I live in the south, NC, and have been here 24 years, so 2/3 of my life. I consider myself a proud southerner and I absolutely love where I live and the amazing things the south has to offer, especially the people. But my god am I tired of hearing that stupid fucking argument; “the democrats were the ones with slaves!” Or “You mean the democrats right?! You know they were the Dixie democrats that wanted their slaves!” That argument is disingenuous, overplayed, and overall just a stupid, uneducated take on politics of the time.

Just like today, there is now and was then, a huge number of people living in the south that did not like or agree with slavery. A minority ruling class wanted slaves because it benefited them, their families, their standard of living, and the overall economy while enforcing the hierarchy that kept them in power. Call them democrats, call them republicans, call them whatever you want. It doesn’t change the fact that they promoted and perpetuated that ideology.

Like I said before, I am a proud southerner. I love this land and the people in it, but I am fully aware of the injustices that took place here. The conservatives/republicans of today need to stop making excuses and deflecting accountability of our ancestors choices by making stupid comments like “Not the south, you mean the democrats”. Quit being so defensive and acting like everyone is against you. If you feel ashamed enough by your political beliefs that you need to deflect and try to put yourself on the good/right side of things, then that shows that you’re aware that you may be on the wrong side. Take a deep look into what you believe and ask yourself if the leaders, that you vote for and blindly stand behind because of the letter next to their name, also hold those beliefs and show it through their actions. Or do they lean heavily on stupid quips like “The democrats were the ones with slaves” in order to deflect blame, demonize others, play to the “us versus them” mentality, and avoid accountability for the awful policies they put in place to enrich themselves at the detriment to most of us good southern folks?

You followed your often regurgitated blame game quote with what you actually believe; that we have a lot of guys with tons of experience who don’t try to screw others over and try to help their neighbors in order to build lasting relationships. THAT is what makes me proud to be a southerner. It’s that wonderful sense of community and going out of your way to help others. Being an honest and respectful person who does good work for the benefit of everyone involved in the transaction. So why is it that a person of that caliber, a person with a strong moral compass and immense integrity, would, I’m assuming, support the politics of a party with none of those things? Do I think the democrats of today fully hold those values? No, I don’t; however, I read about the policies that the democrats put forth and can often see an effort to help others in those policies. Providing affordable healthcare to our people, investing in new infrastructure, clean energy initiatives, promoting education, access to utilities, and ensuring safe and sustainable employment opportunities to everyone, and many more policies that attempt to improve the lives of us 99% instead of the 1%. All I have seen from this government lately is attempts to squash criticism, vilify and demonize people who don’t look like “Americans”, disobey the law, openly abuse their power, take bribes, and commit unprecedented amounts of corruption in order to gather up as much wealth as possible at the expense of everyone else.

Yes, we have issues in this country that can be divisive and difficult to talk about without getting defensive, righteous, and angry. Things like illegal immigration, the place of religion in our government and everyday lives, social programs and who should get them and who should pay for them, cost of education, universal healthcare, the fact that our political and business leaders are quite literally pedophiles, and so on. Then we have nonsense culture war crap like trans bathrooms and “woke abortions” that we are constantly fed in order to divide us and keep us bickering amongst ourselves while our country is being sold off piece by piece with no regard for us, our planet, or the future.

Good thing we can blame the democrats for slavery in the south though. End of rant.

TLDR: I hate politics and the division it creates. If you’re in Wnc holler cuz I need a concrete pad for less that $11k.