Conservative Southern Values Revived: How a Brutal Strain of American Aristocrats Have Come to Rule

This topic is intensely interesting to me, as I am a former Republican who has been scratching his head for years wondering what happened to the party. This article, in my opinion, best expresses the causes behind the change. The question remains, how will people like me, believers in the political traditions of the northeast, find political relevance in today's America?

Article

Right now, a lot of our problems stem directly from the fact that the wrong sort has finally gotten the upper hand; a particularly brutal and anti-democratic strain of American aristocrat that the other elites have mostly managed to keep away from the levers of power since the Revolution. Worse: this bunch has set a very ugly tone that's corrupted how people with power and money behave in every corner of our culture. Here's what happened, and how it happened, and what it means for America now.

I love when people link my favorite news source on here. It warms my heart.

As for the article, it kind of frightens me. I, too, am a conservative, turned leftist, turned individual topic voter.

I noticed something was strange when we went from electing Republicans from the Midwest and California to those from Texas, either physically or ideologically.

reply to post by Grumble


All you have to do is compare red and blue states, do some research before you cast your vote, also research voting machines.

We have been steadily losing our liberties since 1980, and the Bush years were the worst. For you people living in red states that will vote lock step with the republicans party look around and tell me how your local and state governments are serving your best interests.

The republican party's platform in Texas actually doesn't want citizens to use critical thinking or higher education.

Ever notice how the first thing republican governments do is cut education, environmental, social programs and now are doing what they can to kill unions. With the money saved from cutting these programs they redistribute the wealth to the elites and corporations. These are all bad for the general public.

Originally posted by LDragonFire
reply to post by Grumble

 

Ever notice how the first thing republican governments do is cut education, environmental, social programs and now are doing what they can to kill unions.

Ever notice how the first thing democrat governments threaten to cut (if tax breaks are given or are extended) are education, environmental, social programs...

With the money saved from cutting these programs they redistribute the wealth to the elites and corporations. These are all bad for the general public.

With the money democrats raise from ending tax breaks or raising taxes is grow government bureaucracies, putting their elite friends at the helms, and redistribute the wealth to corporations of their choosing (Solyndra?).

The only difference is which group of elitists gets the spoils of plunder.

For you people living in red states that will vote lock step with the republicans party look around and tell me how your local and state governments are serving your best interests.

Ditto, you folks voting lock step with democrats.

reply to post by Grumble


F&S for the OP! I thought it was a very well written and completely truthful article. While I have never been a republican, at least I used to have respect for their party and their convictions. With respect to the TP/GOP we know today, I have nothing but pity and disgust.

reply to post by WTFover


Did you read the article, and would you care to commit on the article? Please stay focused!!

reply to post by LDragonFire


Very funny! I write almost word for word, what you wrote, only showing it works both ways, and you accuse me of being off topic? Give me a break.

In fact, it appears it is you who didn't read the article very closely, because it also points to the fact that both parties have elitists at the helm. But, the author, like you prefers the

more forward-thinking, democratic Northern elites

.

Yeah, that's a quote from the article. Which I might add, is huge steaming pile of crap, evidenced by that excerpt.

Here's another little gem, referring to your preferred "elites",

While they've done their share of damage to the notion of democracy in the name of profit (as all financial elites inevitably do), this group has, for the most part, tempered its predatory instincts with a code that valued mass education and human rights...

Isn't that a riot! Their "mass education" and social programs have done nothing for the poor in this country, but keep them trapped in a perpetual state of poverty and servitude. Every election cycle, the democrat "elites" promise to help the poor and bring them prosperity, through taking from those evil rich. When they don't do anything but throw a few crumbs down from their places on high, they always blame it on the others guys and promise to deliver, if they can just get elected one more time.

The article only serves to more deeply drive the wedges between us, the non-elites. More division means the elites gain a tighter grasp on the power and control, which is all they care about. I'm certain both sides appreciate you aiding them in that endeavor.

What a great point the author presents. I do agree the politics of the old south were terrible in their day. However, I doubt the New England political elite are ultimately any better when it comes to pandering to the corporate elite.

Originally posted by Grumble
This topic is intensely interesting to me, as I am a former Republican who has been scratching his head for years wondering what happened to the party. This article, in my opinion, best expresses the causes behind the change. The question remains, how will people like me, believers in the political traditions of the northeast, find political relevance in today's America?

Article

Right now, a lot of our problems stem directly from the fact that the wrong sort has finally gotten the upper hand; a particularly brutal and anti-democratic strain of American aristocrat that the other elites have mostly managed to keep away from the levers of power since the Revolution. Worse: this bunch has set a very ugly tone that's corrupted how people with power and money behave in every corner of our culture. Here's what happened, and how it happened, and what it means for America now.

edit on 4-7-2012 by Grumble because: (no reason given)

I find myself in the same boat. As a Republican in NYC, I realized a long time ago my vote means nothing in the outcome of the states Electoral College vote, yet I voted because I felt it my duty to honor those who fought and sacrificed all for us to retain that right. At this juncture, I recognize little, in not only the National Republican party but in Democratic party as well. Neither share any of the values I grew up accepting as just. There were differences, but there was a commonality of justness and fighting for the truth. Now it seems the truth is what they're running away from the most. Both parties are indistinguishable from one another and both are compromised to the point of no return.

Originally posted by WTFover
reply to post by LDragonFire

 

Very funny! I write almost word for word, what you wrote, only showing it works both ways, and you accuse me of being off topic? Give me a break.

In fact, it appears it is you who didn't read the article very closely, because it also points to the fact that both parties have elitists at the helm. But, the author, like you prefers the

more forward-thinking, democratic Northern elites

.

Yeah, that's a quote from the article. Which I might add, is huge steaming pile of crap, evidenced by that excerpt.

Here's another little gem, referring to your preferred "elites",

While they've done their share of damage to the notion of democracy in the name of profit (as all financial elites inevitably do), this group has, for the most part, tempered its predatory instincts with a code that valued mass education and human rights...

Isn't that a riot! Their "mass education" and social programs have done nothing for the poor in this country, but keep them trapped in a perpetual state of poverty and servitude. Every election cycle, the democrat "elites" promise to help the poor and bring them prosperity, through taking from those evil rich. When they don't do anything but throw a few crumbs down from their places on high, they always blame it on the others guys and promise to deliver, if they can just get elected one more time.

The article only serves to more deeply drive the wedges between us, the non-elites. More division means the elites gain a tighter grasp on the power and control, which is all they care about. I'm certain both sides appreciate you aiding them in that endeavor.

I agree with your assertions that both parties are as bad as each other, but the OP is pointing out what has happened to the Republican party internally, not which party is more moral than the other.

Thank you, the "both parties are evil" assertion makes a great threadkiller but ignores the realities of the great differences between the parties.

But that is not what this thread is about. This is about what has happened to the Republican party. The party I revered, the party of Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt, is gone, and I think this article explains why.

And by the way I do not think it is just about the South anymore. I believe the author's contention that this tone or way of thinking has permeated all of conservative/Republican politics in the U.S. In my state, not in the South, this is certainly the case.

I see this as just quickening the pace of the inevitable journey to the point when the serfs take out the bosses and then eliminate the elites altogether. The only difference between the Northern elites and the Southern elites is the level of relative sophistication. The Southern (modern Tea Party GOP) elites are crude and oafish in their management of society compared to the Northern (RINO GOP) elites, and in a way, that may work out better since knocking off these idiots needs to happen sooner than later if any of us are going to survive the overall adventure.

I love watching the GOP House and FoxNEWS punditry play special-class school yard craziness, and this free-for-all couldn't be working out better for the rest of us. The tipping point is coming up a lot faster than if the Yankees had been allowed to nurse the whole thing in their own manner. They really did know how to keep the natives from becoming restless, and this new breed of GOP is just plain stupid, which is definitely steering this in the right direction.

The kill-off will be quick, and my only hope is that the monsters who are getting ready for the launch are ready to settle the mess before it goes full-on French Revolution on all of us.

Oh well, however it all goes down, we all have to die in the end anyway, so whatever. It'll be great TV nonetheless.

I am not sure I agree with that, NorEaster. Will the people be more likely to throw off their oppressors when education has been gutted, news is propaganda, and the laws making all dissent treason passed, or will we simply be locked in perpetual serfdom? Look at the way the lower classes of whites today support the GOP in great numbers. Look at the ease in which they are manipulated by race and other wedge issues to vote against their interests. Also consider that the largest voting block in the U.S. for the next 30 years will be old white people, and they are overwhelmingly the supporters of tea party conservatism.

I am beginning to think dilution through immigration is our only hope of not being an evangelical, backward nation.

Originally posted by detachedindividual

I agree with your assertions that both parties are as bad as each other, but the OP is pointing out what has happened to the Republican party internally, not which party is more moral than the other.

However, the article cited in the OP is one of self-righteous indignation, exclaiming the phony magnanimousness and altruism of the Democrats.

I just can't stand the divisiveness any longer. And that is exactly the intent of the article and the OP, though the OP may well be an unwitting participant.

Tea Party Leader Inge Marler Racist Welfare Joke At Rally

As long as America runs according to the rules of Southern politics, economics and culture, we're no longer free citizens exercising our rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness as we've always understood them. Instead, we're being treated like serfs on Massa's plantation -- and increasingly, we're being granted our liberties only at Massa's pleasure. Welcome to Plantation America.

The tea party are a bunch of backward hillbillies. Most of this country does not want to live in your near anarcho-capitalist dystopia. Anyone who sees a public library as something that is evil probably means they've never read a book.

Nice article OP. WHen I was much younger and in college I was a Young Republican. One day I was rudely awakened to the fact that this wasnt the republican party I knew anymore.. and probably hadnt been since the 50's. The icing and cherry was there.. but the cake was a completely different flavor. Conservative ( the term that makes people flip out here) Southern ( Idiots assume youre racist and ill educated) Values ( who needs values..) are something I think we desperately need. Im originally from the South, Im biased.. but you understand? The party became something else while we werent looking and a lot of people who are calling themselves republicans today have yet to notice its has grossly changed from its foundation!

Advantage, I know Southern people who most certainly have strong values and Midwesterners who are the worst bigots imaginable. We should not make the mistake of stereotyping Southerners just because the original culture that caused this mess was that of the Southern plantation aristocrat.

Where I live, in the Midwest, it has always been heavily Republican. But until recent years the Republicans from here were more liberal, moderates really, who tried to be even-handed statesmen, which I think reflected the sort of fair minded values most folks around here had. The interesting thing is that most of those same Republicans have bought the new GOP hook, line & sinker, despite the fact that the new party would have been a disgrace to them forty years ago. I have stated to my friends that I didn't leave the party, the party left me. And a few of them feel the same way, but many have bought into the meanness and small mindedness that the GOP has become.

I suppose what this boils down to is that I can't decide whether to become active as a democrat (I was a voting GOP member before and an elected precinct committeeperson), or try to work from within the GOP to make things better. I will certainly be voting Democrat for now, so to represent myself as a Republican would be dishonest, but if I become a Democrat, I feel my efforts will be wasted here.

Maybe I should start a new party. Call it the Rationality Party, and devise a platform based on science, reason, and policies that work. But talk about wasted effort...

reply to post by RealSpoke


The Tea Party started out as a new Progressive-style of thinking. The original founders of the party actually were trying to form a party to do good.

It was simply hijacked by those who wish to see it do the things for which it is now viewed: racism, aristocratic, serfdom-style politics.

After reading the article, I'm really not sure how I feel. It makes good points from a historical standpoint but offers no solutions. It's also interesting to point out that there are NO politicians--Northern or Southern--who seem to stand up for the actual people of this country. Whether you're looking at Columbia educated Barack Obama or Texas A&M educated Rick Perry. There is no such thing as a truly "Progressive" politician in this day and age.