As waves of Yankees continue to migrate south to live the good life in a good climate, the South continues to lose its identity, in the same way America is losing its identity as waves of illegal aliens cross its borders. The South lost the Civil War 151 years ago, almost to the day. The region experienced utter devastation — an elegant land turned into a wasteland. Yankee Republicans wanted to round up the Southern leadership for execution but Lincoln would have none of it. Still, the Union Army occupied the South for 12 years. Yankee carpetbaggers invaded eagerly, realizing that “to the victors go the spoils.” Rape had many faces. The South would never recover from its crime and never be rid of its punishment. Today, the South remains a second-class citizen, maligned and disrespected, however generously it may be coveted for its geographical blessings. Hollywood forever has reserved its venom for the South, incessantly depicting a society and a people as imbecilic, uncultured, racist yokels — almost sub-human. If you bother to notice such a thing, Yankees and Californians run the entertainment industry. If you bother to notice such a thing, Yankees dominate television news. These are the most well-known faces you see and hear daily — you will note how many of them hail from the beleaguered South:
O’Reilly, NYC
Hannity, NYC
Sustern, WI
M. Kelly, Syracuse, NY
C. Matthews, Philadelphia
C. Wallace, Chicago
C. Cuomo, Queens
Ann Curry, Oregon
Maddow, Castro Valley, CA
Shepard Smith, Holly Springs, Miss.
Anderson Cooper, NYC
Diane Sawyer, Glasgow, KY
Matt Lauer, NYC
Geraldo Rivera, NYC
Howard Stern, Queens
Jon Stewart, NYC
Wolf Blitzer, Buffalo
Poppy Harlow, Minneapolis
Becky Anderson, England
Carol Costello, Canton, OH
Michaela Pereira, Canada
Jim Axelrod, Brunswick, NJ
Morley Safer, Canada
David Rhodes, NYC
Lesley Stahl, Lynn,Massachusettes
Charles Osgood, NYC
Stone Phillips, Texas City
Brian Williams, Ridgewood, NJ
Natalie Morales, Taiwan
Carson Daly, Santa Monica, CA
George Stephanopoulos, Fall River, MA
Greg Gutfield, San Mateo, CA
Kimberly Guilfoyle, SF, CA
Juan Williams, Panama
Andrea Mitchell, NYC
David Gregory, LA
Peter Alexander, Oakland, CA
Brit Hume, DC
Carl Rove, Denver
Keith Olbermann, NYC
Glenn Beck, Washington
Rush Limbaugh, Missouri
Arianna Huffington, Athens, Greece
Tucker Carlson, CA
Michael Savage, NYC
Charles Krauthammer, NYC
Mark Levin, Philadelphia
George Will, Champaign, Ill.
William Kristol, NYC
Frank Rich, DC
Kirsten Powers, Fairbanks
Alan Colmes, NYC
Joe Klein, Albany, NY
Bret Baier, Rumson, NJ
Steve Hayes, Wisconsin
The fact that Yankees are in charge of political commentary makes perfect sense since Yankees also have prevailed over the White House since 1850. Andrew Johnson, a Tennessean, did inherit the WH following Lincoln’s assassination; but toward the end of his term, sympathetic to the plight of the South, he was impeached and acquitted by one shaky vote. In subsequent years, only two Southerners — Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton — would come to power. If you bothered to notice such a thing, one was a miserable failure and the other an impeached perjurer — not exactly what you would call illustrious stewards of the nation’s giant Southerners — Washington, Jefferson, Madison and Monroe. After Zachary, the Yankees, including Lincoln, took over:
Millard Fillmore New York
Franklin Pierce New Hampshire
James Buchanan Pennsylvania
Abraham Lincoln Illinois
Andrew Johnson Tennessee
Ulysses S. Grant Illinois
Rutherford B. Hayes Ohio
James A. Garfield Ohio
Chester A. Arthur New York
Grover Cleveland New York
Benjamin Harrison Indiana
Grover Cleveland New York
William McKinley Ohio
Theodore Roosevelt New York
William Howard Taft Ohio
Woodrow Wilson New Jersey
Warren G. Harding Ohio
Calvin Coolidge Massachusetts
Herbert Hoover California
Franklin D. Roosevelt New York
Harry S. Truman Missouri
Dwight D. Eisenhower Kansas
John F. Kennedy Massachusetts
Lyndon B. Johnson Texas
Richard Nixon California
Gerald Ford Michigan
Jimmy Carter Georgia
Ronald Reagan California
George H. W. Bush Texas
Bill Clinton Arkansas
George W. Bush Texas
Barack Obama Illinois
And, sure enough, we now have a NY Yankee at the top of the GOP heap, at least for the time being. Trump’s antagonist is one Hillary Clinton, originally of Chicago. Sanders is a Brooklyn boy. You know the rest — Rubio from Miami, Cruz from Canada, Kasich from Pennsylvania and Carson from Detroit. Gratefully, Lindsay Graham didn’t get traction and further demean the South’s reputation. Before him, you may remember another South Carolina native John Edwards, a sleaze who came perilously close to high office. The South likes to claim Newt because he represented Georgia but he came from Pennsylvania stock. If you bother to notice such a thing, the Old South just doesn’t seem interested in leadership. Maybe the South has decided to ignore the denigration and ridicule dished out by Hollywood and the Networks. But something tells you, if things get bad enough, you’ll hear from the South again. It’s in the genes.