When I was a child growing up in Houston, I often heard the phrase “The South will rise again.” Some (white) Southerners never got over the loss of the Civil War. Or, as I heard the phrase again and again in the Deep South, “The War Between the States.” Or in Charleston, South Carolina, about 30 years ago, “The War of Northern Aggression.” There was always a certain romanticism attached to the Southern (white) struggle to defend its homeland.
Cultural memory dies hard.
But now we have an Attorney General-designate who is named for two Southern heroes: Jefferson Davis and General P.G. T. Beauregard.
Jefferson Beauregard Sessions.
The South is rising again.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
We always heard it, “Save your Confederate dollars, Boys, the South shall rise again❢”
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Because of the Electoral College I don’t think the south ever receded (seceded?). It has long been in control of our education funding at the federal level, for example. All those unfunded mandates…
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A VERY important power — controlling education. Perhaps the most important point of this last election: a point which the Democrats simply chose to “ignore.”
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Cultural memory dies hard, and so does racism.
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I’ve hear “The War of Northern Aggression” all my life in Mississippi. I can’t believe I am living to see this. I never would’ve dreamed it could happen. Fighting some major depression right now and considering a move out of the “Deep South.”
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Vote with your feet. Its the most powerful type of vote.
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Thanks Ron
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I’m considering a move to the “Deep North”, i.e., Canada. Want to get there before they build a wall.
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Canada is open to immigrants (although I imagine it’s more competitive now), but not so much for people over 50 years old when they can’t help out with the workforce for much longer. However, a growing number of people in California are considering breaking off from the union. http://www.businessinsider.com/california-secession-calexit-2016-11 Some are even entertaining the idea of having the entire west coast join Canada. http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/should-california-oregon-and-washington-join-canada-calexit-talk-envelops-west-coast/
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I take issue. The South is rising again? I have lived in 6 different states and three different regions of the United States. I didn’t choose my name, I doubt Mr. Sessoms did either. The “South” paid a price for its sins. It is still paying a price. I have no knowledge of Mr. Sessoms and I suspect that if he is in some way associated with Trump then he is not someone I would like to see in a high level government position. I am however disappointed in the generalizations and stereotyping in this post.
I am of Irish descent on one side of my family. I recently learned that the “patriarch” of my family was brought to the continent as a slave in the 1600s. The Brits as most people know, were often horrifically cruel to the Irish. The Irish are also known for fighting and drinking. We can all understand where stereotypes come from but we need to look to individuals and not to assumptions. I have lived in the South more than half of my long life and prefer it to any other part of our nation. I would just like to put out there that the health of the entire nation is impacted by the the health of its parts. Lets hope the South continues toward a successful and healthy future. We should not be punished for the sins of our fore-bearers.
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The South is Rising and perhaps that is a good thing . Sessions.hopefully represents the end of an era and not the rebirth. I am a little more concerned with what is happening a bit closer to home. Like the Mid West or Suffolk County.
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Ironically, it was the immigration of northerners that drastically changed the Tennessee electorate to make the state solidly Republican. Most of the folks who moved in since 1980 have been pro-business Republicans. Joining with evangelical Christian voters who were wooed with hot button issues, these new forces in Tennessee politics moved the likes of Al Gore, Sr. And Estes Kefaufer to distant history. Some of you may recall when the Dixiecrats had their little rebellion in 1948. Three southern senators refused to sign the manifesto that declared segregation to be solid. Two were from Tennessee, the two above, and one was Lyndon Johnson. Since then, the boom in the sunbelt has brought northern Republicans south to join with the old southern democrats. They have made the south solid. We could not do it alone.
Sessions might be somebody’s south, but he is not my south. My south had a conscience, produced great universities, managed some reconciliation in a failed civil rights movement, and knew how to cook turnip greens. My south was filled with people who loved their home so much that they did not join all their smarter cousins who moved north or west to take advantage of the economy. Some of them are my neighbors. They do not vote like me, but they help me fix my old truck. I think they are wrong a lot of the time, but democracy is messy.
Perhaps a new generation of voters will break the hold of extremists on my south. Someone will have to get them to the polls with a new vision. I do not really care where that vision comes from, so long as it includes people who are willing to help a neighbor and be a friend.
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I grew in southern Lousiana and remember the saying. I have since seen the world and all of its beautiful culture. The south rising again represents an era I hope no longer exist. We are the melting pot like “school house rock” has taught my generation. I would be willing to sacrifice all that I hold dear to stop an administration that embraces the long held belief that a south of the civil war should rise again. We are better than Trump.
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Michael Lind, a republican defector from Texas gives a very good explaination of how the corporate world adopted the South plantation model.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/04/20/722226/-Plantation-ownership-it-s-not-just-for-Southerners-anymore
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Colonel Ty Seidule, Professor of History at the United States Military Academy at West Point explains that the Civil War was fought over slavery, not State’s Rights, like the Southerners have been misled to believe since.
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It was both. To uphold the States right to keep slavery.
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The Southern Strategy devised after the Civil Rights movement of the 1960’s and implemented by President Nixon explains a lot of things too. Realizing that only a few voted with reason and that most people voted based upon ethnic hatred, Republican strategist traced migration patterns out of the South and into the Midwest after the Civil War and sought deceptive ways to aggravate racial tensions to win elections. http://www.nytimes.com/packages/html/books/phillips-southern.pdf
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Gag!
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