Blame all our woes on one region?

Well, it seems that our experience with the nice lady in northern California (see this post) was just a precursor to what Southerners could expect from more prominent voices. Kathleen Parker, a conservative writer whose column I read yesterday, blames the GOP's problems on Southern Republicans who have a lot of wing-nut ideas. I don't disagree with this. "Southern Republicans," she writes, "have seceded from sanity." Okay, I'm up with that. Sure seems that way to me, too. But now we have progressive columnists taking up the flag and condemning Southern whites and Southern culture. Well, again, I see plenty to criticize about the South, but I don't think the South is monolithic; nor does the region today deserve the scathing scorn that commenters to Kevin Drum's post heap upon it. The South today is not just a remnant of Scots-Irish culture, as many seem to believe. It has been influenced by many cultures. I, myself, am descended from Acadians who left Nova Scotia in the 1700s when the British kicked out the French; pockets of the South are vitally influenced by Acadian culture. I am also descended from Germans who immigrated to Texas in the 1800s. German culture influenced Texas. We knew people born in Texas whose first language was German; they didn't learn English until they began school. Many immigrants from old Czechoslovakia clustered in towns in Texas, giving us one of my favorite desserts, kolaches, as well as polka (not my favorite music). African slaves influenced the South, too, even the white South.

So when Kevin Drum--whom I keep hoping is parodying prejudice--impugns Southern white culture, I'm not sure just what he means. There are plenty of Southern ideas left over from the old-slave South that need criticizing. But Southern white culture? That's an imprecise term, and inflammatory in its impreciseness.

Wing-nut ideas are not confined to the South and to "Southern white culture," whatever that means.

Oh, and how could I have left out the Hispanic influence?