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This conclusion connects the southern experience to the national one. It explores in detail the southern (and increasingly American) propensity for plain people to put emotional issues ahead of their more rational and class interests. And it examines how conservatives first ingeniously engineered a “Great Melding” of white supremacy and economic rightism in the South to vilify government, glorify capital, and capture the votes of masses of plain people. The import of media and technology revolution, the Religious Right, the Reconstruction experience, think tanks and policy institutes, Democratic timidity, and a “new racism” of muted white supremacy combined with vague emotional issues are explored. Attention is paid to Republican success in mainstreaming extremist thought as well as policy attacks on New Deal progeny like Social Security and labor rights, as well as taxes, regulation, Medicare, and public employees. The chapter posits that#x2014;although the South has altered its partisan affiliation from Democratic to Republican#x2014;there has been little actual change due to the pre-eminence of deep, distinctive, and enduring southern cultural mores and conservative values. And the implications for American politics are potentially seismic….

This introduction lays out the book's central themes: namely the question of whether or not the South has become a Republican stronghold where it was once Democratic. The chapter stresses the centrality of race in the South's realignment to the GOP. But it also recognizes the importance of religion, economics, and other factors. This chapter emphasizes the deep continuity and enduring import of cultural and ideological factors in the southern experience over the more cosmetic change of partisan realignment. The chapter also broaches the question of why it is southerners seem especially prone to allow a “politics of emotion” to distract plain people from pursuit of their more rational and class interests. Southern distinctiveness, regional exceptionalism, and the extremism of the modern Republican Party are also examined.

Heritage and history become the linguistic communication for the Franco-American communities of the Midwest. By an attachment to their French heritage identity, community members create cultural connections across a time-space continuum and with other Francophone cultures. Popular culture festivals, like the Rendezvous, reflect folklore elements since the participants in these festivals articulate their heritage culture as they learned it from their family or community. Stories surrounding events at these festivals become symbols to vocalize the history and heritage of conflicts, values, and culture. The communities choose the symbols through the basis of an historical identity; that is, these symbols are already defined through the cultural influences on the consciousness, learned from one generation to the next. To an outsider these symbols may seem contrived or arbitrary, but they are essential to the cultural continuity of the identity.

This chapter concludes the study on La Guiannée of Ste. Genevieve and Prairie du Rocher by bringing together the idea individuals, people, or culture hold onto objects, songs, signs, and other symbols because of the memory they evoke. Memories attached to the Guiannée come from the participants’ imagination because the celebration adapts and changes at each place they perform. Festivals like the Rendezvous and the Jour de Fête create a medium to communicate culture to outsiders, maintaining an historical and cultural continuity. The Guiannée resonates between the known histories of the communities and the values passed on from the historical ancestors, a lieu de mémoire which links the two worlds. Heritage tourism and the availability of information provide valuable cultural exchanges, enabling individuals to share a common bond through the Guiannée.

This chapter explores the traveling aspect of the Guiannée through its use of modern transportation, the bus, and its ability to reach a larger, more dispersed community. Historically, several Guiannée groups performed throughout the community, redefining their boundaries through these performances. Today, one Guiannée group travels the community to redefine its community and cultural connections with other members. When the Guiannée arrives at a public place and performs, whether historical or contemporary, the place transforms into a sacred and cultural space where communal ties are renewed. The continuity in cultural spaces establishes and maintains links in the members’ memories between the past and the present.