Southern Discomfort

It doesn't matter if Obama or McCain wins.

1. We'll STILL reject protectionist trade policies, watch our jobs flee overseas, and all while heads of industry petition the government to import more foreign workers, DESPITE a glut of qualified Americans.

2. We STILL won't be doing ANYTHING about illegal immigration, except recycling the myth that "there are too many to deport", EVEN after the economic rationale for their being here evaporates.

3. We STILL won't be looking at sound money. The privately owned Federal Reserve will continue counterfeiting new fiat dollars into circulation, as per usual, right up to the point where our dollar is worthless. We STILL won't analyze the BANKING scam, and the lenders that have financed both sides of both world wars, and countless conflicts throughout history... and even now, when they come for your house, we will not critically analyze this system. We will not analyze why our labor is conscripted on a perpetual basis, enabling us to live beyond our means while we pass debt on to our grandchildren, and transist the nations wealth, one microtransaction at a time, into the hands of international bankers.

4. We'll STILL have an interventionist foreign policy, where ALL Americans are convinced to fight and DIE overseas for some pretense that has nothing to do with our national security. This ESPECIALLY if our special "friend" in the middle east, who can do no wrong, is threatened.

5. We'll STILL be saddled with the reality of finite energy supplies, a receding world economy, and an un-analyzed relationship with Saudi Arabia - the very country that produced the hijackers of 9/11.

6. We'll STILL do NOTHING about the artificially devalued Chinese Yuan thats causing ALL our dollars ( and jobs ) to go to China while they in turn buy NOTHING from us.

My sincerest opinion is that Washington is broken, and that it SHOULDN'T be fixed. Like Mandela in South Africa, and Mugabe in Zimbabwe, Obama is merely a symptom of a system that has just about run its course. I just don't believe the current formulation is sustainable. The best thing Obama can do for America is offer the federal government a coup de grace. Maybe in the ensuing chaos we'll restore our Constitutional Republic, but I'm probably just dreaming.

Of course Race is being emphasized. It is the American way to segregate, stick to your own, and fear/shun those different than yourself. Segregation wasn't only meant for color. Irish, Scottish, English seperarted themselves in early American history. The Irish were seen as very low. As color was introduced it shifted. The whole idea of America being the "melting pot" is a myth and great American fairytale. First we seperated according to country, then by religion, then by color. Each subset of people in America are constantly looking for a skapegoat that will make themselves NOT be at the bottom of the barrel. When "All men are created equal" was written, it didn't mean people of color or of different ideology. The founding fathers were not some hugely progressive group of men that meant inclusion. They meant for people like themselves to inherit the country. They, for the most part, would never have imagined a world like the one we live in. Our government has done a great job of highlighting difference and using it as a tool to control and govern people. By creating fear, those in charge create an environment that enflames passions and creates a country divided and is much easier to control. What amazes me most is how readily we all buy into it. If it isn't a religon or color, it's a sexual identity. Someone MUST be hated and reviled. We MUST blame and segregate and this is not a North vs the South issue. There is not a candidate for president who isn't or hasn't used fear, in one way or the other, to reach out to their base. We should all be very afraid of where we are going as a whole. Instead, we all line up at the soup line, ready to chant and preach ferverntly our "beliefs" and "injustices".

Wow, what an original idea. Talk about stereotypes of a particular region to drum up more reasons why this election really is all about race...

I've lived in the south my whole life; frankly, there is tooooo much analysis, and most of it makes us sound like idiots.All of my friends/family/colleagues graduated from colleges from CA to New England, so I'm distressed by this continuing view of us as insular border-retarded. I'm 4th generation, from central FL, and very liberal. You really have to go to the little teeny towns here to find someone in overalls to be quoted for the national news.

Oh, I guess the same could be said of cranberry farmers in Mass. Ignorant, overalls, etc but hey they're from the north, so they're better than us. What a battle we normal people face.

I went to college from FL to Mass in '75 and my classmates could not believe we had malls, chain restaurants, etc in the south. They thought everyone down here flew to NYC every year to buy clothes. Who do we blame, the media or their parents? Ignorance, unbelievalble.

If the subject is truly this article it is lacking in everyway of understanding the new south. As a transplanted yankee I know that most of the people in the south are thinking of their faith, family and future as they seek to vote. With that in mind most southerns problem with this election is not black or white it's that they don't feel either is much of a choice or will help them in real life.

ok, I am sooooo sick of hearing about how bad the south is... it is the kindest, most generous (that was scientifically proven by the way), freindliest region in the country. If you are walking down the street in a city like Birmingham or Atlanta, expect to get smiles as you're walking... If you smile at somebody in New York, they look at you like you have five heads. This article was truly looking for racism and bigotry in the South. As an Alabamian I am offended anytime I hear untrue, biased things about the South from people who have never been here (or have been here for 5 days visitng a few civil war reenactments). The South was the only region to fight against a tyrannical central government and they did it by seceeding. Thank God for the South or this country would be NOWHERE!!!!

I was born, raised and live in SC. Believe it or not, we don't walk around in confederate gray, and praise Robert E. Lee 24/7. Unfortunately, racism is everywhere and not just the south. It certainly doesn't make me racist if I choose to vote Republican!

I must agree with several posters on here about Mr. Dickey's apparent interest in only finding a story that corroborates his father's novel. While Newsweek's recent slate of articles on the South has been interesting, it's also disconcerting that the magazine has such a low opinion of this integral area of the country (see the line, "A journey through a troubled region.").

In my experience - residing, working and traveling in much of America - I have found people of varying class levels and intellect throughout the country. Poverty, lack of education, and racism are not Southern phenomenons. By reading this article, one might believe that we ('we' being 'Southerners') have all fallen victim to sub-par educations, despite the fact that this magazine itself recently ranked nearly all of the high schools in my home county, Greenville County, South Carolina, among the nation's best.

Southerners are every bit as capable of judging candidates and issues as voters in any other area of the country. Being reliably red is no more an indication of our capacities than being reliably blue (see Calif., N.Y., and many New England and Rust Belt states). But given patronizing articles such as this, it's no wonder that outdated and, frankly, ignorant views of the South continue to thrive.

Yes, and their spelling is horrible. Read a book. Jeez. I love how people bash Obama about being Muslim, and then he must defend the fact that he is a Christian. Is being Muslim a crime I don't seem to rmemeber. carl6352, maybe you would know in all your eloquence. Look at it this way; does New England say they are apart of the North, or America. Now.... ask that question of a "Southern state". I'm sure California residents don't call themselves "Westerners".

So, the comment on being scared of whites is not racism??? Oh...that is right, reverse racism is not alive and kicking. Take your racist self back to where you came and stop enjoying the economy.

It was obvious where the article was headed after the first few paragraphs. His biased veiw of the world was weakly supported by a few quotes plugged into it. It was way too transparent an effort of the liberal media pushing its own agenda...

Making a comment about scary whites is exactly the negativity that remains due to others coming in and assuming things. I am white and I am offended that you look at me as a scary inbred. Its okay for you to be a racist, because there is no such thing as reverse-racism...right???

I'll not sell the people of the South short for they are of the most American of all of us. Senator Obama knows this too, but for the existence of the USA to continue we must undo the military over take of the world as the USA has been doing since 1945. We not only have more military bases all over the world, other countries can only dream about and surly would have made the leaders of Roam drool.

Unfortunately, this action isn???t by our people but rather by a select few behind shut doors and all sworn to secrecy.

This in part, is what Senator talks about when he says, ???CHANGE.??? What did you think he was talking about? Lowering your gasoline bill, because that is something you can see and feel???

In the case of Southern Discomfort, there is a tacit acceptance of the South's social conundrums as part of the way Forward. I don't think many Southerners accept the direction they've been.. coerced into following for the last 50 years. My thought is that when the federal government finally goes broke, our unsustainable world empire runs to conclusion and we realize the true consequences of a borderless, Balkanized society, then a lot of this is going to unravel, and there will be a new political determination. For the Southerner, racism is often a natural conclusion, derived through direct observation and negative experiences with the racial "other". Deprogramming what seems so apparent to many is an expensive pursuit, and not always successful, despite the voluminous amounts of "progressive" material spoon-fed to our youth via the public school system. Dickey is right about one thing.. Southerners resent being told what to think, and this will not change, anytime between now and when our nation goes bust. The only thing that ever comes out of Washington these days is some infuriating piece of a legislation that actually makes things worse. There will be no winners come November - only LOSERS.

I will make one prediction however : there will be riots. Whether Obama wins or loses, blacks will riot, either in celebration or anger. Property will be destroyed and lives will be lost. Somehow this will all be the white mans fault too - you watch.

Hey think of it this way. The man has taken the embarrassment you feel over GWB away to be replaced by your bigoted thinking. I don't think he will ever come down to Bush and Cheney's level though. They are unmatched and let me tell you something. I believe, after George and big fat oil he will be a breath of fresh air. We once again will feel American Proud. so go back to the work of talking trash about a man you don't even know. To tell you the truth I wanted Hillary. But I'll settle for Obama. Bush and Cheney have to tow the line now. They are puppets for Congress right now. They both know if they create any more problems the Democratic Head of Congress may break her agreement not to impeach. So go back to the shredder.