"Just another dumb Southerner!" Steve Patterson opinion -

“Only southerners have taken horsewhips and pistols to editors about the treatment or maltreatment of their manuscript. This – the actual pistols – was in the old days, of course, we no longer succumb to the impulse. But it is still there, within us.” William Faulkner, The Sound and the Fury

“Yankees are pretty much like southerners except with worse manners, of course, and terrible accents.” Rhett Butler to Scarlet Margret Mitchell, Gone with the Wind

Steve Patterson, December 2015

Bless his cotton picking little ole heart, President Donald Trump has once again put a burr under my saddle. As the readers of my occasional columns clearly know,I’m no fan of the brash New York charlatan y’all elected as leader of the free world!

Longtime respected investigative journalist Bob Woodward, in his well documented new book, Fear, offers a clear, frightening, almost comical picture of the unhinged chaos in the Trump White House.

Aside from the repulsive and repetitively disgusting profanity used by President Trump, and his clearly illegal, and dangerous threats to recklessly assassinate foreign leaders and civilians, the revelation that grabbed my attention most was his outrageous comments about his own Attorney General, Jeff Sessions. Any son of the South should take offense at the President’s insulting words.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions is a former four-term Alabama Senator. According to Woodward’s sources, President Trump said his Attorney general is “mentally retarded. He’s this Dumb Southerner — that speaks as though he has marbles in his mouth.”

No doubt the President’s shotgun blast, aimed towards the attorney general, comes as a result of the Attorney General’s insistence on acting with “integrity and honor“ and recusing himself from the Russian collusion investigation which led to the appointment of special counsel Robert Mueller. The Mueller probe has led to 34 indictments thus far, with more on the horizon. Trump thinks he is above the law. He believes the justice department belongs to him and should do his bidding. This is the cause of his rage. By doing the right thing,
Jefferson Beauregard Sessions became a “dumb Southerner“ that taught the comic in the White House what ethics and the rule of law is all about. Our government is one of law, not men. Thank God for “Dumb Southerners!”

Donald Trump won Jeff Sessions’ home state of Alabama with 65 % of the vote. I can’t help but wonder what Alabama voters would have done if they had known Donald Trump thought their four term junior Senator was a “mentally retarded, Dumb Southerner”? I’m a pretty good political prognosticator, but I can’t honestly answer that question. I can, however, be confident that, if the comment were made of,—let’s say— Alabama football coach Nick Saban, the political fallout would be catastrophic!

I have never met Attorney General Sessions. I do know many people who know him well and hold him in high regard. My political ideology and Jeff Sessions’ have little in common. I feel certain that his days as attorney general are numbered, but my bet is history will Judge this “Dumb Southerner“ with far more esteem than the President who called him names.

Wonder why President Trump doesn’t fire him right away? If he’s mentally retarded, should he remain in public office as the chief law enforcement officer of the country? Surely President Trump is not playing politics with the administration of Justice?

Political success in America, and especially in the American south, has become increasingly difficult to figure out. Only a few short years ago, an aspiring politician who was a bankrupt New York billionaire, admitted adulterer, daily liar with ties to Russia’s mafia, an unindicted criminal conspirator, and with a record of calling southerners “mentally retarded“ and “dumb” would have stood no chance of winning our vote. But that time seems to have passed! Or, has it really?

We southerners have a unique ability to spot a con-man. We can tell how intelligent a man is by how stupid he thinks we are! Donald Trump sees us as “dumb southerners,“ but we’ve all seen cypress stumps in delta swamps with more integrity and brains than he possesses!

Mr. Trump, you once bragged that you could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue in New York and get away with it. That may be true. But calling southerners dumb is a horse of a different color – you will pay a price for that insult. You should thank your God that dueling was long ago outlawed!!

But then again, what do I know? I’m just another Dumb Southerner.

For more Steve Patterson pieces: John McCain’s death and the Republican Party and Insight and reflections about hate or access all his pieces in the main menu under Guest Authors.