What the U.S. would be like without the South

I live in the South.

I may be a transplant, but there’s a lot to like down here.

I hated CA where I was born not for the politics (although the Coliseum Commission could kiss me where the Good Lord split me), but because so many people as a percentage were superficial, fake, posers. It drove me mad. Doesn’t mean everyone was like that. Far from it, but enough that like pollution, you couldn’t get away from it.

The only issue I find I have in the Tampa area is tailgaters. Worst drivers in the lower 48, bar none and with so many transplants, we have lots of validation on that point. Good people, terrible drivers.

I live in a conservative county and I get it. Most people on either side of “the fence” don’t much think about any issue, so I’m pretty foreign to them even if I somewhat agree.

But, I got over the whole “south” thing after I did boot at NTC Orlando in ’91. I really liked it here.

I see these types of articles and I think there is an element that would like to see the country without the belligerent Tea Party politicians who tend to come from the South and only seem to want to dismantle government or cause serious harm because they don’t understand and don’t want to understand how government works because they’ve determined that the government is evil. So, there is a conflation with these folks (Ted Cruz comes to mind as a someone with a Harvard education, yet contributes NOTHING to governance and endangers our safety and security simply by being in office due to his ignorance and belligerence) and “the South”

I think that’s a shame. There’s a lot of great stuff about the south, great people, great food, great entertainment, great schools, great weather (mostly)…

But, this country without the Ted Cruzes? We know what that looks like because when William F Buckley was alive, idiots like Cruz were regularly eviscerated and run out of the party along with the Birchers. So an article like this wouldn’t be necessary so much as simply recalling a time when Republicans functioned with intellectual discipline. (Note: not saying those were halcyon days, just that they functioned both for better and for worse with intellectual discipline. From William F Buckley to Lee Atwater…)

That’s my take on it. Either that or the author is a vegetarian who hates BBQ.

• This reply was modified 9 years, 4 months ago by Mackeyser.