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Full resolution (TIFF) - On this page / på denna sida - V. Politics - 21. Southern Conservatism and Liberalism - 5. Southern Liberalism
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470 An American Dilemma
The full spectrum of opinion is thus never quite completely represented in
public discussion in the South.
This is undoubtedly a handicap from the viewpoint of general political
culture conceived of as a balanced ensemble of voices, where the richness of
the harmony is attained out of the dispute between disparate tones and
timbres. The Southern harmony of opinions is based on a narrow range. The
explanation of this extraordinary situation is again ultimately the Negro,
the slavery institution, the conflict with the North and the strain since then
to keep the South solid. The margin of tolerance for political opposition is
still narrow. Too, since the region is only a part of the larger America,
the few radicals have been able to move freely to the North j
and they have
stayed there because, not having the difficulties of immigrants, they can
easily fit into the new surroundings and find rich outlets for their interests
and ideals.
The second main consideration when judging Southern liberalism is that
the liberals are so definitely a political minority. Liberalism—as well as
conservatism—stakes on a quite different character depending upon whether
it is in opposition or in power. Southern liberalism has not only been in
opposition but has also been far from realizing even an expectation to be
in political power within the short-range view. This accounts for the rather
academic nature of liberal thinking in the South, Until recently Southern
liberals planned their programs without thinking in terms of the actual
power constellation and without taking account of the detailed demands of
practical social engineering. The situation, however, is rapidly changing.
The Southern liberals working for the New Deal have power and are
thinking realistically in terms of power and practical plans. In the local
issues, not touched by the New Deal, however, liberalism is still largely
academic.
For the same reason—^lack of expectation to be in power—the Southern
liberal, in an extraot-dinary way, has become inclined to stress the need for
patience and to exalt the cautious approach, the slow change, the organic
nature of social growth. Southern liberalism is, in these respects, still often
expressed in terms which remind one much more of Edmund Burke, the
great conservative thinker of a hundred and fifty years ago, than of modern
liberalism in the North or in other democratic countries. In their activities
Southern liberals have developed the tactics of evading principles} of being
very indirect in attacking problems} of cajoling, coaxing and luring the
public into giving in on minor issues.
The general public of the South is often spoken of by Southern liberals
as hopelessly backward, but at the same time it is flattered in the most
extravagant terms of regional mythology. It is made a main point that the
Southern public must not be enraged into resistance. It becomes the fine
art of politics to get the public to tolerate or accept changes which it does
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