An excellent expose, Barry, on the South and how ingrained the problems are and that empowerment (and lack thereof) are at the root of it all. It is a shame how we are not provided more information about our own lives, how we end up believing things that are not good for us.

Have you heard about our grassroots movement Local Revolutions? We are using a unique legal pathway, demanding that voting in our cities and counties must be based on voter optimization.

By demanding the removal of restricted voting systems, we want to liberate our nation from the divide-and-conquer mindset now in place.

For instance, in local elections, Norwegians are four to eight times more empowered than we are. Their local politicians have to pay far closer attention to the voters than our local politicians.

After the local level got changed, we believe the State level wil automatically follow. Having three, four or five parties will be fantastic because we will end up hearing three, four, five different ideas and not just one stubborn one.

The Federal level is out of sight -- won't happen. But if the States have three, four, five parties, then it is only logical that some will find a stronghold at the Federal level, too.

Thank you again for describing the regional aspects of the South well. I do see a link like you do between the Civil War and the entrenched nature of the Bible Belt.