Michael Lind has an interesting article on The Tea Party, the debt ceiling, and white Southern extremism.
Lind points out that 39 of the 62 members of the Congressional Tea Party Caucus are from southern states: Texas (12), Florida (7), Louisiana and Georgia (5 each) and South Carolina, Tennessee and Missouri (3 each). And Maryland, southern certainly outside Baltimore and the Washington suburbs has the only northeastern member. (Lind does not reveal the 39th southern member.)
In other words, Lind maintains, the Confederate States of America are well represented. The Tea Party, he claims, is a much more Southern-based entity than generally recognized, in part because of the prominence of midwesterner Michele Bachmann. Lind suggests it be called the Fort Sumter movement rather than the Tea Party.
The goal, the methods and the passion of the Tea Party in the House are all characteristic of the radical Southern right.
From the earliest years of the American republic, white Southern conservatives when they have lost elections and found themselves in the political minority have sought to extort concession from national majorities by paralyzing or threatening to destroy the United States.
Fergit, hell. I’m sick to death of Southern exceptionalism and the pervasive NASCAR mentality. For every Atticus FInch, there seem to be a million Bubbas.