# Oddly proud to be southern **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [November 17, 2004, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oddly-proud-to-be-southern/275199 "2004-11-17T04:32:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2004, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oddly-proud-to-be-southern/275199/21 "2004-11-17T14:54:15Z")
> [@Homebrew](#): > > What else you got? You’re wrong about the peanut butter. It was developed by John Kellogg. And anyway, you can have the stupid stuff. It makes the mouth all sticky and the words unintelligible, which might explain your accent. Texas is officially in the South, as the link I already provided shows. Robert E. Lee was the best general in North America at the time. And rather than whiskey, the gentleman meant bourbon. We got lots more (like four of the first five presidents being Southern), but we don’t want to share all of it with you, lest you move here and sully the place. ---
**Author:** ![Homebrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c89c15/32.png) [@Homebrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Homebrew)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2004, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oddly-proud-to-be-southern/275199/22 "2004-11-17T15:14:19Z")
> [@Liberal](#): > > … lest you move here and sully the place. I was born in Texas. Raised in Arkansas in the Ark-La-Tex region, Texarkana to be specific. Lived in Georgia and Texas as an adult. I finally left that region this year. I’m so glad I did, although my accent is still East Texan. If I ever leave Saint Louis, it won’t be to move South again. Read my cite. I wasn’t wrong about Peanut Butter. (Did you notice I mentioned Kellogg? He was in Michigan, you know?) And since you’re in Virginny you can’t possiblly grasp how different Texas is from The South, especially once you get out of the Piney Woods part. The Hill Country and parts west and south are so dissimilar to each other, much less Georgia, that they hardly should be part of the same state. Being the best general is nothing to brag about if you fight for a vile cause. Bourbon maybe, but that’s not what he said. Give me a Scotch any day over corn squeezin’. ---
**Author:** ![smartini](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/22d042/32.png) [@smartini](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smartini)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2004, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oddly-proud-to-be-southern/275199/23 "2004-11-17T15:37:28Z")
Thanks **norinew** and **John Corrado** for helping me increase my vocabulary. I am of the mindset that to actually own a word you need to use it in conversation after you learn it to be comfortable with it and remember it. My co-workers are in for quite a surprise today. ---
**Author:** ![Hyperelastic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Hyperelastic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hyperelastic)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2004, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oddly-proud-to-be-southern/275199/24 "2004-11-17T15:57:11Z")
> [@BobLibDem](#): > > We just elected a half-wit because Johnny Cracker can’t bring himself to vote for a Yankee. From this Kerry voter, you can take your “Johnny Cracker” and blow it out your ass. People are people, not epithets. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2004, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oddly-proud-to-be-southern/275199/25 "2004-11-17T16:13:51Z")
> [@Paul in Saudi](#): > > Let’s list some People and Things Southern: > You’ll ever hear of: > Benny Goodman? > … > Jayne Mansfield? Benny Goodman was from Chicago. Not even the South Side of Chicago. Jayne Mansfield was born in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. Funny link, **Bob**! It’s funny because it’s true. We shoulda let their punk asses leave when they wanted to. There was no advantage to letting them stay and it would’ve been fun to watch them turn into their centuries-long goal, a cultural, social, and financial backwater and third-world country. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![gobear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8dc957/32.png) [@gobear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gobear)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2004, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oddly-proud-to-be-southern/275199/26 "2004-11-17T16:21:14Z")
> [@Homebrew](#): > > And since you’re in Virginny you can’t possiblly grasp how different Texas is from The South, **Liberal** lives in Virginia? :eek:! Yes, there’s a certan amount of orniness about the South, but that part of what gives the region its charms. I’d far rather be from the land of Carson McCullers, Tennessee Williams, William Faulkner, and Flannery O’Connor than from John Cheever country. Now please excuse me while I shimmy into a hoop skirt and fix mahse’f a mint julep. ---
**Author:** ![Strainger](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/strainger/32/244_2.png) [@Strainger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Strainger)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2004, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oddly-proud-to-be-southern/275199/27 "2004-11-17T16:53:25Z")
> [@Hyperelastic](#): > > From this Kerry voter, you can take your “Johnny Cracker” and blow it out your ass. People are people, not epithets. Let’s see: o Engineer (structures, apparently) o From the South o Voted Kerry o High school during the 80s Holy crap, are you me?! (Wait, I believe you have a graduate degree) ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2004, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oddly-proud-to-be-southern/275199/28 "2004-11-17T17:01:57Z")
Obviously there are _some_ Southern whites that have voted for Yankee Democrats, but darned few. Let’s look at what states of the Old Confederacy were carried by Democratic presidential candidates since 1968. 1968 Hubert Humphrey TX (25) TOTAL 25 1972 George McGovern TOTAL 0 1976 Jimmy Carter AL(9), AR(6), FL(17), GA(12), LA(10), MS(7), NC(13),SC(8), TN(10), TX(26) TOTAL 118 1980 Jimmy Carter GA(12) TOTAL 12 1984 Walter Mondale TOTAL 0 1988 Michael Dukakis TOTAL 0 1992 Bill Clinton AR(6), GA(13), LA(9), NC(14), TN(11) TOTAL 53 1996 Bill Clinton AR(6), FL(25), LA(9), TN(11) TOTAL 51 2000 Al Gore TOTAL 0 2004 John Kerry TOTAL 0 Non Southern Candidates: 6 attempts Total 1 State, 25 electoral votes Southern Candidates: 4 attempts Total 20 States, 234 electoral votes Non Southern Democrats have been shut out in Dixie since 1968 and Humphrey’s lone carry of Texas. They have averaged just 4.17 EV per election in the Confederacy if you include 1968, 0.00 EV per election if you do not. Southern Democrats have averaged 58.50 EV per election since 1968. The facts don’t lie. A lot of Southerners just will not vote for a Yankee. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2004, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oddly-proud-to-be-southern/275199/29 "2004-11-17T17:02:07Z")
Y’all morons who make fun of Johnny Cracker for being prejudiced really ought to look up the word “hypocrite” in your dictionary sometime. Daniel ---
**Author:** ![smartini](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/22d042/32.png) [@smartini](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smartini)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2004, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oddly-proud-to-be-southern/275199/30 "2004-11-17T17:02:29Z")
> [@dropzone](#): > > Funny link, **Bob**! It’s funny because it’s true. We shoulda let their punk asses leave when they wanted to. There was no advantage to letting them stay and it would’ve been fun to watch them turn into their centuries-long goal, a cultural, social, and financial backwater and third-world country. 😃 Wow! I continue to be enlightened here. I was always taught and believed that the value of a person is less about where and into what circumstances they were born and more about what they actually do with their lives. You and **Bob** seem to be content to write off a fathomless number of people (myself included) that. you. know. nothing. about…save our location. No harm intended to you by this post, it just surprises me that there seems to be such animosity towards us which we do not return in kind to you. Must be another one of those _regional differences_ and thank god for it! **gobear** as soon as I smooth the ruffles in my hoop skirt I’ll be joining you for a mint julep. I think I’ll have mine on the po’uch so I can sit and ponder on all this nonsense. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2004, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oddly-proud-to-be-southern/275199/31 "2004-11-17T17:11:10Z")
Must’ve been my years as the Northern kid at a Southern school that did it for me. Plenty of unearned animosity based solely on my birthplace and accent so I thought I’d return the favor. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2004, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oddly-proud-to-be-southern/275199/32 "2004-11-17T17:18:57Z")
**dropzone:** _We shoulda let their punk asses leave when they wanted to. There was no advantage to letting them stay_ All these “we should have let them secede” cracks in various threads about the South are starting to get to me a little. Does it really seem insignificant to you that the states attempting to secede in the 19th century fully intended to preserve and protect their “peculiar institution” of **slavery**? I know that the North didn’t fight the Civil War specifically for the purpose of “freeing the slaves”, but the nationwide abolition of slavery **was** one of its more positive results, and one that would likely have taken much longer if the Confederacy had been permitted to form their own slaveholding political union. Call me one of those humorless liberals, but I don’t think there’s anything all that funny about suggesting that we’d be willing to overlook the enslavement of additional generations of black people in the Confederate States of America, if only we Yankees didn’t have to put up with so many red states today. ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2004, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oddly-proud-to-be-southern/275199/33 "2004-11-17T17:20:49Z")
> [@gobear](#): > > **Liberal** lives in Virginia? :eek:! No, but close enough for government work. What a strange thread! I find myself being aligned squarely with Gobear and Daniel. Well, so it should be. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2004, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oddly-proud-to-be-southern/275199/34 "2004-11-17T17:22:44Z")
> [@smartini](#): > > **gobear** as soon as I smooth the ruffles in my hoop skirt I’ll be joining you for a mint julep. I think I’ll have mine on the po’uch so I can sit and ponder on all this nonsense. Hopefully, your po’uch has a tin roof, and we’ll get a gentle steady rain late in the afternoon, just before twilight time. 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![Exgineer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a88e4f/32.png) [@Exgineer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exgineer)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2004, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oddly-proud-to-be-southern/275199/35 "2004-11-17T17:32:59Z")
Some of the posts in this thread are making me question my neighbors. I like living here, but I’m not thrilled to be surrounded by such obnoxious people. ---
**Author:** ![plnnr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7ea924/32.png) [@plnnr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/plnnr)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2004, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oddly-proud-to-be-southern/275199/36 "2004-11-17T17:37:02Z")
I always find it odd that people point out what a vile, evil, disgusting, hateful man Robert E. Lee was. Evidently he was good enough to be first offered command of the Union army **while still owning slaves**. He fought for his native soil - Virginia. Yes, he was a slave owner and that was a immoral thing. He was also a brilliant soilder, who, upon being beaten, retired from the field and told his soilders, “You’ve been beaten. Go home and take care of your families, who you’ve been absent from. If you are half as good as citizens as you were as soilders, you’ll be fine.” He then went on to be president of a small college and, through his hard work, he helped it become a distinguished place of higher learning. ---
**Author:** ![smartini](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/22d042/32.png) [@smartini](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smartini)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2004, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oddly-proud-to-be-southern/275199/37 "2004-11-17T17:40:15Z")
> [@Liberal](#): > > Hopefully, your po’uch has a tin roof, and we’ll get a gentle steady rain late in the afternoon, just before twilight time. 🆒 Just a small portion of it, but totally intentional, for that exact reason ! 🆒 I’ll add some extra bourbon for you, come on down, always room for another friend here! ---
**Author:** ![smartini](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/22d042/32.png) [@smartini](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smartini)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2004, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oddly-proud-to-be-southern/275199/38 "2004-11-17T17:48:16Z")
> [@dropzone](#): > > Must’ve been my years as the Northern kid at a Southern school that did it for me. Plenty of unearned animosity based solely on my birthplace and accent so I thought I’d return the favor. 😃 Heh. You sure that was the only reason? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2004, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oddly-proud-to-be-southern/275199/39 "2004-11-17T17:56:45Z")
I will retract my comments on: 1. Benny Goodman 2. Jane Mansfield Peanuts and peanut butter are important Southern icons. Saint Louis is of course the most ‘northern’ Southern city. (Kansas City being totally northern.) Both Maryland and Texas are Southern states. It must be true, it says so on the gas stations. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2004, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oddly-proud-to-be-southern/275199/40 "2004-11-17T17:58:00Z")
> [@Kimstu](#): > > Call me one of those humorless liberals… Okay, you’re one of those humorless liberals. Jesus, you Southerners are right. There really CAN’T be a pleasant discussion of why and how much Northerners and Southerners dislike each other without it being Godwinized by slavery. We can’t have gentle give and take where you accuse me of wanting to force your children to watch porn and smoke crack and I accuse you of screwing your sisters without some Do-Gooder barging in here with a, “But won’t anybody think about the slaves?” 😉 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oddly-proud-to-be-southern/275199.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oddly-proud-to-be-southern/275199.md?page=3)