November 08, 2004

Tribes

Want history? Read this.

One thing this little historical trip should show everyone is that it is nonsense to think that this cultural resentment and cultural contempt was created by Hollywood movie stars and limosine liberals from New York City. Indeed, this has been a problem since the dawn of the republic. And it isn't a problem that will be solved by the Red States gaining and maintaining power. They have held power many times throughout our history and they were still filled with resentment toward "the north" (now "the liberal elites.") And, it won't be solved by adopting different stances on "moral issues," or telling the current Democratic southern constituencies to suck it up. Maybe it's time we looked a little bit deeper and realized that this tribal problem isn't going to be solved by politics at all.

It's fascinating. Much of it is familiar to me from living in Virginia during my high school years, when my mother led a fight to get rid of history textbooks which still exalted "the peculiar institution" as benign. Take ten minutes and read it all.

Posted by Linkmeister at November 8, 2004 04:19 PM
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