Southern civility

FDL:

Last Thursday, a Republican punched a Democrat on the floor of the Alabama Senate:

Video.

Now it’s wrong to say that this sort of thing only happens in the South; but it is right to say that for America, its origin as a tendency is Southern. Punching someone instead of arguing with them — the instinct to use violence as the first, best answer to a threat not just against one’s person, but against one’s position or “honor”, is something very old, enduring, and ingrained in Southern culture.

“Violence as the first resort” is a basic part of Southern identity and tradition. There’s an old study of Southern psychology, The Mind of the South by W.J. Cash that, whatever its other faults, describes the tendency very well....

Goes on to talk about the southern sense of honor, social/racial hierarchy, first resort to violence as defense of honor. Good stuff.