Hard data indicate the following

1. The area of the southern slave states in 1860 largely coincides with the solid Republican dominated south of today and with the largest concentration of evangelical Christians in the USA.

2. This same area today has the lowest levels of education, the highest levels of poverty, the highest rates of child death from mistreatment. venereal disease, teenage pregnancy, and the highest rates of diabetes in the USA.

These facts are not coincidences. They indicate clear and persistent collusion between the forces of racism of racism and bigotry, the southern Republican party, and evangelical Christianity in the region. And, again, it is no accident that educational levels are low in the region: Ignorant people are easier to delude and control. And, under the Trump disaster, these forces threaten to spread their toxins and disease across our entire country.
It is our moral responsibility to make sure that our people see and understand this collusion and do not hesitate to call it what it is: "a plague upon our house."

I am not an outside critic. I grew up in this region, and I am ashamed of what the region is today.