The South Should Be Irrelevant in American Political Discourse

Brad Delong finds some graphs that show a big difference between the South and the rest of the nation.

As he aptly puts it, "The whites in the heartland of today's Republican Party just do not vote--and do not think--like the rest of us do."

Simply put, in the rest of the nation, the greater contact with black people in your daily lives, the less bigoted you are, and in the south, the he greater contact with black people in your daily lives, the more bigoted you are.

One of the founding principles of the United States is the melting point. At the core of the melting pot is the idea that once you know the other, you will accept the other.

Anything else is un-American, and should have no part in our public policy discourse.