Why are the most patrotic of Americans found in the South?

Question

It strikes me as somewhat ironic that, for a group of people who at one time succeded from the Union, Southerners are currently the most vocal and active defenders of the United States.

If you followed the recent anti-American war protests, you would know that the vast majority of these occured in the North. Southerners don't take kindly to hippie scum who burn our flag, a calculation obviously considered by the organizers of these hate-fests.

Answer 1

That's your opinion and I don't share it with you. Patriots can be found anywhere, not just the south.

Answer 2

It strikes me as somewhat ironic that, for a question that is intended to display the Southerners as the most "vocal and active defenders of the United States" it turns out doing the exact opposite.

Firstly, anti-American war protests don't "vastly occur in the North" they actually mostly occur in Washington D.C. - which is in the southern political territory. Southerners may not take kindly to "hippie scum" who burn our flag, but being from the North I can honestly say that I would have the same feelings. And considering the first premise that most protests occur in the nation's capital, in the political south, the calculation is not that "northerners wont go after such people" - actually the Supreme Court ruled that flagburning is a protected First Amendment Right. I imagine this is the protesters calculation.

I will suggest some reading to your obviously biased perspective, read up on Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. and his 'marketplace of ideas' doctrine. Also, please consult some civil war related history text in to how the South did not only burn the American flag, but attempted to replace it with one of their own, because they thought African Americans were property and not individuals with certain indeniable rights.

It seems to me that the most Patriotic Americans are not even in the geographic United States, they are in Iraq, Afghanistan and stationed around the globe. Sacrificing their livelihood on a daily basis so your dumbass can eat fried chicken at the local cracker barrel and waste time making a mockery of them online.

Answer 3

I really have to disagree with you here.

I am from PA, I just moved back here after living in SC for 3 yrs. I know however the difference your seeing, its not patriotic at all. it s political. There seems to be more Republicans in the south ( SC being a red state) and they're very out spoken about how wonderful they think Bush is and has done with the war. for one.

And IMO most southerns have the same anti-north attitude you project above. Why do rednecks from the south consider any one from the north a " hippie scum who burn our flag"
I know of know one who has ever thought of burning a flag! In fact I have one hanging up in my living room!! An American Flag!

Not one of those dang rebel flag you southerns still wave! That is not a patriotic flag, and I'm willing to bet you have one some where flying high right? I see it a a racist symbol.
Face it, you all lost the civil war, its over, get over it.

Answer 4

"To oppose the policies of a government does not mean you are against the country or the people that the government supposedly represents. Such opposition should be called what it really is: democracy, or democratic dissent, or having a critical perspective about what your leaders are doing. Either we have the right to democratic dissent and criticism of these policies or we all lie down and let the leader, the Fuhrer, do what is best, while we follow uncritically, and obey whatever he commands. That's just what the Germans did with Hitler, and look where it got them."
Michael Parenti
"To criticize one's country is to do it a service .... Criticism, in short, is more than a right; it is an act of patriotism - a higher form of patriotism, I believe, than the familiar rituals and national adulation."
U.S. Senator J. William Fulbright
"The U.S. record of war crimes has been, from the nineteenth century to the present, a largely invisible one, with no government, no political leaders, no military officials, no lower-level operatives held accountable for criminal actions... Anyone challenging this mythology is quickly marginalized, branded a traitor or Communist or terrorist or simply a lunatic beyond the pale of reasonable discussion."
Carl Boggs
"We have thrown away the most valuable asset we had -- the individual's right to oppose both flag and country when he believed them to be in the wrong. We have thrown it away; and with it, all that was really respectable about that grotesque and laughable word, Patriotism."
Howard Zinn
"If fascism ever came to the United States, it would be wrapped in an American flag."
Huey Long

Answer 5

I am a lifelong Southerner, living in SC all my life and I would submit to you that what you mistake for patriotism can just as rightly be called blind obedience to the current administration's moronic policies.

A REAL Patriot is someone who does not hesitate to protest, to use the rights granted to them (yes, even to hippie scum and rebel rednecks, too) by the constitution to speak out when you know your government is WRONG.

I also believe you are dead wrong to say that those who protest are having a "hatefest". In fact, they probably love this country as much as you and likely MORE than you do since you do not believe in one of the founding principles of this country-the right to non-violent protest. Just because they are unwilling to accept whatever the government decrees without making their dissenting views known in NO WAY makes them unpatriotic.

The fact is, Patriots, like people in general come in all shapes and sizes and they believe all differnt things and behave in all different ways. That is something else a REAL Patriot understands. What makes America the greatest country in the history of the world is the fact that (in THEORY at least) we CAN protest our government because we are governed by those we ALLOW to govern us and if they govern poorly, or if they steal elections, or if they work day and night to ruin this country eventually they will be replaced.

November 2006 was a perfect example of the people rising up against corruption, greed, tyranny and total disregard for the law.

Answer 6

Because people from the South still remember what it is to truly suffer after having our freedom taken away from us.

Because people from the South are passionate, vocal, and ornery by nature, and not afraid to fight.

Because people from the South have built-in BS detectors.

Because all the flag-burning idiots left the South in fear for their lives (warranted or not -- a good butt-whoopin' doesn't kill you), thus lowering the net quantity of cowardice in the South and raising it in the North.

One caveat: I visited New York City after living in Connecticut for a couple years (Navy family, not choice). The rest of the Northeast pretty much sucks. But New Yawkers rock. They were almost as nice as people back home! And I saw an awful lot of American flags there, too. It's just the wealthy elite power section of New York City that are idiots, and they own the media.

Answer 7

I've lived in the south all my life and I always find it hilarious that those that say they are the most patriotic and "PROUD to be an American"

... would very often at the drop of a hat succeed again from the union if they thought they could... kill Americans and break away from America..

is that really patriotic if you would shoot the soldiers you say you would support if you thought you could win the war and separate from the US?

it always struck me as fundamentally disingenuine...

and like I said the ones that yell patriotism loudest seem to be the ones that would lead the charge of a breakaway

Answer 8

I would like to know how you define the word patrotic, but when considering your answer please examine American history and while doing so take a look at some of our countries greatest patriots. Such as, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, who peacefully rebelled against the policies and behavior that were the norm in America to make the lives for millions better. Or Susan B. Anthony who helped lead the fight for women to gain their right to vote. Now granted these are two exceptional people, but American patriots non the less who fought against their country but loved it no less than those who fought against them. They had dreams and visions of a better America and with the changes they helped implement America has become a better nation. Bringing this arguement into the present when you see your fellow citizens protesting the legislation and legislators of America please do not criticize them and incorrectly assume their love for their country is any weaker than yours or those who support the decisions made in D.C. but instead take that opportunity to appreciate that we in America have the right to actually express our patriotism in favor of and against America.

Answer 9

i love this country I'm patriotic but this country has done some evil thing look at what there doing Iraq women and children are dying babies are on war that was based on lies we should not be there that does make the the people that are out there protesting scum i think those people are very brave if it was not for people like that hippie scum my people would have still been made to sit in the back of the bus people in the south in my opinion are real ignorant

Answer 10

Yeah... you mean like the KKK? The Neo-Nazis? Are you referring to those White Supremacists clowns? Yeah... RIGHT! You are either high on some illegal substance or you simply haven't taken your anti-psychotic psychotropic "pep" pills, booby! Either way, stay away from that moon shine!

Yeah, all those goofy, nose-picking, toothless yokels and those beer-bellied farting Rednecks that sit around filling up spittoons as they watch reruns of Hee Haw, reruns of Green Acres and The Jerry Springer Show, and they sit in their latrines reading The National Enquier... oh, let's not forget how the Southern Beauty Queen is selected from the hordes of trailer park trash, their favorite barfly is selected at the Annual Pig-Calling Contest so she can announce the winners of the Cow-Chip Tossin' Contest! Don't you and your good ol' boys get tired of listening to "big words" you don't understand or realize are not used properly by your cult hero, Rush Limburger-cheese Limbaugh? Hey, that ain't no woman in that poster you're fantacizing on, boy; that's a transvestite... his name is Ann Couter now but his name was "Bubbah" Lee Ben Dover. Yeee-haaaahh! Mountain Dew! Wha'cha fixin' to do now, boy? Burn another cross? Patriots who tried to divide the Nation during the Civil War? The most illiterates of this Nation, but not the most partriotic, booby!

Answer 11

As a true Southern girl I agree w/ your insight. You don't see southern people crying on TV about the heritage that was taken from them ...nothing about the ancestors we lost...true that some needed to be lost but we have come a long way since back in the day. When we get the credit and respect that we deserve? I dare anyone to research any branch of military service and I guarantee you will find more than 50% are Southerns.