Free Republic

In Latin America, hot tamales are as ubiquitous as the sandwich. This holds true in, of all places, the Mississippi Delta. Better known for its association with cotton and catfish, the Mississippi Delta has a fascinating relationship with tamales. In restaurants, on street corners, and in kitchens throughout the Delta, this very old and time-consuming culinary tradition remains vibrant. But how and when were hot tamales introduced to what has been called “the most Southern place on earth”? And why have they stayed? There are as many answers to those questions as there are tamale recipes. Oral history interviews with...

“There was a land of Cavaliers and Cotton Fields called the Old South. Here in this pretty world, Gallantry took its last bow. Here was the last ever to be seen of Knights and their Ladies Fair, of Master and of Slave. Look for it only in books, for it is no more than a dream remembered, a Civilization gone with the wind.”

‘Now, this here tale didn't happen just yesterday, nor the day before.’Twas a long time ago. And in them days, everything was mighty satisfactual. The critters, they was closer to the folks, and the folks, they was closer to the critters, and if you'll excuse me for saying so, 'twas better all around’----Uncle Remus from Disney’s Song of the South.

During my childhood of the 50s, songs like “Swanee River”, “Mammy” and “Waiting for the Robert E. Lee”, all best sung by the late great Al Jolson, were very popular in the South and throughout the USA.

Is the Second Reconstruction over? The first ended with the withdrawal of Union troops from the Southern states as part of a deal that gave Rutherford B. Hayes the presidency after the disputed election of 1876. The second began with the Voting Rights Act of 1965, a century after Appomattox. Under the VRA, Southern states seeking to make even minor changes in voting laws had to come to Washington to plead their case before the Justice Department and such lions of the law as Eric Holder. Southern states were required to get this pre-clearance for any alterations in voting laws...

In the coming weeks, Hanauer and Loranne Ausley, a former member of the Florida House of Representatives, plan to launch something they're calling the Southern Project, which will conduct research and formulate messages that can help Democrats win over Southern voters. A pilot study conducted in North Carolina in February, for example, concluded that under the state's Republican governor, Pat McCrory, "there is a clear sense that hardworking taxpayers are getting the short end of the stick at the expense of big corporations and the wealthiest." The set of talking points advises progressives to make arguments "focused around fairness and...

Have liberals already conceded defeat in today's South Carolina special election? Though polls show the race a true toss-up, some Democrats are attacking not just Republicans, but smearing the entire state as well. During today's Stephanie Miller Show, guest Charlie Pierce of Esquire Magazine slammed the Palmetto State as "tribal", "a cult" and the ultimate dig, "religious"! From the program: [video] STEPHANIE MILLER (07 May 2013): The cogent point in your headline “South Carolina is still South Carolina. JIM WARD: Ha ha ha ha! STEPHANIE MILLER: Obviously the latest poll had Mark Sanford ahead, right? CHARLIE PIERCE: And you know...

The South Carolina state House passed a bill Wednesday that declares President Obama’s Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act to be “null and void,” and criminalizes its implementation. The state’s Freedom of Health Care Protection Act intends to “prohibit certain individuals from enforcing or attempting to enforce such unconstitutional laws; and to establish criminal penalties and civil liability for violating this article.” The measure permits the state Attorney General, with reasonable cause, “to restrain by temporary restraining order, temporary injunction, or permanent injunction”

Southerners Not Actually Fatter Than People From Other Regions, Just Less Likely To Lie About Their Weight...... "The South often gets tagged with having the most obese population. But it doesn't appear to be true, a ....study suggests. The study recently published in the journal Obesity found that there's a significantly higher percentage of obese people in a region of central and northwest states including Minnesota, Kansas and North and South Dakota. "What we found is the West North Central region has about 41 percent obesity compared to 31 percent obesity in the southern region that includes Alabama and Mississippi,"...

Finally, after years of dreaming, we've finally moving from New Yorkistan to America (the outskirts of Atlanta, to be exactly)! I accepted the transfer offer today, for a position that I really wanted & I'm pretty sure I'm going to love. And to all the Georgia residents out there, I solemnly swear that we will not mess up your state. We're moving to Georgia because we like what it is, not because we want to change it. Having been raised in captivity, I'm thinking it may take us a while to adapt to the wild (AKA freedom). But I'm positive...

Did you know that three Memphis, Tennessee parks named for our great Southern leaders Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest-Forrest Park, Confederate President Jefferson Davis-Jefferson Davis Park and Confederate Park were changed?

The common media view of the South is as a regressive region, full of overweight, prejudiced, exploited and undereducated numbskulls. This meme was perfectly captured in this Bill Maher-commissioned video from Alexandra Pelosi, the New York-based daughter of House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi. Given the level of imbecility, maybe we’d be better off if the former Confederate states exiled themselves into their own redneck empire. Travel writer Chuck Thompson recently suggested this approach in a new book. Right now, however, Northeners can content themselves with the largely total isolation of Southerners from the corridors of executive power. Yet even as...

Does anyone really believe it's a stretch to suggest that academic history bloggers are also "motivated by 'culture war' dynamics that tended to conflate religious and political conservatives in responding to adversaries?"

“Honour was honour, it clothed a man better than a fine jacket before the eyes of his neighbors.” This passage from John Prebble’s Culloden explains why Barack Obama has lost the south and may from that lose reelection. Prebble was writing about Scottish Highlanders in the age of Jacobite revolution. Among the tribes of Scotland, and in their modern mindset, honor is elemental. In societies that rely on mutual trust to survive, honor is essential to commerce, neighborly relations and commitments. To live in a land where one protects his honor and demands honorable actions from all others, to forsake...

JACKSON, Miss. - As one of 20,000 Mormons living in a state dominated by evangelical Christians, Van J. Bodin’s own life experience tells him what Mitt Romney is up against in the South. “People don’t understand us,’’ said Bodin... There are other strikes against Romney in the Deep South. He is a multimillionaire with strong Wall Street ties. He hails from Massachusetts, a liberal, Yankee state. His conservative credentials have gaps, given his change from supporting abortion rights to opposing them and his universal health care plan in Massachusetts. But his Mormon faith also exerts a drag on his candidacy...

PELL CITY, Ala. (AP) — Newt Gingrich says he isn't dropping out of the Republican presidential race. Gingrich said during an Alabama campaign swing Wednesday that he's staying in because it's impossible for a moderate Republican to be elected president in November. He was referring to front-runner Mitt Romney.

WALTER KIRN'S column in GQ on Mitt Romney and Mormonism is to my mind far and away the most interesting meditation on the subject this campaign season. Unlike most commentators, Mr Kirn, who was an observant Mormon for a few years after his family converted to Mormonism when he was a teen... SNIP ...Mr Santorum obviously does not hesitate to argue for his favoured policies on narrowly sectarian grounds. In contrast, America's present wariness of Mormonism, which is indeed analogous to mid-century wariness of Catholicism, requires that Mr Romney argue his case on grounds acceptable to a relatively wide range...

PRINCETON, NJ -- Mississippi remains the most conservative state in the union, and, along with Utah, Wyoming, and Alabama, is one of four states with 50% or more of its population identifying as conservative. At the other end of the ideological spectrum, 40% District of Columbia residents and 30% of Massachusetts residents identify as liberal; all other states have a liberal population of 26% or less.

The story of the South is one for the ages. It is the story of elegance and tradition trampled upon by ‘progress.’ It is the story of an agricultural economy uprooted by northern industrialism. It is the story of a cultural and political rollercoaster. For our purposes, I will focus on the latter – the political evolution of the Southern electorate. Southern culture, at its core, has always been ruled by conservative instincts. Historian Russell Kirk documents the height of the conservative intellectual experience in one chapter of The Conservative Mind. Kirk demonstrates the vibrant conservative attitudes held by southern...

GREENVILLE, S.C. – In the geographic heart of the Republican Party, the contest for the allegiance of Southern conservatives in the 2012 race is as wide open as ever. Of all the prizes still up for grabs in the GOP presidential primary, few are as desirable as the support of the South. Republican presidential nominations have traditionally been forged here – in South Carolina, especially – and any successful challenger to Mitt Romney would likely have to dominate among heavily conservative, evangelical Southern voters. Yet the only candidate this cycle who seemed to have a shot at locking down the...