stated when President Johnson signed th Civil Rights law, Johnson stated that the Democratic just lost the South. But then again, you look at the Democratic Party they were exactly like the Republican Party when they dominate the South before and after the American Civil War until Johnson signed that law.
I listened to the podcast and took a look at Sara Robinson’s article. I hold a MA in history and wrote my thesis on a Southern topic. The problem with Robinson’s article is that it isn’t very thoroughly researched. It is true that the South is far more culturally English than New England. After all, rigid class stratification is a hallmark of English culture, though both the English and Southern cultures are complex and contain many more aspects than that. Further, while the South is and always has been class stratified, there has been some sense of noblesse oblige among some Southern elites in terms of things like charitable organizations formed for the purpose of providing aid to needy persons. See “The Southern Charities Project” database for a list of such agencies in the South: http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/southerncharitiesproject/database/name/
I would also like to add that the Puritan idea of “the elect,” which does not exist in Anglicanism, is behind the prosperity doctrine which has dramatically influenced American culture generally and continues to do so to this day. Essentially, it holds that material wealth is evidence of God’s favor bestowed as a reward for a holy life and that the poor are impoverished because they are immoral in one way or another. It is for this reason that many chose to come to America with the Puritan colonists though though nonbelievers were disenfranchised by the Mayflower Compact. These nonbelievers understood the Puritans’ motivation to work very hard, felt that this greatened the odds of their success and, apparently, were willing to sacrifice civic equality in order to enjoy material success.
I am not defending the inegalitarian nature of Southern culture. I am simply saying that the article is not well researched and, thus, presents an simplistic and inaccurate picture of Southern history and current-day reality. For my part, I find the tendency of those occupying the lower classes of Southern society to defend the social order, though it cruelly oppresses them, much more appalling than the behavior of Southern elites, both past and present. After all, one can simply attribute the elites’ behavior to greedy self-interest. It is much harder to justify this point of view when manifested in poor white and even black Southerners who continue to be fully invested in this tradition.
At any rate, I am not sure if articles like this are entirely helpful and I wonder if it represents a self-indulgent attempt at stoking the old sectional fires. What, in my opinion, would be helpful is a serious look at Southern life and some suggestions as to how to improve the cultural reality in the region as well as the quality of life for working class Southerners, even if they do have a tendency to hold appalling attitudes! Perhaps those attitudes could be changed, albeit slowly, if some effort were put towards that end?
If it wasn’t for America prospering after World War II, thousands of Southerners would not have gotten the GI Bill to attend college and make a life of themselves, so why are southerners don’t like education?
It is amazing that the poor Scot Irish keep backing up the Southern fat cats even though they are treated like dirt.
Many northern rich people did not care for their own workers and fought against unions. health care, good wages and a better life, etc., for their fellow Americans, so how can Sara and Mike stated that they were infected by the Southern upper crust attitudes. Many eastern elite families also had this atitude that it was there destiny to rulle. Besides many Puritans and Calvinists have this theory that if you work hard and are blessed by God, you will become rich.
Mike state that in every Southern city, 5 or 6 Southern elite families dominated that city. Its like the five Mafia families dominate New York City or a few organized crime families dominate a region like New England.
I wish Mike and Bobby would write a series of book about Southern upper crust life and their domination of that region.
posted the link on my blog
Had surgery on my wrist Wed.
Please pray for a speedy recovery.
Hope everyone has a great weekend.
Chrisy