Do a search on Fred Phelps and I think you will find that he HAS been in the Deep South and has not been beatedn to a bloody pulp, as you put it. I know for sure he has pulled his shenanigans in Alabama.
I'm not interested in the escapades of Fred Phelps. What I can tell you with some certainty, is that he hasn't been around the heart of Cajun country where I live, in central Louisiana, And if he was foolish enough to do so, he will not again. The good ole boys around here are dead serious about the country they love and the fighting men who are dying for it. But I expect, being also the Southern gentlemen they are, they probably gave him a warning the first time. The second offense will not be dismissed. Or do you not believe that there any men left who can deal with men like Phelps, directly?