It was a decent place to live when I went there in 1973. Oh, it had pockets of corruption, and parts of it were racist as hell, but there are things you have to understand about it. One is that it's essentially 3 states in one border; in Tennessee they're called the Grand Divisions, and they have very little to do with one another. West Tennessee, sometimes referred by the others as northern Mississippi, is delta country. Very Old South, flat, cotton and agricultural region, large Black population, largely rural except for Memphis, used to be heavily Democratic and the Black population still is. Middle Tennessee is more hilly, agriculturally mixed, horse country, home to Nashville and quite a few educational institutions, some of it liberal and Democratic and the rest, well, you can guess. East Tennessee is a paradox which starts at the Cumberland Mountains and runs to that diagonal border with North Carolina and is where I lived for 35 years. It's home to Knoxville and Chattanooga and the University of Tennessee, and has been traditionally Republican since forever (Knoxville and Chattanooga mostly aren't). Scotch-irish settlers established a fiercely independent population that endures to this day, especially in the rural areas. Their descendants fought on the Union side in the Civil War and have fought in just about every war since---it's as much a warrior tradition as Native Americans have. I got to know these folks pretty well working there and I love them even when I don't agree with them. Sometimes you just shake your head and go on. But sometimes you gotta wonder what in hell they are thinking. I tend to align with Dolly Parton. Actually mostly with her sister Stella, who I follow on Twitter, and if you're on Twitter and don't follow Stella, you should! It's my suspicion that she says everything Dolly would like to but can't. Also with Trae Crowder.
Here endeth the lesson.
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