Garrison, this column reminds me why I regard you as my greatest writing influence. You hit it, once again, in seven paragraphs, no less.

Still, as a Southerner, I would argue that only *some* Southerners elect and support reactionary politicians. The rest of us are simply out-voted. Believe me, the rest of us try--every two years. And we'll continue to try. Eventually, we'll get it right.

Next time you're in Nashville, stop by for coffee.

Joe

I'm a Jewish liberal Democrat who's an Alabama native. I don't need to be told what's wrong because I've worked for decades to try to fix it. If you're only coming here to criticize and exhibit your own moral superiority, then let me pretend to be a New Yorker - just for a second:

"Shut the hell up!"

-- countrycat

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I love you. What you say is so true. I'm a native Kentuckian and now live in Nashville. I've also lived in South Carolina and over the years traveled extensively throughout the South. But I lived for twenty years in New York City. What you say is exactly right. One of the other letter writers also expressed surprise at all the racist talk and ethnic prejudice she encountered outside the South. Boy, has she got that right! I was appalled.

I am also a Liberal Democrat. I have always been a liberal Democrat. The county where I grew up, heavily unionized, voted for McGovern. Many Northerners don't get. They come down South with a superciliious attitude that they've achieved enlightenment and that everyone else around them has not yet learned to eat with a fork. Southerners smell that attitude on you from two states away! Southern liberal Democrats are just as put off by that attitutde as conservative Republicans southerners are.

Here's the way for northerners to win the hearts and minds of Southerners:

1. Don't criticize.* They'll just shun you. On the other hand, I can critcize them all I want, and do.

2. Introduce new ideas as a fun thing to do.

3. Impart information in an impartial, non-judgemental way. Site your sources. Southerners are not stupid. They can take in new information.

4. Quietly question wrongheaded and misinformed assumptions and ideas without making it sound like a personal or political assault.

So to Keilor's question about why Southerners keep electing jerks and twits? I believe it's as much a defensive response as anything else. Because they're aware of how maligned and mischaracterized they often are in the larger culture, many of them quite consciously, and proudly, fulfill the stereotype. It's like over-the-top, self-dramatizing, effeminate-enhanced gay men. It's put on and then they start to believe it. I think that's a part of it. That and all the weird religiosity, which is not particularly Southern, just very American.

* I recall reading a WSJ article several years ago about a highly sought after, highly paid NYC hairdresser who had moved to Texas with the stated intention of bringing the ladies enlightenment. He failed. Miserably according to the article. I thought, well of course he did. He'd already started out criticizing them for their bad hair and they kept away from him. He should have kept his big mouth shut and said, one lady at a time, "Lila-jean, honey, come in here and sit down and let me try something on your hair that I think you might like. If you don't like it, you don't have to pay for it, and we can change it." He would have made them look like a million bucks, they would have been delighted and every woman in Texas would have been seeking him out.

As a native southerner, I have to say Keilor is on target. Garrison Keilor is a great writer, although his writing has suffered with his foray into singing. If we could just get him to stop singing, maybe we could get this quality of wordsmithery more often, instead of once in a while. Garry, even those who play with you make light of the fact that you think you can harmonize. Stick to writing, you're good at it.

Keillor's comparison of Southern U.S. politics with Sudan is obscene. We have a foster son who endured the attrocities in the South of Sudan, and I cannot believe Keillor would make a cheap shot comparison like that in order to score domestic political points. Does he even realize it was largely Southern conservatives who have lobbied so hard for the last 20 years on behalf of thos suffering in various parts of Sudan? With the exception of the Black Congressional Congress, the left was absent from this effort.

Keillor fancies that he has somehow dropped his younger "coolness," but he's far to cool to give a damn about real human attrocities--as opposed to merely using them to smear people he disagrees with.

Southerners are polite, not nice. I live in the south and am really bothered by the insincerity that passes as kindness. Then again, sometimes it feels good to go into waffle house and be bombarded with "sugar," "sweetie," "hun," and "love." Most of the time though, I'd rather have someone tell me to go fuck myself like they do in New York. That way you at least know there is no bullshit in them.

your personal experience is not statistically significant.

It's a whole 'nother country. Born and raised in West Texas, I can assure you that this is the way most Texans feel. Yes, we are friendly and we speak with an accent, like Southerners do, but we don't think of ourselves as Southerners because then we wouldn't be quite so special, would we? And we sure as hell would never claim to be Yankees (any one born north of Amarillo). And then there is Austen. As has been illustrated more than once in these letters, Austenites see themselves as a cut above -- better, smarter, cooler -- than the rest of us. I guess Austen is a country within a country within a country!

...all sweeping generalizations suck.

No, Austin is a part of the United States, surrounded by the country unto itself that is Texas.