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Southern Fried Faith

by Loren Adams - May 03, 2009

The indisputable common pattern for Americans south of Mason-Dixon is they vote for the politician promising to promote war and reject those that don't. It's a fact: A majority of Southern white men are entertained by the sight of combat, real or imagined. Thus, violence is no vice; resolution of conflict is. How "Christian" is that?

Bush and his cronies tapped into this. War against any country for any cause, justified or not, is unconditionally backed by most Southern white men. "My country, right or wrong" is the bedrock mantra of southern-fried faith. So, whether or not Iraq had WMD made no difference in Dixie. Gun-worship, God-delusion and gay-hate are the three pillars of the war-passion cult.

Bush, the arrogant little bully, loved a fight also. So, there was common ground between the Old South and the new rightwing extremist Republican Party controlled by the neocons over foreign policy and social conservatives over domestic. Combine the trend toward intellectual immaturity and "Southern Fried Faith" and you have the formation of the perfect storm that swept America into never-ending conflict and depression.

Note Zell Miller's 2004 speech.  It was all about weapons' systems, war, and defense build-up.  His tone was charged with anger. He asserted the Democratic Party was no longer American and no longer relevant nationally. Zel's outrage stemmed from his southern fried faith which he believed was betrayed by a progressive Democratic Party.

After the Civil War, the Old South found its voice through "Dixiecrats" -- Democrats who steadfastly resisted integration, fair-labor standards, voting rights, women's rights, and civil rights. They maintained their hatred for Abraham Lincoln and Republicans for a century -- until Republicans moved to a more acceptable racist corner. Like Middle Eastern tribesmen, they vowed vengeance -- no matter how long it took. Southern white traditionalists held to the concept slavery was the best economic and social system. They may have masked this belief into different terminologies over generations, but the culture all boiled down to the same, disrespect for the working class and reverence for aristocracy.

Amazingly, that same sentiment thrives today. The southern anti-labor position is most apparent. Southern white men (for the most part) still believe non-whites and women should be subservient to their white masters and live in designated "quarters" out back, unseen and unheard. "Get to the back of the bus" was only symptomatic of this greater belief system based on their biblical interpretation women were to keep silent and ethnics invisible (i.e., African-Americans, Native-Americans, Hispanics, Jews, Arabs, Asians and others).

Is there doubt to the statement's validity? Then, come live in the South for 20 years or so. Try making a living. Try organizing workers into a union. Try crossing racial lines. Try crossing social lines. Try crossing cultural lines at Masters in Augusta (especially before the rise of Tiger Woods). Try attending a church other than Southern Baptist or one of its sister denominations; or try not attending a church at all; or worse still, try attending a synagogue or mosque. The class consciousness, the racial superiority, the mixing of religion to sanction their un-Christ-like behavior, their undying devotion to war and weapons, and the ultimate hope of the South's resurrection c1800-1860.... These characteristics filter down to sons of the South to this day. I politely call it "Southern-Fried Faith."

It's true; not all Southerners are alike. There are a few Jimmy Carters and Bill Clintons floating around, and Al Gore hails from Tennessee. There are a lot of good things about the South, but warmongering and racial/religious hatred are not among them. But the churches and Southern-fried governments have been corrupted by the mean-spirited right in recent decades, where the wealthy are honored and the working class put down. It has evolved into a cult-like movement. I agree with this assessment. I also see it as the most toxic element threatening the whole of America today.

The turnabout for Dixiecrats began quietly in 1932 with the landslide of Franklin D. Roosevelt. Although the South was still solid, Roosevelt's policies toward African-Americans and women did not set well. Dixiecrats were losing ground within their own party. The trend gradually progressed into the 1960s when civil rights legislation was introduced by Democratic administrations and pushed through Congress by Democratic leaders. Dixiecrats balked but remained for the most part.  However, significant defections were already the indication of a weakening base. Dixiecrats saw the Republicans no longer as the party of Lincoln (whom they despised), but the party of Strom Thurmond and segregationists -- which, naturally, drew them to the GOP and away from the DNC.

The trend progressed through the 70s, 80s and 90s. Now the South is solid again, solidly Republican. Dixiecrats have transformed themselves into Republicans, but the traditional causes are identical:  (1) suppression of civil rights; (2) subjugation of labor and the working class; (3) pro-war, pro-military; and (3) religious cultural issues, i.e., gay rights, abortion, same-sex marriage, etc. The attempt to suppress the minority vote began after Reconstruction and took on forms such as "Jim Crow," "poll taxes" and other means to disqualify any outside the ruling class. Jeb Bush's "high-tech" screening of "felons" was just another Jim Crow scam. 

Similar to its prominence of the 19th century as having an impact on overall American policy, the South has become the swine-flu infection that threatens the nation's survival. When first observing the red-state / blue-state map displayed by networks in the 2000, 2002 and 2004 elections, I visualized the resurrection of the Old Confederacy. The map, in fact, followed the same 19th century divide.

Name the most vocal right-wing advocates today, and you will discover their roots are Southern. In fact, most are wed to what I’ve defined as “Southern-Fried Faith” – Limbaugh, Hannity, Gramm, Bush, Rove, Cheney, Robertson, Hagee, Dobson, Sanford, Corker, Bennett, Scarborough, Buchanan, Beck. Even Palin's denominational ties originate from the Old South. Fundamentalists, hypocrites, war-lovers, sexists, gay-haters, and encumbered with nasty tendencies toward bigotry, these are the gate-keepers of the right, the ones hell-bent on destroying Obama even if it means destroying the country in the process.

Timothy McVeigh was obsessed with the same Southern-fried faith as described. It was his mission to plant the seed of civil unrest in America by setting off a bomb in Oklahoma City. He believed this initial act would lead to a government crackdown that would in turn inflame white Americans to seek revenge against all other races and religions. McVeigh’s roadmap was the Turner Diaries, and the Murray Building was the first domino he hoped would bring down the nation. Instead, President Bill Clinton took a path unexpected by McVeigh: reasonable investigation and prosecution. On the other hand, George Bush took the opposite approach after 9/11; he inflamed anti-American sentiment exceeding pre-9/11. Had Clinton implemented Bush's policies in 1995, McVeigh's dream could possibly have come true. Read about Turner Diaries.

The current demise of America’s economy with resulting turmoil resembles Turner Diaries’ scenario. Are we ripe for another McVeigh or a resurgence of right-wing supremacists? Could Cheney himself be a secret devotee of the same?

As the consequence of seating an anti-intellectual president from the South who was determined to wage war from the onset, the nation is more at risk than ever. Like never before, we have lost world-wide prestige, our military is stretched thin, our economy is destroyed, and Bin Laden [with his undetectable hordes] is more inspired to commit the unspeakable – episodes Dick Cheney and his brown-shirts can only imagine and seek.

All this – because Southern-Fried Faith was allowed center stage for eight too many years.