Reply #142: I lived in the south in the era of Martin Luther King, Jr.

[JDPriestly]

You shouldn't take this personally. These are generalizations. I have known many wonderful, courageous, upright Southerners who had real integrity.

At the same time, I remember George Wallace. I remember Nixon's strategy of winning southern votes with a subtle form of racism. That is what really got our nation into the mess it is in. If it weren't for the racism and anger of southerners, we would be able to elect Democrats. Southerners have formed, since the Nixon era, the right-wing voter base. And the core values of that base are bigotry, hatred and arrogance. (Granted there are other areas in the U.S. that are predictably bigoted. Orange County, California is a good example.)

The days of the Southern Democrats who remained racists but voted for Roosevelt on other issues such as economic development are long gone.

You may be offended. But the Republican strength in the south was built on racism and anger at Yankee ideas like equality for people of color and women. I was there. If you believe things have changed, please explain the basis for your belief.

As for the "moral values," of Republican conservatives. The problem is not that Republicans have high moral and spiritual values. It is that they want to impose their personal moral and spiritual values on others. They are hypocrites because while they want to impose their claimed values on others, they don't live by their values themselves. Many of the major Republican candidates are divorced -- yet most of them profess to believe in the sanctity of marriage and condemn the idea of gay marriage. It's not that southerners "sin" more. It's that they pontificate more about their high moral values and use "moral values" to intimidate and control others. That's dangerous stuff. You cannot befriend hypocrites. They cannot be trusted. They are too lacking in integrity, i.e., oneness with themselves and consistency in impulse, thought and behavior, to be good friends.