The South: poor, sick and bigoted

This is the month in 1865 that Grant took Richmond and received Lee's surrender, putting an end to the Confederacy. Or did it? Southern attitudes didn't seem to die. Voting obstacles are still in place. Corrupt gerrymandering keeps the rednecks in Congress and rejection of Medicaid punishes poor citizens. Harper Lee said it best about southerners, “ When you don't want anything, there's plenty.” Peasant traits, to use the words of John Berger, are mostly conservative. The resentment of Southern conservatives has hindered their understanding of the political reality of the modern world. The northern middle class and certainly the upper class, retain a mastery of the world of their making. Marx, always a dirty word in America, said, “It's not enough to understand the world, you have to work to change it.” Have you ever been to Shanghai? It rivals Manhattan. Marxism is certainly working there turning peasants into billionaires. The city has risen swiftly to bustling wealth and skyscrapers of glittering lights and steel. This is the result of a hard-working population unleashed to prosper yet still offer visitors their sincere goodwill. As for the South, if you'll pardon a rude expression, it doesn't have a Chinaman's chance.