Yup. The American way!

Northerners, it is important to realize that a bunch of stuff that people drag into this constant pointless regionalism are either completely irrelevant or broad strokes of the brush. There’s nothing more frustrating than being a Texan and having to put up with someone thinking of them with the stereotype of the traditional Appalacian cousin fucker (which, btw, is also an unfair stereotype. close knit rural communities have always had a more inbred population, especially before modern transportation, but that is just as true in rural Iowa or South Dakota). Likewise, NASCAR is an odd little sport, roughly as monotonous to watch on TV as baseball is, but it doesn’t prove that people who watch it are somehow stupid (likewise, it is not exactly a southern exclusive sport).

I think, in the end, it boils down to this:

Northerners think that Southerners think that they are more patriotic than the Northerners, and wrap themselves up in the flag.

Southerners think that Northerners think that they are smarter than the Southerners, and arrogantly dismiss them as ignorant yokals.

In the end, it is a bunch of people who think they know what everyone else thinks and never stops to ask or have a meaningful dialogue.

Having spent most of my life in either Louisiana or Minnesota, I have a bunch of sympathy for both sides.

RSixidor, Jagermeister and other defenders of southern pride: if nothing else, it is useful to not dismiss this a some limousine liberal, but realize that this is a common, perhaps-less-than-informed-but-not-elitist view of the southern USA not just from the north but also much of the rest of the world. George W Bush has done a lot to reinforce this, but so has every movie ever made that features a rich white selfish businessman such as an oil baron or a poor white racist ignorant asshole (often a sheriff). While it is based on very real people and very real problems (I’m sure it is difficult trying to fund public schools in the Dallas area and deal with immigrants and language issues, but I’m going to look at someone growing up black and poor in rural Mississippi and say that you have it pretty good), the stereotype as a whole is completely unfair. That said, most stereotypes are unfair. Massacheussets is dominated by blue collar catholic familymen and factory workers just trying to have energy after their shift to catch their kids peewee football game, yet the red states never get tired of trying to paint them as gentrified wealth drinking scotch at Harvard alumni parties and turtleneck wearing homosexuals having wine and cheese at art openings and reading Karl Marx to each other. Stereotypes suck. Small town Virginia looks a lot like small town Vermont and Atlanta looks a lot like Madison.

As to socialism: it’s all a sliding scale. Yeah, Obama’s plan is more socialist than Bush/McCain’s, but most things are. Of course, that depends on whether tax and spend is more socialist than borrow and spend. Some would argue that the most socialist president of them all would be Ronald Reagan, since he increased government spending more than any other president. What neither Obama nor McCain seem to have the political will to do was to tell the American people the truth: that we will have to either curtail all our monetary desires, or increase our taxes.

As for secession, it wouldn’t hurt my feeling one bit. It would be interesting to see just where the lines would be drawn.

You know, sometimes I’ve wondered if there was a real movement for secession, if it wouldn’t be split three ways. (maybe five if Texas and Alaska secessionist parties got their way).

How about the northwest?