Alabama politicians are hunting ghosts. They claim to defend the state from blue state influence. This is just a way to keep the gears of resentment turning. They use the fear of others to justify their own decay.

The rhetoric is predictable. It targets social change as a threat to their power. They do not care about actual policy. They only care about the spectacle of outrage.

DEPRESSING FEATURES

• The use of manufactured outrage to bypass legislative debate.
• Turning neighboring states into ideological enemies.
• Reducing governance to simple slogans.
• The destruction of social cohesion for political gain.