[Magdalen] More Like Canada?

[Cantor03 at aol.com]

This is excerpted in The Week, a magazine I read regularly.
Lind is a 4th generation southerner from Texas himself.  He  brings
up some food for thought.  There have been some strong  commentary
disputing his views, as might be expected.
 
 
 
<<<On  Friday, "Politco" contributing editor, Michael Lind postulated that: 
“The  United States would be much less exceptional in general, and in 
particular more  like other English-speaking democracies such as Britain, Canada, 
Australia and  New Zealand were it not for the effects on U.S. politics and 
culture of the  American South.  I don’t mean this in a good way. A lot of 
the traits that  make the United States exceptional these days are 
undesirable, like higher  violence and less social mobility. Many of these 
differences can be attributed  largely to the South.” 
Lind  goes on: 
“Some  deluded Southerners still pine for secession from the Union. Yet no 
doubt there  are also more than a few liberal Northerners who would be happy 
to see them go.  Minus the South, the rest of the U.S. probably would be 
more like Canada  or Australia or Britain or New Zealand—more secular, more 
socially liberal, more  moderate in the tone of its politics and somewhat more 
generous in social  policy.”>>>> 
David S.