Confederacy of Dunces

I'm a daily reader of the political blog My Direct Democracy. They first got my attention when they raised the money for Tim Tagaris to cover the most recent attempt to unseat William Jefferson. I find the analysis of MyDD to be generally very interesting, and not quite as annoying as DailyKos can sometimes be.

Recently, though, a couple of posts have uncovered the way in which the South is viewed by the representatives of the current American progressive movement (the Gunbelt refers to the production of weapons in the Military Industrial Complex, of which most factories are located in the South):

What is clear though is that we need to begin to understand economic policies and tax structures as tools in remapping America. There is a moment for the next ten years, during which a non-Southern culture controls the political machinery of the Federal government and the South's veto can be overcome with a brutal series of threats to the region's excessive Federal subsidies and reliance on socialist corporate welfare. If we're smart, we can puncture the institutional architecture that allows the Gunbelt to thrive and build a new America along the networked rule-based freedom-enhancing tolerant lines that exist in the bulwark areas of Blue America.

And in a different post:

The electoral landscape has as its governing party a coalition that has cut out the authoritarian South. And long-term, the authoritarian South can now be tamed, since its dependence on Federal subsidies has grown to become a serious addiction.

I wrote a pretty had criticism of the way the South had been characterized in the comments, but it wasn't nearly as thought out as one that was posted shortly thereafter by someone names Chris. Here's a highlight:

It's telling that you claim labor in the 30s was the only "real" progressive movement in our country. I've been active in the labor movement to have no problem with that. Others might point to the Populists or the black freedom movement, which of course were largely based in the South. But that wouldn't fit your world-view that the South is a bastion of reaction, would it?

Word, Chris. I'm really becoming committed to "progressive politics," and the left-wind (not left-handed) tendencies I used to dismiss as youthfully naive I now am convinced will be with me my whole life. But it's going to be frustrating if I continue to have to rub up against prejudiced Northerners who are still patting themselves on the back for the Civil War and are convinced that every Southerner is a gun-toting inbred. When I try to explain why people in the South still get upset when they perceive the Federal Government to be meddling in state affairs I usually get pegged as a racist.

If Progressives finally wrest the White House from Republicans or Conservative Democrats, is it any use to the redheaded stepchildren down South if all we get is this same sad story?

The silver lining is that Chris left the website address for a Progressive Southern blog, called Facing South. At least I don't feel so alone anymore.

[I hope to post later this week on some software I've heard about that could be used for the new Cenlamar. I have also been lent a digital camera for the week, and at some point I'll have some pictures of my life and the students. Here's a teaser, from today's lunchtime tutorial in my apartment.]