In the Interest of Conversation

As a child of the south, I feel a bit ambivalent about my warm, mossy home. I have often said that I’d like to move back to the south – that people here in DC have an inflated sense of their own importance and lack a sense of place and a sense of humility that is common in the south. And although I realize that people from every region of the country love their own geography and their own local culture, I do think there is something particularly poignant about the south. We can, for example, claim Flannery O’Connor, William Faulkner, Mark Twain, Harper Lee, Robert Penn Warren, Cormac McCarthy, Eudora Welty, Carson McCullers, Walker Percy, Tennessee Williams, and of course, Wendell Berry as “our own.” But it’s clear that our deep and terrible history of racism is a major, if not the defining force of our region. Hence, my ambivalence. I love the warmth, the culture, the land, and the down-to-earth quality of the people. But I cannot abide the ignorance, the conservatism, and the racism. (My love/hate relationship with religion also plays a part in this.)

This is all a fairly long, yet inadequate, and perhaps slightly unrelated introduction to the big story from Mississippi.

I’m particularly interested in and encouraged by Travis Childers’ win over Greg Davis yesterday. Not only did it steal Hillary’s West Virginia thunder, and not only is it very good news for the November elections, but it also gives me a faint sense of hope in the south.

In 2005, as reported by The Memphis Commercial Appeal, Greg Davis and Horn Lake Mayor Nat Baker said that DeSoto County would “gladly accept” statues of Grand Wizard Nathan Bedford Forrest and Jefferson Davis “if Memphis didn’t want them.” There has been a bit of confusion as to which mayor would have accepted which statue, but so what? Either way, last night a racist, conservative, good ole boy lost a congressional seat to a democrat who had the audacity not to renounce an endorsement from Barack Obama.

From The Hill:

The third straight House special election loss in three conservative districts this year is a clear indication that the GOP brand is turning off voters and the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) is in disarray.

From The New York Times:

Interviews with voters indicated the supposed Childers-Obama link could influence votes.

“It probably would,” said Bill Chism, a refrigeration mechanic. Asked to elaborate, he ducked his head and said, “I’d rather not say,” nodding to a black customer approaching his wife’s flea market stall in Tupelo on Sunday.

From The Stump:

As always, the race has its own quirks that resist its transformation into some grand narrative template — the Republican candidate has to be one of the least good-looking political hopefuls out there, for one thing…

House Republicans are completely, utterly, entirely, totally, dead-out screwed for November. If the NRCC dumps $1.3+ million, a good fifth of its total money, into a Deep South safe seat and sends Dick Cheney down to campaign and has both W. and Laura Bush record a get-out-the-vote robocall and loses the seat anyway, the debris cloud from John Boehner’s head exploding will be visible from space.

From Keith Olbermann:

And, on a not altogether unrelated note, Wonkette delivers the best analysis I’ve read on this shameful item from Georgia:

Rednecks Enjoy ‘Obama Monkey’ T-Shirt

Here’s the latest cuteness from America’s fat dumb racists: It is a t-shirt, stealing the trademarked children’s character “Curious George,” with the addition of a possibly insincere “Obama in ‘08″ slogan.

You can read more here.