I’m beginning to agree with Democratic strategists who argue that the party should simply cede the Deep South to the Republicans and concentrate on building a winning coalition that spans the other three-fourths of nation. It seems that I come across a few news items every week that make me wonder if the Union really did gain anything by winning the Civil War. Case in point: the Georgia legislator who distributed a memo to his colleagues claiming that the science behind evolution and the Big Bang theory is actually part of a millenia-old plot authored by Jewish Pharisees.
How perfect. Here you have anti-Semitism, scientific illiteracy, and plain ol’ buffoonery wrapped up in a pretty box with a Confederate-flag bow perched on top. Is it possible for a Southerner to behave in a more cartoonish manner? Now, I realize one shouldn’t make generalizations. Without a doubt, there are many progressive-minded, rational people residing in the South. But they seem to be outnumbered by a populace that jubilantly glorifies ignorance and fear. Perhaps if we let the region languish as a political backwater for a decade or two, its citizens might eventually come to their senses and decide that they really do want to be participants in a twenty-first century society.
