The Compass of Power: Recent Episodes
Adam Wilson
Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley is gaining some steam as a challenger to Donald Trump. What is the former South Carolina governor doing that other candidates is not? Acting like she is a member of the ruling class of the South -- which she is.
Did the elites take over social justice movements like MeToo, Black Lives Matter and Occupy Wall Street? Not exactly. Those movements were all totally in alignment with elite values in the northern United States. And those elites do control most American media and most of academia. So, to say these "causes" were ever separate from elitism would not be quite right. They were only separate from Southern elitism. In truth, social justice has become something of a religious cause to the heirs to the Puritans in Yankeedom. It's hard to imagine that a Marxist-style working class revolution could ever overwhelm that dynamic.
Here are the articles I mentioned:
David Leonhardt of the NYT: The Failure of Progressive Movements - The New York Times (nytimes.com)
Freddie deBoer: Freddie deBoer | Substack
Andrew Sullivan: Could MLK Give A TED Talk Today? - by Andrew Sullivan (substack.com)
Coleman Hughes: Why Is TED Scared of Color Blindness? - by Coleman Hughes (substack.com)
Where does President Joe Biden’s pro-union, “from-the-bottom-up” economic policy come from? From his roots in Delaware and Pennsylvania, where the original settlers believed in getting an education-- but not too much -- and working hard -- but not too too hard.
#Biden2024
#bidenomics
#quakerlifestyle
The Republican Presidential Candidate is often described as a biotech executive, a Trump wannabe, or just this news cycle’s novelty act. But Ramaswamy’s connection with voters is no pretension -- he hails from Cincinnati, Ohio, making him a member of America’s most populous culture, the Appalachians. And those voters also happen to be the people who put Trump in the White House.
The song by Oliver Anthony isn’t actually liberal or conservative. It’s Appalachian. It talks about the same things that have animated singers in the Scotch-Irish-settled parts of America for 250 years, and it does it in the same musical style, too.
The real scandal is that so many online outlets want to claim some of its fame by shaming or blaming a work of art for being indicative of its culture.
Here’s the song: Oliver Anthony - Rich Men North Of Richmond - YouTube
Here’s a sample of coverage (BBC): Rich Men North of Richmond: The hit song that has divided the US
The recent House Oversight and Accountability Committee hearing on unexplained anomalous phenomena (UAPs) featured seemingly serious people suggesting the federal government has captured the aliens and their spaceship. Was the "tic-tac" covered up?
Turns out our conversations about UFOs and national security have not substantially changed since the first "flying saucer" was spotted in 1947. What they are really about is how we feel about the government. And how we feel about the government depends on where we live. Appalachia? Yankeedom?
We talk about the regional perspective on this issue. #AmericanNations
For a great run down on all the testimony on UAPs in the past two years, check out the Congressional Dish: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/congressional-dish/id572967793?i=1000622840341
Visiting Deschutes National Forest and Suttle Lodge offered a peak at the future of camping culture in the Pacific Northwest, and at the influx of wealthy people who decided to live in the Cascade Mountains full time. The mountains were once a buffer between the liberal-minded culture of Portland and ranchers of Eastern Oregon, but dry-side Bend and Sisters don't seem that much different from Oregon's wet-side cities anymore.
You can find poll numbers and pundits on the other podcasts. But the Compass of Power is the only place to find the candidates ranked by cultural region.
In this episode, I’m going through the entire known presidential field. But instead of listing folks as Republicans or Democrats, we’re breaking them down as folks from the Northern coalition – mostly liberals – and the Southern coalition –mostly conservatives.
The Compass of Power helps you understand the limits of the possible, recognize the goodness in others, and cultivate reasonable expectations of national politics. Unlike the usual lenses for looking at politics, it helps you avoid overidentification with political parties, personalities and paradigms. And by doing that, it can foster civil discourse in society.
Republican presidential candidates Tim Scott and Nikki Haley challenge a lot of our preconceptions about modern politics, but they definitely carry the flame of the South Carolina spirit.
Sit back, buckle up, and let me be your designated driver in short tour through the history of drunk driving. Like a lot of other seemingly inalienable rights, our ability to drink alcohol and to vote have changed over time, and once Mothers Against Drunk Driving formed, the penalties for getting behind the wheel while intoxicated went way up. What changes for society are in store as a generation of mothers worried about school shootings organizes themselves?
Americans are moving South in a big way, and a new analysis shows that Southern cultures are the most likely to experience shootings. We look at a breakdown of gun deaths by cultural region from Colin Woodard’s Nationhood Lab. Death by gunshot is most likely in the Deep South and second most likely in Appalachia. Where are the most Americans moving today? The Deep South and Appalachia.
While Northern areas also experience gun violence, it is often two to three times less common there than in the South. If we want to address the rise in random shootings, we need a solution that is appropriate to cultures that value and accept guns – not a solution imported from places where shootings are rare and guns are suspect.
You can find Woodard’s article on the subject here: https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2023/04/23/surprising-geography-of-gun-violence-00092413
Pundits say there's not much enthusiasm for Joe Biden's second run for president -- but I will be the cheering section! Let' s talk about what Joe's done and how much that depends on where he's from. And why there isn't another presidential contender who can do what he does.
JoeBiden
2024
Warriors take big risks to strike a blow for their people. The dominate culture of Tennesse prizes warriors. From our perspective, Tennessee Republicans' decision to expel two Black Democratics for violating the rules of decorum in the state House chamber, was a great example of bare-knuckle local politics that suddenly spilled into the national consciousness.
When Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg pushed through an indictment of former President and native Manhattanite Donald Trump this week, the over-the-top moves of these New Yorkers pushed America into a first-ever charging of a former president. But it's not that surprising. New York City has a long, sometimes glorious, sometimes inglorious history of outrageous politics.
Hyperlocal blogger Emmett O'Connell knows Pacific Northwest history as well as anyone, and that gives him amazing insights into the region's politics. In this episode, he explains how election upsets, airport construction, and voting by mail all play into the area's longstanding battles between the city-dwelling institutionalists and their anti-institution, rural relatives.
Join us as we talk the politics of Oregon, Washington and Idaho.
Check out Emmett's blog at www.olympiatime.com
Seems like New Yorkers in media, politics and voting booths are distancing themselves from the same thing Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has declared war upon: "wokeism." Known by a few names, this dominant strain of progressive thought is from New England, not New York. Reviewing a podcast by "heterodox" thinkers from the city, a change in tone from the New York Times, and the politics of Eric Adams, I argue New Yorkers just can't get in line the way Yankees can.
Here is the podcast I cite: https://youtu.be/x0O6CSMcbPE
New York Times article quoted: Asian Americans, Shifting Right - The New York Times (nytimes.com)
Eastern Oregonians have been voting in favor of a plan to move their counties under Idaho's state government. The goal of the "Greater Idaho" movement is Republican rule for conservative places. They are opposed to the progressive politics of Portland. We consider whether the liberal principles of democratic self-governance and minority rights demand this "pipe dream" be given a chance. And we consider how fair or unfair the existing borders of Oregon are.
When news broke that the US Department of Energy concluded the coronavirus likely escaped from a lab, Democrats were skeptical, Republicans triumphant. Shouldn't everybody be dispassionately interested in determining the origin of a pandemic that killed nearly 6.8 million people worldwide?
We look at how the jump-from-nature vs lab-leak discussion became part of the liberal vs conservative, North vs South, Blue vs Red paradigm.
We’re talking about the Tweet that made “Civil War” a trending topic in America – again!
Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene pitched one right down the middle for the Compass of Power when she said we need a "national divorce" between red states and blue states. New Civil War talk is a specialty here. We talk about the huge gap between state laws in the North and South, people moving to the South and why that is threatening and empowering for Southern Republicans at the same time, and why the left freaking out at the mere mention of divorce doesn't help matters.
As a speechwriting geek, I want to talk about the state of the union. Just where were all those hecklers from? But we must also talk about the strange spherical object in the sky...
Hot topics this week:
Chinese Spy Balloon!
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene!
Social Security!
President Joe Biden!
The State of the Union!
And heckling!
The death of Tyre Nichols in Memphis, Tennessee, is the latest high-profile incident involving Black men and law enforcement. In this episode, we explore what's different about Memphis by looking at the violent, death-strewn and musically brilliant history of a city on a hill.
Memphis is a classic port city, with plenty of smuggling, violence and power plays. Sort of a Tortuga or Mos Eisley of the Mississippi. The elite ruling class, faced with difficulties, frequently threw up its hands and even left town. The underclass, especially those in civil service – people like police officers and fire fighters – were sometimes left to fend for themselves.
That dynamic has worked to Memphis’ advantage sometimes, but just as often wrecked huge amounts of suffering on the people of Memphis, especially the poor.
Today we're going to talk about The Whale because it received multiple Oscar nominations. Brendan Fraser for his role as the (terribly fat) estranged dad. Hong Chau for her role as the angry sister-in-law.
But it was written by Samuel Hunter, of Moscow, Idaho, and set right there on the Palouse. In same year the small Idaho farm/university town has a nation-shocking quadruple murder, it serves as the backdrop for a legit Hollywood movie, the Academy Awards! Odd combo, right?
This is the Compass of Power podcast, so we're gonna talk about the place of this movie. That involves politics because as we say here on the compass of power, place is politics.
We will talk about the role of religion in the film. The role of academia, of art and sexuality in the film. And how every one of those themes is reflective of the culture of the Palouse in general, of Idaho, and Moscow in particular.
Two Department of Justice special counsels are investigating both President Joe Biden and former President Joe Biden. Both men apparently had classified documents at their homes, dating from their time in the White House. What's the difference? We look at how Wilmington, Delaware and Mar-a-Lago, Florida stack up as places that can explain these cases.
Right now, today, times have never been better for the Black middle class.
And that golden age is centered in the former Confederacy. Black families are moving to the South in big numbers, where they are finding good jobs and presumably enjoying their lives.
That dynamic -- the upshot of a new analysis of census data by Stateline -- has big implications for the future of American liberalism.
As educated young Black people move south to take up jobs, they may be building a new political power base for Democrats -- the kind that elected Sen. Raphael Warnock in Georgia. But their departure is also weakening the Democrats in the Midwest and North.
Here are the two reports I mention in the podcast:
Migrating Professionals Grow Black Middle Class in the South and West | The Pew Charitable Trusts (pewtrusts.org)
How the American middle class has changed in the past five decades | Pew Research Center
Who are the 20 Republicans holding a first-in-a-century block on Republican House Leader Kevin McCarthy's bid to become Speaker? We look at WHERE each of these "far right" politicians come from to better understand their motivations.
Almost all are from regional cultures that form the Southern coalition, which mainstream American media and politicos view as the conservative coalition. It is not a case of Republicans in the North standing in McCarthy's way. Cultural Appalachians from Illinois to Texas, and Westerners doing battle with the Hispanic culture of El Norte form the bulk of the "Freedom Caucus" members.
This episode relies on the cultural/political maps of Colin Woodard in his book American Nations.
If you want to hear more about the curious connection between New Yorker Donald Trump and the Appalachians, check out this episode: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1761762/9950415-the-new-civil-war-and-the-compass-of-power.mp3?download=true
No sooner did I record an episode about the unsolved quadruple homicide at the University of Idaho, than I returned to my old home on the Palouse. I talk about what folks there told me about the murders, the national media and the investigation into the killings. It seems like everyone knows a little something about the case, but what no one can quite grasp is why they happened. And, as someone who grew up on the Palouse, it made me wonder -- are we culturally blind to evil? Is the idea that someone could kill just because they wanted to kill so foreign to us, that we can't see it or accept it?
The murder of Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Madison Mogen, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and Kernodle's boyfriend Ethan Chapin, 20, in the early hours of Nov. 13 has shocked and fascinated the nation. They all seemed like fun-loving college kids in a quaint little college town -- Moscow, Idaho, home of the University of Idaho.
In this episode, we look at how both the University of Idaho and Washington State University came to be located right next to each other in the far-flung reaches of their state, and how the culture that developed on the Palouse formed the backdrop for the tragedy. Having lived and worked and studied in Moscow, I explain a place where going to the bars at night and coming home without fear is a daily routine, and sadly made it possible for someone to sneak in and murder these students as they slept.
The one thing Donald Trump talks about consistently is winning. People like winning. And when you beat expectations -- even low expectations -- you come out looking like a winner. Which is what happened for Democrats in 2022. Guess that, and Trump's campaign, takes us straight to election 2024.
If you look at the 2022 midterms from the perspective of place, it was a resounding victory for the elites. In the North, Democrats booted Republicans in places like Massachusetts, Maine and Minnesota. But in the South Republican Govs. Ron DeSantis of Florida and Greg Abbott of Texas did the kicking.
Why can't Democrats win in Texas? Former Congressman Beto O'Rourke has been running for one office or another for years, first challenging Sen. Ted Cruz, then running for president, now challenging Republican Gov. Greg Abbott. But while O'Rourke comes close, he hasn't found a platform that can build a majority coalition in American's second-most-populous state. This episode considers why.
Midterms 2022
Texas governor's race
Beto O'Rourke
Greg Abbott
To the progress/liberal/Northen set, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is closely related to the Devil. President Biden called him "Trump incarnate." In this episode, I try to consider DeSantis from the Republican perspective, and find a politician who has bet on his own ideas repeatedly and come out ahead. Now he faces former Governor Charlie Crist in the governor's race, the first test of his seeming plans for the Whitehouse in 2024.
Can DeSantis' contrarian take on coronavirus and the culture wars make him the leader of the modern conservative movement?
Midterms 2022
Florida
Governor's race
Ron DeSantis
US Senator Raphael Warnock faces Republican challenger Hershel Walker in Georgia. As the South grows, this race could be a preview of future Democratic successes, building on the history of liberalism in the South. Or Walker could demonstrate that traditional Southern views can win even as Georgia urbanizes.
Midterms 2022
Georgia
Senate Race