the_archfiend | The Late Unpleasantness, Again

"Ever since the first cannonballs fell on Fort Sumter in 1861, Southern politics has been dominated by thieves, bigots, warmongers and buffoons."

-Hunter S. Thompson, The Great Shark Hunt

...and guys who want to dress up like Preston Brooks for Halloween. Eric Cantor, I'm talking to you.

All kidding aside, how else do you explain recent phenomena such as the following?:

When broken down by political party, most Democrats said southern states seceded over slavery, independents were split and most Republicans said slavery was not the main reason that Confederate states left the Union.

Republicans were also most likely to say they admired the leaders of the southern states during the Civil War, with eight in 10 Republicans expressing admiration for the leaders in the South, virtually identical to the 79 percent of Republicans who admired the northern leaders during the Civil War.

In other words, the perception of modern Democrats is now what Republican perception was in 1861 and Republicans...well, you get the picture. They've been drinking Nixon's "southern strategy" snake oil for a while now, and it shows.

Only in America could alignments tied to political parties founded before the 20th century do such a bizarre 180 degree about-face like this over a 150-year-old question of identity. But this is the political landscape of 2011, so guess what? The word "bizarre" is no longer much of an anomaly. Period.