re: #676 SanFranciscoZionist

The Tea Party is not limited to the South, though, and many of the craziest anti-Obama types are not Southerners of any kind. For that matter, ‘our racist past’ is not limited to the South. We have nuts from every state in the Union doing this.

I’m aware of the specific and convoluted racial history of the Southern states, but this discussion, each time we have it, seems less like a discussion of history and politics, and more like…I’m not sure WHAT it is. It doesn’t feel productive, or enlightening.

Sorry you don’t find it enlightening, but I don’t think the hysterical anti-Obama phenomenon we’ve witnessed over the last three years can be understood without discussing racism and xenophobia. And while there’s always been racism everywhere, in the context of the US, it’s been most extreme, violent and open in the deep South. I’m simply making an observation in hopes of advancing an understanding of these historical times, not suggesting that the South is evil—just peculiar, provincial, hyper-religious, and a bit backwards.