Yoknapatawpha Country

Years ago, reading Fitzgerald and Faulkner, I thought there were parallels between the Irish Catholic and Southern cultures: defeated peoples whose dreams were invested in the invention of romantic worlds which dulled the humiliation of defeat and ongoing oppression. Their religions were made illegal, Catholicism in the case of the Irish and racism in the case of the South. 

The Irish are credited with being politically savvy because of this. They learned to uphold their beliefs and institutions through clandestine activity, which played out weirdly in the new world, where they were politically astute but heavy handed and insensitive to the possibility that they might oppress people themselves. So now with Southerners in America. They're running everything. 

They're incredibly good at the political thing and oblivious to the harm they do. There's no sense of responsibility at all but extreme cunning in exerting minority control of the political system. Always, in the US and probably everywhere, there have been hard truces won to keep the interests of oligarchs and big money from winning out and screwing everyone and themselves.

So much for that. Big business is running America. This is beyond bad. This is the end. Of everything. Life as we know it in America. It's over. It's not just beyond bad but beyond sad. And we have the political will of white Southerners to thank for it. I hope they're proud of themselves. I liked our country the way it was. Democratic. Strong. Idealistic. Independent. Kind of free.