Politics of the South

So...here I am...a mid-westerner in North Carolina. A blue in a red state. Growing up in the Chicago area I didn't know there was another political party. It seemed but a myth to me. I now realize that it was my sheltered childhood that kept me from coming into contact with one of those mythical creatures. Republicans. My parents loathed them. Avoided them at all costs (which wasn't difficult since there were probably only a bakers dozen in town).

The politics of the South is different. Democrats until Johnson's Civil Rights initiative in the '60s. People here with virtually nothing will vote for the Republicans who will take what little is left, purely on the basis of fear. Fear of gays. Fear of abortion. Fear of terrorists. Fear of immigrants. Fear of African-Americans. It is a frustrating thing to watch. They don't look for someone who might help pull them out of the lower levels of society and better there condition. Instead they look backwards for a way to keep at bay the things they fear.

Lemmings...