I suspect it’s just that you are invested in American nationalism against this small target. Like people that cheer for the favorite over the underdog because they have some tribal/geographical identification with them, you want the US government to prevail against the small Taliban nation fermenting in its South. But supporting the state isn’t subversion. It may be proper and necessary for the preservation of the empire, but I think ultimately it’s not for the benefit of ourselves. Knaw what i mean?

Those dumb Southerners will just get more rabid if you continue to use the traditional American classist language. We should be actively figuring out how to radicalize the reactionaries, I’m sure it’s possible. If the corporations can somehow appeal to patriotism and Western civilization, and if Mao and Lenin did it in entrenched traditional societies, we can surely do the same.

I mean, I would hate to lose all those experts in small-arms.

Instead of forming a relevant or at least an entertaining criticism of Gov. Perry’s statement on secession, he accuses Texans of being stupid, backwards and cultureless.

White Southerners are poor and stupid. Zing!
Oh, shit, look at the middle of the post! There’s a picture of the Beverly Hillbillies! They’re those stupid Southerns from that one TV show, you know?

And it doesn’t bother me a lick. Nope, seriously it doesn’t. That’s why I’m writing this comment. Because I’m not bothered.

The difference between Texas/Oklahoma and the rest of the south is probably as subtle as the difference between Louisiana and Georgia. Really, when it comes right down to that level of difference, you can’t clump any of the states together, or even their internal regions (Birmingham has about as much in common with Mobile as Jackson does with Biloxi, and El Paso has more in common with Las Cruces or Tucson than Houston). I would still group Texas in with the rest of the South because of historical and socio-economic reasons (they attempted secession alongside Georgia, Tennessee and the rest for pretty much the same reasons as the other states).

As to the mistaken perception that I suggested Palin as being culturally southern, she is far from that. As I noted earlier, she’s from northern Idaho, a micro-culture that would get along well with just about any other white trash culture in America.

As to the generalization that Alaska is “do as you please, just don’t mess with me”, parts are that, others are just as apt to mimic the white trash south as, well, the white trash south:

Fairbanks: Outside the university, very conservative.
Mat-Su: Conservative and redneck, with enough meth-labs to supply meth to the entire Lower 48.
Anchorage: A cross between Houston and Seattle with a noted lack of imagination.
Kenai: Outside of Homer, very conservative.
Juneau: Anti-Mat-Su (which keeps trying to steal the capital).
Ketchikan: Bitter over losing their bridge and their lumber mills, now mostly conservative.
Aleutians and “Bush” (off-road) Alaska: Isolated, and so they display the “just don’t mess with me” attitude the most (and have the fewest people).

Most of Alaska’s population lies within Anchorage and the Mat-Su. If any of these micro-cultures dominate the state, it is from these two areas (which abound in transplanted oil-state workers who probably would just as easily drop their loyalty to America over a liberal in the White House as anyone in Texas).

Of course there is another South that incorporates black culture, which would probably be more loyal, no matter the color of skin of the president or politics of the government, but Texans don’t seem to care too much to elect those folks. Maybe Texas (and pro-Palin parts of Alaska) gets the reputation it deserves.

Texas and the South are not the same. I know there’s a tendency to lump them in together, but having lived in both regions, I can tell you there are significant differences–sweet tea, pork BBQ, accents, ranching v. farming, kudzu, sharecropping, etc. And Texans and Oklahomans (who had all the oilfield skills) moving to Alaska doesn’t make Alaska kin to the South because Oklahomans and Texans aren’t southerners. Alaska actually is more akin to the Old West–frontiersmanship, little government, and lots of living close to the land. Which means Alaska has more in common with the Dakotas and Montana than it does with the Old South. Can you picture Sarah Palin in a Faulkner novel? I sure as hell can’t.

And maybe Alaska is the answer to what state Ames likes the best. Sure, it’s very red, but it’s also a do as you please as long as you don’t mess with me kind of place.

Responding to 22. Carlos: Alaska belongs culturally more to the South than it does to any other part of the country. Even a generation and a half after, the state still hasn’t recovered from all the Texans and Oklahomans that came north to build the Pipeline. They’re the ones who continue to support Palin and her kin (whose cultural background is admittedly more Northern Idaho than Southern United States - hurray for Hayden Lake).

Lastly responding to 23. Jim T: Alaska has a whole lot more Natives than Texas does. About the closest any state comes to Alaska on retaining Native culture is New Mexico. Fortunately for the Pueblo people (Tewa, etc.), the Texans were kicked out of New Mexico by the Union Army at Glorieta Pass in 1862. Maybe someday the same will happen in Alaska.

Your meth-addled, inbred brain is tricking you again. I never wrote anything about being for or against tax cuts, I just wanted to know what state Ames likes, seeing as how he loves to hate on everything American. Actually, that’s not fair. Ames seems to hate on everything, regardless of nationality.

And for the record, I’m not Mexican, but I would like to point out the irony of your calling me a wetback, then bemoaning their treatment by the “colonialist invader.” I guess your honkey ass is on the first boat back to whatever backwater of Ireland or Germany your knuckle-scraping ancestors were bred so you can leave the US of A to the noble savages that preceded you. But I doubt it. Leaving the familiarity of a mobile home, the proximity of all the meth you need, and all the hot chicks at the community college you occassionally attend is probably too much for you. Better to stay in America and pretend to be smart by dissing right-wing idiots while in the same breath (and painfully unselfaware), engage in the same racist rhetorc as the idiots you despise.

Winning this battle allowed Texas to seceed from the Mexico and become an independent nation.

We did that because Mexico had become a fascist dictatorship. As America moves further along the path toward that flavor of socialism known as fascism, more and more Texans are supporting a second secession.

We have our own industry, our own sea ports, our own international relations, and our own military.

Buh Byeee!