This Saturday morning at 11, at Tulane's New Orleans book festival, I will take part in a panel discussion of "Humor in the South." One of my concerns is that Southern humor, if it gets as rowdy as Southern humor traditionally has felt free to get, will be taken as MAGA or red-state humor; on the other hand, that Southern humor may lean too far over backwards to avoid appearing to go MAGA, and therefore will be too polite. I expect to have more to say about this, here, after the panel discussion. In the meantime, please consider this second example of Southern humor from my book Crackers, which appeared in 1980, just before President Jimmy Carter failed to be re-elected. In the forty-three years since then, Carter has emerged as a great ex-president, but there were few indications of that then. I felt, in fact, that he lost contact with the voters by leaning over too far from his Cracker roots. I voted for him, though, and salute him now.
From Crackers, 1980
PEOPLE HAVE OFFERED all kinds of suggestions. "Maybe if he'd bring in a few less Georgians," said the proprietor of the Granite Candy Shop in the fall of '79, "and -- I hate to say it -- a few more intellectuals."
No, that wouldn't help. For one thing -- talk about strange times -- never have so many intellectuals been willing to admit publicly that they don't know what the President ought to do either, other than show more leadership.
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