The Southernization of America

December 1, 2021
Two Alabaman journalists, one White and one Black, examine the expansion of Southern prejudices into the larger nation. The Southernization of which journalists Gaillard and Tucker write boils down to racism and White supremacy. This racism has been conservative gospel since at least the Reagan era, when, as one scholar observed, "the views and tools of Southern segregationists had become the official position of the national Republican party." Chief among those tools are voter-suppression laws to disenfranchise ethnic minorities, and agents of this change include Karl Rove, the master of whispering campaigns that hinted that one Democratic candidate was "a homosexual pedophile"; and the blowhard politico Newt Gingrich, "Donald Trump, but with a higher IQ." Trump, of course, was an adept follower of Gingrich's methods: "bitter polarization [and] the combativeness and crude insults that characterize Republican political rhetoric and the tactics of obstruction, including stand-offs over paying the nation's debts." However, Gaillard and Tucker show that the true model for Trump was George Wallace, who eschewed Richard Nixon's "veiled racism" for the real deal, carrying his message of ethnic division and hatred to audiences at rallies across the country, their attendees almost exclusively White blue-collar workers disaffected by the civil rights and anti-war movements. There is another South, of course, and while Trump's "bigotry, mendacity and sheer incompetence upended a campaign he had expected to be a cakewalk to victory" in 2020, his defeat was caused in part by votes against him in Georgia, Virginia, and the region's blue urban cores. The struggle will continue, the authors suggest, and likely to bad ends. "The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice. This was Dr. King's affirmation at the end of the Selma to Montgomery March," they write. "We are not still sure if we should believe him." A thoughtful, probing look at a national character that is trending ever uglier.

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December 1, 2021
Gaillard and Tucker synthesize the last century to provide insight on the palpable impact the South has had on U.S. culture. In an ode to John Egerton's famous 1974 work The Americanization of Dixie, Gaillard and Tucker play on this thought to rationalize how the U.S. we know today was influenced by the southern states. The seasoned journalists, both southerners in their own right, investigate civil rights, terrorism, the building of walls, gun violence, politics, and religion and break up each of these events and ideologies into separate chapters. In this short but impactful text the coauthors theorize that the common thread in our shared history will always tie back to the American South and its history of racism. This book is a must-read for those finding themselves wondering how we got where we are in today's age of politics and racial reckoning. Filled with primary source references, the book will give readers a clearer understanding of our political system and the influence that the South has had on us all.

COPYRIGHT(2021) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

December 13, 2021
Journalists and Alabama natives Gaillard (A Hard Rain) and Tucker explore in this eloquent and perceptive essay collection “the undeniable Southern influence—for better or worse—on the life and political climate of America.” Covering the 1970s to the present, the authors track the intertwining of Southern and Republican values and profile key players including Georgia congressman Newt Gingrich, whose “scorched-earth tactics” against Democrats set the tone for animosity between the parties for decades. Gaillard and Tucker also consider how political polarization was exacerbated by the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan; note that the presidential campaigns of Alabama governor George Wallace and Donald Trump both relied on support from the South and stoked racial tensions in order to maintain it; and analyze “rightwing disinformation” about electoral fraud, critical race theory, and Covid-19. Elsewhere, the authors discuss the “feeding frenzy of hate and disdain” directed at the country music group Dixie Chicks after they spoke out against the Iraq War and the 2015 shooting at Mother Emanuel Church in Charleston, S.C., by a white supremacist. Concluding with a plea for “a sense of moral urgency” in pursuit of racial equality, this is a trenchant study of the South’s firm grip on the American consciousness.