Disclaimers:
1) I am not a Southerner. I've lived in the South for 15 years, but I'm from 'up north'. I would never have the guts to comment on my adopted culture - except that a lot of real Southerners at yK encouraged me. In fact, they sort of begged me to write a diary to help other non-Southerners understand. Given that, please understand that my opinions are just that - opinions. Other than my conviction about the importance of the system effect, I won't fight if I'm pushed to the wall.
2) I live in the Deep South (Alabama). So my observations (even if I have them right for where I live) will be increasingly questionable as you move to and through the regions that border the Deep South.
3) I'm Caucasion and not from around here - That means that while I can suck up my courage to try to describe the Southern white culture, I would be lying if I tried to say anything meaningful about Southern black culture. The distinctions are too big and my access is too limited. I can only hope that some other Kossack with better insight will take up that challenge. Accordingly, this diary is limited to my impressions of the white southern cultural system. Hopefully, that's still relevant because that's the voting block that democrats are most concerned and confused about. Nonetheless, it does beg a lot of questions about the system interactions between the white and black communities in the South. That's a major weakness of my analysis, but there's not much I can do about it.
4) The topic is way too big to handle in one diary. I propose to publish 2 or 3 over the next few weeks. This one will probably be the longest and deals with the concept of a 'system' and lists some of the main elements. The next one (if I survive the fallout from this one) will try to describe how the system meta-level generates the behaviors that outsiders find confusing. The third (again assuming there is interest) will look at some political strategies that may be appropriate from a system perspective.
I am convinced that non-Southerners can't understand the South because, while they can see the parts (personalities, events, groups, issues, fears, ambitions, etc), they can't see the complex web of subtle forces that control its aggregate behavior. For that, you have to view it as a SYSTEM - almost as a living organism.
Why is the concept of a system important? Because systems can create behaviors that transcend individuals. The blogosphere does that. Right here, everyone is analyzing the still-evolving dKos and yKos system. They are wondering what it is, how it works, what it will become, what it can do. Regardless of the future, I assume that virtually no one still thinks this is just a collection of random people who like to type comments in their spare time.
If the progressive blogosphere is rapidly coalescing and evolving, the Southern social and cultural system is at the other end of the maturity spectrum. Its evolution began at least 300 years ago. For a long time, it was pretty much isolated and ignored. Hence, most of its behaviors, expectations and norms were stable for decades, even generations. I believe that this longevity and relative isolation is really important. It allowed the Southern cultural system to develop and refine a depth of inter-relationships, complexities and nuances that are not seen anywhere else in America - at least on this scale. Social (and economic and cultural) systems in other parts of the country are either younger (e.g., the West) or underwent fundamental changes (immigration and urban migration) that really shook things up. There are, to be sure, other long-lived social networks (Cajun?), but the South has a defining difference - it is BIG.
To understand the Southern system, you have to listen close to Southerners descriptions of themselves - like to the following statements:
I AM a Southerner - If a Southerner moves away when he or she is 12, that person will still call themself a Southerner. Why? I'm convinced that you're a Southerner because you understand the exquisite, occult mysteries of the Southern social system. These are things you learn when you are little - the way children can only learn to sound a complex tonal language like Chinese before the age of 5. One mystery is to learn to say Sir and Ma'am with all 498 unique intonations. There is an awed Sir (I'll dispense with the Ma'am for brevity), a modestly respectful Sir, a scared Sir, the Sir with a hint of a smile, a really good fake Sir, ... etc. etc. etc. There may be more variations of Sir and Ma'am than the Inuit have words for snow.
Southerners are raised to be polite because it mattered what others thought of them. They care what their family and friends think. They care about their neighbors opinions. They care what business acquaintances think of them. This, I posit, is the nature of a long-standing rural culture (I grew up on a small farm, so I have some empathy). There is nothing more painful than being ostracized in a small community - or in an extended family. Until recently, most Southern communities were small and everyone was related. Even those who live in cities in the South are generally plugged into a big, extended family. As a result, Southerners have evolved a dizzyingly complex set of rules for public and private behavior. These are essential tools for mutual coexistence. When catastrophe stared them in the face after the 'war between the states', these rules and norms were pretty much all they could retain from the debacle. So they did. And they do. They are proud of these skills and they resent anyone who dismisses their importance.
I AM a [Episcopalian|Methodist|Presbyterian|Baptist|Primitive Baptist] - In small, rural towns, the church offers a unique stability and acceptance for people that lived with a violent, capricious nature. Tornados, hurricanes, floods, droughts, conflict. All the violence a human can suffer. Only God can possibly make sense of it. So people attend church. In His Grace, they bind together for mutual support. But mutual support creates a need for acceptance. In a big city, anonymous people can shop churches. In a small town, losing the support of your congregation is a life-altering experience. It's not just the church and the pastor, it's most of your friends. When you leave, you are repudiating them - your family and your support network. They're going to feel hurt and they will likely show it. Even if the the pastor quotes Rush or Sean or Bill, you have to listen. You either sit and listen to the screed or leave and lose the support of your friends and family. Not easy. Many sit and listen - and some crap inevitably seeps through the BS filter.
I AM a Patriotic American - Southerners are loyal. Really, really loyal. Loyalty is a huge virtue in the South. Maybe THE virtue in the South. The reasons are still a bit mysterious to me. Possibly the need to belong and a reverence for loyalty build together. Southerners extend that loyalty to family, friends, their nation and, especially to the military. Southerners have one of the highest military participation rates in the country. To Southerners, the US Military is part of their extended family (figuratively and literally). I may be wrong, but I think that Southern loyalty to the military is even stronger than their loyalty to their church. Those yellow ribbon car magnets are from the heart. If you want to really incense a Southerner, just question their loyalty to their country or to the military. Or criticize the military they are loyal to. They will literally leap across the room to its defense. Loyalty - keep that thought.
I AM a [Tide|Bulldog|Tiger|Gator| ...] fan - How do you explain football in the South? I'm not sure, but its really, really important. I suspect that it is mainly about about winning and losing. I'm convinced that Southerners feel winning and losing more deeply than people in other parts of the country. All Americans are fixated on winning, but winning is a visceral addiction in the South. Maybe because they lost so thoroughly 150 years ago. They need the fix so bad that they will devote nearly their entire existence to a college football program. They will buy $100,000 RVs to go to 6 games a year and they will track high school recruiting the way day-traders track stocks. Despite the need to win, Southern fans stay with their team for life (even when they are losing, they still hope to win - so they take it out on the coach). It's that loyalty thing again. Occasionally, I hear about someone that converts when they marry - but just as often they seem to sign a football prenup and agree to disagree. Children of these 'mixed marriages' (a term frequently heard in Alabama) have issues.
(Note: Repeat previous paragraph - just substitute NASCAR for football).
I AM a [Hunter|Fisherman|Farmer|Golfer] - Southerners are tied to the land. Some of them literally live off of it. There are deer hunters in this neck of the woods that literally don't eat any other meat. Most hunting occurs on privately owned land. If you want to hunt deer or turkey, you have to either pay a landowner, or be in with a landowner who has a place to hunt. A lot of Southerners have a working farm or timber tract somewhere in their immediate family. Because they generally own their recreational land, Southerners care deeply about its state of repair - but don't mention the 'environment'. That's fancy northern talk for ways to box them off their own land - or so they think. 'By God it's my land and no one can tell me how to enjoy it.' By all accounts, some of the deepest Southern bonding takes place on the land. I personally wouldn't know, but hunting trips and fishing trips are the stuff of legend. (I think this may also extend to Golf.)
(Note: Repeat previous paragraph - just substitute guns for hunting land).
I BELIEVE - Loyalty and stubborness seem to go together. Some Southerners are the most stubborn people I have ever met. They're not dumb. They understand the arguments. But they will remain loyal to their beliefs no matter what. Betraying a held belief seems to conjure up deep conflicts with their reverence for loyalty, their need to belong, their need for group approval, their ... So, when all is said and done and they finally can't live with those beliefs, they are deeply, truly hurting. Be kind, gentle and respectful.
I AM the Boss - By default, the Southern system assumes hierarchy. Patriarchy. Matriarchy. Some type of 'archy'. Boss and worker. Parent and child. Teacher and student. Preacher and congregation. Sergeant and Private. Is it all just an attempt by the powerful to subjugate the worker? Well, not quite. A Southern small business owner expects to be the boss. He or she will demand a lot of their workers. But those are their workers. The obligations cut both ways. If one of their own is sick or hurting, most bosses will care. Their family will care. Their church will care. There is a complex set of mutual expectations. As complex as the rest of Southern society. Think Japanese giri-lite.
I AM a Country Music Fan - Tens of thousands of songs with simple, twangy melodies and poignant stories. What's up with that? Think of a huge quilt. Fully unfolded, its intricate design is a roadmap to the Southern cultural system. The story that each country song tells is one tiny panel on that quilt. Each draws a picture of some small aspect of that complex web of social relationships, values, hopes and fears. A lot speak of loyalty and betrayal. Some are funny and silly. Some are hopeful. Some are sad. Some are mad. There is also a huge spiritual reservoir in Christian and Gospel music. Close by, you will find the blues - Southern culture from an African-American perspective. Collectively, this music records and teaches the consensus version of Southern cultural values.
I AM a [Republican|Democrat] - All of these cultural values and characteristics intersect and flow into their political affiliation. The need to belong and the accompanying reverence for loyalty mean that they CAN'T switch allegiences easily (not won't - can't). Most Southerners WERE democrats. Tectonic forces (yes, involving deeply troubling racial issues) caused a wrenching movement to the Republican fold. But most still have vestiges of a democrat inside. Analysts like Mudcat Saunders don't think the conversion is complete. Its getting close, but has it locked in place? Is it reversible? No one really knows.
Black and White - Oh, I almost forgot - that race thing. Silly me. Is there really a race issue? Duh. What's really going on? Beat's me. I've only lived here a decade and a half. Not nearly long enough to figure out a deeply emotional 300-year old social construction. Best I can make out, it is interwoven with all of the other tentacles of this social octopus. I really regret that I can't offer more insight, but perhaps someone else can and will. In the meantime, the Southern white voter is still a group of interest to Democratic strategists.
Bottom Line:
The South is a BIG Social System. Its not just individuals, or issues, or a religion, or a race, or the land, or NASCAR, or country music, or ... It's all of these and more. The whole is much, much larger than the sum of its parts. If you want its inhabitants to come to your side, you have to understand that the system dictates a lot of their behavior. Republicans know this. Most Democrats do not. Some democrats don't care to make the effort to peel the layers off the onion. They would rather 'whistle past' it. That's now become the crux of the Democratic choice.
Can Democrats win in the South? - I think so. But first, they have to understand how the Southern social system sets the rules on the playing field. Hopefully this diary and the hoped-for comments will help.
If you have insights to add - or corrections to offer - please take the time to comment. This is an important issue and the jury seems to still be out. If there is interest, I'll address additional (equally unworthy) ideas in future diaries.
Update 1 - BarbaraB added one I really like and one I question:
I AM a [insert Greek alphabet letters here.] For college-educated Southerners, the fraternity or sorority to which they belonged will be hugely important to them and to others for the rest of their lives. This ties in with family and loyalty, but it isn't quite the same. If you think "Greek culture" is about the Parthenon, you don't understand the South.
Bulls-eye. This is how Southern 20 somethings hope to build the web of social and economic ties (i.e. SYSTEM) that they hope will serve them for the rest of their lives. Guess where Repubs concentrate?
I AM a high school graduate. Maybe folks in other regions make a huge deal out of high school graduations, but I sure don't remember it in California when I was growing up. College graduate parents whose kids will be going on to college still have big parties and lament the fact that the high school only gave them 10 graduation tickets. Relatives fly in from all over.
Certainly was true. Not sure if this isn't beginning to change and I'm not sure how it factors into politics.
