I'm sorry, have you been to Texas in the last, oh, 60 years or so? I grew up jokingly calling everyone north of the Red River "Yankees" (the ones that weren't Okies). And this "map" was only half-a-joke, too:"School, once the most universal and influential of our democratic institutions, now walls them off."
— Alexander (@alexanderrusso) July 8, 2021
George Packer: The Four Americas - The Atlantic https://t.co/C3BxXLiUcO
"Texas Secede" and "Freeze A Yankee In the Dark!" sound familiar? Well, maybe you're not old enough; that was 40 years ago. And most of the "South" has never forgotten the Civil War, a/k/a "The War of Northern Aggression." You'd be surprised how many people take that (stupid) appellation seriously.
Then there's the West. I'm old enough to remember the "Sagebrush Revolution." St. Ronnie put leaders of that nonsense (without the federal government the "West" would still be wilderness populated by the natives we drove out. Feds did that, too. You're welcome, Western states.) in his Cabinet. Then there was the "two Americas" the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. so eloquently spoke about. Those two Americas are still here; or hadn't you noticed?
"Four Americas"? At least. But you say that like it's a new thing. School as a "democratic institution"? All I remember it teaching me about "democracy" was we weren't godless Commies.
I suppose you have to be old enough to have been there, but I grew up in an America where regions were determined to wall themselves off from all those not-quite-true Americans. Sure, we all watched Lucy be married to Ricky on the TeeVee; but that didn't mean we treated "Latins" any better in our towns or daily life.
Why is it we have to make the present-day so significant without recognizing this is just a point in history? It's like the commentators talking about what Trump has "done" to the GOP. Trump didn't do shit. He's the apotheosis of a GOP that's been a cult looking for a dominant personality for almost half-a-century, at least. Trump couldn't organize a two-car funeral procession, and he's honestly about as charismatic as a toad. Trump's "authority" says far more about the state of the GOP than it does about the "power" of Trump. He literally has no power, but the GOP loves him anyway. Start your analysis of the present "divided state" of America with that problem, and work backwards into history. You might even find a viable answer.
But quit pretending were once has a shining city on a hill, and then the lights went out. That's just a variation on the "Heroic Anglo Narrative" so common to Texas "history," where our "greatness" was diminished by, well, you know....not quite keeping certain people "in their place." Or certainly by not espousing the stories of how heroic we really are. Well, some of us really are; the ones who aren't suffering the fools who divide us. You know who you are. It ain't us, that's for sure!
I'll retire to Bedlam....
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