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People credit Nixon's so-called "southern strategy" for turning lifelong Democrats into Republicans in the south, but it wasn't so simplistic. I watched it happen as a kid. Democrats turned into busybody health nazis, beginning in the 60's, and started to encroach upon the livelihoods of many, including my own family. NC had it's own little Democrat goosestepper, Nick Galifianakis. Guess who defeated him for his first term in office? Jesse Helms.

Tobacco was a huge business in NC, and still is; nothing like it once was, though. My paternal ancestors came to the colonies, to Maryland, in the 1600's to grow tobacco. They left Maryland to lease a plantation in modern-day Annandale, VA known as Ravensworth, to grow tobacco. They then came to NC before the Revolutionary War, that several of them fought in, to grow tobacco.

They grew tobacco on the land granted to my fifth great grandfather as a result of his service in the Revolution. They grew tobacco through the War Between The States, had several crops destroyed. Through Reconstruction, through the Depression, and into the 70's, they grew it. Got out during that decade though; the handwriting was on the wall. Still generated income from the allotment system, until that was dismantled.

It's a cash crop, profitable like no other that can be grown here. Like many things humans ingest, it can cause problems when used excessively. But, it produces an astounding amount of tax revenue, even before this ludicrous "for the children" extortion, so these greedy, fat pigs jostling at the trough just can't bring themselves to make it illegal.

Fools, the lot of them.

The Federal Government receives, by far and away, the most profit from tobacco, moreso than anyone else. Not the eeeevil tobacco companies and not the growers.

The hypocrisy is as astounding as the former profitability that now goes to Washington, DC.