By Brandon Moseley
Alabama Political Reporter
On Friday, “Politco” contributing editor, Michael Lind postulated that:
“The United States would be much less exceptional in general, and in particular more like other English-speaking democracies such as Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand were it not for the effects on U.S. politics and culture of the American South. I don’t mean this in a good way. A lot of the traits that make the United States exceptional these days are undesirable, like higher violence and less social mobility. Many of these differences can be attributed largely to the South.”
Lind goes on:
“Some deluded Southerners still pine for secession from the Union. Yet no doubt there are also more than a few liberal Northerners who would be happy to see them go. Minus the South, the rest of the U.S. probably would be more like Canada or Australia or Britain or New Zealand—more secular, more socially liberal, more moderate in the tone of its politics and somewhat more generous in social policy.”
I take great exception to his premise.
Speaking as a Southerner, I think the US is already far too secular, too socially liberal, and too moderate in the tone of its politics.
If the South didn’t have to put up with the rest of the country, our last presidential general election would not have been between Barack H. Obama and Mitt Romney. Neither of those guys are from here, have ever lived here, and nothing about their message resonates at all here.
Mitt Romney was a New York City financier turned corporate raider turned very bland Massachusetts Governor. He looks far better on a surf board than any man his age ever should and we love his big family, but seriously, the man could not connect with voters. Robert Bentley would run rings around him in a Governor’s Primary in Alabama. Obama is a failed attorney, turned community organizer, turned State Senator who went to DC, who openly dismisses most of us because we cling to our guns and our religion.
This is America. We were founded by people who sacrificed everything for their freedom of religion and we won our independence because thousands of our forefathers were clinging to the guns they used to hunt deer and turkeys and fight Indians. Ultimately they used those guns to drive the British from the southern half of this continent. The rest of the country may have forgotten all of that; but we in the South certainly have not.
A South-Only Presidential Primary might be between: Jeb Bush, Mike Huckabee, Ted Cruz, Roy Moore, Haley Barbour and Condoleezza Rice. Sen. Jim Webb or Bill Clinton would be very viable here, but Hillary, probably not. There would be room for moderates and liberals; but I can’t see a Romney, a McCain, a Kerry, or an Obama winning anything here.
We in the South still believe that all men, “Are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.”
Maybe that is too “anti-government” for your Northern sensibilities, but down here we view that as just being an American.
It is not like the South has been well treated in this current arrangement. If the South was given the freedom to run its own affairs abortion would have long been illegal and millions of innocent lives would have been spared. There would be no war on coal needlessly driving up our power bills so Obama’s cronies can cash in on alternative energy schemes. We would have negotiated fair trade agreements that didn’t close all our Southern textiles plants. Our kids would still have daily prayers in our schools and moral instruction based on Biblical norms instead of being pumped full of behavior altering drugs and propaganda about immoral lifestyles, while liberal federal jurists prattle on about ‘separation of Church and State.’ We would have most of the military we have today with far fewer foreign entanglements. We would have an immigration policy that is designed to benefit Southerners as a whole not to facilitate demographic changes that liberal in Washington desire so that they win more elections. Laws would be based on Judeo-Christian principles, the last 1,500 years of recorded history, and what it actually says on paper; not whatever 5 unelected jurists thinks it ought to be at this particular minute. Jeff Sessions would be the Chief Justice of our Supreme Court.
A Southern America would be a Christian nation and if Christians are being martyred for their faith in other parts of the world a Southern President would send in force to aid and protect them; not simply ignore it while insulting American Christians with slams about the Crusades or telling us we need to change our religion to fit whatever immoral conduct is presently in fashion with the leftist professors at Cal. Berkeley.
The Southern central government would be a whole lot smaller and your taxes would take about 20 minutes to fill out. There would be no propping up failed ‘Great Society’ social programs that didn’t work 50 years ago and don’t work today and we would have a balanced budget. Everybody would eat, but everybody who can work would work. We would have the NASA facilities in Huntsville, Houston, Louisiana, and Cape Canaveral so American leadership in Space would be a given. We have the best beaches in the world, the best fishing, the finest hunting, and the best cuisine the world has ever seen.
Everybody would have guns and that wouldn’t be controversial. There would be no mass shootings in Southern schools because, to ever get a high school diploma in a Southern School you would have to be able to show mastery of the M1 Garand, AR 15, and Kalishnikov AK-47. Attacking a Southern school would be suicidal. Losers like the little punk that shot up the Church in South Carolina would not only get executed without any of the inane appeals that take 20 years and tie up our courts needlessly; but we would do it on live TV and have Rick and Bubba host the show. Southern TV would have a whole lot less porn, a lot more prayer, no Kardashians, and the Dukes of Hazzard would not only still be on cable, but Bo and Luke would still be making new episodes for primetime. Hank Jr., Willie, Alabama, Darius Rucker, Pam Tillis, and Allison Krause would be performing on Southern TV instead of Miley, Kanye, Jayzee, and Justin Beaver (Beiber???).
Hey, if y’all in California and the North want to go be Canada without the polar bears and the good caribou hunting or France minus the art and the cool history go ahead and do it; because I can absolutely guarantee you that there will NEVER be a War of Southern Aggression to make y’all stay!!!
