You’d think that by now we would be used to it. The leaders have had it out for the South for decades. Any figure who was a silly ruby would always have a Southern accent, for decades, in movies and TV shows.
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Yet in non-fiction options, the leaders turn Southerners into figures of scorn. This past weekend, I watched a picture from a 1977 show of” Match Game” in which the participant hailed from Mississippi. Except for Alabama local Fannie Flagg, who stood up for her, all of the star participants and network Gene Rayburn subtly mocked her voice.
The elite hatred for the South is evident. I have lived in the South nearly every day for the entirety of my life, and I also wrote a book about it.
Notice: There’s a parallel to this with Appalachia that goes beyond the South, though I do think that the South and some of the Midwest have more in common than we’re willing to admit. People claim that JD Vance was raised in the Eastern region and raised elsewhere. There’s a sense of” Can anything good come out of Nazareth”? to Appalachia and the South’s narratives.
By now, you’re aware of the exam Vice President JD Vance gave with CBS’s Margaret Brennan on” Face the Nation” on Sunday. Matt covered one factor of it on Sunday, and over at RedState, Bonchie covered Brennan’s pretentiousness. In one picture, she stated that “lower-income state” didn’t return from catastrophe without Daddy FEMA adjacent, and she only mentioned Southern state.
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Look at the elite contempt on Brennan’s experience as she asserts “low-income” states just aren’t smart enough to handle catastrophe recovery without paid, ineffective federal bureaucrats dictating everything.
Mask-off time. photograph. twitter.com/WZYdb8sNfE
— Bonchie ( @bonchieredstate ) January 27, 2025
People like Brennan “live in a balloon where they really believe that competency is dictated by credentialism and dollars totals on a spreadsheet,” Bonchie wrote. For instance, if you refer to the above claims as “low-income” and say that this makes them capable, you ignore the existence of the cost of living. In Southern states, expenses are significantly lower than those of high-cost blue state, which implies that the standard of living is never always any worse.
Associated: Trump Makes North Carolina Hurricane Relief a First-Week Focus
Brennan also ignores ( probably willfully ) the capable GOP leadership in these states as well as the resilience, know-how, and intelligence of Southerners. We should not overlook” the redneck with the tractor,” as my friend and colleague Stephen Green pointed out on Monday.
Adam Housley, a past Fox News writer, saw the pretentiousness in action as well. He posted on X:
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I’ve covered 12 hurricanes… mostly in the west. A couple of storms. In the west. An oil flow in the west. I played minor league baseball throughout the west. have some friends and family in the south. Although I’m a California child, the disconnect between the big media in New York and several members of the political elite in Washington is astounding. @CBSNews needs to address @margbrennan’s crazy claim about the north.
Brennan needs to apologize to the South for her judgmental, elite description. I’m waiting, but I’m not holding my breath.
