Over the past few days you may have seen a chart that looks
something like this:
It’s normally accompanied by some variety of LOLRACIST.
This argument (and I feel like I’m being generous by
considering it as such) is less than insightful at best, and downright
offensive at worst.
Yes, there is a correspondence to Southern states and
support of Republicans. This is due to
the GOP’s Southern Strategy. This has been acknowledged as a pernicious
and persistent political strategy since the 1960s. It’s generally accepted as part of modern
American political analysis. So thanks
for the penetrating insight.
Is there a point to be made from this graphic? Well there is the implicit, if not explicit,
assertion that Southerners are racist.
Let’s be honest: in contemporary
America, references to the Confederacy are liberal dogwhistles for racism and
oppression. It’s the American history equivalent of Godwinization.
I’m not going to go into an examination of racism and
oppression in other areas of the country, but I will point you to a couple of
quick links just to put a bit of this in perspective. Here’s the Indiana Klan. Also you can look at some interesting facts
about NYC or Los Angeles. None of us have clean hands here, people.
There’s more than a bit of irony in the fact that Democratic
voters, who have lambasted the GOP for excluding so many, are reveling in a
rhetorical device that does nothing more than force a whole region of their
country into “otherness”. If the problem
with the other guys is that they aren’t inclusive, then why try to create
further divisions? Why not attempt some
sort of reconciliation? Of course that
may require empathy, which is a whole lot more difficult.
If you’re actually interested in why the Democratic narrative
doesn’t seem to be attractive to Southern men, then I would recommend this
article at Salon.
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