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The White House Ignores the South
Southern power reached its apex in 2000 when not only did the Democrats nominate Gore, but the Republicans nominated Texas Governor George W. Bush. And when Bush won, Southern hegemony only grew. In the 1970s and 1980s, the GOP had still boasted strong northern voices, and its political base had been in the West, the region that produced Barry Goldwater, Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan. But by Bush’s presidency, northern Republicans were increasingly extinct, and the power balance within the party had shifted from the libertarian West to the moralistic South. Dixie had truly risen again.
Then, in the second half of the aughts, everything changed. As President Bush grew less and less popular, the Republican Party became more and more radioactive outside the South. And as Democrats began seizing control of larger and larger swaths of the North and West, many began to realize that they didn’t need Dixie to win. In 2008, the Democrats held their national convention in Denver—a testament to their growing confidence that Hispanic immigration was giving them a foothold in the interior West. And in Barack Obama and Joseph Biden, they nominated their first presidential ticket in a quarter-century that didn’t include a Southerner. The Obama campaign didn’t entirely ignore the South, of course; it ended up winning Florida, Virginia and North Carolina. But it didn’t need those states to win.
Southerners, unsurprisingly, are unhappy about the way things have been trending. A late October poll by Research 2000 found that Obama’s approval rating was only 27 percent in the old confederacy, less than half his approval rating nationwide. But as long as Obama maintains his support north of the Mason-Dixon Line, there’s not a lot Dixie can do. The secession thing, after all, has already been tried.
Peter Beinart, senior political writer for The Daily Beast, is associate professor of journalism and political science at City University of New York and a senior fellow at the New America Foundation.
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octavio
The south ( specially Texas ) has always been a ( homorrhoid )
pimple in the ass of progress.
In Texas 40 % or more of the population are racists.A large
number of this population are crooks;i,e; Houston just got a lesbian as a mayor;which shows the population's low morals.
In texas most of the politicians are crooks.Everybody knows
with two years in advance who the next governor is going to be.The lobbysts are the ones running the show.E,g; lobbysts
made George W Bush Texas governor.This crook later on
stole the presidency from Al Gore.And used the USA presidency to become the USA president in charge of
torturing and killing people.Barac Obama lost in Texas;
because more than 40% of Texans are racists and hate blacks and other minorities.Now these racists are very unhappy because Barack Obama is improving the USA.
CaMoJin
It's late, you should get some sleep.
case1234
In much of the South the Dems are the Black party and GOP the white party.... namely from MS to SC. This patterns breaks a bit when you reach NC and VA (the to southern states Obama won). This pattern is irrespective of actual beliefs. You will find whites and blacks whose ideologies seem to match the other party yet they adhere to the racial code. This has given GOP unchallenged control of several statehouses regardless of there actual performance or antics. Notice Mark Sanford is still in office in SC. He wouldn't still be in NC or VA.
badbee54
You are contradicting yourself somewhat in the Houston statement - how do they hate minorities and elect a lesbian. Actually we elected the best PERSON.
candyman101
is this a real person or a bot? I mean can we get this ass-clown banned or something?
ohsure
Why? Not PC enough for you?
Bulldoglover100
Gosh Candyman you must be a southerner! :) Someone has a differing opinion than you so they must be banned! No wonder your party is in the toilet!
The inherent ignorance of the South ruled just long enough to put this country back 50 years on an economic basis. Facts shows that the schools in the south test much lower Nationally. Poverty is rampant and when Katrina hit? Their party sold them out when Bush decided to play golf instead of ensuring help to those people.
Deregulation has gotten us into the mess our present President must deal with and yet still the south tries the old tired stick of lying to the people......what the South was to stupid to understand was the internet. People no longer have to wait for bought and paid newspapers or talking heads to give us the so called facts. It is no longer easy to lie like Atwater and that obese wad Limbaugh did for years. The days of people like that getting rich off the backs of the uneducated are over and so is the rule of the South. Good riddence.
candyman101
By the Grace of God yes, and a Texan to boot. However, if you are hanging your hopes of our country's future on the mindless dribble of the post I was originally commenting on, then good luck with that.
But while we are at it lets discuss the merits of your post:
1. Assuming "my party" is the Republican Party is akin to me assuming you are a Yankee elitist asshole (and for the record I fiscally conservative and socially liberal and don't really fit "the mold" of a political party)
2. Blaming the South for setting the economy back 50 years. Hmm, where to start... 50 years ago would have been the late 50's, a time of amazing growth. On the other hand, if you mean we would be 50 years progressed from the late 50's then I can only ask you for your crystal ball to see how things should have been. .
2. "[F]acts show that the schools in the South test much lower nationally." You are basing this statement on what, a standardized test, graduation rates, or something else? Does this statement take into account life experience (in the sense of one's ability to get a job with the education that said person possesses), average starting pay, cost of living, and so on?
3. "Poverty is rampant and when Katrina hit?" That is not a sentence. True, poverty is a serious problem in the South, so I think I am going to move to the job filled paradise that is michigan, indiana, west virginia, or ohio. For your reading pleasure, here is a link to the 10 most recession proof cities as determined by Forbes: http://www.forbes.com/2008/04/29/cities-recession-places-forbeslife-cx_jz_0 429realestate.html (note that not one of those cities is in the north).
4. "Their party sold them out." All I can say is wow, you are an idiot. New Orleans is one of the most democratic cities in the country. Not to mention, their mayor, Ray Nagin (D), failed to issue an evacuation order and left hundreds of perfectly usable school busses to drown in the flood water. On top of that, the FEDERAL government is responsible for the levee system that failed during Katrina. That's change I can believe in.
5. Deregulation was a republican idea passed and signed into law by Bill Clinton. However, the repubs didn't enjoy a supermajority in Congress and Clinton could have vetoed the bill, but for its Congressional democratic support. Speaking of Clinton (I don't want to be too harsh on old Bill); he was the last president to run a budget surplus.
6. We have the internet in the South, see this post. We also got dem der talkin pictures. But in all honesty, what are you getting at? Do Southern media outlets somehow lie more than those located elsewhere?
7. "The days of people like that getting rich off the backs of the uneducated are over and so is the rule of the South." These folks don't have listeners north of the Mason Dixon? Poor folks aren't exploited everywhere?
I could go on but there is no need. To sum up, don't take posts out of context, and think about what you write before you hit submit. Damn, you are as bad as the person I was originally complaining about.
xlntcat
When you paint with a broad brush, you become the bigot. You are prejudging a whole geographic area. I was born in the South, have lived in the South my entire life, am female, hold a post-graduated degree, and judge human by their conduct and their character. I voted for Obama but refuse to affiliate with either party as ideology leads to closed minded adherence to imposed values and ideas.
If you believe that even most of what you read on the internet represents facts then you are relying on a flawed medium and prove that ignorance is hardly confined to a geographic location.
Fang1944
Since you don't know the difference between "to" and "too," you have no business calling anybody stupid.
tehixe
The OP is absolutely retarded, and I'll say this as a northerner without much sympathy for Dixie. There are things you can rationally say about the South (thank you, Bulldoglover100), but please don't take octavio's screed as representative. I mean, if it is, we're screwed. I like to think that the North has a lot better to offer than him.
Maezeppa
I normally eschew psychoactive drugs but I think you are one of those who might benefit greatly from taking some.
urbancowgirl
I'd really like you to cite any study that says that 40% of Texas is racist. Only 50% of TX is white (34% Hispanic, 12% Black, and 3% Asian). That means that, apparently, only 10% of white Texans are not racist. Interesting. And so so SO false.
And I think you should know that Barack Obama won Houston, Dallas, Austin, and El Paso.
I'd also really like to know then who our new governor will be. See, everyone here (and across the country) thinks this is going to be one of the most interesting toss-up races in decades in TX. Perry vs Kay Bailey and then one of them vs. the immensely popular Democrat Bill White. So yes, please tell me who our new governor will be so I don't have to pay attention.
And finally, I agree with badbee - you hate racists but admit to being a homophobe?? What?? We elected a qualified mayor - so what?
PinkoLefty
I hate to nitpick, cowgirl, but... nah, I love nitpicking. I was born to pick nits.
I agree with and support your views, but I have an issue with the math and logic. Since a lot of Southerners are going to be reading this, I can't just let it slide without taking the time to educate. :)
First, the logical fallacy: Only white people are racist. Half of my family is black and, believe me, there is absolutely no white monopoly on racism.
Second, the math issue: If only white people are racist, and TX is 50% white, and 40% of TX is racist, then 20% of white Texans are racist (i.e. 10%/50% = 1/5 = .2 = 20%).
Q: If a train full of Texan racists traveling at 200 km/h leaves Houston at 9:00 AM and a train full of Arizona Minutemen leaves Yuma at 5:00 AM traveling at 300 km/h, where is the tea party?
A: Your mama's house.
urbancowgirl
Word. I'm actually really good at math too. Sad I messed thatup - definitely should be 20% of white Texans are racist thus equaling 40% of the population. Thanks for the correction.
Also, since our buddy up there said that "more than 40% of Texans are racists and hate blacks and other minorities" I assumed he meant that white Texans are racist thus hating blacks and the other minorities (since whites are the majority). I understand racism exists in every race but octavio is, as far as I can tell, only taking issue with white racism towards blacks (thus, apparently, Texas' hatred of Obama).
Again, this is all based on the assumption that I actually followed octavio's post correctly. A large assumption to make, I know.
xlntcat
It is widely ignored by the media and the democratic party that Obama carried three southern states and that TX, MS and GA all trended blue in 2008.
PinkoLefty
No biggie, Cowgirl. Actually of all of the parts of mathematics I was always weakest at arithmetic. I can do complex proofs in subjects like field theory and then fail to add Pi and Pi/2. I actually failed to get 100% in Algebra IV because of a mistake like that on the last line of the last question on the final exam. I was too much looking forward to an icy cold brew and some schmuck from Saudi Arabia on a "King's Scholarship" beat me. :(
At least I got to have the frosty beverage. :)
As a matter of fact, I think I'll have one now. Then off to the casino!!! Yeehaw! Drankin' and gamblin'! Can't beat it with a stick!
PinkoLefty
This is totally off-topic, but I don't care. I've already started drinking.
I just read this story in the NYT:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/15/science/earth/15ranch.html?_r=1&hp
What a cryin' shame! The Mustang ranch should forever be a preserve for free range hookers. Nothing else. Where are these fair beasts of the once wild west going to ply their trade now? Who will speak for the coalition of the all-too-willing? Who will stand erect and thrust forth their national pride, pointing the way to the victory of reason over cacti? The only reason man ever started walking upright was to show off his junk, and now we are robbed of a part of the audience. It's depressing, really. Oh well. Maybe a little blackjack will lift my spirits. N.B.) Drinking slightly chilled Argentinian chardonnay is like licking a sweaty angel.
jjsim1965
octavio, Texas always votes Republican in presidential races. You are wrong about almost everything else but I won't waste my time.
Fang1944
Texas was the eighth state to ratify the ERA and passed a state ERA when the amendment failed. When Texas colleges integrated, there was nothing like the violence in Mississippi, partly because of the presence of the Texas Rangers. Rednecks know not to mess with the Rangers.
When I moved from Texas to Ohio, I was astonished at the prudishness and the political corruption. I could only wonder if Midwestern politicians were more corrupt or if they just caught more often. And the censorship that occurred in Ohio would never have been tolerated in Texas.
Houston has a lesbian mayor because people in Houston were broad-minded enough to elect the best candidate, regardless of sexual orientation. The other candidate in the runoff was a black man. Does that sound racist or bigoted?
DakLak
Maybe it's the centuries on inbreeding has finally caught up with the South and their brains have finally ceased to function.
Khnum21
lol LOVE IT!!! ;)
Rsk233
I have lived in the South my entire life, and I am quite proud of having all the fashionable teeth, a 1520 on the SAT, true-blue Democratic credentials (that is, left of the Blue Dogs), and a working knowledge of the prepositions "on" and "of."
escomments
Nice theory. It's all Bull Shit.
It's a question of Big Government vs Small Government.
This President and this Congress have pushed this Country so far to the Left that there is going to be a huge backlash in 2010.
It is going to also include Northern voters.
Weather the politicians will have the political will to undo all the damage that these Democrats have caused, that will be the question and if that is what Beinart is referring to, we may be doomed.
tehixe
It is definitely not a question of big vs. small, the South supported Bush, and he increased the size of the government by a lot. Nice try, though.
escomments
Yeah, big choice.
A big spending Republican vs a Big Spending Democrat in Al Gore.
The reason the Republicans lost the last election is because we keep nominating big government Liberal Republicans to run against big government Liberal Democrats.
Republicans loose when trying to out Socialist the Democrats every time.
We'll see how it works out next time.
AlanD2
Try running a conservative Republican for President in 2012, escomments, and you'll lose even bigger than you did in 2008.
If you guys ever want to regain power, you need to moderate your politics.
escomments
Like you, Alan?
AlanD2
As Democrats are currently in power, escomments, we hardly need to moderate our politics - which, buy the way, are quite moderate already (just ask our Blue Dogs).
escomments
You are in for a rude awakening Alan, my friend.
You are so far to the left that you think Obama is a Moderate. LMAO!
Democrats are in power for two reasons:
1) The country's desperation for something different after Bush destroyed the Republican Party with the help of eight years of hateful left wing media amplified attacks against his administration but hey, that's politics. If he was able to construct two coherent sentences in a row, he may have been able to beat back some of the vitriol. Not to mention his limp wristed Liberal policies on illegal immigration, campaign finance reform, TARP, lending money to GM, his inability to successfully prosecute the two wars that he started mistakenly assuming they would be a walk in the park. Okay, lets face it, Bush was an incompetent blithering idiot. This phenomena seems to be running at epidemic proportions within the RNC, but I digress.
2) No one lies better then Democrats about their intentions when running for office as opposed to the way they actually govern in office. Their rhetoric never, ever matches their actions and now, the vast majority of the Country has caught on to the fraud.
We can go back and forth with meaningless speculation.
As I said, we will see what happens but your President is at a 44% approval rating. That's the worse for any President in their first term in history! but it's okay, no worries. He gives him self and his administration a B . To bad he's not the one who will ultimately judge his Presidency.
AlanD2
escomments: A true liberal / progressive agenda would include getting out of our two wars and passing a single-payer health care system.
As Obama does not seem interested in these, I consider him a moderate.
You might also have notices that he has followed many Bush policies, kept on some key Bush administration people like Gates, and appointed many Republicans to his administration. All of these are signs of a moderate.
xlntcat
It is Big Government vs Small Government - render verifiable statistics that the size of government has changed since Jan., 2009. Hint: The lady with the teabags hanging from her hat isn't a reliable source.
Name a single bill that has passed this congress supported by the president that has pushed the country in any direction.
There was a huge backlash in 2008. Since 2010 has yet to arrive, I assume you are consulting your crystal ball to predict the future.
What exactly do you want undone? Since congress can't manage to pass anything, you must, once again, be consulting the lady with the teabags on her hat.
Perhaps instead of spouting talking points from paid Dick Armey shills, you should try a formal education.
escomments
You must have been a sleep during the 2009 Budget, Stimulus Package, and here the latest, pushing the debt ceiling to 14 Trillion Dollars. The government is projected to hire as many as 600,000 new employees during the reign of Obama.
Maybe instead of accusing me of spouting talking points, you should get your head out of your derriere.
Maybe in your little world, people don't care about run away Socialist Liberal policies and spending, spending, spending, not to mention the hate for anything having to do with freedom and liberty for the individual that Democrats embrace, the rest of the country is oh so ready to wake up from this nightmare that those idiot centrists voted for in Obama. As if the signs weren't all there in plain view in spite of Chris Mathews on air orgasms when ever Obama gave a speech.
We shall see!
Teuthida
"The South," as opposed to those areas of the southern United States that contain large populations of educated transplants (e.g. Raleigh/Durham and Atlanta) is an intellectual wasteland characterized by ignorance and the arrogant stupidity born of evangelical self-righteousness.
yepiwill
right on sister
timeflies
Hmmm, if only. The thin veneer of "educated transplants" (presuming that doesn't include the enormous number of AL, MS, TX, SC, FL, & LA imports) are only a barrier reef to those two cities, which otherwise would be, respectively, a redneck tobacco road college town and a sprawling crime riven evangelical ghetto. Both are v-e-r-y proudly southern, just not the caricature you draw.
Oenolicious
It must be the holidays. I'd preferred Beinart to make a list of his best books, movies, or tv shows of the year. It would have had more intellectual heft than this piece.
periscope
The South has been a drag on progress in America since its earliest days. The Civil War showed that many southerners would fight to maintain slavery, even though most poor whites gained nothing from it. It was the big plantation owners who had the most to lose with the end of slavery, and they controlled the Confederate government, much the way criminal corporations control our federal government today.
The south has the most obesity, the most religiousity, the most racism, the most pornography patronage and most illiteracy. Instead of trying to bring Afghanistan out of the15th century, perhaps we should concentrate on bringing the South out of the 19th century.
millerny
You hit the nail right on the head. Any culture that is so anti-"elitist", i.e., anti-educated persons, can only go so far. Perhaps it would have been better to let them secede when they first tried?
Bulldoglover100
The inherent ignorance of the South ruled just long enough to put this country back 50 years on an economic basis. Facts shows that the schools in the south test much lower Nationally. Poverty is rampant and when Katrina hit? Their party sold them out when Bush decided to play golf instead of ensuring help to those people.
Deregulation has gotten us into the mess our present President must deal with and yet still the south tries the old tired stick of lying to the people......what the South was to stupid to understand was the internet. People no longer have to wait for bought and paid newspapers or talking heads to give us the so called facts. It is no longer easy to lie like Atwater and that obese wad Limbaugh did for years. The days of people like that getting rich off the backs of the uneducated are over and so is the rule of the South. Good riddence.
jostasauce
Southerners, unsurprisingly, are unhappy about the way things have been trending.
=========
The South, by clinging desperately to old world values and prejudices have made themselves irrelevant.
This user is no longer registered.
PinkoLefty
I agree with the underlying sentiment, but would we really want a nuclear armed, apocalyptic, theocracy on our border?
Remember this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesusland_map
periscope
Lettting the South secede certainly has some appeal, since we'd rid ourselves of fools like most of the southern representatives and senators in Congress.
But then, I fear, the South would develop into another theocratic despotism that subjugates women and "non-Christians" and seeks to spread its "message" to the enlightened part of America that remained together.
Before long we'd be sending in the Marines to protect ourselves from the white terrorists and other homicidal/suicidal loonies in Atlanta, Baton Rouge and Birmingham.
jus1drun
i'm midwest born, highly educated, independent and live in the heart of all that is liberal - the left coast. what i'm noticing about the comments is that the bigoted posts so far their origination north of the mason-dixon line.
urbancowgirl
Thank you jus1. As a southern born, highly educated, liberal living in the deep south (aka Big Tex), I understand that many southern ideals and traditions are worth getting rid of. I very much wish that brains were celebrated rather than made fun of and I wish southerners looked after their own health and I think rural areas would be made much better with some urban influence.
But at the same time, don't y'all - those very proud northerners who have posted here and your brethren - understand that, as long as you talk like that and tell us that it'd be better for us to secede, NOTHING will change? The south will not progress until y'all act like we can. For 100 years southerners have had every tradition and tenet they were brought up with systematically dismantled by northerners/liberals. Was that for the best? Abso-fucking-lutely. But don't you see the impact? Southerners are not Republicans because they're racist but because they're fiercely protective of their rights - which makes sense when you think of the "rights" they had taken away (again, rightly so, but not in their eyes). Southerners don't live in small states with fiercely communal towns like most northerners but rather in large rural expanses where one must be independent in order to make a living - don't you see how that carries over into their politics?
Most urban centers in the south are extremely Democratic - Atlanta, New Orleans, Houston, Austin - it's the rural areas that are still extremely Republican. And it makes sense.
Look, I don't agree with bible-thumping, ignorant, racist voters wherever they live and I know that they tend to be found more often in the south. But can't y'all - as super smart northerners - understand that you pushed them to be that way? So quit damning everything and everyone in the south and quit telling us to secede. There's a lot of really nice, fun, smart, engaging folks down here - both Democratic and Republican - and the way y'all are talking, seems to me like getting rid of the north and their bigoted views of the rest of the country seems like a better idea.
liviapeacock
However one may personally feel about the South and southerners, the facts are heart-breaking for the children born there:
Lowest test scores in schools
highest obesity
highest unwed teen mothers
highest divorce
highest sexual abuse
highest domestic violence
highest illiteracy
highest poverty
lowest in higher education
highest in home mortgage crisis
highest infant death
Now, how is it that the U.S. has allowed the southern politicos to run things for so long?
Dolmance
As the South goes, so goes the planet. The more religion a region's got, the more of what's on your list off horror emerges. What's true for these states is true for the world's countries.
It's like "Animal Farm," where the animals all think when they're being trucked off to the slaughterhouse that they're going to a big mountain where there's all the hay and corn and tasty things to eat an animal could want. They've made magic the center of their lives. And so the center of their lives is a big, fat nothing. The definition of "Nowhere's Ville."
escomments
Animal Farm is about Socialism, you moron!
kayjay
Not insignificantly, the Animal Farm was not about socialism, but instead about Communism (note the big C), and the conflict between Trotsky (Snowball) and Stalin (Napoleon). Orwell was a democratic socialist.
escomments
The conflict between Trotsky and Stalin is a narrative about why Socialism can't work. Snowball was defeated by the evil power hungry cunning of Napoleon but more importantly, the other animals were lead to believe in the Utopian society by the same charismatic propagandizing Napoleon. His sensible and fair for everyone philosophy: All animals are created equal, Four Legs Good, Two Legs bad. The people's Socialist Government system, good, The Greedy Capitalist Rich Guy System, Bad. All the while, the elitist Pigs ruled and lived like kings off of the backs of the proletariat which worked fine as long as the Pigs could keep the lie going. But the animals figured it out eventually as the oppression creeped in on them, ever so slowly. Rules were changed here and there. All animals are equal (but, some animals are more equal then others). An animal shall not kill another animal (without reason)
Sound familiar?
Communism, Stalinism is based on the writings of Karl Marx the inventor of modern Socialism. ie, The Union of the Soviet SOCIALIST Republics (USSR)
So yes, it is about Socialism. At what point of obtrusion do we have to creep past Socialism, as is trying to be nurtured by our fellow countrymen on the left, would the government have to reach to be considered Communist?
I have not heard a single Democrat wanting to limit the government's power anywhere but there is plenty of rhetoric to the contrary.
"From each according to their means, to each according to their needs"
Democratic Socialist. Now there is an Oxymoron. Like the DDR Deutch Democratic Republic or if you prefer, Communist East Germany. You know, the one with the Berlin Wall.
sy17921
Unfortunately, I have been living in Fl. for the past 35 years and everything we heard about the South is true. I retire next year and don't intend to stay anywhere in the south. I don't share the values that the majority of southerners hold dear. I'm not sure they'd revert to slavery if they could but they aren't far from it! The education in the South is dismal, so failure continues generation after generation. Being a spiritual or religious person is not a bad thing, but some of these people down in the South take that to a new extreme. Needless to say their religious beliefs tell them to hate the President and to hate Democrats too. They hold on to the past, there is no doubt about that.
escomments
Why the hell did you stay there for 35 years?
Can't wait to here the answer to that.
If you felt so strongly about living with people that you hated in order to make a living, I don't know if that is the reason or not, but seeing that you are now retiring and can't wait to get the hell out of dodge, I'm making an "Educated" guess.
Maybe you should have carried your bigoted ass up north and made a living up there instead.
Just wonder what those values are that you hold dear?
Dolmance
With health care reform the entire region might find itself with more than one tooth between them. This could brighten their mood considerably and make them easier to share a nation with.
Right now the Federal Government should be sending Predator Drones to knock off the religious fanatics that want to kill us all and replace the Constitution with a theocracy of people who look just like the stuttering pricks on Fox News, only the women have bigger hair.
eurydice9276
Hmmm, let me get this straight - the South has been politically powerful, influential and dominant for 40 out of the last 45 years, a period during which we did not revert to the old confederacy, so I'm not sure that this political shift is a repudiation of the South. More likely, it was just a time long overdue for other people in the country to be heard and represented.
lilysc
Was Beinart attempting to write a thoughtful essay with supporting facts or simply using a salacious title to generate a North vs. South comment war? I couldn't see any evidence for the first, but do forgive me. I am a southerner and probably just don't know any better since I am so poorly educated.
bryanlevi
It is hard to hear these generalizations when you are from those areas, but I have gotten used to it & you should too. They need us in these areas and you are awesome for being there.
eurydice9276
Well, I'm from the North and I didn't see anything thoughtful or convincing in this article, either. Maybe Beinart is originally from the South? ;-)
Thank you.
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