"THE SOUTHERNIZATION OF AMERICA: A STORY OF DEMOCRACY IN THE BALANCE" by Frye Gaillard and Cynthia Tucker (New South Books, 176 pages, $26).
"The South and the nation are not exchanging strengths as much as they are exchanging sins," wrote John Egerton in his classic 1974 book, "The Americanization of Dixie: The Southernization of America." "More often than not, they are sharing and spreading the worst in each other, while the best languishes and withers."
As the South surrendered to mass consumerism and suburbia, he intimated, the United States adopted a Southern politics of racism and division.
In "The Southernization of America: Democracy in the Balance," Frye Gaillard and Cynthia Tucker carry Egerton's story to the present day, examining how the region's politics and culture have shaped our nasty, polarized environment.
Gaillard is the author of more than 30 books on American culture and history. Tucker won the Pulitzer Prize for commentary as editorial page editor of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Both now teach at the University of South Alabama. They answered questions via email from Chapter 16.
Q: You describe the narrative as "a story of political decline." How so?
Gaillard: Well, it is partly a story of decline. The country is as deeply divided today as it has been for many years, and the threat to American democracy, which we believe is real, is an echo, in many ways, of the white South's attack on democracy in the wake of Reconstruction. Through a combination of terrorism by the Ku Klux Klan and the racial cynicism of the Democratic Party, the full benefits of citizenship were snatched away from African Americans in the 19th century, especially in the South. In our part of the world, whiteness - white supremacy - was more important than democracy in the minds of many white citizens. Our biggest fear is that this insidious belief never disappeared and has begun to metastasize to many parts of the country.
But we also argue in this book that if the South has been the epicenter of American racism, with all of its cruel, anti-democratic implications, there is another South - the civil-rights South - which has been an epicenter of American idealism. This is the South of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., of John Lewis and Jimmy Carter and Stacey Abrams - these champions of democracy and human rights who represent the best in us. This South is still alive, still working to export its promise to the rest of the country, to ally itself with that promise wherever it can be found.
Q: You draw parallels between Donald Trump and a figure from Southern political history, George Wallace. How did Trump borrow from Wallace's playbook?
Tucker: I have read and re-read Dan Carter's "The Politics of Rage." It's a brilliant analysis of Wallace and his politics, but I thought I was reading a history - not an analysis of our current political moment. Then, I read it again after Trump's election and noticed the subtitle: "The Origins of the New Conservatism and the Transformation of American Politics." That says it all, doesn't it? I doubt if Trump ever read the book, but he nevertheless managed to adapt Wallace's rhetoric, style and appeal. Trump understood, as Wallace did, that there is a deep well of white resentment and grievance to which a cunning and uninhibited demagogue can appeal.
Q: What do we learn about national trends by studying Southern evangelical Christians such as Jerry Falwell? What is the imprint of conservative Christianity on American politics?
Tucker: Conservative Christians, including Mitch McConnell and Mike Pence, now serve or have recently served in some of the highest political offices in the land. And their version of Christianity is not the generous and inclusive version that Jimmy Carter practices. Theirs is an exclusive and narrow-minded Christianity that revels in the culture wars. That's why we see not only broad limitations on abortion, but also a backlash against transgender athletes and against the LGBT community. Many of the politicians who push those policies loudly label themselves "Christian."
Gaillard: Also, Falwell first dipped his toe into political waters as a segregationist, a harsh critic of Dr. Martin Luther King. But in addition to the content of white evangelical Christianity, there is also the pattern of thought that seeps from religion into politics - that fundamentalist tendency to say, "I am totally right, and if you disagree you are totally wrong and we have nothing to learn from each other." We quote one white minister as saying, "Compromise is the lifeblood of politics and the death knell of theology." When the two become one, that's a toxic mix.
To read an uncut version of this interview - and more local book coverage - visit Chapter16.org, an online publication of Humanities Tennessee.