Lurker since before the blue stained dress. Forsan et haec olim meminisse juvabit.

Primary voting record:

1976: Ronald Reagan
1980: Ronald Reagan
1984: N/A
1988: Jack Kemp
1992: Pat Buchanan
1996: Alan Keyes
2000: Alan Keyes
2004: N/A
2008: Fred Thompson
2012: Newt Gingrich
2016: Ben Carson

If you see a pattern here of voting for the black guy, you is a racist. I am, however, biased toward the most viable anti-Swamp candidate. I would have voted for Rand Paul this last go, but he withdrew. As to Trump, I voted for him with a mixture of hopeful enthusiasm and dread of Madame Ovenmitt and am generally impressed with the job he's done.

Drugs of choice: caffeine, sculling, fresh air
Also partially addicted to: money; putting up a good front
Religion: Catholic

OK: for my friends the otherwise conservative Northern Pharisees who seem to relish calling us Southerners "The Slave Power" - sinners and losers and "Lost Causers"; in taunting us over the failure to win our independence from the North; who ascribe mostly virtue to the Northern military conquest as the flower of human sympathy with the plight of the African slave: you ought to make a better effort at treating your contemporary Southern conservative ally with equanimity and respect and drop the a-historical, sanctimonious riff about Northern moral superiority. Familiarize yourself with the history of the Corwin Amendment. You may never view the War Between the States the same way ever again.

Yes, slavery was an obvious and divisive issue, but not to Lincoln. He was fine with slavery as long as you remained loyal to the Union. He launched the War against the "states in rebellion" to affirm Federal supremacy, and hence Northern industrial domination and dreams of empire. The Republican Party Platform of 1860 was all about "internal improvements [federal infrastructure spending/crony capitalism], high tariffs and central banking. The progressive instinct was throbbing in the Northern abolitionist and radical Republican breast: "You, the Southern States, WILL do as we say and you will do it NOW. No matter the cost - you'll figure it out." Aka the Nancy Pelosi style of conflict resolution and compromise. Next time you feel Washington un-Constitutionally shoving something down your throat, pause to reflect on whether that sensation may have been experienced by Southerners 150 years ago.

The contempt and condescension with which the South is often treated in FR by perhaps usually sane conservatives with non-Southern backgrounds is amazing to me and certainly counterproductive to conservative solidarity. I have no interest in berating non-Southerners about Lincolnian perfidy, Sherman's march to the sea, etc., etc. I have yet to meet a Southerner that wants some sort of return to the good old days of indentured servitude and slavery. Mostly we are looking to make common cause with like-minded Americans in promoting a true conservative agenda.

May God bless you and may He bless America.