The Dirty (Solid) South
From the same folks who gave you staunch support of slavery, succession from the union, Jim Crow, and the Scopes monkey trial...we give you...FOUR MORE YEARS!!!!!!
That huge granite rock with the Ten Commandments inscribed on it has been dragged out of the courthouse in Alabama, and dropped on all our collective heads.
These are the same people who don't want the science of evolution to be taught in schools.
The same people who want to open the school day with a prayer.
The same people who see the world in black and white.
Who believe in the divine right of Bush to "makeover" the middle east.
There is a religious war going on, only it's right here in this country. And we are losing. We have are own mullahs right here in this country. Just as fanatical.
But we will not give up the fight. Even those of us in the dirty south.
That huge granite rock with the Ten Commandments inscribed on it has been dragged out of the courthouse in Alabama, and dropped on all our collective heads.
These are the same people who don't want the science of evolution to be taught in schools.
The same people who want to open the school day with a prayer.
The same people who see the world in black and white.
Who believe in the divine right of Bush to "makeover" the middle east.
There is a religious war going on, only it's right here in this country. And we are losing. We have are own mullahs right here in this country. Just as fanatical.
But we will not give up the fight. Even those of us in the dirty south.
posted by RBP at 7:29 PM
4 Comments:
I feel your pain. It's got to be really tough living down there. If it gets to be too much you're always welcome up here in Washington.
By the way, you need to come to the west side of the Cascades. Any place east of that is pretty much as screwed up as the South.
If things keep going the way they are the Blue folks may have to break away.I've got a projected map from 2014 on my blog.
I'm coming back soon... I feel the pain. Some friends called me the next day to gloat -- didn't even give me a real courtesy day! Hang in there. You know there are others just like you... 48% of the nation. If anything, at least we have stuff to blog about for the next four years. (ugh).
Take care.
Thanks Jen, "ugh" is right.
I will hang in there. In a couple of weeks I'll be at the newly opened Clinton Presidential Library in Little Rock. It will be my new "happy place" in the dirty south. I may never leave.
I live east of the Cascades in Oregon. Oregon is a Blue State, but only because the metro areas make it so. Where I live, it's Red State all the way... so, J.Marquis is correct when he says WEST of the Cascades is the place to go.
I'm still out here in NE Oregon because I love the town I'm in, my parents are here and need some help as they get on in years, I love the beautiful surrounding area, and I love the people despite my having political opinions that are usually in the minority. There are always things to consider in life that for me go beyond beliefs. I will admit it's frustrating at times, knowing there are plenty of people around here who would be perfectly happy with a government run by religion, a one-party system, no regulations on logging or land use, etc. but that's just the way it is here, and I understand. I'm lucky to live here, even with all that.
I think that ultimately it will not be political polarization that brings down the US, but religious polarization. The country may still be a "melting pot" for people of different ethnic backgrounds and nationalities, but I don't see it being a melting pot of IDEAS for too much longer. I believe the evangelical movement will continue to grow during the coming years, and fewer people will consider national issues in much other than religious contexts... but the country will reach a saturation point at which people who are not fundamentalists (and simply cannot make themselves into fundamentalists) will rebel. It would be a rebellion in which most of those non-fundamentlist believers would team with the non-believers and the believers from other faiths to actually break away.
History tends to repeat itself. I'd have thought our country's people would have studied U.S. history enough to realize what a toll fundamentalist religion took on our people in New England in the 1600's. The last time religion ran our affairs, there were witchhunts and people got burned. More recently we have had illustrations of what religion can do when it runs government in Iran and with the Taliban.
I tend to think it isn't the specific religion or philosophy that is dangerous, but rather the fundamentalism and fanaticism that can go along with religion.
For those of us who are not religious fundamentalists, life in the USA could get tougher before it gets better. Especially when what was once a good political party, the GOP, gets insidiously taken over by the Religious Right (which is neither religious or right, in my opinion...) and the opposing party is demonized and characterized as an enemy of Christianity.
Another scenario which could happen is that the GOP's fiscal conservatives will break away from the religious conservatives and say "enough is enough". I hope that happens before the witch hunts do.
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